1 NEW BLACKBERRY I got a BlackBerry because my friends all wanted to use BBM to communicate. It worked for a while until everyone started getting iPhones. Now I only know two other people with BlackBerries and we communicate via regular text message, and so I’m basically stuck with this phone that I don’t even use for the single purpose that I got it and I can’t swap it out for a new phone yet because that would mean renewing my contract and I’m frankly not sure I want to do that. Anyway there’s a new BlackBerry being launched today, and also Research In Motion is just changing its name to Blackberry, for “brand consolidation” purposes but probably actually because the RIM brand has been the stock market equivalent of pokeweed berries since before some Millenials could even vote.
2 ENTOURAGE MOVIE Sometimes you go on Twitter and the trending topics everyone’s joking about basically merit a “Sure, whatever.”
3 GIFFORDS VS. GUN LOBBY Yep, watching former Democratic senator Gabrielle Giffords address the Senate Judiciary Committee on the topic of gun control legislation in the lingering wake of the Sandy Hook massacre is powerful. NRA president Wayne LaPierre – who you might remember from presiding over possibly the single most tone-deaf press conference of all time – will be testifying later today, if you’re the sort of person who finds gawking at train wrecks to be a fun use of your time.
4 TODAY IN “MURRAY MANDRYK IS NOT IMPRESSED” Mr. Mandryk is not impressed with Denise Batters’ appointment to Senate.
5 TODAY IN “JOHN FINDS TWO COLUMNISTS INTERESTING” Maclean’s columnist Colby Cosh weighs in on the Saskatchewan electoral boundaries dispute. Since the current electoral boundaries sooooooorta helped dictate the outcome of the last federal election, the controversy over the proposed changes is – as Cosh pegs it – some interesting politics. (Incidentally, if you haven’t read the dissenting commission member’s opinion on the boundary changes, you owe it to yourself.)
6 ARE YOU READING ‘THE CHINA DIARIES’? If not, you should be – the Globe & Mail’s series on the “new China” is a great glimpse at the ways modern Chinese navigate the tensions between their past traditions and their modern reality. Sometimes that translates into the concept of “rental boyfriends.” (And sometimes it takes nineties-remembering to a whole new level.)
BONUS: Okay, fine, here’s King’s Landing – the capital of Westeros – as meticulously built in Minecraft. Did you understand that whole sentence? Good, that means my nerd trap worked.
