Let's get back to solid ground

There's no shortage of wild stuff out there is there?

I just got back from Toronto, where there was a propane explosion of such magnitude that it made part of the west end of the city look like a war zone. It happened a week ago Monday and traffic on the 401 was still being diverted Friday when we left Scarborough for the airport.

Indeed, there was a ton of buzz about the blast and the local coverage was nuts. You couldn't change the channel without someone or other digging up some angle on the explosion, whether it was news or not.

I wonder how many similar storage facilities exist locally and how secure they are. No one has come up with an answer yet as to why the storage facility in TO blew up, but the damage was considerable and illustrates just how deadly propane can be. We should give careful attention to the impeachability of such facilities in our region should any exist. If you have reason to wonder why, look up the images of the Toronto explosion on the Internet. 'Nuff said.

Also last week, this guy gets on the tube and says he has found the remains of Bigfoot -- in a freezer. Come on! The images he offered to the media looked like a gorilla costume with entrails on it to add authenticity. Sorry, but I'm going to need a lot more than a monkey suit and a pile of tripe to buy this one.

The only reason the story has any legs at all is because we have a fascination with quirky, weird, inexplicable stuff.

A friend of mine told me once he thought he had come across something -- couldn't quite say what -- in the Canadian North.

When he retraced his steps, the first thing he noticed was a pungent smell not unlike musk and footprints -- large ones, in fact -- along the riverbank that hadn't been there earlier. He said the hairs went up on the back of his neck.

My friend never once said ‘Bigfoot’ during the recounting and, when asked what he thought it was, he declined to say. He simply related the story and left the rest to the imagination. Proper thing.

Finally, in the strange-but-true category, the PM is rumbling about a possible general election. Better the government roll up its sleeves and help our farmers, who have hit rock bottom in terms of earnings according to a

report released by GPI Atlantic. Mr. Harper claims that the Liberal-dominated Senate is bolloxing the works and any legislation the Tories propose doesn’t see the light of day. Might was well dissolve Parliament and put it to the people as work for some consensus or compromise to get the job done, says he. Lovely.

Meanwhile, a crucial industry suffers while top-level politicians consider spending millions on a federal election just because they can’t work things out. Cut the crap, see things the way they really are and take care of business.

Regular news just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore if recent items are any indication. People want something outrageous, inane or outright annoying, but that’s not what we're about here. We try to get the story and find out whom it affects. It’s not sensational or glitzy. It’s also plenty enough to keep our team hopping and engaged.

Yep, it's good to be home. Believe it or not....