Hello and welcome dear reader to Thursday, July 16, 2026.
My calendar program says today is Get to Know Your Customers Day, Guinea Pig Appreciation Day, Atomic Veterans Day, Cherry Day, Corn Fritter Day, Dole Whip Day, Fresh Spinach Day, Personal Chef's Day, Rural Transit Day, World Snake Day, and Hot Dog Day.
So, celebrate your pet snake—but don't leave the dog in a hot car.
Today in History:
622: The Prophet Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijrah, begins, marking the start of the Islamic calendar.
1790: A site along the Potomac River is designated as the permanent seat of government, later becoming Washington, D.C.
1862: David Farragut becomes the first rear admiral in naval history.
1935: The world's first parking meters are installed in Oklahoma City, designed by inventor Carl C. Magee.
1941: Joe DiMaggio extends his hitting streak to 56 consecutive games, a Major League Baseball record that still stands.
1945: The first atomic bomb is detonated during the Trinity test near Alamogordo, New Mexico, ushering in the atomic age.
1951: J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye is published.
1969: Apollo 11 launches on its historic journey toward the first crewed lunar landing.
1973: A live broadcast of the Watergate hearings reveals the existence of a secret taping system inside the White House.
1990: A 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes Luzon Island in the Philippines, killing more than 1,000 people.
1994: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter, marking the first recorded collision between two celestial objects observed by astronomers.
1999: John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette die in a plane crash near Martha's Vineyard.
Birthdays Today Include: Ginger Rogers, actress and dancer (Top Hat, Kitty Foyle); Barbara Stanwyck, actress (Double Indemnity, Meet John Doe) and (The Big Valley, The Colbys); Margaret Court, tennis champion ; Pinchas Zukerman, violinist and conductor ; Ruben Blades, musician and actor (Buscando América) (Crossover Dreams); Stewart Copeland, rock drummer and composer with the Police; Tony Kushner, playwright and screenwriter (Angels in America); Michael Flatley, dancer and choreographer (Riverdance, Lord of the Dance); Phoebe Cates, actress (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gremlins); Daryl "Chill" Mitchell, actor (Galaxy Quest, 10 Things I Hate About You), (Ed); Will Ferrell, actor and comedian (Anchorman, Elf, Talladega Nights) and (Saturday Night Live); Barry Sanders, football Hall of Famer with the Detroit Lions; Corey Feldman, actor (The Goonies, Stand by Me); Jayma Mays, actress (Glee, Ugly Betty); Carli Lloyd, soccer star and two-time Olympic gold medalist; AnnaLynne McCord, actress (Nip/Tuck, 90210); Laura Carmichael, actress (Downton Abbey); James Maslow, singer and actor (“Windows Down”, “Music Sounds Better with You”) band Big Time Rush.
If today's your birthday too, happy birthday — enjoy your day!
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If you happen to live anywhere in New York, New Jersey, even into Michigan, or anywhere in New England, even the Greater Toronto Area, you'll have noticed it: a huge gray cloud covering the whole sky with no break at all. Here's why:
Around Casa de Florack, I spent the day looking at the sky and saying it looked like rain. Of course, it wasn't clouds — it was smoke. The skies from Toronto to Boston, and out into the Atlantic, are yellow.
As you see in the WBZ vid, the fires are downright huge. Alberta and Saskatchewan seem to be the current hot spots.
As for what Canada is doing about this mess, it's relying more on fighting these fires from the air and less on the ground. Canada’s official website says that Natural Resources Canada financed 10 new wildfire-fighting aircraft and two firefighting support assets for the season, managed through the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). According to the June update, the fleet consists of four air tankers, one bird-dog aircraft, and five heavy-lift helicopters, which provinces and territories can request as needed. The aircraft are repositioned as fire activity shifts across the country.
Given the size of what they’re dealing with, that doesn’t sound like much against the reported 796 wildfires currently burning nationally. One can understand the increasing reliance on aerial assets, given they've already had one fatality among firefighters on the ground in Nova Scotia. On the other hand, they also lost three firefighters and a pilot near Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories.
There is something to be said for the idea that this is a case of Canada’s government being caught unprepared and tangled up in its own bureaucracy.
That’s not just me saying that. I mean, I guess you'd expect to hear me make that point. But no.
A Senate report ("Canada on Fire," released June 10) concluded that no single authority is responsible for wildfire preparedness, response, and recovery in Canada. Instead, the 10 provinces, three territories, and Parks Canada each manage this independently, which has left some jurisdictions without enough firefighters or aircraft to fight fires effectively. The report's own language is blunt: "Coordination challenges contribute directly to delayed response times, inconsistent planning, uneven access to equipment and personnel and a system that mobilizes only once disaster is already underway." One of its 15 recommendations calls for a federal coordinating office, citing similar offices already in place in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Ottawa's response so far has been noncommittal — the ministry pointed to the aircraft lease but didn't say whether a federal coordination center was still under consideration. I guess our takeaway from this is that Canada’s answer to this mess is “we need a new office.” After all, nothing says urgency like a fifteen-point memo written by people who have no history fighting fires.
Ottawa's wildfire strategy appears to be to throw 14 ministries at it and hope one of them owns a hose. Let’s hope they figure that part out soon because it looks to me like the fire itself is the only one that knows what it’s doing. By the time they establish any real action, the problem will have made the choice for them already.
Thought of the Day: I know I’m not perfect. (Ask PJ Media’s editors!) But my sarcasm is usually on point.
VIP, I have a question for you. Are the skies in your area smoke-filled? And where are you? Hit the heart, too. Let’s hear from you.
Take care, my friends. See you here tomorrow.
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