The edgiest of young New York comics have abandoned Seinfeldian observational humour and are moving in whatever direction their abrasive little minds will take them. As one said: "You're paying five bucks. We can take some chances." :)

John Gushue, from his Dot Dot Dot cyberperch on the Rock, noted yesterday that John Crosbie turned 75.

Some remarks of his I remember from the election 2006 coverage of NTV:

Crosbie said of the Liberals: "Power corrupts, and fear of losing power corrupts absolutely."

His Liberal foil, Sen. George Baker -- and a man of considerably sharp wit himself -- tried to turn chicken droppings into chicken salad by saying that voter turnout was up, even in the prisons.

"I think George is inferring there's a lot of Liberals in the prisons," Crosbie said (use an imagined Newfoundland accent in your mind when you read that).

In a 2004 appearance on CTV Newsnet, Baker joked about perhaps sitting too close to Crosbie, saying with a chuckle, "He might bite me."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry, George," replied Crosbie, who added, "You're not that invitin' to bite." :)

I forget the context, but Mike Duffy asked him about an award or some such thing, and Crosbie retorted that: "We should give you an award -- for shiniest head."

The Duffster laughed. He even had Crosbie on with Sheila Copps  (of "Pass the tequila, Sheila" fame) that campaign, and the two got on pretty well.

Barring irredeemable character flaws of an evil type, I'm always willing to extend good wishes to those who add some verbal spice to life, and so I'll do so to Mr. Crosbie!

The Onion after five years in the Big Apple.

A natural follow to the NYT story from Saturday, although it's interesting to note the complaining lawmaker is a Republican.

Is mixing Jack Daniels with Coke a sin?

It would be taboo to do that to a fine single-malt scotch, but is there a general prohibition with JD or any of the bourbons?

As I'm roaring under east Toronto on my way home from work tonight with my co-worker Tyrone, the train stops at a subway station and the doors open, which is typical.

There are two young women standing in front of the doors, even perfectly framed by them, which again is not unusual.

One even has a small, rust-coloured, poodle-ish-looking dog with her on a leash -- which also isn't an Spidey-sense-triggering anomaly.

And with the two young women beaming over their furry little darling and looking down towards it, the poodle picks this time to hunch, squat, shudder, grimace and finally squeeze out three little logs of dog feces onto the platform.

This is not typical.

However, the dog did stretch and look much more relaxed afterwards, which I would argue is not only typical, it even crosses boundaries between species.

Anyway, the two girls share a commiseratory chuckle over this act, but there was no immediate action to bend over and scoop.

As the train pulled away, I saw one woman passing some folded paper to her pal holding the leash, but I don't know if they cleaned up the results of the mutt's ablutions.

It would be a gross violation of basic transit passenger civility if they didn't, but so would taking a pee in front of other people on a transit platform, and people do that.