Attentive readers of this blog will remember that I found a Gemini Award in late November.

In that posting, I said I knew what the owner looked like, and that next time I saw him, I'd ask him if he wanted it back.

The big moment arrived minutes ago. I was standing on College Street, waiting to cross the street, when the shit-disturbing auteur came strolling eastward with some other fellow.

"Excuse me, are you (name of auteur)?" I said. He acknowledged that he was, parted company with his companion, and asked me my name. I gave it, shaking hands with him in the process. Then I popped the question:

"I've got a Gemini Award of yours. Do you want it back?"

He giggled at what I presume was an unexpected question and jerked his head in a classic WTF movement, but said no, that was okay.

We didn't chat long, but I told him I found it abandoned in a patch of grass just up from my place the afternoon after this fall's Gemini broadcast.

It turns out he doesn't even live on my street, and has no more idea than I do about how the statuette ended up there. But he seemed to take some amusement value from the situation.

"Do you have it in a nice place?" he asked. I nodded yes (it sits in front of my living room window and reflects a lot of the apartment's light when the living room is dark, really making it stand out -- glint, even).

"Well, keep it there," he said, adding, "We'll hook up later and figure out what to do," before heading off to do his business.

I can say I tried to do the right thing. I will update if and when the next development occurs.

This Salon piece says the big problem stemming from Iran's nuclear ambitions is the arms race it will trigger in the Mideast. And with the Iraq WMD debacle, no one is going to take the president of the United States' word about a possible threat.

As Oprah lays into James Frey for his fictional memoir of drug addiction, the LA Weekly puts forth the case that another celebrated memoirist, a purported Navajo Indian, may actually be a white writer of gay sadomasochistic erotica. Folks, this is one bizarre story!

I was hankering to listen to some Internet radio as I peacefully sat here in my living room updating my blog. But finding an interesting station proved to be problematic.

This Washington Post story looks at whether the Bush administration is walking the walk on spreading democracy.

One thing different about the Iraq conflict is that soldiers are now surviving wounds that would have surely killed them in the past. Helping these men and women recover will cost billions over the next 20 years.

I posted below about Ali Fadhil. This Democracy Now! segment talks about his award-winning documentary on the aftermath of the Battle for Fallujah -- and why he gave up being a doctor to become a journalist:

An excerpt:

AMY GOODMAN: We only have 30 seconds. But you're a general practitioner. You were a doctor in Iraq. Why did you put that down to pick up a camera?

ALI FADHIL: The main reason is because, while I'm sitting in 2003, I returned back to Iraq. I was in exile in Yemen, practicing also medicine. When I returned back, I found myself just writing death certificates and doing nothing to my patients. So I decided to – I mean, I was in a total despair, so I was ready to do anything. When I was visited by a Guardian reporter, he asked me to work as a translator with him. When I started that, I found that the media is much, much stronger than medicine.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Ali Fadhil, I want to thank you for being with us. Now coming to the United States to go to journalism school at New York University with your family. Welcome to the United States.

ALI FADHIL: Thank you.

Iraqi journalist Ali Fadhil talks to Democracy Now! about a U.S. raid on his home that involved firing bullets in his bedroom -- and the seizure of some videotapes containing material for a documentary about the U.S. and British governments' misuse of Iraqi funds. However, he believes it's a case of mistaken identity.

This is the first article by Salon writer Andrew Leonard on globalization, his new beat for the online magazine. He examines the pessimistic thoughts of Jeff Faux, author of The Global Class War.

An excerpt:...   more »