Archived Columns

Mike MacDonald

Back in August 2002, I went to Humber College in Toronto for a one-week course offered by the Humber College School of Comedy. I was enrolled in the standup-comedy course.

Life is just one big biological party

I first learned about endorphins from Ms. Jody Lynn Musio on June 6, 2000. Jody was a wonderful laser-therapist and she was the key to helping me quit smoking forever… well over 125,000 un-smoked cigarettes and $55,00 after-tax, un-spent dollars ago. As she was administering the laser treatment to me, this is what she told about what happened to me when I smoked a cigarette; “When you inhale smoke from a cigarette, you take a highly addictive drug called nicotine into your system. The cigarette is essentially just the vehicle that delivers the nicotine.

The future is getting closer every day

In June 2016, WORLDHEALTH.net posted an article called: Predictions in Technology and Health written by Dr. Ronald Klatz who has enough letters and titles after his name to convince me that he spent a lot of time researching his story. What follows is an excerpt from that article printed without their permission so please don’t go passing it around.

“In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide. Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt.

The NOVA press conference

I moved back to Sarnia in 1973 to help my dad run his appliance, TV and furniture business. Polymer, Dupont and Union Carbide had just announced a $750 million-dollar project that would change Sarnia forever. It was called Petrosar, and as we all know that has now morphed into NOVA Chemicals. I remember those years of the Petrosar construction (74 -78) and the project’s subsequent coming on line very well. Business was, as my brother Mark loved to say, “Rockin’ and rollin’.”

The lighter side of things

How Canadians make people crazy

An Englishman, a Canadian and an American were captured and sentenced to be executed by a firing squad. The enemy leader visited them on the eve of their execution and told them, “Before we execute you, you will be allowed to say your last words. Please let me know what you wish to talk about.”

With a very stiff upper lip, the Englishman replied, “I wish to speak about loyalty and service to the crown.”

A reason to remember

On Thursday, November 22, 2007 – U.S. Thanksgiving – I went out to my dad’s house to watch the Green Bay Packers play the Detroit Lions; a tradition we’d been observing since the Lombardi years. My dad, who was 90 at that time, was a big Lions fan but he loved the Packers too, so when the Lions traditionally disappointed their fans by failing to make the playoffs, we always had the Packers as our backup team to cheer for.

Concussion confusion

Last spring, I was in Charleston, South Carolina for a few days and had the pleasure of interviewing a real live Hall of Fame NFL football player named Joe Delamielleure. Joe D. played in the NFL for 13 years – 6 times All-Pro. In Buffalo he was an offensive guard for a group of linemen know as “The Electric Company.” They made their bones blocking for O.J. Simpson. Interesting to note: Joe told me that he was making $24,000 a year and O.J. was making $700,000.

The sweet science?

Ever since I was a kid, I have been fascinated by big-time boxing events. I remember hearing about Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis, and in Feb of 1976 when I went to Las Vegas for the first time, I walked in the front door of Caesar’s Palace and there was Joe Louis himself to greet me: “Hi there. Welcome to Caesar’s Palace.”

Omar. Now it’s your turn to do the right thing.

As it has been for many Canadians I’m sure, the Omar Khadr thing has been on my mind a lot. First and foremost is the fact that the Canadian government―headed by Justin Trudeau―which sends young Canadians over to Afghanistan to fight ISIS, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and the rest, gives in to legal pressure and awards 10.5 million to a guy who left (was taken from) Canada to fight against our own soldiers. I wondered how much Omar would have received from Al-Qaeda if he’d sued them or Al Jazeera for promoting and selling their ideals to him and his father.

The Defense Sector

When I really think about it, I can’t believe that China or Russia would ever “nuke” us. What would be the point of the eastern half of the planet nuking the western half of the planet? If they did succeed at doing that, they wouldn’t be able to come over here and get all our stuff for free now that we’re all dead. There would be too much nuclear pollution and our stuff would be useless to them. Plus, their own industries would go bankrupt because they’d just nuked their best customer, which can be very bad for business.