With the benefit of hindsight and with tongue firmly in cheek, Sun editor Larry Culham observes some of the more dubious distinctions in news coverage from the year gone by.

Letter writers think alike
Letters to editors of a number of area newspapers are critical of Helena Guergis for her national television comedy frolic with Rick Mercer of CBC's Rick Mercer Report. Guergis, then one of the most eligible bachelorettes on Parliament Hill, participated in a comedy sketch in which she mimics a "Bond" girl.

About a week later the same letters columns are speckled with letters defending the MP's behaviour. A number of the letters arrive at virtually the same time with similar and sometimes identical words and phrases.

We know thuth-ink!
A reporter calls to the constituency office of Simcoe-Grey MP Helena Guergis to seek out a name and contact for the local riding association executive.

"We wouldn't have that information here," is the response.

No worries, the reporter called Steve Harper's office and he personally authorized the release of the information.

This getaway car stops at all railway crossings
When police suspect local students may have set two consecutive fires at the Stayner Bible Conference Grounds, they bring in the canine unit and follow the aimless teenager tracks in the snow for more than an hour.

They lead right back to Stayner Collegiate Institute just in time for the departure of the school buses.

One can conclude that, in our justice system, missing the bus is a more serious inconvenience than getting caught for committing arson.


Don't drink and die
The anachronistic Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit launches it's new website targeting teenagers with positive messages on health and well-being, fo-shizzle. The site, called thephakz, says that one of the signs of alcohol poisoning is "dead". Whoa, nobody told me about that. Is that, like, worse than, like, a hangover?!

Meeting Slick Willy
Sue McKenzie, CAO for Clearview Township, happens to meet a guy while holidaying in Arizona and is positively gushing over what a distinguished gentleman she has met - one William Jefferson Clinton. Our lawyer says we have to stop there.

Bake and shake!
MP Helena Guergis goes on the hustings to sell the Canadian approach to reconstruction in Afghanistan.

She tells the story of Himalda, an Afghan woman with eight children who used a $100 microloan to purchase an oven and bakes bread to sell at the market.

"That is progress," said Guergis who also had had her picture taken beside one of Canada's tough-assed fightin' machines, the LAV III with a pricetag of about 10,000 ovens.

Two steps forward, two steps back...
Belinda Stronach quits politics amid the rumours of her fling with former NHL player Tie Domi.

Elizabeth May jumps into bed with Stephane Dion in a pact to improve each others electoral chances. And a conference on Women in Politics at Georgian Manor Resort is promptly cancelled on account of poor ticket sales. And they call this progress.

Cheney visits Springwater
Huronia West OPP responded to a report of a hunting accident on Nursery Road in Springwater Township. A 32-year-old hunter suffered serious injuries from a shotgun blast to the face.

Police won't release the identify of the victim and won't say why Dick Cheney was in Canada without VIP notification to the detachment.

Mind-changing mockery
Clearview Counc. John Crispo, a University of Toronto professor emeritus, defends his right to change his mind after calling a municipal agreement with a residential developer "a mockery of democracy and an insult to the hard-working men and women of Creemore."

In fact it was Crispo who lead the motion directing township lawyers to forge an agreement. The Dunedin ward councillor who lives outside the ward in Creemore objects, as he always has, to the proposed density and scope of the project.

Bawdies on the Beach
Police raid a massage business in Wasaga Beach say it has been operating as a brothel. Police raid four addresses that rub them the wrong way including a small storefront at 934 River Rd. W. A 50-year-old woman from Wasaga Beach is among eight people charged. A 38-year-old customer is also charged for being found in a common bawdy house.

Kroeker's hands slapped
Staff shuffles in the office of Simcoe-Grey MP Helena Guergis include the placement of Jeffrey Kroeker as director of communications and parliamentary affairs. In May Kroeker was rebuked by the Senate committee on internal economy for leaking embarrassing details of a Senate committee's travel expenses while attempting to enter Afghanistan to see the Canadian mission first-hand.

The real problem here is that there are a bunch of free-spending Liberals and only four Conservative senators on the 15-member committee. On the plus side, since Kroeker's arrival the spelling has vastly improved in Guergis' office.

They did a raft of things wrong
People feared the worst, but two local women are rescued after floating on Georgian Bay in an inflatable raft two days. Jamie Love-Wilkinson, 18, and Karla Smith, 19, were scantily clad when they drifted off while sunbathing on a warm September afternoon.

The search is hampered by the fact that they weren't known to be missing until they'd already been drifting for more than a day. They were found 56 km north-east in an area known as the Western Islands.

Falling apart
Federal Liberal candidate Andrea Matrosovs appears in Wasaga Beach to lay a wreath at the cenotaph. As the solemn moment approaches, Matrosovs steps forward, the wreath stand falls and clangs to the ground and she and the sergeant-at-arms fumble to pick up, reassemble the stand and place the wreath. It's a bit like a recap of Stephane Dion's year.