Eighty-one years old and with more than a half-century of entertainment-industry experience behind him, Gordon Pinsent is finally making his songwriting debut. The Grand Falls, N.L., native's poems served as the springboard for an unlikely collaboration with Blue Rodeo co-frontman Greg Keelor and the Sadies guitarist Travis Good.

Good and Pinsent met through mutual friend Mike Bolland, a filmmaker who worked on the Pinsent-focused TV biography "Still Rowdy After All These Years." Over beers, Pinsent showed Good some of the poetry he had been dutifully jotting down over the years, often during long plane rides to or from his hometown in Newfoundland.

Good liked what he heard, and he and Keelor met up to try to set the words to music — though it didn't take much effort. In one wine-soaked evening, the two quickly conjured four songs and the rest came easily over the next couple weeks.

Pinsent was thrilled with what he heard, hand-stitched roots music with echoes of folk, bluegrass and country. He calls the tunes "splendid," a perfect representation of the words he crafted over a period of years (the first disc features Good and Pinsent's interpretations, while the second has Pinsent reciting his poems over minimal instrumentation).

With titles like "Peter Easton" and "Upalong," it's probably not a surprise that much of the material on the record takes its inspiration from Pinsent's home province.

Don't Panic!

The Department of Natural Resources is warning people on the Northern Peninsula to be careful after a number of polar bear sightings this week.

Polar bears have been sighted near several towns, where one actually broke a window in a cabin to get inside. Another was spotted Monday evening near another town and a conservation officer saw a polar bear near the shoreline, approximately five kilometres from some other community.

If anyone does encounter a polar bear they should remain calm, give the bear space, back away slowly, never run, speak calmly but firmly and avoid eye contact.

People are reminded that polar bears are attracted to the smell of human feces, so try to avoid crapping your pants if a polar bear approaches you.

A fine, noble, and tasty NFLD animal

A polar bear that wandered into town had to be shot by police. RCMP said that they watched the animal drift into the harbour on the ice yesterday around 5:00 pm. They thought the bear would have continued on north, but it came into the housing area, crossed the road and went up by a garage and lay down.

The decision to shoot the bear was made by wildlife for safety reasons.

An unrelated announcement was made latter in the day that there will be a Mystery Meat Potluck and Time at the Legion this Friday night.

Listen to the radio from 'back home'!

http://www.upalong.org/radio.asp

A Quarter

Hang on to any Newfoundland quarters. If you have them, they may be worth much more than 25 cents.

The Canadian Mint announced today that it is recalling all of the Newfoundland quarters that are part of its program featuring quarters from each province.

"We are recalling all the new Newfoundland quarters that were recently issued," Canadian Mint Deputy Minister Jack Shackleford said Monday. "This action is being taken after numerous reports that new quarters will not work in parking meters, toll booths, vending machines, pay phones, or other coin-operated devices."

The quarters were issued in the order in which the various provinces joined Confederation. and have been a tremendous success among coin collectors worldwide.

"The problem lies in the unique design of the Newfoundland quarter, which was created by a team of mainlanders.", Shackleford said. "Apparently, the duct tape holding the two dimes and the nickel together keeps jamming the coin-operated devices.

This is what I see now.....

You know what they say: If you can't do anything about em, might as well laugh at em.....

There was a sign at the station near by my house that said, 'We take Visa, Mastercard, Discover Card, and Canadian Tire.' After I filled up they took my Visa, Master Card, my Discover Card, and my Canadian Tire.

Gas is so expensive SUV now stands for "Sport Utility Victim".

As you know, the government takes 40 percent of what you make. The other 60 percent, of course, taken by the gas stations.

Johnny O'Rourke, the man who spent most of his bachelor days as a 'hangashore', won the lottery this past week.

Johnny, who is now married with 13 kids, and working with DFO as a Research Fisherman, told UpAlong.org via phone, "Now that I am a multi-millionaire, I think I'll stop fishing - stop working altogether - and maybe start sleeping in. I used to enjoy sleeping in, once upon a time."

It was O'Rourke's darlin' wife that bought the winning ticket.

"I was at Sobeys - getting the weekly groceries - when I decided to buy a ticket. We normally don't play the lottery, but, you know, with the jackpot being so high this week, I figured that I might as well play.", Johnny's wife said.

That was a decision that paid off well for the O'Rourke's.

"We won about $30.5 million", Johnny says, "That's more than our government spends on the roads in this area."

We asked the O'Rourke's what they planned to do with their new-found wealth.

"Put it all in Scotia Bank savings for, now. We have 13 youngsters that will be going to MUN soon. We may take a vacation to Cape Breton Island, later on. We've always wanted to go see that place.  Who knows, maybe we'll travel on to PEI."

UpAlong.org extends our congratulations to the Rourke family, and we hope they truly enjoy their newfound wealth.