It was just back at the end of August that the eighth foot was found. Now here is the ninth mysterious and Canadian severed foot. This one is in a boot! For the first time! And also has apparently been in water for a decade. And... "The autopsy did not show any toolmarks or impressions on the bones or any evidence to suggest the foot had been mechanically separated from the body. Like the others, it appears to have come off naturally as a result of having spent a long time in the water, the coroners office said." I dunno, what does it mean?

Is this footage proof of the existence of the Ogopogo, Canada's legendary aquatic beast? Sure, why the hell not.

"'Rewilding'—bringing elephants, cheetahs, and lions out of captivity to run free in parts of North America—could help save these megafauna from global extinction. More important, it would restore to the continent biological functions lost millenniums ago. The big guys would help stop the march of the pests and weeds—rats and dandelions—that will otherwise take over the landscape. And they would promote the natural processes that generate biodiversity." READ MORE

"Tuesday’s discovery marks the eighth foot to be found on the B.C. coast since August 2007. Three more have washed up in nearby Washington.... All of the feet discovered so far have been in running shoes." READ MORE

An excellent point: "The photos of the Vancouver riots look like Cardiff on a Saturday night." It's true! This fantastic collection of photos and video from Vancouver last night—you see, Boston won the Stanley Cup? Which is the big prize in hockey, don't you know?—does bear a striking resemblance to any ordinary night of the glassing capital of the world over in Wales. And here is our favorite video from Vancouver. READ MORE

I was jogging by the East River this morning, listening to David Comes to Life, the new album by the Toronto rock band called Fucked Up, marveling at how awesome it is, how the drumming is like a stampede of wild horses, and how well the band's guitarists (there are three of them, like Molly Hatchet) hone and manipulate these giant waves of feedback and distortion, thinking that the sound reminds me more of Husker Du than anything I've heard since Husker Du, and that, if these guys had come out when I was in college, I would have probably wanted to tattoo some sort of sworn allegiance to them on my chest, when I noticed that the fuzz-tone wail was getting louder and louder in my headphones. Strangely louder. And then I realized that the loudness was actually coming from outside my headphones, and turned to see that a pontoon plane was landing on the river nearby. That's always cool to see, an airplane landing on water, the splash and the glide and the waves that it makes. And it seemed to fit the music so well, the power of it, and since the plane was coming from the north, I thought, huh, wouldn't that be cool if it was coming from Canada, maybe carrying Fucked Up down to the city to play a show. And that thought, and the image of the plane landing on the water from Canada, made me remember one of the less-great albums ever made by the greatest Canadian feedback-and-distortion rocker of them all. And that even though it was one of his less-great albums, there were still some songs on it that I liked. READ MORE

1. First things first: In the '90s, one of the best things to watch on Canadian television (faint praise, that) was This Hour Has 22 Minutes. One of its most popular segments was "Talking To Americans," which was, more or less, just what it sounds like. Posing as a journalist, comedian Rick Mercer would get Americans to do things like congratulate Canada on its recent legalization of the stapler. Most of the interviews were conducted in the street-ambush style that makes you feel sorry for the targets, because God, some people were just out shopping and I wouldn’t know the first thing about Mexican politics if you asked me on my way into the Gap. Less sympathetic were the public figures Mercer would occasionally manage to get near. He would get Mike Huckabee to congratulate Canada on having built a glass dome over its “national igloo”; he would get George W. Bush to thank “Prime Minister Jean Poutine” for his endorsement. And oh, Canadians would snicker, but their laughter carried with it a tailwind of depression. Acknowledging one’s own insignificance is funny—until it's not. READ MORE

At the age of 25, Gordon decided to get a job at Canada Post—not because he cared about delivering birthday cards or making sure tax forms arrived at the correct address, but because he believed a job at the post office would prepare him for the coming apocalypse. READ MORE

I have been paying closer attention to Canadian politics lately, on the theory that when everything goes to shit at least there will be somewhere with decent health care (and, eventually, really nice weather) I can escape to. Still, I have been wondering about Stephen Harper, who has been Prime Minister of our upstairs neighbor for almost five years (albeit of a minority government). What kind of man is he, and where is he steering my Plan B? This review of a new book about his premiership does not make for encouraging reading. Maybe I'll just stay here and wait for the zombies to eat me. It seems easier.