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Doug Speirs
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Tick season means pets at risk of Lyme disease
It's roughly the size of the nail on your pinky finger, but it can pose a huge threat to you and your pets. Ladies and gentlemen, meet ixodes scapularis, better known in Manitoba as the blacklegged tick, a creepy little bloodsucker with the potential to spread Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that typically resides in deer, mice, squirrels and other small animals.View Full Column | 05/21/2013 7:51 AM | 0
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Weekend weather
Salt and pepper. Pork and beans. Spaghetti and meatballs. Bacon and eggs. Batman and Robin. Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Guns and ammo. The Saskatchewan Roughriders and penalties for too many men on the field. The emotional point the Weather Column is trying to make here is some things were meant to go together, and no two things fit together more perfectly than (dramatic pause) the Victoria Day long weekend and a lot of rain in the forecast.View Full Column | 05/18/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Eardrops and dogs recipe for maiming
Today's topic for frustrated dog owners is: How to put medicated eardrops in your dog's ears when, if given the option, your pooch would rather fling itself into a pit of rattlesnakes. As a seasoned dog owner, I would like to assure everyone this is a relatively simple medical procedure that should take no more than six or seven months to complete, depending on the size of your pet.View Full Column | 05/17/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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We'll vote someone off Earth, onto Mars
I was over the moon when I learned at least 35 Canadians are among the more than 78,000 people from 120 countries who have applied for a chance to be among the first human settlers on Mars. But, tragically, I came plummeting back to Earth after hearing Hockey Night in Canada's Don Cherry and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford aren't among the candidates we can literally vote off our planet.View Full Column | 05/15/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Halibut the tasteful choice for Manitoba's official fish
I'd like to take a moment today to sincerely thank our provincial government for finally taking steps to fill a gaping hole in the hearts of all Manitobans. As readers with any sensitivity at all have already grasped, I'm referring here to the government's just-launched campaign to select Manitoba's official fish.View Full Column | 05/13/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Your Weekend Weather
Let's get right to the point, Winnipeg. Do you have any idea what weekend this is? Well, Winnipeg, do you? And do not cheat by peeking at the calendar. What? Giving up already? That's just great, Winnipeg. For the third straight year, you've forgotten Sunday is Mother's Day, the one day of the year when you are expected to stop being an inconsiderate slob and show mom how much you care.View Full Column | 05/11/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Do something to make mom proud
It's almost Mother's Day, and you young people know what that means, don't you? It means it's time for you to show your mom how special she is and how much you care by sending her a lovely gift you stumbled on while surfing the Internet looking for amusing videos of cats.View Full Column | 05/10/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Can't wait for Saturday night
As one of the world's top wheelchair racers, Paralympian Colin Mathieson is used to overcoming obstacles. The 34-year-old elite athlete, born with spina bifida, has a mantel groaning with Canadian championship trophies, a bag stuffed with world championship medals, as well as a bronze in the 4x440-metre relay from the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta.View Full Column | 05/8/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Remote rescue
It takes a village to rescue a dog. And that "village" includes kind-hearted local residents, a team of dedicated volunteers and a patient regional airline, especially when the dogs in need of rescue are roaming a remote northern Manitoba community.View Full Column | 05/7/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Science finally proves cartoons aren't realistic
I cannot tell you how happy I am that the scientific community has stopped wasting time on trivial things such as killer diseases and is now focusing its mental energy on issues that really matter to everyday folk like you and I. For instance, have you ever found yourself sitting around and wondering how cartoon legend Fred Flintstone, patriarch of the "modern Stone Age family," is able to stop his caveman car using nothing but his feet?View Full Column | 05/6/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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He reads your mind, he predicts the weather
I have some wonderful news -- your weekend weather forecast isn't just good. It's amazing! That's because it comes from the mind of none other than The Amazing Kreskin, the legendary mentalist whose TV show, The Amazing World of Kreskin, was required viewing for Canadian families, including mine, back in the early 1970s.View Full Column | 05/4/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Hockey historians get behind my draft pick
It's a question that has divided Canadian history experts for centuries. The question is this: If, historically speaking, you won the right to draft first overall in your office's playoff hockey pool, which NHL superstar should you have chosen?View Full Column | 05/3/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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I'm not a lumberjack: his job's better
My job sucks! For the benefit of my beneficent employers, I would hasten to add this is not my opinion.View Full Column | 05/1/2013 7:28 AM | 0
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They're blinding me with science (in bed)
I am starting to think the scientific community does not have humanity's best interests at heart. I am feeling this way because of a disturbing global trend in which scientists take genetic material from one animal and stick it into another animal because (Why not?) it gives the second animal the ability to glow in the dark.View Full Column | 04/29/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Your weekend weather with Doug Speirs
Pull up a chair, kids, because Uncle Doug needs to tell you a story. There are days, just like today, when the only way to understand what's going on with Winnipeg's weather is by pondering one of the great works of literature.View Full Column | 04/27/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Stomping win gets expected snide reaction
I was feeling pretty proud of myself when I arrived home Wednesday night. Not only had my team of local media personalities thrashed its way to a dramatic victory in the Winnipeg Wine Festival's annual Celebrity Grape Stomp in support of Special Olympics Manitoba -- my third straight win in a charity competition, if you must know -- but I managed to escape with all of my limbs and internal organs intact.View Full Column | 04/26/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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You're reading about a winner
I feel like 300 pounds of lean corned beef, in the sense that I'm definitely on a roll. What I mean is that, despite a unique ability to sustain near-crippling injuries during non-lethal charity events, I have somehow emerged from the last two contests with all my limbs intact and the sweet taste of victory in my mouth.View Full Column | 04/24/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Bad dog, good friend
I received a big, brown envelope in the mail the other day. Inside, there were dozens and dozens of small slips of paper, carefully printed messages from the students at Joseph Teres Elementary School in Transcona, which I visited in February for I Love to Read Month.View Full Column | 04/23/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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A fundraiser with strings attached
Wayne Davies and his students have an extremely simple goal -- changing the world, one guitar at a time. I know this because I met the music-loving principal of Selkirk Junior High School last week when I tagged along on a guided tour inside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights at The Forks.View Full Column | 04/22/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Weekend Weather
Welcome to Summer 2013, everyone! Hot enough for you? I'm going to take a stab in the dark here and suggest most of you didn't have a clue summer had already begun.View Full Column | 04/20/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Rights museum awe-inspiring icon that will make our city world-class
It takes a lot more than pothole-free streets and efficient snow removal to make a great city. You also need great stuff, the kind of world-class stuff that touches the hearts and minds of the people who live there and inspires the people who live far away to come and check it out.View Full Column | 04/19/2013 11:11 AM | 0
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Let's celebrate cheese balls
What with the horrific bombings at the Boston Marathon, the fact spring has been replaced this year with two winters, and the looming threat of more flooding, I suspect we could all do with a little cheering up. Well, thankfully, today just happens to be April 17, a day on which there are more than the usual number of things to make us stand up and cheer.View Full Column | 04/17/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Gotta be a pony somewhere in that drift
I think most of us have heard the old story about the little kid who was given a huge pile of horse manure for his birthday. An eternal optimist, instead of being disappointed, the little guy just clambered on top of the gooey pile and began frantically digging, scoop by scoop, with his bare hands.View Full Column | 04/15/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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Weekend weather
I was briefly flirting with the idea of using today's column to tell all of you to stop whining about the weather, but then it hit me. You're Manitobans -- unless you cheer for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, in which case you are a burden on society -- and complaining about the weather is your (bad word) birthright.View Full Column | 04/13/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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No bacon story here
I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I am being muzzled. It appears the powers that be think I am wasting too much time writing about bacon.View Full Column | 04/12/2013 1:00 AM | 0
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