Home > Yes, WE live in paradise, but...Elsewhere... > At the Hundredth Meridien, where the Great Plains begin...

The West lies beyond the 100th meridien, the dry line. This area includes Winnipeg, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, plus the BC Rockies. Also: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington east of Snoqualmie Pass and the Oregon Interior.

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Baby high and low jinx *
And Big Baby makes three. The third world premiere in Calgary's playRites festival is an intriguing play by Frank Moher that vividly illustrates the recurring theme in this year's lineup: absent or dead fathers and the children they leave behind. [More]

Bison to roam the prairies again *
Conservationists introducing a small herd to grasslands of southern Saskatchewan. [More]

Canada's craziest mayor earns a new title: Mr. Clean *
First, he tried to enforce a dress code at city hall. Now, writes GRAEME SMITH, Saskatoon's Don Atchison wants to hand out tickets for spitting. [More]

CHUM heads West to give some boom-boom TV *
Attention people of Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Brandon. Brace yourselves. The CITY-slickers are coming to your town. [More]

Early frost rattles Prairie farmers *
One of the earliest frosts on record had farmers across much of southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba wringing their hands Friday as they hoped to salvage a once-promising crop. [More]

Edmonton Folk festival pushes boundaries *
ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN finds at Edmonton's show that the meaning of 'folk music' has become as wide as the Western prairie [More]

Fifty Canadian travel highlights *
Here's a starter list of some of the places you'll want to add to your must-do Canadian tour. [More]

First case of West Nile confirmed in Manitoba *
The first human case of West Nile virus this year has been confirmed in Manitoba. [More]

Flames determine 'tis a nobler partnership to be than not to be *
Now playing in that big downtown park near you (providing you live in Calgary): The Complete Works of William Shakespeare sponsored by the hockey team that has fired more coaches than Henry VIII had wives and last made the playoffs when Romeo was still hot for Juliet. [More]

Folk music: Nice people. That's the problem *
Too many contemporary folk musicians excuse dullness in song composition because, don't you know, it all comes from the heart, ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN writes [More]

IMPARK waives parking violation notices for toy donation to the Salvation Army *
Note: Winnipeg ONLY -- Friday, December 16, 2005, four hours: 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. [More]

Mad skillz with duct tape *
Winnipeg's Robert Butler takes the Red Green approach to reinventing images [More]

Manitoba considers ban on all workplace smoking *
Manitoba could become the first province to ban smoking wherever people work, indoors or out, with no ifs, ands or butts. [More]

Oil fuels massive Edmonton-area boom *
Motorists may not like higher energy costs, but Alberta's capital is reaping industrial benefits. [More]

Reconstructing Solidarity with Winnipeg's The Weakerthans *
Going deep undercover into the ranks of socialist songsters, The Globe & Mail's Carl Wilson discovers the strength of The Weakerthans. [More]

Records snap as deep freeze chills Prairies *
Never mind calling it nippy, brisk or frosty: 'It's hard to breathe when it's that cold' [More]

Sense of alienation sweeps the West *
The federal government was told Western alienation had reached disturbing levels just after Canada ratified the Kyoto protocol, with almost a quarter of one Prairie province saying it wouldn't care if they joined the United States. [More]

The anti-Eminem *
Winnipeg's Fresh I.E. swears that a series of miracles saved him from a life of drug dealing, pimping, booze and sex -- and even helped garner a Grammy nomination for his 'rap songs for Jesus,' GRAEME SMITH writes. [More]

The not-so-sweet saudade of success *
International fado star Mariza was pressured to make the music more commercial. Instead, she's taking the music back to its traditional roots, ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN writes [More]

This Crowe can sing *
He's come a long way from his punk-rock roots and bouffant locks, when he called himself Russ Le Roq and headed straight to the bottom of New Zealand's pop charts with I Want to Be Like Marlon Brando. These days, Russell Crowe is creating his own pop-rock character, using the styles and scope of artists such as Neil Finn, Alice Cooper and Johnny Cash. [More]

Winnipeg: the country's coolest hot zone *
Sometimes -- and I daresay I'm not alone in this -- the stark fact of my own ignorance will descend upon me, queasily coupled with the realization that somebody thought it a good idea to give me a column in a national newspaper. Every once in a while the situation clicks into bitter, vivid perspective: I know exactly jack about precisely squat when it comes to the artistic hot zones of this vast frontier. [More]

Woodstock run by the Swiss *
Everyone's musical definitions were kept off balance at the Edmonton Folk Festival, ROBERT EVERETT-GREEN writes [More]

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'How beautiful,' I thought, the last time I saw my mother *
"Family reasons," is what I tell the bartender at the Hotel Fort Garry when she asks why I'm in Winnipeg. [More]

'The Serpent' held in death of Canadian *
Killer who spent 20 years in Indian jail charged in 1975 slaying of Manitoba man [More]

A northern passage to safety ... *
The death toll on a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway was so alarming that Banff National Park built a series of overpasses and underpasses to allow animals to cross. MARK STEVENSON reports [More]

Bushy bandits having a ball *
As they teed off on the 10th hole, Ron Nimchuk and Fred Paranchych could only shake their heads at the menace lurking in the shadows of the evergreens lining the picturesque fairway. [More]

Colville's unspoken truths *
Eerie and ominous, even the 82-year-old artist's newest works can leave viewers feeling unsettled, SHAWNA RICHER writes. [More]

Course collection *
Bad golfers in search of a new excuse for their horrible performance may find their dreams realized in Edmonton. Squirrels have been stealing golf balls from the 10th and 18th holes at Riverside Golf Course, racing up tree trunks and plopping the balls into the nests of magpies. [More]

Eureka! Alberta a big science hub *
New Economy -- now there's a term you haven't heard too often since the great tech boom ended in 2000 -- is usually thought of as being synonymous with information and communications technology. [More]

Fans lament closure of Regina's Dunlop Arts Gallery *
Small but vibrant space run by the city's public library is to be closed March 1, 2004. [More]

Gallery closing sparks backlash *
Regina's mayor is asking for a decision to shut the Dunlop to be reversed. [More]

Lucky hockey fans score tickets in lottery *
It promises to be the frostiest game on the NHL roster, but it seems that everyone wants to sit under the stars for a little bit of hockey history in Edmonton in late November. [More]

MacTavish gave job careful consideration *
There was a time last spring when it was not entirely clear if Craig MacTavish would return for a fourth season as coach of the Edmonton Oilers. MacTavish's contract was up and negotiations with general manager Kevin Lowe were under way, but MacTavish wasn't about to sign until he had a clearer sense of where the organization was going. [More]

Manitoba introduces bill to allow cross-border policing *
Manitoba has unveiled new legislation to make it easier for police officers from other provinces to pursue crime in the central Canadian province. [More]

Opening night at Bowie's cabaret *
More than three decades ago, when David Bowie recorded Changes, he likely had no idea that the song would become his signature, changing from a description of the time in which it was written to a description of a man's ever-changing artistic moods. Or did he? [More]

Saskatchewan area hit hardest by West Nile *
The West Nile virus infection rate among people in an area of south-central Saskatchewan last summer was higher than anywhere else in North America. [More]

Sifting for beauty in the junk yard *
Ken Gregory is a Winnipeg 'anti-engineer' who creates vivid art from stuff the commercial world has left behind, writes ROBERT ENRIGHT. . . [More]

U of Saskatchewan chooses not to use Internet plagiarism service *
If University of Saskatchewan students believe the institution's reluctance to sign on to an Internet plagiarism service means they will get a free ride, their toughest lesson will come Friday. [More]

Warming up to Winnipeg *
Forget the cold, mosquitos and inferiority complex. The Globe's GRAEME SMITH uncovers a town with its share of big-city culture and loads of quirky diversions that don't exist anywhere else [More]

Winnipeg's singular collective raises a ruckus *
Winnipeg artists are collectively playing the numbers game. In the past, the city established a reputation for producing individual artists of singular talent -- Ivan Eyre, Don Reichert, Wanda Koop, William Eakin and Eleanor Bond are all painters and photographers whose careers have been solo affairs... [More]