Northern Exposure

Porcupine is in Maine, looking out at the chunks of ice in the sub-zero harbour. Massachusetts just wasn't cold enough.

Porcupine is listening to 740AM, a Canadian radio station run by CARP (Canadian Asociation of Retired Persons). Porcupine is of the opinion that CARP is a superb way to refer to a group of seniors, and wonders why AARP doesn't get a station. The station is dedicated to Zoomers - Boomers who zoom! - and plays excellent music.

The news reports are startling. There has been a massive power failure in Toronto, going on to its third day, from a broken water main which froze downtown. Thousands are without light or power, and the government is trying to cope with refugees in the 17-below weather. The station is running a 'Hot-Hot-Hot' contest - if you call in when Buster Poindexter sings, you're entered into a drawing for the next station-sponsored trip to Cuba.

At the public hearings on the budget held today for citizens to comment on government expenditure (!), the Inuit came to testify to preservation experts that there was no need to protect polar bears under the American Endangered Species Act, as there were twice as many now as there was 50 years ago.

There are twice as many bears, and half as many Inuit. There was no report if there was any correlation....