The Washington Post says “Hershey’s milk chocolate contains about 11 percent cacao.” Our friends at Scharffen Berger have a new 82% Extra Dark Chocolate. Once you’ve gone over to the dark side, you can never go back.

If you’re Canadian, you may never have heard of the Showtime network. Indeed if you’re Canadian, don’t bother clicking on that link because all you’ll see is this:

Fortunately, the Wikipedia can tell us more, including:

Showtime is a US cable TV network that primarily shows motion pictures as well as some original programming and occasional boxing matches… As of 2004, Showtime is owned by Showtime Networks Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc.

Part of the “some original programming” on Showtime is Huff, a series produced by Hank Azaria (The Simpsons, Friends, The Birdcage, Shattered Glass). And it’s stunningly good television.

Huff concerns the life of Dr. Craig ‘Huff’ Huffstodt (Azaria), his wife Beth (Paget Brewster), son (Anton Yelchin), mother (Blythe Danner), brother (Andy Comeau) and best friend (Oliver Platt). It’s a stellar cast, with no holes: when they’re flying — and that’s almost all of the time — it’s some of the best television you’ll ever see.

Because Showtime isn’t available in Canada, you’ll have to find a helpful friends who will let you borrow their copy. It’s worth the effort. Update: turns out (thanks Derek!) that The Movie Network (aka “pay TV”) carries the show in Canada. Here’s their Huff schedule: the first episode airs Feb 1.

Jan Egeland, the United Nations Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, was on Charlie Rose tonight. He said that the situation in the Congo deserves the world’s attention, that it is the worst humanitarian disaster over the last 10 years, and that the “one disaster at a time” western focus on the tsunami damage will only make this worse.

UNICEF says:

In less than five years, an estimated 3.3 million people are thought to have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians.

I had no idea there was “a situation in the Congo.” Do I care about southeast Asia — and I do — because “there but for the grace of God go I,” whereas what’s happening in the Congo bears no relation to my life? Is it natural disaster vs. human disaster? I don’t know.

A couple of updates to the site today:

• I’ve brought back the “search this site” widget, using regular old non-monetized Google searching. You could always do a “site: ruk.ca” Google search to achieve the same thing — this just makes it a little easier.
• I’ve pared down the blogroll, removing dead blogs and added in some new ones.
• I’ve updated the Live From the Formosa Tea House XML feed — just a couple of RSS tweaks — so that it now works properly with the new “download enclosures automatically” feature of NetNewsWire beta.

Here’s how the Reinvented website appears, in part, when translated into Spanish and then back to English:

Reinventan to a very small company of the technology. We have taste of her that way. We worked very hardly to construct strong relations with our clients: we are not salesman, we are an additional system of the fellow workers technology-that know to read and to write that they have the advantage of being able to take the opinion from the eye of a bird of which our clients are doing. So that to be able to help them to use technology to do it better. We are friends with our clients: we above invited them for the supper, we watched the series of the world with her, entered the ceremonies of graduation of its cabritos, topetón she in the street and end for above that leaves for the coffee. This is not a technique of the sales: it is how we have taste to live. We have taste to have diversion, to create the matter cleaned up, and to work with elegant people.

When I was a teenager, my high school band went on an “Open House Canada” exchange with a high school band in Fort McMurray, Alberta. One of the events scheduled for our visit to Alberta was a special high school dance.

At that dance I had the unfortunate, unprovoked opportunity of being thrown up against a set of lockers by a raging drunken Albertan student against a pulsing backdrop of Duran Duran, Toto and Culture Club.

I wasn’t hurt, but the shock and shame of being the weakling aggressee, combined with the ignominy of having my only dance of the night being with the the elderly french horn playing math teacher cum chaperon, left me with ill feelings about anything remotely related to alcohol. A feeling that remains, at least somewhere in the background, to this day.

I didn’t take a drink myself for the first time for another eight years. I still get nervous in crowded bars and parties.

Which explains, at least in part, why New Years Levees are such a delight for me: it’s drinking, but with rules.

Enter, hand calling card, shake hands, have a drink and a sandwich or a brownie, have a chat, on to the next stop, repeat. For an alcophobe, and a shy one at that, the structure of the levee is paradise: you get to drink, you get to socialize, but the fact that the aides-de-camp are standing ready eliminates the possibility of anything but polite discourse.

This year, like last year, I was accompanied by G, J, and P. This year I also had the pleasure of exposing Catherine, my parents, and Johnny and Jodi to the leveeosphere. I think we all had a good time.

Random notes about our journey this year:

• Andrew Sprague was nowhere to be seen. Rumour was that he was at home with the flu. Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Andrew.
• The Premier’s levee had the best food: everything from bacon-wrapped scallops to chocolate chip brownies. And, odd for a public event, very, very good tea.
• HMCS Queen Charlotte, which was a new stop for us this year, is really quite beautiful inside, a fact not belied by its somewhat austere exterior. They seem quite insistent on maintaining the conceit that the building is a ship: the washrooms are labeled “heads.”
• The Bishop was looking resplendent in his fuschia robes. There was general concensus among the family that his levee should be awarded “best overall.”
• If you show up 30 minutes early for the Premier’s levee, you don’t have to wait in line for two hours. You still have to wait in line, just not for two hours.
• The Masons might be opening themselves up to public view, but if they want to be fully embraced, they’re going to have to do something about the creepy chamber hall: it’s power-packed with really, really disturbing vibes. They did serve very tasty punch, however.
• The band at the Queen Charlotte Armories is absolutely crackerjack. And if you ever get the opportunity, you should check out the Regimental Museum in the back.
• Reminder to J for next year: wear better shoes.

We’ll be back next year. In the meantime, if I look a little skittish when you hand me a Tom Collins, you’ll know why. If I look really bad, just shake my hand and wish me a Happy New Year and I’ll snap out of it.