Rose's Cantina

  Update: This post was written earlier in the week before Philip Seymour Hoffman died tragically of an overdose. I think it makes it even more poignant given the fact that Hoffman had a life long struggle with an opium addiction. RIP, young man. Hey parents! Remember when your kid came up to you when he was 16 and said this? I can do whatever I want. I'm 16. That's when he stopped going to school and started smoking weed and fornicating in the bushes. What's that you say? Your kid never did that? That's because your kid was the one in my basement dealing the weed. Justin Bieber is just going through a phase. The difference between Justin Bieber and your kid is about 30 million buckaroos. So chill. The kid's not going to be found with needles sticking out of his arm with a strangely accented doctor singing over his dead body. He's not Michael Jackson. He's Corey Feldman. The trouble with Justin is he wants to be cool, and he's just ...

  Rob Ford's wife Renata must really love the old coot. Why else would she show up after Ford bragged about not needing to eat a staffer's pussy since he gets plenty of sushi at home? Renata actually stood by her man after this admission, oh yes, and the admission that he likes to get behind the wheel while shitfaced. She's more than The Good Wife. She's The Great Wife. At least as far as Sideshow Rob is concerned. This is all a show of course. I'd bet good money that Ford's not even getting a hand job at home. And after today, I'm with the bookies who say he will be sleeping on the couch. She might be sticking up for him publicly but I'm betting the fine dining is over for good. What's the appeal in staying married to a guy who makes Tony Soprano seem like Billy Graham? It's certainly not his good looks. Or his Jackass sense of humor. It must be the money. She's probably counting on spending it all once he's locked up o...

I was in the LCBO at Elmvale yesterday to buy my first bottle of red wine in months. It's not that I stopped drinking wine -- though I probably should -- it's that Scott has been making me red wine at Pure Brew out in Orleans. He had a part time job there and part of the deal was he got a case of wine or beer every month. I, therefore, was the lucky recipient of some nice Barolo and Pinot Noir. Drinking it took some getting used to because, let's face it, the wine is young and a little grapey for my taste which has changed since I left St. Catharines in the 70s. Back home, we all cut our molars on Ruptured Duck as teenagers, a wine now referred to by the industry as "pop" wine. I don't think you can find it anymore, as the purveyors of spirits have moved on in their quest to get teens hooked at a young age. Now, the rage is flavored vodka -- there's even one that is basically a Fluffernutter with booze -- and Red Bull infused drinks. Blech. A...

The first thing you must do, when recovering from a life-threatening and career-ending addiction, is to try to gain insight into your own life. This is not terribly easy and even people who have successfully rehabbed often don't have the capacity to gain insight. You see these guys in lots of AA meetings. They've successfully won the battle against addiction but they haven't won the war. They're still dysfunctional schlubs and idiots who have traded one addiction -- booze, pills, sex -- for another (AA). Acquiring insight doesn't mean listening to what friends and family have to say. Friends and family are working their own agendas. Rather, it means looking at yourself frankly, digging deep into the root causes of your addiction and pulling up those roots and planting new flowers. People who aren't addicts don't have a clue. Even with years of training and observing addicted rats, the medical professionals are not any closer to finding a cure for ...