Noteworthy: Food for thought on how much we should drink

By Bruce Penton on August 27, 2025.

Interesting to note that according to the latest offering from Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, a two-drink-per week suggestion was put forth because even a low consumption of alcohol carries with it a health risk. Heck, a lot of people I know have a two-drink-per-half-hour intake.

More than two drinks a week won’t kill you, but the more alcohol one consumes, the greater the risk of developing one of seven types of cancer, heart disease, liver damage, mental health effects and disrupted sleep, according to the guidance chart.

The Globe & Mail reported on this, adding that “alcohol is now classified by the World Health Organization as a Group 1 carcinogen, putting it in the same category as tobacco and asbestos.”

One to two drinks per week is low risk, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction says. Three to six is moderate risk, while seven or more falls into the “increasingly high risk” category.

Says the story: This guidance isn’t meant to alarm, but to inform responsible decision-making.”

I’ll drink to that.

â€¢ The Wizard of Oz movie was released 86 years ago but it’s getting a reboot in Las Vegas as Hollywood used a number of artificial intelligence tools to create a 2025 version that will be shown at the fabulous Sphere. A report from axios.com explains: “The film has been enhanced to fill the Sphere’s 160,000-sq.-ft. wall of LED panels, spanning three football fields. The film encircles the audience and reaches 22 storeys high, as 750-horsepower fans kick up wind and debris to simulate the twister.”

Tickets start at $104. Back in 1939, an average movie ticket set a movie-goer back about 25 cents. Just call it the Wizardry of Inflation.

â€¢ While the Tigers training camp gets underway this week and regular-season games begin Sept. 19, Gavin McKenna and his new Penn State team-mates won’t play their first league game until Oct. 30 at Ohio State. Do Tigers’ fans wish him well, or are they angry at him for abandoning Medicine Hat?

The great marketing plan to play a couple of preseason games in Whitehorse, Yukon – McKenna’s hometown – has taken on a ‘meh’ feeling now that No. 72 no longer wears Tigers’ colours. Still, the games are going ahead – Kelowna Rockets v. the Tigers in Whitehorse Sept. 12 and 13.

Tigers start their preseason schedule in Lethbridge next Tuesday and then play host to the Hurricanes on Saturday, Sept. 6.

â€¢ Bob McDonald is a fairly well known Canadian broadcaster. He’s the ‘Science Guy’ and currently the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks. His book, Just Say Yes, is currently on my nightstand and a particular message in one of his chapters hit home.

McDonald as a younger man took a true around-the-world tour. He experienced some of the poorer countries of the world, took part in customs that would seem strange to Canadians but said in the end, “Travel is the best education you can get.”

When McDonald gives talks to university students, “I tell them to get off this island of affluence called North America. You don’t have to travel by cruise ship or with an all-inclusive resort package, just get there and figure it out once you arrive. Then come back and truly appreciate what we have here.”

That end-of-chapter rant was sparked by a dinner party he attended shortly after returning to Toronto from his extensive travels to New Delhi, the plains of Africa, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Nepal and New Zealand, among others, and listening to his affluent friends complaining about Canadian politics, taxes and housing.

“I tried arguing that we in Canada live in extreme privilege compared to the rest of the world, but they would have none of it.

“I felt like a stranger in a strange land, yet this land was my home.”

â€¢ Short snappers: Great to see Canadian golf star Brooke Henderson snap a two-year winless streak by winning Canada’s national championship, the CPKC Women’s Open on Sunday in Mississauga. … That wicked rain/hail/wind storm that blasted Brooks and area last week seems to have been a once-in-a-decade event. … Reminder to anyone still considering running for mayor or city council in Medicine Hat, deadline for filing papers is noon on Sept. 22. … No more whining by youngsters about ‘nothing to do’ now that school classes are resuming next week.