Rose's Cantina

Embed from Getty Images I will not speak his name. He does not deserve attention anymore. In some other cultures, this man would have been cast out into the wilderness, shunned by his people, at the very hint of the violence he committed against many, many women. In other cultures, he would be allowed to let his energy flow freely, and it would be the women who would be cast out for being dirty, evil, lesser. In our culture, it's somewhere in the middle. He has been cast out, in some way, unemployable in the vainglorious media where he toiled; he has been denied his hunting ground. But he still walks among us, his face allowed to feel the cold and damp of this spring/winter day. I hope the rain stings like needles. In our society, the women, too -- one named the others nameless -- have been singled out for punishment. They weren't believable enough, they didn't remember enough, they talked among themselves, reassured each other. In some cases, they cov...

Embed from Getty Images And now back to the weird and wacky heads of Jian Ghomeshi. All I can say is, I'm glad I stopped dating before sexting became a thing. I was never good at it, the sexting thing. It always seemed silly to me. Ditto for dating websites that sound like Pit Bull videos. I was once a woman not unlike the ones who are taking the stand in the Ghomeshi trial. I was fairly successful at hooking up in younger years, and I met a few Ghomeshis. I encountered one or two who liked rough sex, playful rough sex, but I certainly never dated somebody who would punch me in the face. Truth be told, I was usually the one doing the punching if things got out of hand. I grew up with brothers who regularly beat the crap out of me, and I soon learned how to give it back. Really, I wish all women would learn defensive dating. It would save them a lot of grief. I can also relate to the letters, and emails. My early years were spent covering rock ban...

Embed from Getty Images I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been feeling uncomfortable over the coverage of the Jian Ghomeshi circus taking place in Toronto this week. It's hard to look away when somebody is being burned at the stake. It is so incredibly unfair, this trial. The women have done nothing wrong. Their only crime is that they had crushes on a celebrity whose favorite past time was to beat the shit out of women. He's the bad guy, but they are being judged and found wanting. What this trial is about is the cult of celebrity. It's about the abusers and the women who adore them. If Ghomeshi had been the guy at Walmart fluffing the bananas, not one of these women would look at him. If he was the kindly teacher, he'd be up on charges faster than Fat Albert could say, "Hey, Hey, Hey!" But he's a celebrity, a cute little gnome like creature with a sly smile, whose winks and nudges have made a lot of women and men w...

Today I learned that I will finally have breast reduction surgery. I am both terrified and elated. No more blisters from the underwire. No more side boob sticking out as I try in vain to stuff my size 44H boobs into a 42DDD. No more shopping at Ottawa Tent and Awning for a bra that costs more than a bottle of George Clooney tequila. Today, I start an occasional series on my journey through my surgery, and the reasons why. I want people to know that breast reduction surgery is not just cosmetic surgery. It is life and soul saving surgery that no woman to my knowledge has ever regretted -- except Kanye West's mom, but she shouldn't have also booked three other procedures to save time. This is serious business, four hours on the operating table; it's not for narcissists and it's not for sissies. Here is the first post I ever wrote, back in 2014, around the time of the Jian Ghomeshi sexual harassment debacle at CBC It's about how my big boobs played a huge ...

While other nations were celebrating their achievements in 2014, Canada was being mocked as a country of drunkards, rapists and yahoos. Rob Ford Was it so long ago that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was being snapped on the Danforth, speaking in Jamaican patois, wobbling in his sister's basement threatening to punch the lights out of top coppers and smokin' the peace pipe with thugs? Even though he has garnered sympathy for having a tumor, the size of a grapefruit, Rob Ford stands alone as a beacon of ridicule. He may be gone, but it will be centuries before Toronto lives him down. View image | gettyimages.com Justin Bieber The pride of Stratford, Ontario, young Biebs has been following in the footsteps of other great Canadians, like Kiefer Sutherland, by spending more time on the police blotter than in the public eye. Drunk, high, belligerent, the Biebs has been our number one export for bad news, getting such a bad rap that Americans actually started a petiti...

Rosie Tits. That was my nickname at my first job as a reporter . One of the photographers gave me that nickname nearly 40 years ago, about a month after I started writing for my hometown paper. I was 19 years old.  When he called me that, he did so in front of the newsroom. Everybody had a good chuckle over that one. He also gave my colleague a nickname. He called her Darlene Happy Crack. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't go to the principal's office, or go up to a teacher. There were other women in the newsroom, but I didn't know them, and I didn't feel comfortable discussing the dilemma with the managing editor who was an old man. So I did what all good girls do: I smiled and laughed along with the boys. I did a lot of laughing over the next few years. I was very naïve back then and didn't know how to handle this kind of degradation. I'm sure my face was red, I can't remember. Rosie Tits, just kept echoing in my ears. It was the...

It's now been a week since Jian Ghomeshi told his fans he was taking time away from CBC Radio, six days since the CBC said it was distancing itself from the great man, five days since the CBC fired him for his lifestyle choices, four days since the Toronto Star let loose a can of whoop ass on the host of Q, three days since the first woman put her name forward claiming he choked and hit her, two days since nine women came forward to say the same and worse. The scandal started slowly enough but quickly resulted in a white squall of outrage from women -- and right-thinking men -- who took to social media to express their disgust that the CBC allowed Ghomeshi to walk their halls for even one day after a woman complained about him cupping her butt and promising to fuck her with his Angry Inch. Boy, it must have been some week at the CBC, which is now so blown apart by this scandal that i...

#108274487 / gettyimages.com What is happening to this staid old nation of ours? First we had the crack-smoking mayor, then Justin "The Egg Man" Bieber. Now we have the King of Kink. Merde. Have you seen all the blogs about sweet little Jian Ghomeshi who got bitch slapped by CBC for his love of all things BDSM? Oh my . We thought he was just a creep. Now he's a creep with an attitude. He doesn't fight fair, according to the Toronto Star who interviewed four women who said he punched them and strangled them without their consent. Is he guilty? Not according to him. He told Facebook lovers on Sunday that he's into the scene -- nothing wrong with that -- and this is just a silly prank put upon him by a jilted ex-lover. Then he went on to list all his perversions, like any of us want to know, kind of like a 4-1-1 in case some young ladies on The Facebook might want to, you know, look him up. Got to hand it to Jian. He never met a twisted op...