Maybe you can get too much exercise

Something I keep forgetting: if I go for a long walk, and then sit on a public transit vehicle for half an hour, I get one or more sore thigh muscles. They hurt like a son of a bitch at times. And how do you rest a sore muscle when sitting or lying down aggravates the injury? Argh.

Anyway, enough whining. Yesterday, I received not one, but two registration notices for the upcoming election: one for me, and one for somebody I've never heard of, who apparently lived at my address some time ago. Since I've lived where I am for over 6 1/2 years, and somebody other than the name on the other notice lived there before me, I'm wondering where the provincial electoral officers are getting their voters lists from.


The University of Waterloo (my alma mater) is trying to sell me life insurance (emphasis theirs):

Please remember - the comparison-shopping has been done for you. We proudly recommend this plan as one special alumni advantage you can't afford to overlook. And, because the whole idea of insurance is protection against the unexpected at any time, now is the time to act.

How do they decide where to put the bold-facing?


I think it's kind of cool that the Canadian dollar has now reached parity with the American dollar. For one thing, it means that if I buy any books, I'm going to buy them online with American sellers and save a whole whack of money. (An increase in cross-border shopping will no doubt lead to Canadian retailers lobbying for heavy customs duties on imported purchases. They may be doing this already.) But I wonder: if the Canadian dollar keeps appreciating, will we have to throw away all our American spare change?

For years, Canadian retailers have treated American pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters as equivalent to Canadian: it's too much of a hassle to sort between them, and the difference between the currencies was never too great to worry about. But if an American quarter suddenly becomes significantly less valuable than a Canadian one, will people start refusing to take them?