I am not a fan of Michael Moore or the "opinionated documentary" genre in general (I just made up that name--but is there a name for that type of film yet?). However, curiosity... and more than a little civic and employment pride might compell me to see his upcoming release "Sicko"--about the U.S. health care system.

The London Free Press is reporting that London and the very hospital I work at has a "sizable portion" in the film and that MM is considering a London premier. The Canadian portions were filmed in order to compare the two health care systems.

Read the article here for all of the details (cause everyone should sample the incredible journalism of the LFP once in their life).

p.s. I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks it's hilarious that the Canadian patient in the story had his fingers severed by a hockey puck.

Well, it's time for some more renovations. Maybe once this weather decides between winter/summer I'll do some work outside. But until then, I'm finally tackling our bedroom.

Two days into the reno and I've cleared out the furniture, ripped out the flooring and painted the walls. Here's some before pictures to keep me motivated (and I promise to post after pictures when I'm done).

Once again, this room is painted entirely in white primer (woodwork included). But this time we have the added bonus of sand-like stucco on the walls. It's so romantic to have sandpaper on your bedroom walls, isn't it? And even more romantic to consistenly scrape your skin off when you accidently hit the walls while making a night-time bathroom run. Unfortunately I'm not feeling into knocking out all of the plaster and putting up drywall... so the sandpaper stays. This room also has some lovely purple carpeting.

There were three layers of flooring--thankfully none of them were glued to the wood. First we had ugly purple carpeting with "rexoleum" underneath--circa 1956 as evidenced by the newspapers under it.

Under the newspapers was another layer of this retro linoleum (no trademark on the back of this one though). I have to say that this layer was in such good condition it looked like it had been waxed yesterday. And strangely enough in amongst the newspapers was a receipt for the rental of a floor polisher! (dated 1956).

The newspapers under this layer were dated 1940 and 1944. Very exciting! I tried to keep as many pieces as I could--most were in excellent condition but some were stuck to the floor and they ripped.

The last layer was the (almost) pristine subfloor. I was so impressed by the great condition of the wood... until I got to the most travelled area. There are a few patches that are really rough. I'm hoping I can fix these areas well enough with calking and wood filler so I can paint it. I had to smile at the ingenuity of an early homeowner who had filled some of the cracks and splinters with parafin wax. I smiled until I realized I'd have to get that all off before I could paint. Yikes.

Here are some of the newspapers. The first two are dated 1956. The colours are so vibrant on this weekend magazine!

Forget plasma screens. I'd much rather have A Directional TV with a Zoom-A-Tenna.

This is the front page of the Toronto Star, April 13, 1940.

And the work continues...

History: Let's play with it!
Fun and interesting online games from the McCord Museum in Montreal. (I especially like the "Mind Your Manners" and fashion games.)

Photography by Tim Flach
You've never seen horses like this before (or bats, or people... etc)

Art by Kenichi Hoshine
Beautiful/haunting drawings and paintings.

Photo set of the Michigan Theatre
A beautiful old theatre that is now being used a parking lot. It's sad and awesome all at the same time. (These photos were taken by the owner of Sweet Juniper! , a great blog about living in Detroit)

p.s. I can't remember where I found all of these links to give credit. I'll do better next time!