POLARGRIZZ is my latest project! It's a site for recaps, reviews and musings on Canadian media.

I wanted to do something A.V. Club or HitFix-esque for Canadian stuff, so I called upon some J-School friends, Chris Muise and Colin Chisholm, for help. We discussed what we each wanted to bring to the site and we were off to the races. POLARGRIZZ was born.

We're talking about Dragons' Den, Mantracker, Body Break, Heritage Minutes (soon!) and all manner of Canadiana.

You can follow us on Tumblr, you can follow us on Twitter, you can subscribe to the RSS feed, as well. Got something you'd like us to cover? Just let us know!

The site's quite young, but there are some pretty excellent articles on there (I can say that because I'm not referring to articles that I wrote).

If you want a taste of POLARGRIZZ, check out some of the following:

In Retrospective ... Body Break - This article, by Chris Muise, is fantastic. It's a deep dive into the mythology of Body Break. Who are Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod, really? Honestly, read this one.

Know Your Land, Know Your Prey - Mantracker Replaced By Schmo - I wrote this one. It laments the loss of the true and only Mantracker, Terry Grant.

Dragons' Den Season 6, Episode 1 Recap - My first recap. I wrote way too many words on this episode. Jeepers.

Jeopardy and Commercials - Colin Chisholm writes about the volume level of commercials (they're going to be lowered! Finally) and CBC losing Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune (dang).

Beware the Mantracker - Another Chris Muise original, this article asks if the Mantracker is simply an expert tracker, or an uncontrollable cannibal? You might be surprised by Muise's conclusions.

About our logo: It's a fire-breathing bear, which I came up with when working on the rough version of the site:





But Chris Muise designed the final version, which I think is incredible. Check out that badass POLARGRIZZ.

New Junior Pigeon podcast

New podcast on Junior Pigeon Dot Com!

It has been a long time since we last podcasted! Sorry about that. We aim to do better in the future. Today’s podcast is extra fantastic to make up for the lack of podcasts over the last many months. It’s a conversation with Jill Fredericks, Laura MacKenzie and Vincenzo Ravina.

Topics covered:

• Marie: Everyone’s middle name?
• Santa Claus: a hoax
• Jill is uncomfortable with Michael J. Fox playing his own daughter in Back to the Future Part II
• Does Jill have scars?
• A rousing match of Would You Rather…?
• and more!

Recorded March 2012 in Laura MacKenzie’s kitchen.

LISTEN: JUNIOR PIGEON PODCAST.mp3

OR: SUBSCRIBE TO THE JUNIOR PIGEON PODCAST ON iTUNES!

Junior Pigeon Dot Com

Increased sales for Crocs interview

After many years of inspiring love and hate in consumers, last year the company turned $1bn in sales. Would love to get your take on this.

I'm dismayed to find out about the increased sales. Although it's likely this increase is due to their near abandonment of their original and most hideous design. They've diversified, presumably asking their designers for something "less revolting this time". And if this is the case, then we at IHateCrocs are actually getting through after years of lobbying and protesting. That said, one billion dollars in sales certainly suggests too many fools with money.

When did you found IHateCrocs and why?

IHateCrocs was founded on July 21, 2006 when I registered the domain. Though what brought me to that point was a growing discomfort on my part to the strange, creeping parasitic quality of Crocs and my realization that I couldn't be the only person in the world immune to the disease. More specifically, the first time I ever saw a pair of Crocs, I was in a high school class with my friend Matt and we saw a classmate wearing them. We had no idea why any person would wear such things and we laughed about how terrible-looking they were. Soon, within a matter of weeks, I was seeing Crocs on people's feet all through the halls of my school. And within a month, my friend Matt had a pair of Crocs. It was incredible to see. He said, "They're comfortable." I've tried Crocs on. I don't find them particularly comfortable.

What is about Crocs that makes your blood boil?

That it took over my friends like a zombie virus made my blood boil. I can honestly say that I see fewer and fewer Crocs all the time, unless they're Crocs in disguise (the aforementioned less revolting models), so they haven't made my blood boil in quite some time. I don't see my friends in Crocs anymore, either.

How is it then that everyone from cliched soccer moms to Brad Pitt can't stop wearing them?

That question is very stymieing. I suppose if we knew, we'd have a vaccine by now. I suspect the answer is laziness and the perception of comfort. We've seen pajama pants and sweatpants in the grocery as a result of laziness, and what could be easier and lazier to do than to slip on a pair of Crocs? With Crocs, you don't even need the fine motor skills involved in threading the thong of a flip-flop between your toes.

If Brad Pitt is wearing Crocs, it's a cry for help.


*****

I Hate Crocs store is here.

Junior Pigeon is here.

Best Chicken

Junior Pigeon Dot Com

Hello NY Times readers

Welcome.

I rarely update this site anymore, but I'm always doing new things at my website located on the Internet here.

I also have a travel blog and miscellaneous ridiculous thing blog called Junior Pigeon.

You can also follow me on Twitter here.





For the IHATECROCS store, go HERE.

Years of blog posts are archived for your reading pleasure below. Thanks for visiting.

Our Legacy

Crocs, as a company, really does try. You have to give them that, if nothing else – they honestly, sincerely want you to put on their shoes. They promise customers that the feeling of slipping one on is incomparable and that Crocs may just be the most comfortable shoes ever invented. They'd really rather you not mention the fact that they may simultaneously be the ugliest. Just try them on. They swear you'll never want to take them off, so long as you don't look down.

It's a fine goal, to be sure, but there are more holes in that logic than in the shoes themselves. There's no getting around the simple fact that Crocs are ugly. It is a truth universally acknowledged. Even the most deluded Crocs lover will concede this point, though they will invariably swap the word ‘ugly’ for ‘quirky’ or ‘unusual’. Regardless, the end result is the same: these people know that the footwear they don is unattractive. They are large, chunky, lurid and punctured with holes. They are to your eyes what second-hand smoke is to your lungs.

They're not even tolerably ugly like cheap flip-flops or Birkenstocks. They're blaringly, violently distasteful and while most trends of such an obviously unfashionable nature don't tend to survive for exceptionally long, Crocs have. They've spread like an infection to the furthest reaches of the globe. People, for no discernible reason whatsoever, are dying to get their hands on the most unsightly footwear imaginable. Consumers worldwide are abandoning their dignity and going out on the town in their neon orange – or pink, or blue, or yellow – Crocs.

The question remains: why does anyone wear these Crocs? It can be chalked up to mass insanity, but if one were to ask the average Crocs fan why they wear them, they will undoubtedly answer, “Because they’re extremely comfortable,” repeating the same argument that goaded them into trying the monstrosities on in the first place. These Crocs people truly believe that this is reason enough to wear these hideous shoes. Following this logic, they must believe that going to the market wearing only their underwear or a bathrobe and slippers is just as acceptable.

The most disturbing aspect is that the level of comfort that can be gained from a pair of Crocs is minimal at best. The rubber-like substance that the Crocs are made from sticks to the sole of your foot like hot tar and the strange friction of the shoe against the ground makes it nearly impossible to walk normally, resulting in the unflatteringly named ‘Croc-walk.’ It is particularly noticeable when attempted by children.

However, reminiscent of cultists, Crocs fans will defend their shoes to the bitter end, never giving in to reason and never offering an explanation that can be backed up with supporting arguments. It’s as if these people do not know how to defend Crocs and cannot put into words why they are so enthusiastic about them. None of these people have anyone nearby telling them to change into respectable shoes; everyone around them is usually wearing Crocs, too. It starts with one member of a community and infiltrates the closets of neighbours, friends and children. Soon, everyone is wearing the shoes that only months ago, they all were mocking. It's quiet, it's subtle, and it sneaks up without warning, but soon entire regions become infected. The sane find themselves suddenly in the minority, standing up to such a monumental threat to good taste. They are brave, they are righteous, and they are not alone.













Click here to visit the IHATECROCS store.

Keep up the good fight.

IMMOVABLE OBJECT VS. UNSTOPPABLE FORCE: ROCK PAPER SCISSORS EDITION

Hello, I would just like to share with you the latest video we've put up at Junior Pigeon Dot Com. Laura and I (Vincenzo) have discovered that we are evenly matched in our Rock Paper Scissors prowess. Neither can beat the other. This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object: