Happy Superbowl Sunday to all our American readers. In case you missed it, here's how the last seven days looked to Steyn:
The week began with the sad news of the death of Kit "HR" Carson - Rush's right-hand man for almost three decades, and the indispensable guy running the show during most of Mark's guest-hosting appearances for the last few years. Mark's remembrance of Kit turned out to be our most-read piece of the week.
~On Monday, Australia Day, Steyn's Sinatra Century celebration reached Number Six: "The One I Love (Belongs To Somebody Else)".
~In recent days, Canadian troops in Iraq - those "boots on the ground" - have found themselves firing back at ISIS. On Tuesday Mark discussed the matter with CTV's Don Martin and explored other aspects of the fractious relationship between Islam and the west with Sun News' Michael Coren.
~On Wednesday, Steyn was in his hometown of Toronto for a standing-room-only appearance with Heather Reisman at Indigo Books. He started the day with his old friend John Oakley to discuss education as child abuse, and the enforced public apologies of Benedict Cumberbatch and Billy Crystal. Then he schmoozed it up with Global TV's morning gang, and boozed it up with Brian Lilley.
~Mark's always happy to get together with his fellow freespeecher Ezra Levant. In a couple of media appearances this week, they discussed political correctness as totalitarianism's Big Lie, and then on Thursday pushed back against the mainstream media's absurd, appeasing notion that there are no no-go zones in Europe.
~On Friday, Mark considered the strange convergence of the jihad boys and the climate mullahs. The global-warming enforcers have now decided that it's apparently okay to behead your enemies, so grab your hockey stick and cry, "Mannahu Akbar!" While fraudulent Nobel Laureate Michael E Mann's suit against Steyn is stalled in procedural codswallop, Mark is honored to be part of a new book, together with eminent scientists and others who've resisted the warm-mongers, called Climate Change: The Facts. It's available in Kindle at Amazon outlets worldwide, as well as in Kobo and in Nook at Barnes & Noble. And, as always, we thank those of you who've continued to support Steyn's resistance to Mann's clime syndicate via SteynOnline gift certificates and other Steyn store purchases.
For our Saturday showbiz feature, Mark celebrated the centenary of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, who serenaded everyone from Mona Lisa to Mister Ed.
The week began and ended with a brace of interviews of Steyn by Joseph Brean in Canada's National Post: On Monday, Mark told the paper, "Free speech has to include the right to insult Islam." At the weekend, Steyn and Brean toured the Art Spiegelman retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario to consider jokes in an age of jihad.
A new week at SteynOnline begins tonight with our Song of the Week.