ColbyCosh.com

Now at FullComment.com: A last look at the stubborn, strident, extraordinary Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Former newspaper columnist and editor Ric Dolphin has started a weblog about his current "sabbatical" as a carpenter's helper on a building site in the suburbs of Edmonton. Although his first foray as an adult into the world of semi-skilled labour comes at the end of a string of professional misadventures, it's hard for me to know how sorry to feel for Ric—I have a sneaking suspicion he'll earn about 75% more than I will this year.

His experience, which he is recounting with all the colour, vigour, and (above all) observational ability he used to bring to the editorial page, provides a window into the economics of Alberta's energy boom: if you know which end of a hammer to hit with, or you can learn in under an hour, there's a job for you here. He has decided to live inside this news story for a while instead of just telling it. Don't let them tell you the New Journalism is dead!

Apparently the funniest thing in the universe is Louis C.K. completely frightened out of his gourd. This is as surprising to me as it is to you!

Last week I wrote about the growing trend among senior pop musicians: performing their own classic albums live in concert. This week it'll be almost all Olympics all the time. Told myself I wasn't gonna do it, then broke like a reed under deadline pressure. First out of the gate: ruminations on those 16- or 14- or 12-year-old Chinese gymnasts. (Er, unless you count this tiny piece of Canadian Olympic Committee-bait.) More to come in Friday morning's Post.

Vice founder/refugee and facial-hair impresario Gavin McInnes reports from Canada's human-rights battleground. Comment-thread highlight: random guy watches Ezra Levant take apart his personal inquisitor on YouTube, declares "That nerdball goofus is a motherfucking badass."

My Friday Olympics column is now online.

Point on the North Atlantic coast nearest Tbilisi, Georgia: Lausvnes, Norway
Approximate distance between Tbilisi and Lausvnes: 3,320 km
Approximate distance from Signal Hill, Nfld., to Muxía, Galicia: 3,400 km
Other countries with a potential claim to NATO membership on the basis of being as close or closer to the actual North Atlantic than Georgia: Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Nigeria, Chad, Egypt

From Again With The Comics, the Al Williamson-inked tale of a guy who just would not shut up about the goddamn robots. (Warning: may contain traces of political metaphor.)

One of the attractive qualities of baseball is that even minor figures can attain a permanent place in the life of the game by influencing play or equipment. Free-swinging Panamanian giant Fernando Seguignol, who hit 10 homers in 162 at-bats for the Expos in 2000 and was later a gaijin favourite for the Nippon Ham Fighters, appears to have found his claim to immortality.

I'm not a firearms expert or anything, but if I were gonna try to shoot somebody from two-fifths of a mile away? I think I'd probably take a little self-improvement time and try to get out in front of that meth habit first. (In the back of my mind, I can hear Homer Simpson's immortal reply: "But I'm angry now!")

You had to show up a little later than that if you wanted to see Fela Kuti introduce his "spiritual advisor" to a London audience and then jam with Jack Bruce (on keyboards) and the whitest man on earth, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Quite honestly, Anderson is probably right in deciding about halfway through that he is overmatched (he can be seen smoking a cigarette next to the drum kit and making half-hearted phallic gestures with his flute).

The Alberta Mycological Society's annual mushroom exposition, held in Edmonton, is officially called "City of Champignons".

My Friday column used a last-minute incident at the Olympics as the occasion for accusing Fidel Castro of being a whiny twat. Fidel is an obsessive gatherer of press clippings and, having abandoned politics for the life of a full-time editorialist, certainly wouldn't miss a critical column printed in a national paper in his beloved Canada. So I figure he probably read this. I've got a week off coming up, jefe: I worked extra hard on the piece. My e-mail's at the bottom.

A reader wishes to know what I thought of John McCain choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. This unsigned editorial from the Post should shed some light on my feelings. The Canadians who dominate the American conservative punditariat are divided on Palin—but Mark Steyn is bang on.

And here's my bonus weekend piece for FullComment.com, which is about an overlooked line from Barack Obama's acceptance speech.