Canada invited to become first 'associate member' of the EU European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday that Canada has been invited to become the first “associate member” of the EU. She announced the move during her 2026 State of the Union address in Strasbourg, to an audience including not only MEPs but also Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who attended her speech in the midst of a trade war with the US. Since late August, the Canadians have been pushing hard for the Europeans to build a closer relationship with them, though full EU membership is not an option as Canada is not a European state. During her speech before the MEPs on Wednesday, von der Leyen invited the country to become “the first associate member of the European Union". “We share one ocean, one set of values, one way of seeing the world. And we will now build our shared future as well,” she added. https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/09/16/canada-to-become-first-associate-member-of-the-eu

Ok, demolish the building. Burn it to the ground. See what that does. Ok, it's an open book test. The answer is nothing.

The last day of summer is near. I'm glad.

5.0 Since I've never used Uber and the default starting score is 5.0

And I ended up letting a house go back to the bank, thereby trashing my credit for 7 years. No matter, I wasn’t in a position to buy anything anyway.

https://www.ft.com/content/96f911e8-eb7d-4d50-aada-7e751d42d83b?syn-25a6b1a6=1 2026 Last night of proms Yuja Wang performed Barber's piano concerto, then a jazz suite. Her playing (and dress) dazzles, I watched it through despite not liking the Barber much, nor the jazz. How, who, to follow her? ... very entertaining tenor singing a fab Scottish medley.

We wanted a little bubbly fountain for our pampered cats, so Quirt ordered one. It wasn't expensive. It didn't need to do anything but pump water up to their cute little lips. When I went to set it up, I had to download an app just to turn it on. It doesn't even have an on switch. There is no reason for it to require an app, other than to send me notifications that I should buy a filter. I think I could theoretically operate it remotely, but why? If it stops, it's because it's out of water. I can't fix that remotely.

Oy vey.

Sounds like a great time. Bob's house is not far from the U of Az and its school of music. We have heard one of the profs play. I need to tune into what recitals are available.

So no. I'm vindicated! Lol.

@wtg Nice! I've done a lot of this stuff lately. I've done the back perimeter with solar motion sensor stake lights. That needed to be done. I'm refining their positioning to know what gets tripped when, and what "line" of light they draw where. I've decided two places (one inside, one outside) need wall mounted solar motion sensor lights. That's is a different layer of complexity for me since I'm not handy. I have a few solar powered outdoor lights for decoration. More lights at some point. Congrats!

@realplayer Do you have a particular shoulder bag design in mind? Am I correct you're looking for a shoulder bag?

@CHAS said: A smoking section in a restaurant is much like a peeing section in a swimming pool. Are you trying to tell us the whole restaurant is a smoking section??

@CHAS Actually, they came down early on Friday afternoon because the winds hit 40 mph. What a bunch of wimps/

Don't know much about Rosh Hashanah, but I like challah.

Have donated. Maybe it was a month ago, I noticed Paxton had raised over 9 million, Talarico had over 31 million. Hope that 31 is enough to put Talarico over the top in Texas.

Sabalenka was a bit of a brat and sore loser. I don't respect that.

@jon-nyc said: Not surprised. A round trip flight to Europe is like getting a chest xray or two. I remember when I was getting a lot of imaging done before transplant. When I asked about the amount of radiation I was getting a doctor put it in terms of equivalent flights and that gave me perspective. It made me realize imaging was safer than I thought and/or flying was more dangerous @jon-nyc You do a lot of imaging and flying, no? You have to live your life. That's my bottom line this topic. My brother has Stage IV bone cancer. He had six days of radiation out of seven days at one of the NY hospitals. That must have been brutal. I wish I knew the organs where it's spread. He doesn't want to to talk about it. His right. I used to worry about radiation but short of avoiding power stations and transmission lines IDK anymore. My best friend in HS became a flight attendant. Well, I hope he's OK.

I’m not baking much any more, but a new local pizzeria is making a sourdough crust, so I think a visit is required.