BC Politics Update: Final Edition... Maybe

I posted and ran last Thursday because of my concert tickets but I wish I could have stayed home and kept on top of all the happenings because it ended up being an incredible day for BC politics.

But first, PMJ was fantastic and the whole evening was so much fun. The highlight for me was Maiya Sykes singing Radiohead's Creep. I wish I had a recording of her singing it because it was breathtaking. Instead, here's her singing Don't Look Back in Anger.

But the more important news: BC FINALLY HAS A GOVERNMENT! We went to the polls on May 9th and a short 51 days later, we had our results.

As expected, the Throne Speech from Christy Clark promised the moon, forcing the NDP and Green party to vote against things they plan to do as part of their platforms to put their power-sharing plan in motion.

As I've previously mentioned, this is a very calculated move by the Liberals as it means that they already have their next election platform. The worst part? It's working! Reading the comments on a few of the articles Thursday night - I know, reading comments? What was I thinking? - there were more than a few that mentioned "but the Throne Speech promised so many things, what were the NDP/Greens thinking?" Even if the NDP/Greens had decided not to vote against the Throne Speech, the Liberals-in-SoCreds-clothing HAD NO INTENTION OF EVER FOLLOWING THROUGH ON THE PROMISES IN THE THRONE SPEECH!!

This is a government that removed so much funding from the education budget that the Supreme Court of Canada found them in breach of contract and mandated that they restore funding retroactively. Think really hard for one freaking minute: it took a court-order for the Liberals to even come close to properly funding public education. Do you really think this is a government that is going to increase funding to everything else that they've cut over the last 16 years?

By losing the confidence vote, Clark had shown that she did not have the support of the government. She went to Government House Thursday night to tender her resignation to our Lieutenant-Governor, Judith Guichon. Upon tendering her resignation, there were two things that could happen: the LG accepts the NDP/Green proposal for power-sharing or she could call another election. We know that when asked for her opinion, despite saying she wouldn't advise on it, Clark told the LG she should call another election because of course she did.

Thankfully, Guichon didn't follow Clark's recommendation and called John Horgan to Government House that same night. BC now has an NDP minority government with Green support.

This is uncharted territory for BC politics. We've never had a minority or coalition government in BC. It could be a great success or we could be heading to another election in a few months times.

On the upside, this whole fiasco gave us one of the greatest tweets ever.

Unconfirmed reports say BC Social Credit Party will be seeking a name change yet again #bcpoli

— BCFerrys (@BCFerrys) June 30, 2017

Update on BC Politics... AGAIN!

Christy Clark has officially lost leadership of the BC government after losing a confidence vote.

So many thoughts but I have to get ready for PMJ so for now...

Sunday Sundries

1. We're in the middle of a big project at work right now, so it might be Sunday-only posts for the next three weeks.

Me last Friday... and probably every day this week.

2. Black Raven Armoury currently has their Wonder Woman pattern available for free. You can sign up for it here.

3. The UK election was... interesting. To ensure she maintains the balance of power, Theresa May - who wants to take a harder stance on terrorists - has made a deal with a political party that once funded terrorists. I will turn to one of my favourite satire sites, The Ulster Fry, for my take on it.

Also from The Ulster Fry.

4. Speaking of elections, the end is in sight for the BC Election. Christy Clark has called parliament for June 22nd. The big fight will be who gives up an MP to be Speaker of the House. Then it's the Throne Speech and, hopefully, Christy's goodbye.

5. I finished Season Five of "House of Cards". I can't believe how they ended it. I get having a cliffhanger, but they had, like, eight. AHH!!! (Also, I love Michael Kelly. This link contains spoilers.) There was one story that felt like it didn't go anywhere this season, but it also seemed like it could be cause plenty of problems in a future season so...

6. Part of the Alberta contingent was visiting this weekend which means day drinking. Had a few trips down memory lane in the past 24 hours. We'll add Alberta to the places I'm feeling nostalgic for this week.

Looking at the Sweetgrass Hills from Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park.

BC Politics: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Today, Christy Clark showed that she would not go quietly.

It's her right, and the Liberals are spinning it as 'not allowing political deals to happen behind closed doors', but it reeks of just prolonging their power. We are now forced to wait until the next time the House of Commons convenes which will be Christy Clark calls for it. 

I don't believe she'd delay the next session just out of spite, but the Liberals are still in power. I do believe she and her party will promise the moon in the Throne Speech and present a generous budget they have no intention of passing because the NDP and Greens have to vote against it to take over.

Why would they do this? Because then, come the next election, they have their campaign platform: we wanted to give you this but NDP/Green denied it! THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU GIVE IT TO US OVER THE LAST SIXTEEN YEARS?!?!?

A power-sharing deal has been made. The Liberals, despite winning the most seats, have lost this election and they know it. Now, they're just posturing for their comeback.

At this point, I'm just so done with them.

The Neverending Saga of Canadian Politics: BC Edition

Twenty days after the province went to the polling stations, we have a government.

Sort of.

After all the ballots were counted, including a few recounts, the final standing was:

• Liberals: 43
• NDP: 41
• Green Party: 3

Majority in BC is 44 seats. Today, the NDP and Greens announced a power-sharing arrangement for the next four years. That gives them the required 44 seats needed for a majority.

But...

You knew there had to be a 'but', right?

But Christy Clark is still Premier.

No party formed a majority on their own, so she remained Premier after the election. Now, she will remain Premier until she either steps aside or loses a confidence vote.

(For those who don't live in a political system with confidence votes, the Wikipedia page. tl;dr: a member of parliament can call a motion of no confidence - certain bills, such as the budget, are automatically confidence votes - and the members of the house vote. A non-confidence means the Prime Minister or Premier loses their position. I'm looking at you, Joe Clark.)

With today's announcement, Christy's days are numbered. First day of parliament, a motion of non confidence will be called and she won't have the votes to stay in office.

And that's how John Horgan became Premier of BC... eventually.

Who knew BC politics would be so entertaining?

And the Winner is...

No one!

Kind of.

The Liberals have potentially won a minority government with 43 seats. Christy Clark and her dead eyes petition the Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Judith Guichon, that she has the support to govern. At that point, it depends on if the NDP and Greens block this petition. If they do then BC is heading back to the polls within a few months. If they don't, then the Liberals officially form BC's first minority government.

That's right. Over 100 hundred years of BC politics and this may be our first minority government. 

Or, if Christy wants to she can't be blocked, then the Liberals could form a coalition with the Greens and have a majority government. 

There are still a couple of ridings which were very close - one riding was one by 9 votes! - and will undoubtedly be recount to verify the first count. We may see a seat or two shift from one party to another in the next few days or weeks which could affect the choice Christy makes.

It is definitely an interesting time in BC politics.

You've now made it through two political posts so as a reward, here's some Monty Python.

We Have a T.B.D. Government!

As I type this, the current BC election results show this:

If this projection holds true, BC technically won't have a government Wednesday morning. Although that would still be better than the government we had prior to this election so... cup half full?

Most people outside of BC might not understand why I dislike our provincial Liberals - but Trudeau's a Liberal!! - but they are not Liberals. They are Socreds in Liberal colours. After Bill Vander Zalm had to resign due to a conflict of interest (and an ensuing scandal surrounding it), the Socreds were all but decimated in our 1991 election. After that, many of their members moved to the Liberals and then dragged the Liberal party into the right-wing.

Our current Liberal party, which held a majority government so they stood unopposed, has cut funding to education while increasing the amount of that education money that is supposed to go towards private schools, cut funding to our health system while increasing the monthly insurance payments (the payments themselves don't actually go into the healthcare budget, they go into the general budget for the current government to dole out however they see fit), they have awarded contracts to their biggest party donors, and the list goes on. Also, Christie Clark has dead eyes and they freak me out.

What does this mean for these election results? Well, it comes down to who woos the Green party first and forms a coalition. Based on previous comments made by the leader of the Green party, that means it is highly likely we'll have a Liberal-Green coalition.

What does that mean for the future of BC? In the words of Jimmy Rabbitte from 'the Commitments', "I'm fucked if I know, Terry."

I had such a crush on Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) when I was young.

EDIT: I checked the result before I posted and it hadn't change in the projection. I posted. Then I checked and now it's showing a Liberal minority government. I'm off to bed now so if it changes again... you'll just have to wait for tomorrow's post.

Endgame in Ireland

I was clicking around on YouTube tonight when I stumbled upon "Endgame in Ireland", a four-part documentary about the Peace Process in Northern Ireland. The documentary had been on PBS years ago. My dad had taped it and passed it on to me to watch. Taped it. As in, VHS tapes. Remember those, kids?

I haven't seen it 15 years but I remember it for being a fantastic documentary and for providing a very balanced view on the issue. My dad credits that to the fact that it was produced by both BBC and RTE. You probably know the BBC, but RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) is the national broadcaster of Ireland. (Psst, want to listen to spoken Irish? And I mean more than the few words I might yell at you when we're out together. Follow this link and click the 'RnaG Beo' in the top menu bar. Yes, it does kind of sound like you're listening to a record in reverse. But I digress... like always.)

At any rate, I couldn't watch "Endgame in Ireland" tonight because it was too late and I still have to work tomorrow but I think that's my weekend plans sorted. If you are interested in watching the series yourself - which I highly recommend if you have an interest in contemporary Irish history - then you can find them by following the links below:

Episode One

Episode Two

Episode Three

Episode Four

Once you've watched these, you might understand better why I was so flabbergasted when in the wake of the Brexit vote, Ian Paisley, Jr encouraged his constituents to apply for an Irish passport if they were eligible for it. His father must be absolutely writhing in the afterlife.

While I'm on the topic of documentaries on Irish history, Netflix (well, the Canada one, at least) recently added "Tales of Irish Castles".

It deals with history a little further back than the recent Troubles, but also worth checking out. If you watch it and find yourself with an urge to buy and refurbish an Irish castle of your own, it is not my fault.

And can I stay in your guest chambers next time I'm back?

Friends, Music, BBQs and Summer

This was supposed to be the summer of no plans. Between a work project and a pretty big fall trip planned, my plan for the summer was to prep for my departure.

But then friends were all "let's go here" and "let's have a BBQ" or "I'm coming to visit."

In other words, it has been a summer full of that utmost first-world problem: I need a weekend from my weekends!

I know, totally doesn't suck and I should really just get over myself.

I haven't even had a chance to talk about a friend coming to visit, visiting the bug zoo, hiking out to Mystic Beach (in the rain, with a hangover), attending the Phillip's Backyard Weekender to see A Tribe Called Red, reciting poetry in a pub bathroom, or drinking too much.

Our picnic view

A wee bit wet but no worse for wear!

I completely missed telling you that "Noah" had his kidney transplant earlier this month and his recovery has been going so well, he was out of the hospital almost a full week before doctors projected. Also, I've been sending him awesome photos like this:

EDIT: Noah's recent tests are showing markers for possibly rejecting the kidney so he's back in the hospital. So some parts of this summer aren't as awesome as they could be. Guess I'll have to keep making crappy motivational jokes with my desk toys.

I attended multiple birthday BBQs because that's what you do when you're birthday falls in a summer month, apparently. I'm not complaining, I just didn't know it was an unwritten rule.

Speaking of BBQ, I got a lovely Texas care package in the mail from Cely.

BBQ FOR DINNER EVERY NIGHT!!

I also saw Ghostbusters. Loved it like Chris Hemsworth's Kevin loved himself.

How saxy! Be still my treble clef!

I spent a day walking around Victoria Snapchatting my version of our local history.

And I wrapped up this weekend by attending a Michael Kaeshammer performance. If you are unfamiliar with Kaeshammer, he's a German-born Canadian pianist known for his jazz and boogie-woogie style. His live shows are very interactive; if the music thing hadn't worked out for him, he could have made it as a comedian.

Have a wonderful week, everyone.

Brexit Won

In case you've been living under a rock - in which case, who is your internet provider because I didn't know "under a rock" could get a signal - Thursday was the UK Referendum on whether to stay or leave the EU.

The Leave vote won.

I'm not happy about this for two reasons:

1. I really hate the word "Brexit".
2. I believe with every fibre of my being that this is the wrong choice.

Ignoring all the economical reasons why I disagree with the vote, the Leave campaign was run on a platform of racism and it won. I'm not naive enough to think that we ever lived in a world without racism, but it is terrifying to see it so openly displayed. And not just in the UK referendum or the US election going on south of the border, but everywhere.

Also, as someone who's family comes from a border county in Ireland, there is the concern about what this could mean for peace on the island. Town and villages on both sides of the border that have flourished since the border crossings have all spoken out about the economical repercussions of monitoring that border again. While both the Remain and Leave campaigns have said that the border would remain open even in the case of a Leave vote, it's an added uncertainty to an already fragile peace.

Add to that, there is a real (and valid) concern that this Leave vote could see a return of sectarian violence. Both in Ireland and Northern Ireland, this has been pointed out. The EU and the removal of borders between EU countries was a big part of what made the Good Friday Agreement work. Where does that leave Northern Ireland, which voted in favour of staying in the EU, when the dust has cleared on this referendum?

Ugh.

I don't want to go to bed feeling this *meh* about everything, so here's a video from SportsJoe.ie of my favourite Gaelic footballer and some other guys driving around singing. (P.S. The Sunday game they talk about was a huge win for Monaghan. Monaghan Abu!)

Yup. Watching this video puts a smile on my face.

Technology Can Go F Itself

Since January, I have been working on a series of posts on Irish history to post in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin.

In other words, the first post should have been up this morning.

Saturday night, my computer went on the fritz. I was able to fix it, but I had to roll back all my items to my last backup... in early March.

Dammit!

First thing this morning, I phoned my friend who knows computers but no dice on retrieving my recent documents.

DAMMIT!

I have my links and rough drafts so I'm working on getting the posts done soon, but DAMMIT!

There may have been some tears this morning.

And some swearing.

Fine, a lot of swearing. I went full Malcom Turner on my computer. (Sorry, mom, for the swearing in this video.)

Hey, at least I backed up my files in March and not a year ago. Silver lining and all that jazz.

On the upside, a friend of mine who is a Latin Graduate Student turned a year older today. In a true show of friendship, I left her the FB message "Romani ite domum!" because it's some of the only Latin I know. If you don't understand the reference:

Naturally, this led to a conversation about Eddie Izzard's bit on the Latin language.

If you're ever feeling bad about something, going for a walk and thinking "Quad the fuck!" when you see something odd or silly is a great way to cheer yourself up. Trust me on that.

Éirí Amach na Cásca (Easter Rising)

The last few weeks of March ended up being very Ireland-centric for me. And it wasn't just because of St. Patrick's Day. In fact, my St. Patrick's Day celebration this year consisted of making boozy cupcakes for my coworkers, and then hunkering down at home to watch "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" which I drank a solitary pint of Guinness. 

So, just a typical Thursday night, then? ;)

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey's Cream Cheese Icing.
It took a lot of will-power not to eat them all myself.

I'll never get a job as a barmaid with head like that!

What really made it an Ireland-centric month was that this past Easter weekend was the 100th Easter since the Easter Rising in Dublin (and a few isolated events in other parts of the island but mostly Dublin) so I spent a lot of my free time streaming the live stream of RTE of the centenary celebrations.

The date of Easter 100 years ago was at the end of April so some might argue that is isn't actually the 100th anniversary yet (that would be April 24, 2016) but as it's known as the Easter Rising, I'd give the centenary celebration committee a pass on actually planning everything for the Easter weekend.

Having said that, I've been working on a series of posts covering Irish history leading up to the Easter Rising and the subsequent War for Independence and Civil War which I was aiming to coincide with the April date because that's actually 100 years since the event.

Semantics.

In the mean time, if you're wondering what the Easter Rising was about and you can't wait for my much more detailed but probably considerably more boring account of it, here are two drunk Irish guys to explain it to you.

Any Questions?

(You can hear the Proclamation of the Irish Republic being read in front of the GPO as part of the centenary celebrations by clicking here.)

Canadian Election Update

Stephen Harper is still the Prime Minster of Canada... for like, 10 more days. Then Justin Trudeau will be sworn in and become the 23rd Prime Minister.

Harper will still be called 'The Right Honourable' for the rest of his days. I throw up a little in my mouth when I say that, but them's the breaks. Even John Turner, Prime Minister for 79 days, has the right to use that title.*

Trudeau, son of the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of fuddle-duddle fame, is leader of the Liberal Party and has successfully formed a majority government. It wasn't what I wanted vote-wise, but for now I'm focusing on the positives: the Conservatives are no longer in power, and while Harper will still represent his riding of Calgary-Heritage, he has stepped down as party leader.

I thought about posting an update last night except I had a few drinks because it was election night and I'm a political junkie. Instead of posting an update, I channelled my energy into singing about Harper's demise and sending What's App updates to my stepmom who is currently out of the country. These updates became less and less coherent as the night went on. I'm sure she was thrilled.

I also couldn't post earlier today because after work, I went out for dinner and a movie with a friend. What better way to celebrate Harper being booted than to watch Matt Damon being brought home? Which, coincidentally, is part of the defense I'm going to use when the cops finally find Mr. Damon tied up in my living room. But officer, the poster said "Bring Him Home" so I did!

This concludes the political interlude of my blogging.

Maybe.

Until the next election.

Unless Justin does something really stupid before then.

*Turner was not the shortest serving Prime Minister. That distinction is held by Charles Tupper but he died in 1915 so no one is calling him anything these days.

Poll Dancing in Canada

Today, Canadians go to the polls and elect our next government. For those of you who are not Canadian – all one of you – here’s a crash course in Canadian politics.

The Canadian Election was called on August 2^nd, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper dropped the writ. I kid you not, we call elections in Canada with what sounds like an old-fashioned mic drop. He set our election date for October 19^th. Canada does not have set election dates although we do have laws that govern both how short and how long the country can go without calling an election.

Canadian law also dictates that no election should be shorter than 36 days. This is a fairly new law – mid-60s, I believe – so we do have elections that have been shorter than that. Our shortest campaign period was 12 days (but this was prior to one day voting so the election wasn't actually that short). Generally, most elections since the law passed have clocked in at around 40 days and change. At 78 days, this is our longest election ever.

Canada has multiple parties and each party has a leader, even when they’re not the party in power. Canada uses a First Past the Post voting system and the party with the most seats forms the government. If they win at least 170 seats, they form a majority government and can pretty much rule as they please. If they win less than that, they form a minority government and will have to do more wheeling and dealing to get bills passed.

The other parties that won at least one seat form the opposition, with the largest of those parties being called the Official Opposition. Meh, they’re the first losers so we’ll give them a fancy title to soften the blow.

I used to follow a rule of limiting my political talk on Facebook (or any social media, really). When elections rolled around – federal, provincial, or municipal – I’d encourage people to vote and leave it at that. I’d share the occasional story that interested me but I didn’t really get into my personal politics.

That changed this time around because I hate Stephen Harper. Not dislike. HATE.

And I want everyone to know it.

I want them to know that in 8 years, we have not had a balanced budget and despite all the Conservatives claims to the opposite, our 2015 budget also won't be balanced.

I want them to know that Canada is the only G7 country currently in a recession. Even though Harper continues to claim that it's a global recession, it is not.

I want them to know that under Bill C-51 being arrested at a peaceful protest could be deemed a terrorist act by the government. The language is vague on purpose because that's the way the Harper government wants it.

I want them to know that under Bill C-24, if convicted of terrorism or other serious specific serious crimes, Canadian immigrants who have received Canadian citizenship or people born in Canada who are eligible for dual citizenship can be stripped of their citizenship. 

I want them to know that Harper claims his government's attempts to outlaw the niqab at a citizenship ceremonies is about the rights of women but this same government says that the 1200 indigenous women that have have gone missing or have been murdered since 1980 are not worth an inquiry. 

I could go on and on, but mostly I want them to know that this man and his government do not represent the Canada I want to live in.*

Because I don't want to end this post on a downer, here's a clip of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight:

Here’s hoping that tomorrow, Canada wakes up to a government that looks much different than our current one.

*All these facts can be found in an easy Google search. Sorry, too lazy to do it myself right now. There are election results to watch!

Getting Political

Friday, May 22nd, Ireland is holding a referendum on marriage equality. If they vote yes, it is the first time ever that a country will legalize gay marriage by popular vote.

The majority of my family on Facebook have been very vocal 'yes' people. The rest haven't said anything which I'm hoping it just a 'not getting political on FB', but my dad's one out of 11 so there are bound to be a few who disagree with the yes-ers.

I will have RTE up on my computer tomorrow to keep an eye on the results. I am hoping for a YES because I believe in marriage equality. Allowing same-sex couples to marry does not affect my (hypothetical-at-this-point) straight or traditional marriage.

Also, I want a Yes vote because the No campaign is pissing me off.

On behalf of my father who lost his dad at the age of 8, fuck you No campaign.

Making Plans

Welcome to the future! Isn't it glorious?!?

I'm a little sad that the future doesn't actually look like this,

I had a rousing evening of staying home and watching movies. It seemed that all my options for the night involved large crowds and loud noises, and I just wasn't feeling it. So after a viewing of Dinner for One (it's tradition), I snuggled in with my kitties and a couple of movies: The Social Network and Michael Collins. I'd never seen The Social Network which seemed odd given the amount of time I spend on Facebook. I saw Michael Collins on a date 17 years ago - yes, I'm that old - but a recent discussion about it prompted the repeat viewing. While it's a decent enough movie (historically accurate bio-pics are hard to get right), a better option to learn and understand that time in Irish history is The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Great film. Check it out.

At any rate, I'm just going to assume everyone had a more exciting evening than I did. On to the 2014 resolutions!

1. Go to kickboxing/bootcamp at least 11 times a month.

In an ideal world, I'd be making a commitment of going to every class, every week (that's four classes a week) but this is not an ideal world. Attending class is a huge time commitment as I go straight from work and don't get home until 7:30 or 8:00pm. Some weeks, doing that four nights in a row is just not going to be feasible. So while I want to aim for attending every class, my minimum is going to be 11. And maybe, for added incentive, I should say something silly like "if I don't make the 11 classes, I will do [insert number] burpees".

 Because if there is one thing that will make sure I get my ass to class at least 11 times a month, it's the threat of more burpees than I'd get in class.

2. Run two 10Ks

I will be running the TC10K in April because that's what you do when you live in Victoria and like to pretend you're a runner... or you're high on running endorphins and you agree with some Twitter friends that it sounds like a great idea to form a team. Same thing, really. But I want to aim to run another one in the Fall, something to keep me going once the TC is finished. If I get really hardcore, I'll do the Gunnar Shaw but I don't know if I'm ready for that level of trail race in the cold.

And just to be very clear, when I say 'run a 10K' I mean 'jog a 10K with plenty of walking breaks'. Let's not fool anyone here with thoughts of speedy races.

This totally counts as running, right?

3. Start the process of becoming certified in Instructional Design.

I'm a technical writer. To move forward in my field, Instructional Design is where it is at. Don't worry, I don't expect you to understand any of that. The plan is to enroll in a few classes, probably starting in September because they're through schools that start in September. Someone should probably remind me of this in June.

4. Improve my German.

A few years ago, I gave myself an ultimatum: either that was going to be the year that I worked on my German or I would drop it and just accept that das Schiff had sailed. I did nothing that year and so I let my half-hearted attempts to improve my German stop. 

Then I went back to Germany and Switzerland this past year and had to use my rusty German. Surprisingly, my German was much better than I anticipated and I gained a lot of confidence in my ability to use it. Not surprisingly, it reignited the desire to improve my German. I've been working on it casually for the past few months and I'm going to continue doing so in 2014. I'm still trying to determine how I plan to 'measure' my improvement. Hmm, a Christmas trip to Germany/Switzerland where I speak only German for the entire two weeks? Anyone want to fund that?

And that, my friends, concludes my resolutions for 2014. Nothing crazy, but building on what I've already started.

Wish me luck!

Question: How about you? Any resolutions? Or are you not a resolution person?

Asking for Help Already?!?

Now that I've officially been blogging for a week, it seems only fitting that I'm already asking for help. That's how blogging works, right? "Look at me! I'm typing words, now give me ideas and shit!"

(If you haven't seen Despicable Me 2 yet, we have to have words.)

Around the same time that I stopped blogging, I was working on an idea for a (semi) regular series that combined a historical event with food. As clear as the difference between the Etruscans and the Romans? Example: a post about an event or period in Ireland's history could be combined with a recipe for Irish soda bread... and a comment that no one's soda bread is as good as my mammy's because every Irish offspring says that on a monthly basis, it's written in our genetic code.

I love this idea because I love history, I love food, and let's be honest, I love being a know-it-all. It's a match made in ego-heaven! While it was always my intent to use this idea on this blog, I decided to expand it to include politics because a) most historical events are political and b) of this exchange on Twitter:

And that, my dear readers, is where you come in. I've got a few topics already written down that I'm starting to do research on, but is there a historical event or a political question you've ever wondered about? Let me know in the comments or send me an email, text, tweet, dm, telegram, smoke signals, whatever. I'm hoping to do this roughly once a month and I want to get ahead of the game because the last half of my 2014 work year looks like this:

Need to have a few posts in the pocket before the jelly hits the floor! (2014 is not a typo. I don't normally know my workload this far in advance, but I know next year's because we have a massive project launch.)

I'm also currently playing around with possible titles for the series so feel free to pass along any suggestions. I'm not above letting you do all my blogging work for me.

And just because it makes me laugh, one more gif for good measure.