I've discovered the best way to deal with Toronto garbage strike. I've sent my wife and kids out of town.

It turns out I don't produce garbage on my own. It's true, I've produced only a minuscule amount of recyclables and just a little organic waste. It seems my wife and kids were responsible for 99% of the garbage, recycling and green bin waste we were producing each week.

Bachelor Mike could easily coast through the summer without sanitation services. It's shockingly easy.

The Best Goaltender Outside the NHL™ will likely choose between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Dallas Stars. He might decide tomorrow, or he might keep us waiting Sundin-style.

I need The Monster here just so I can cheer on someone named The Monster. It's not only fun to say, it's fun to type, too.

Here's the controversial celebration:

Remember when guys like Jim Brown, Walter Payton and Barry Sanders refused to celebrate touchdowns? They acted like they've been in the end zone before, and they'd be there again.

But heck, Arland Bruce's MJ tribute was pretty tame compared to his Spider-Man routine last season.

14 other creepy vintage ads can be found right here.

I feel sorry for this little dude who used the wrong soap.

Green Day's "Know Your Enemy" was noticeably absent from the recently unveiled SLS21. I didn't mind it, but I thought it was a little too "American Idiot" and I know these guys can do better. "21 Guns" is a great deal better.

Although I won't see it for a year, I hear this song is prominently featured in the critically lambasted Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Six years ago, on Canada Day, I played a softball game against Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys fame. You can read all about it in this six-year old entry.

Enough time has passed that I can call out Nick Carter on being a brutal ball player. That's right girls, your teen crush couldn't catch a ball to save his life.

I just had to get that off my chest. Carry on...

Band of Horses - The Funeral
With all the free agent signings yesterday, I completely forgot the weekly MP3. Here it is a mere day late.

I'm sure you've all heard "The Funeral" by Band of Horses before, but just in case it's eluded a few of you, I urge you to download this MP3 and give it a listen. It's a fantastic tune.

This is clearly a move to make cap space. I'm not a fan of the bodies we're getting back for Kubina, but I understand the money we save will help land another free agent. Burke sure does love hard-nosed toughies who can't score to save their lives. We certainly won't be pushovers with guys like Schenn, Komisarek, Finger and Exelby on the blueline.

Let me close with a word about Tim Stapleton. I attended several Marlies games last season, and Tim Stapleton was consistently a standout. During the most exciting playoff clinching overtime win, it was Stapleton who scored the winner. I got an autographed picture of Stapleton that's pinned to my daughter's bulletin board right now. I'm sorry we won't have #17 to cheer on at Ricoh next season but I'm hopeful he'll get a chance to see more NHL ice in Atlanta.

That's right, $4.5 million a year over five years for a guy whose allergic to points. I understand that's not his game and that we're getting a hard-nosed defensive defenseman who will block shots and hit everybody in sight, but that's a lot of cabbage. Still, my Montreal-liking frenemies tell me I'll soon fall in love with the man they call Komi.

Orr and Komi promise to make us tougher, but will they combine to put up Brad Marsh-like offensive stats? We can only hope...

On July 1, 2000, I was at Molson Park for an Edgefest when Jeff Douglas actually delivered this rant live. That's how popular this ad was.

It didn't inspire me to buy beer, but nine years later, it's still a great ad. I am Canadian.

I also follow Damien Cox on Twitter, where he's @DamoSpin. Here's his tweet shortly thereafter.

The deal Damien Cox was reporting was Pavel Kubina going to the Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for Colby Armstrong. It's a deal I dig, but if you go to Cox's Spin blog now, there's no sign of that entry. It's been deleted.

The deal could still happen, but it hasn't happened yet. It's been one big Cox tease and quite premature.

So far, he's signed one free agent, and that's Colton Orr. Burke has said he wants to make the Leafs tougher, and Colton Orr will do that. Colton Orr is an enforcer, and he comes cheap. He's signed to the blue and white for $4 million over four seasons.

Here's what he's known for:

With Colton Orr in the fold we can finally start planning that parade.

Over the past 6.5 years I've written quite a bit about you. All of those posts can be found at http://www.torontomike.com/o_canada/. But here are a few of my favourites, in the order I wrote them.

1. Vimy Ridge
2. O Canada! (2003 Version)
3. A Distinct Identity
4. Blame Canada
5. Reason Number 32
6. Our Other Anthem
7. The Maple Music Revolution
8. My Ten Favourite Song References to A Canadian Place
9. Best Canadian Movies
10. Top 100 Canadian Songs: The Definitive List
11. D'oh Canada!
12. My Ten Favourite Canadian Albums
13. Helping Fukuoka, Japan Celebrate Canada Day
14. 117,000 Reasons to Remember

Happy Canada Day!

Sure, there's a new Firefox icon, but what else is new? The video below will show you.

I like how they talk about that present you're buying for somebody and need to delete from the browser history, so they've introduced Private Browsing. We all know they're really talking about porn. Now, when you're surfing for porn, nobody will be the wiser.

Thanks, Firefox 3.5!