I prefer the Blatant Innuendo Community Centre

Being a four-term mayor just doesn’t garner the respect it used. Not enough, anyway, to get your name on Ft. Wayne, Indiana’s new municipal building. Not when your name is (cue the schoolboy sniggering) Harry Baals. Even though he was polling three times as well as the runner-up, the Eugene Johnson Memorial Center.

Good thing the media handled the story so sensitively last year.

And yes, that’s how he pronounced it.

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Media Interviews I’d Like to Forget, B.C. style

Poor Christy Clark. Some radio guy asks the B.C. premier a ridiculous question – because they’re in radio, apparently the last refuge of the brainless – and she, in shock, answers it. And gets criticized for doing so. Because, well, she should know when someone is about to be wildly inappropriate, and not be taken aback. She can’t win for trying, anyway.

When is a correction not a correction?

When it’s a typo.

For sale: One blimp, no longer featuring a topless photo of the Queen

Canada’s now-departed satirical magazine Frank once boasted its own blimp. And now, this iconic airship can be yours — if, for some reason, you yearn to own something that taunted Brian Mulroney from above his 1996 libel trial, or (infamously) sailed above Parliament Hill during the 1997 royal visit, adorned with a doctored photo of the Queen, topless. (Until the Mounties scrambled to get it down, anyway.)

One caveat: The signage is not included. We are not amused.

Frank’s iconic blimp is on sale on eBay — but without the colourful signage.

Encroaching ads, as good an idea as lead balloons

Sometime in the last decade or so, some marketer got the brilliant idea of moving parts of the ads directly into the news copy. No one can miss them, then, right? And no one can miss just how badly it backfires, too, like this unfortunate placement in the Nuneaton News of Warwickshire, England (courtesy @GingerElvis):

Calgary Herald: Editorial cartoon or bust?

Today’s Calgary Herald editorial cartoon marks a brave move, away from those old cartoon cliches of humour and, well, cartoon. A brave move toward more exposure for Bachelor Canada contestants Bianka, Whitney and Kara (as if they need it). Are they borrowing a page (call it Page 6) from the Calgary Sun?

This appeared as the Calgary Herald’s editorial cartoon Thursday morning, for a while at least.

They really do miss their hockey at the Toronto Sun

The Toronto Sun likes hockey. Really, really likes it. After all, nothing draws eyes to a tabloid like a winning team, or the Maple Leafs.

So I understand the desire to fill the lockout-induced space with other provocative content. But really, Toronto Sun?

Then again, maybe they’ll sell more papers to replace those covered in spat coffee. (Courtesy Steve Ladurantaye)

Courtesy @sladurantaye, this headline from Friday’s Toronto Sun.

Dalton’s dead, long live whats-his-name

CTV folks: I do understand the pressure of posting breaking news. In the scramble to be first, sometimes mistakes are made. Sometimes typos slip in. But you’d think you’d notice the spelling of the name of the guy who’s been in charge of Ontario for darn near a decade.

Dalton McGuinty’s announcement that he’s stepping down as Ontario premier took many by surprise — apparently including CTV, who spelled his name wrong.

Just call him Felix Lightwalker

Space jumper Felix Baumgartner was moving pretty fast on his way down from 24 miles up on Sunday. He even achieved the fastest velocity for a human without the aid of jet or spacecraft. But really, MSNBC? Did you really need to say he broke the laws of physics?

Felix Baumgartner travelled faster than the speed of light, according to MSNBC’s scientifically-challenged staff.

Making a Fars out of fake news

Iran’s official news agency is the latest to get tripped up by the Onion’s dry satire. The organization has apologized after it ran, with a Tehran placeline, an article from the popular satirical website claiming that most rural Americans polled said they preferred Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Barack Obama.

The Onion, picking up on the gaffe, added a line to their story: “For more on this story: Please visit our Iranian subsidiary organization, Fars.”

(Courtesy the blog at foreignpolicy.com)