There are fewer things more precious to an American’s psyche than war and money. One could argue—and there’d be no disagreement on this end—that their undisciplined approach to both has created a mess not only for themselves but also the global village at large. For one day each year, the love of the almighty dollar meets the bloodlust of obliterating an opponent in a made-in-America orgiastic celebration of all that is supposedly honourable and admirable in that nation’s character. You may know this annual event as the Super Bowl.

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We here at DRIVEN do not want to suggest that anyone should attempt to kill their boss*.

However, if you happen to have any kind of authority, if there is anyone to whom you might refer as employee, direct report, intern, supervisee, underling, henchman, lackey, minion, servant, henchwoman or by any nickname that ends with “Friday,” you may want to consult this exhaustive tome by Graham Roumieu (Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir), so that you will be prepared when the insurrection comes.

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Maclean’s columnist Paul Wells makes a curious but plainly accurate observation over at his blog Inkless Wells, regarding the recently tabled federal budget:

Last spring I wrote a column arguing, tongue in cheek, that Liberals and Conservatives were already running a coalition government. Andrew [Coyne] wrote a column more recently, suggesting more seriously that they give such a thing a try. This budget is clearly designed to form the basis for a Conservative-Liberal coalition de facto.

So we Canadians will probably end up with a coalition, just not the one everyone had been either hoping for, fearing, or giggling about. The thing is, that’s pretty much the government we’ve been requesting, and getting (and giggling about), for the past quarter century. Read More

Gold iPods are sooo 2007. (Never mind the ultimate irony of a gold iPod Shuffle, which is the iPod you buy if you can’t afford a real one.) Last year, fashion editors informed us over and over that showing off our bling was gauche—thrift and vintage were making a comeback.

It’s not surprising that in the age of irony-meets-recession, there’s a new way to ’buck’ the trend, as it were: The $2,695 t-shirt. Read More

As tempting as it is to deride Gordon Sumner, aka Sting, for publishing a book of his lyrics (with commentary!) ’t’other year, I can’t deny that I own a similar tome for The Fall’s Mark E Smith.

Lyrics without music is one thing, but what about lyrics with different music? Sting’s got some experience with that concept already, as The Police did reunite briefly in the mid-eighties to record “Don’t Stand So Close to Me ’86.” Same words, brand new notes, longer running time and title! (And, according to the marginally updated lyrics, in the six-year interim between that version and the original, the novel Lolita had become “famous.”)

Fast-forward to January 2009. Early in the new year, a Microsoft release called Songsmith has made it possible for there to be a limitless number of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” remixes (Microsoft’s term). In fact, it’s made it possible to rewrite the book on music history, should one be audacious ambitious enough. Read More

Welcome to the Lunar New Year of the Earth Ox, and happy Têt, Losar and Tsagaan Sar, too. To find out some of the things that happened during the last year of the Earth Ox, click the “Read More” button.

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Mercedes-Benz recently flew a bunch of Canadian automotive writers, myself included, to picturesque and leafy-green Manchester Village, Vermont, for the unveiling of the face-lifted M-Class, or ML 320 specifically. The small, nature-embracing town was the perfect backdrop for the event, seeing as the hoopla surrounding the launch wasn’t so much geared toward the vehicle as it was the new technology behind it—BlueTEC—an eco-friendly, clean diesel system pioneered by Daimler AG.

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How cool is this?

Viggo Mortenson, a long-time fan, reveals he wore a classic Canadiens logo T-shirt under his Aragorn breastplate throughout the making of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. “It gave me just a little more power with the sword,” he says.
–Andrew Ryan, Globe and Mail

DRIVEN wonders (wishes, anyhow): Is Viggo actually holding a hockey stick in that LOTR photo at the top of this post?

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Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for an Oscar yesterday for playing an Oscar-winning actor playing a black man who later pretends to be a peasant farmer. The irony is as thick as his accents. Funnier still is Downey’s own reaction to it. Read More