WOMAN FROM NOVA SCOTIA JOINING MOVEMBER!

Dusty | Canadian Culture Page

Movember, the annual event of growing a moustache and raising awareness for prostate cancer has grown in popularity in the past few years. Depending on where you live it may feel as though every man around you is participating. One survey, of 3,506 Eastern Canadians, put the participation rate at just over half of all men under the age of 30. Sadly, the survey only found one woman participating.

We at Dusty's Digital Digest felt we needed to look into this a bit further, find the true story behind the numbers.

As it turns out, this one woman, Bert (her full name is Bertha, but, she prefers Bert), often joked she could "grow her a bigger 'stash then half her union brothers". This year she decided to take her joke seriously and participate in Movember.
All it took was a short Skype call to confirm Bertha is indeed participating, and doing quite well. Her lip sweater rivals any of the two week growths I follow and blows my wispy lip wig to the curb. During our short conversation Bertha told me of her years being self conscious at the uncommon amount of hair she grew above her upper lip. Her attempts at bleaching, plucking, shaving, have all thankfully come to an end for her as she embraced her unique body and is now showcasing it to the world.
She has gone ever further and joined a moustache-off, a competition between participants to grow the biggest or most creative moustaches.
However, this has not come without its share of criticisms. The moustache-off is made up of competitors from her union, The Brotherhood of Plumbers - Eastern Canada #121, some of whom have raised complaints ranging from her gender to the fact that she is a woman. Most supporters of Bert argue there are only a couple of bad 'stashes who are more than likely worried about losing out to a girl - unconfirmed sources have named them 'Mario' and 'Luigi'.
Bertha was humbled at the idea she could be encouraging countless women across Canada to follow her lead and let their hair grow wild and free. She has no intentions of writing a book about it or landing fifteen minutes on a late night talk show. She is doing this to raise money for prostate cancer.
What a sweetie.

Halifax | 17:57

CANADIAN SNOW BEING USED FOR SNOWCONES DOWN SOUTH

 DUSTY | Foodie Page

A blanket of snow covering trees, roads, or buildings, is a sight many of us Canadians take for granted. But, it is a sight most southern Californians have never witnessed before. That may explain the surprising demand for Canadian snow, which they are consuming by the ton - in the form of snow cones.

A small company, The SNOW Cone Cart, located in Oxnard CA, has recently started using snow in its snow cones instead of the traditional shaved ice. The snow supplier they have subcontracted out to is a Canadian firm located in British Columbia. Owner and operator Carl Mendez believes this 'imported snow' gives him an advantage in the highly competitive snow cone market - and he may be right. Since launching the 'Real SNOW cone', as he dubbed it, his sales have sky rocketed, so much so that he is planning an expansion into new markets and is even looking into a franchising option. Even considering the higher price of the snow cones, due to the increased shipping costs and storage of the snow, Mendez can barely keep up with the demand.

Could this be the start of a new market for one of Canada's least used natural resources?

A comment from the Ministry of Economic Development thinks so. Spokesman Irving Irvine commented, "according to the preliminary numbers, we could be on the forefront of millions of dollars worth of snow being exported...one day we could be looking at adding twenty to thirty thousand good paying jobs in BC alone." Currently snow exports account for under $10,000 in trade.

Interest in the business community is also ramping up with one local entrepreneur starting the process of legalizing claims on snow located atop crown lands, similar to a logging or mining claim. This request is currently pending in the provincial courts, but, is expected to be ruled on in the next few weeks.

On the environmental front, a group of young environmentalists calling themselves AARS (Alliance Against Removing Snow) have started an online petition calling for the ban on extracting and exporting snow. As of today they had just over one hundred thousand signatures. Other environmental groups (WWF, Coalition of the Environment, Treehuggers, Naturalists of BC) have voiced concerns over what they are viewing as another environmental scar caused by business. One tweet from the NOBC that was trending high last week, has really brought the topic to the forefront, "I understand the logging industry replanting the trees they harvest, but, what are they going to do about the snow they take? You can't replant snow! #SAVETHESNOW"

This seemingly insignificant decision to use a scoop of real snow on a snow cone is already causing waves throughout many levels of Canadian society. Is this going to be another oil sands debate, pitting Canadians against one another? 

13:34 | Vancouver

NEWEST CANADIAN LITERARY AWARD - For The Worst Book of the Year

THE BLUE BOX AWARD

Dusty | The Bookshelf Page

There are a variety of literary awards in Canad; The Giller, The Governor General, The Steven Leacock, and countless regional awards. The Readers Bookclub of Canada wants to add another - The Blue Box award. 

Instead of showcasing the cream of the crop, they want to highlight the other end of the spectrum - the worst book of the year!

Why?

The Reader's Bookclub chair S. Scholenburgen explains, "books are not only an investment of money, but, also hours of time. We want to help Canadians NOT read a book that will waste their precious leisure time."

The Reader's Bookclub meets weekly, except for the two weeks around Christmas, and read 50 books a year. They have a simple points systems where they give all the books a rating between 1 and 10. At the end of the year the winner of the award is the book with the lowest number of points. The members, or judges, are common Canadian stock including two seniors, a librarian, a grain farmer, a civil servant, one unemployed graphic designer, a freelance wedding event coordinator, and even someone who went to University for literature. The group makes an effort to appeal to the common Canadian reader.

When asked if a positive award would be better for readers and writers alike, the group had many responses. They thought it was time a different point of view was brought to the awards table to shake things up. They were adamant that if you get rid of 'the junk', as they say, then more people will have better reading experiences and therefore read more. One member also noted this award as a valid reason to clear a book off an already crowded bookshelf.

Looking over their list of previous nominees I noticed Life of Pi was on their list. This book won many awards, was widely read, and even turned into a major motion picture. When questioned about this they all agreed it should have won the Blue Box award. One of the older members was very vocal about this saying, "Yes, a terrible book...Tiger and a boy on a tiny boat seems very far fetched and also very boring. There was also spelling mistakes, right in the title! Pi instead of Pie! That was what really put it over the edge for me."

This year the group has organized their first ever award ceremony. According to the group's twitter feed : The first official awards ceremony will take place at the Ramada, lobby, 7:00 until security kicks us out. #bookawards #blueboxaward

When I commented that the feelings and/or reputation of the author could be damaged, their response slightly shocked me. The group consensus was that any author would be ecstatic to win such an award. The club sends a very uplifting letter explaining their reasons and hope the author will take it as constructive criticism and write a better book. S. Scholenburgen again, "An, let's face it, an award is an award. They can always put it on the dust cover of their book - winner of The Blue Box Award...More than likely we will develop a following here and it will end up, being somewhat of an oxymoron, and selling more books." That is one of the biggest concern the group has with taking this award public. They fear it may spiral out of control and encourage authors to write bad books just to win!

Regina | 15:55