I used to be someone else, but I traded him in. The day after Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, director of Blow-Up and The Passenger is dead at 94.

Checkmate. Ingmar Bergman dead at 89.

Not quite the kiss of death. The good news? Paul Stanley is OK, folks. The bad news? Kiss without Paul Stanley Ain't Quite Right.

Elephants never forget land mines.

Iran arrests 14 squirrels for spying.

Elephants run away from circus, head for suburbs. more inside

Iglesia Maradoniana. Tired of Catholic Guilt? Finding the C of E old and busted? Judaism conflicting with your love of bacon? Then join the Church of Maradona -- hey, people have worshippped worse than the second-greatest player EVA (or third -- I'm perfectly willing to substitute Cruijff instead even if he did play for Ajax...).

"It's like looking at the sun..." Summer is here, and girl-watching season is upon us. And, of course, some guys take it too far. And as a result, find their pictures and stories of street harassment posted on HollabackNYC, or one of the other local sites.

Giant penguins. GRR!

B.C. Legislature murals to come down. Last April, B.C. MLAs voted to remove murals from the Legislature, on the basis that the depictions of the First Nations were inaccurate and offensive (the murals, painted in the 30s, show aboriginals as subservient and inferior, and take a casual approach to representations of their culture). The debate continues -- is the removal tokenism, a whitewash of history, or simply a just correction?

First-born children 2.3 IQ points smarter, says totally dumb and bogus study. So, older siblings in denial of the obvious, and much cooler, popular, smartser younger siblings -- FIGHT!!!

Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road. The Pope lays down Drivers' Ten Commandments. more inside

I think of Dean Moriarty. It's the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of On the Road. The work itself is much older, and is still spawning controversy and lame rip-offs. Go back and reread the original, 'cuz Jack's America is long gone.

Rome Reborn. Architects, archeologists and computer nerds have spent ten years coming up with a 3D real-time computer simulation of Rome in the time of Constantine, when it was the Greatest City in the Universe. Zigzactly! Ferpectly right!

Canada's tallest pingo under threat from a bush-fire. What's a pingo? I'll admit -- I had to look it up. Happy Scrabbling!

Man buys 'Boost Plus', gets what he paid for.

Leonard Cohen, happy at last? A nice little feature from Saturday's Globe. Features a small video of him at home in Montreal, discussing his art.

Brel's boat. On February 28th, 1974, Jacques Brel buys the yacht Askoy II, and in July, sails from Antwerp. After some detours, medical and otherwise, he reaches Hiva Oa in November, 1975. After some detours of her own, the Askoy II now rusts away on a New Zealand beach. more inside

Oh, that poor ottoman... Aah, bless the internets, for bringing such hilarity into our lives. WARNING: Video is of such awesomeness it shouldn't be watched without the occasional pause to prevent gut rupture. Possibly NSFW. (Via Defective Yeti, others.) Merry Christmas.

Curious George without a green thumb. I need help with shubbery. more inside