680News - Lisa Brandt

Perhaps you heard that snow tires are now mandatory in Quebec. It’s the first province to require all vehicles to be equipped with a full set of winter tires.

I’ve changed my tune on the winter tire issue. Personally, I use all-seasons, four-wheel drive and common sense to get me around in the winter. But if it would help my fellow motorists drive a little better and safer, I’d be on board with a winter tire law here.

I was snowed in to the west of Toronto by the big storm last weekend and drove back on the 401 Monday morning. The drive was okay until about Kitchener when snowsqualls reduced visibility and slowed traffic to a crawl of about 40 km/hr for about the next hour. I didn’t really care! In those conditions, while passing by cars spun out in both ditches, the goal is merely to get home alive, no matter how long it takes.

But not everyone shares my perspective! One driver in particular, driving with obviously bald tires, slipped and slid in the left lane, attempting to do the impossible: pass everyone else. Where he thought he could go, I have no idea, because all he did was make the rest of us more nervous than we already were as he crept into our lanes. Then when we rounded a curve and could see the reason for the slowdown - a conga line of snowploughs - it became apparent that drivers behind the ploughs were trying hard to pass them too!

You can’t legislate common sense or smarts. But snow tires might help make those not-so-smart drivers stick to the road a little better. If it’s going to help, I’ll get back onto the snow tire train and the early winter ritual of getting them changed. All for the greater good!

Just when you thought the era of political correctness had finally passed, along comes another example of taking “Christmas” out of the holiday season.

You can probably remember a host of examples from years past. I happened to be living in Hamilton when that city decided its official greeting would be “happy holidays.” Several incidents also occured here in this city, of course, one of the most recent involving the renaming of the official city Christmas tree as a “Holiday tree.”

Now a school in Ottawa is removing Christmas from a classic carol. Teachers at Elmdale Public School say the choir of grade 2 and 3 students will be required to replace the phrase “soon it will be Christmas Day” in Silver Bells, with “soon it will be festive day.”

Why stop there?

Let’s change The Christmas Song to The Holiday Song and instead of chestnuts roasting on an open fire, why not sing, peanuts, because they’re more readily available to all.

Winter Wonderland lyrics shouldn’t refer to marriage because, let’s face it, marriage isn’t for everyone so we ought to be more inclusive and simply sing, “Hey says are you happy we say no man, but you can change all that while you’re in town!”

I think you see where I’m going with this. It’s ridiculous and there is no end to it once that door is kicked open.

Merry Christmas! And if you don’t celebrate Christmas, have a happy festive season celebrating whatever it is that’s important to you!

Many of us are of two minds when it comes to the snowstorm we’re expecting this weekend.

Snow, in virtually any amount, slows the highways and streets to a crawl. It’s the second-last weekend before Christmas and if you celebrate that holiday you’ve no doubt got a lot to do.

On the other glove, the 20-25 centimetres forecast will make it more likely that there will be a white Christmas. I wouldn’t have thought a white Christmas would make a lot of difference but I do remember looking out the window last December 25th and feeling a definite lunchbag letdown that it was green and rather mild. We’re Canadian, it’s the holidays, we need snow. Not a lot, just a thin covering, thank you.

With traffic and weather together every 10 minutes on the 1’s we will have you covered as the storm moves in - as of this writing, Brian Hill is forecasting its arrival for about 5 p.m. Saturday. If necessary, we will open the 680 Storm Centre and provide you with comprehensive coverage of delays, cancellations and anything else you need to know to get you where you need to go.

And if you can huddle under a comforter with a good book, sipping hot chocolate and staying clear of the craziness, all the better for you!

But for the grace of God, as the saying goes. And that’s foremost in my mind with regard to the annual Bafflegab awards.

A group in Britain called The Plain English Campaign compiles the dumbest things people have said over the past year and ranks them accordingly.

The Bafflegab winner: the former manager of England’s national soccer team, with this gem about star player Wayne Rooney: “He’s inexperienced but he’s experienced in terms of what he’s been through.”

U.S. President Bush, who spouts a noteworthy sentence every other day it seems, came in second for 2007 for saying, about California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, “All I can tell you is that when the Governor calls, I answer his phone.”

And while the awards are given for unnecessarily complicated speaking and writing I happened to offer my own bit of bafflegab on the air in an unintentional tribute this morning that caused quite a bit of giggling among my colleagues.

The U of T has been named the most Vegetarian Friendly School in the country. But out of my lips, it became the most Vegetarian Friendly Stool!

No one’s perfect!

The concept of a drive-through was a big topic in the newsroom this morning. Some politicians are making moves to put new restrictions in place to govern the size and scope of new drive-throughs and to perhaps even modify some existing ones.

Perhaps you’ve also noticed how poorly designed some of them seem to be. The lineup of cars snakes through a busy parking lot. If there’s no sign pleading with people to “leave a gap” for through traffic you can bet that no gap will be left. It can become quite chaotic!

I have long had a belief that if you’re ordering anything other than a quick beverage and a ready-made bite to eat you should get out of your vehicle and go inside. I’ll admit that it annoys me when I can hear the man or woman ahead of me giving detailed instructions for a sandwich at a busy drive-through. I simply couldn’t do it! I couldn’t make everybody in line wait for me while I explain that I want my mustard and mayonnaise painted on only the top half of the panini like racing stripes, but not touching each other, and the ham and cheese rolled into tight little folds! Okay, I’m exaggerating but you understand what I mean!

If you live in a neighbourhood with a drive-through or with one that’s about to be built, and you have some concerns, you may want to have your say to your area representative. Those who now have a drive-through nearby say everything changes. We are drawn to them like moths to flames, or Canadians to double-doubles.

How far should everybody else have to go to, to protect the children of others from food allergies?

As you may be aware, peanut and other allergies are potentially deadly. Many children have died over the years after accidentally ingesting something to which they’re allergic. It’s usually peanut butter or another nut derivative or eggs and milk products.

Lots of schools have bans on certain food items because of the risk to other kids. I recall a stand-up comic I saw in Montreal talking about how his children were not only prevented from bringing peanut butter to school, they were forbidden to eat it at home. He labelled that rule as going too far because peanut butter was his daughter’s very favourite food. He said why should he deny his own child her favourite food in her own home?

Modifying everyone else’s behavior does teach kids a sense of responsibility and some awareness about their potential impact on others.

Now a group of schoolchildren (no doubt led by their worried parents) are trying to reinstate a voluntary lunch bag screening program in Woodbridge. The system ran for six years but it was recently shut down so the kids are asking the Human Rights Commission to enforce it for good. If it does, it could set a standard for schools across the province.

It seems a bit extreme but when a child’s life is at risk, maybe there’s no such thing as going too far. As the lawyer for one of the kids’ parents said, if it were your child, you would understand.

A lot of news related to food and fat today.

A new study finds it’s better for your long-term health to be fat and fit than to be skinny and unfit. In other words, skinny isn’t necessarily all that! You can be considered fat and still be in good health.

A food expert tells a CNN reporter that there are ways to negotiate the holiday buffet and not end up with a bigger booty! Drink water, eat slowly so your brain can catch up to the fact that your tummy is full. They also suggest doing a lot of walking and I suspect that means more than just circling the food table!

And the provincial government is making a move today to ban foods with trans fats from school cafeterias and start the long and probably painful process of taking junk food out of high schools.

It’s the holidays, you have to have some fun! Everything in moderation, right? A little chocolate, a few carrot sticks, some prime rib and a thin slice of cheesecake sound about right to me.

Tis the season of holiday parties. So many little crustless sandwiches to nibble on and so little time!

For most of us, it seems we simply have to just say “no” to something or another. It’s a matter of survival. I’ve heard what I consider to be time-sucking horror stories of couples who have started out in the afternoon at one get together and ended late that night at a 4th or 5th party. I suppose there are obligations that need to be met but keeping up that kind of pace for very long would be just insane! And it’s the reason summer barbecues were invented. You don’t HAVE to see everyone during the holidays only!

This week, Paul Cook and I host our annual Paul and Lisa Festivus Brunch for more than a dozen of our colleagues who regularly contribute to the 680News morning show. It’s our way of saying “thank you” for going above and beyond the call of duty every day.

Maybe your workplace is like ours. We work together in a very intense environment and don’t always get a chance to socialize, certainly not all together at once. I look forward to the Festivus brunch every year for that reason!

And this year I have a surprise for the crew. But I’m going to tell you about it here as long as you promise not to tell anyone! I am bringing a real, authentic, internet-ordered, Seinfeld endorsed Festivus steel pole! How I’ll get it into the restaurant is still to be determined. But I’m also determined, so I’ll do it somehow! We only enjoy select traditions from the Costanza Festivus. No feats of strength or airing of grievances. But with Santa Claus as my witness, we will have a pole!