X Marks the Spot

I had to work yesterday (someone has to), and I had three armed robberies to write about.

This morning, Louie Rosella, our crime reporter, was greeted with an armed robbery at the TD Canada Trust just down the street from our office.

Then news that jazz legend and Mississauga resident Oscar Peterson died last night.

This is the wrong business to be in if you're looking for the Christmas spirit.

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Also the wrong place to be in if you're looking for the Christmas spirit, or specific Christmas gifts: Costco. Spent 20 minutes there running around trying to find gifts for my parents. The gifts I was looking for were not there, though I did get (for myself) the Steve Martin autobio Born Standing Up at a great discount.

From page 3 of Born Standing Up: "I ignored my stand-up career for twenty-five years, but now, having finished this memoir, I view this time with surprising warmth. One can have, it turns out, an affection for the war years."

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We reporters have been led to believe that we're having our chains loosened early today since it is Christmas Eve. We're expecting to get out of here at 3 p.m., provided nothing terrible happens.

To all my regular readers, Merry Xmas. I'll be back in about 70 hours, after a whirlwind celebration of the birth of Santa Claus in a manger at the North Pole 2008 years ago.