History repeats: Prohibition comes to an end.

Ah, Thursday. When we get to say “Hello” to our old friends at SEE, Vue, and the Edmonton Examiner. Then we can forget about them for another week.

You know, I had an interesting thought not that long ago. I think I’ve even shared it with a few people. If printing newspapers continues to be an expensive task, and more news goes online, why couldn’t some of our dailies become weeklies?

We already have SEE, Vue, and the Examiner publishing once each week. If Metro became a daily, then the Sun, and the Journal, we’d have six newspapers to read every week. If the Sun and Journal banged out two issues a week, we’d have at least one paper to read every day.

And they’d be able to focus on what they do best, filling the actual hard copy of their publication with the most valuable, more in-depth stuff they could come up with each week. That is, they wouldn’t all cover all of the same stories all of the time.

Essentially, like SEE and Vue, they’d all become magazines of a sort. Just a thought to kick around.

from the Edmonton Journal:

Plan to reduce wait times for surgery falls short of goal

Rethink Alberta campaign riles Tories (I guess we could just start an ad campaign telling people not to go to the Gulf states. Or Edmonton could launch a campaign in the U.S. featuring our world-class waste disposal and the giant mall. That’s not dirty.)

Epcor boss answers his chief critic in spinoff of Capital Power

McCauley area loses some of its soul with demolition of St. Stephen’s Church

Soccer districts seek halt to ASA’s perpetual battle

Tims lures the buys of summer with custom ice cream (Ice Cream? At Tim Hortons?)

from the Edmonton Sun:

Airport land generates interest (People are interested in drawing up plans for a new neighbourhood.)

Indy deal needs council approval

Bus attacks net jail sentence

If you’ve been around here for awhile you know why I’m linking to this one.)

from the Edmonton Examiner:

Councillor Connection (Ron Hayter talks about flooding.)

from 630CHED/iNews880:

Pedway improvements draw mixed reviews

from CBC Edmonton:

TV series ‘major shot in the arm’ for Edmonton

Internet luring conviction upheld by top court (Dateline’s Chris Hansen would be proud.)

from CTV Edmonton:

City reminds motorists to keep an eye out for motorcylists (For more City of Edmonton stories, updates, and news releases you can check our RSS feed at the bottom of the homepage.)

from Global Edmonton:

New arena could cost $5 a ticket (Going to an event at a new downtown arena, you could find your ticket helping to pay to have built it. But councillors aren’t sold on the arena plans just yet.)

from Vue Weekly:

Environmental fallout (Syncrude’s duck deaths and what it could mean. This is also a good time to mention that Vue is producing podcasts.)

Who was David Swann talking to?

from SEE Magazine:

We need more car-free streets – and one less airport

SOS Fest warms our hearts and our minds

Downtown living (There’s that party tent again.)

And in other news…the great beaver uprising has begun, in Red Deer…

(Thanks to Derjis for today’s breakfast-themed Headlines headline.)

Good news, everyone!

Daryl Katz is promising $100-million for the new downtown arena. Again.

Though, he wouldn’t say it’s necessarily again, because we all misinterpreted the first time he said he would put $100-million into the arena as putting $100-million into the arena. He, of course, meant $100-million into the area around the arena, the so-called entertainment district. Our bad.

Nevertheless, he’s now telling City Council he’s got $100-million with the arena’s name on it. You know, once City Hall figures out how to pay for the rest of it.

Oh, and he’d really like a decision soon. (I hear he’s got a good lead on some orange juice investments.)

from the Edmonton Journal:

Katz’s other rink project isn’t so cool

Bitter soccer association battle bounces from boardroom to court (I would have said that a “Bitter soccer battle headed into court.” Get it? Headed. Like when a soccer player hits the ball with his head. *cough* I’ll show myself out.)

Billboards warn Americans not to travel to ‘dirty’ Alberta (So, that’s not going to be to good for tourism. Right?)

from the Edmonton Sun:

Rain keeps workers busy, Edmontonians ducking for cover

Debut of Wildrose stomp (Sally would rebuke me if I didn’t zing this Wildrose Alliance song by linking to this campaign song.)

from Metro Edmonton:

Norquest’s printing centre gets grant (Time to print a paper version of the edmontonian.)

from the Edmonton Examiner:

Council approves 10-year plan to make city more ‘livable’

Reduce the urban burden (Higher taxes for the suburbs. Discuss.)

Fred Broadstock pool reopens with kid-friendly renos

from The Canadian Press:

Funding cut for Alberta school

from CBC Edmonton:

Edmonton retailers roll out plastic bag charge (Break out the reusable bags.)

Alberta couple’s disappearance devastates family

from CTV Edmonton:

Fresh Express romaine lettuce salad recall (Planting a garden is sounding better every day.)

from Global Edmonton:

LRT use climbs (Actually, ALL transit has seen an increase in ridership. I’m not surprised, people want alternatives. Don’t forget to watch the story to make sure they don’t use shots of transit from Vancouver.)

One, glorious, fantastic, busy year of getting up earlier than we want, reading news instead of drinking multiple espressos, and compiling a list of Edmonton’s news each day that we think you should check out.

Let me know if it’s still working for you. What we can do more of. What you want less of. If you’ve actually read something you wouldn’t have otherwise read (which is really the secret goal of my daily sarcasm).

from the Edmonton Journal:

Stampede spirit shines stark light on bland Capital Ex (I like the idea of marketing more festivals as a package, a summer-long party. That might appeal to folks outside of Edmonton.)

Documentary on Fort Chip kids makes Toronto International Film Festival shortlist

Edmonton opera heads for New York City

Peace River stink has filled gov’t nostrils (I like the description in that headline.)

Finding political pay dirt a tricky chore

from the Edmonton Sun:

Edmonton moves ahead on animal control programs

Big boots to fill in the education world (MacEwan, NorQuest, and now NAIT is looking for a new bigwig.)

Alberta left-wing urged to unite (Now people just sound desperate.)

Edmonton Valley Zoo welcomes baby animals (This one is pretty much just for Sally.)

from 630CHED/iNews880:

Police watching over LRT in pilot project

Banff to cap fast food and visitor shops (Wouldn’t it be interesting to see something like this in one or two shopping districts in the city? Could it encourage new business, local ideas, original restaurants?)

U2′s new Edmonton date released (One year later…)

from CBC Edmonton:

Club has to meet conditions before reopening (Go, Public Compliance Team, Go!)

from CTV Edmonton:

Edmonton doctor suspended for having sex with patient

Police on the lookout for missing St. Albert couple

from Global Edmonton:

Health bonuses under investigation (The bigwigs get bonuses. And the Premier is asking why.)

For the rest of the week we’ll return to last year’s fun of naming our headline posts after breakfast items. Because Sally always thinks I’ll run out of delicious breakfast-themed ideas.

And it’s only fair, after talking about Lloyd Robertson’s retirement, to note who’s taking over the anchor desk at Global National. (They’ve both followed the U.S. network lead and put women into the anchor chair.)

But that is a tale for another time.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Jeff and I were NOT, in fact, party geniuses – and that lots of people gather to do this on a regular basis. The Turkey Shoot guys have been doing it far longer than we have (and better, I might add). And most recently, I found out that our friend and contributor Gregg Beever hosts similar parties at his abode.

Since Gregg is one of the funniest people in the world to watch terrible movies with, Jeff and I had an idea.

The three of us could watch a terrible movie. And then we would challenge you guys to watch it as well.

Then, instead of your standard movie review, we could all have a chance to skewer it in the comments.

So here’s our first Bad Movie Challenge: you guys have seven days to get your hands on “Battlefield Earth.”  Jeff, Gregg and I will get the conversation started with our notes on the movie – but what we really want is to hear what you guys think.

Gauntlet: thrown.