A few years ago there was a contest of sorts in Prescott-Russell, where people were asked to submit new names for this region which would be used on promotional and tourist material like coffee cups, postcards, stickers, housebound hookers, and all of the other local wares.

Out of the mess came one front runner, “Larose Forest”. Prescott-Russell is a large place, and back in the 1920’s someone named Ferdinand Larose had the idea to reforest a tiny part of it. So, roughly 80-years later, an incredible vocal Larose Booster Club came within the width of a leaf of forcing their name on this entire region.

Thankfully there was a last minute decision to corrupt democracy and the vote was cancelled.

I started paying attention to this around the day before the ballot boxes were burned. But I still came up with the perfect name.

Everyone knows where the Upper Ottawa Valley is — basically everything left of Ottawa, up to North Bay. So why not call ourselves the Lower Ottawa Valley?

It’d look awesome on a T-shirt: LOVit. I LOVdit. LOVrtits.

I think there are two lessons to the Larose Forest thing. One, people should just call and ask me, it saves time. Most of the advice I give out is free, it just depends on whether or not I need an organ.

Second, the right to vote must be stripped from the people in and around the Larose Forest. Seriously, that’s not just me talking, I wasn’t the one holding the match while someone poured lighter fluid over the ballots.

We get some really cool storms around here, mostly because we are part of a valley, and we have two large rivers within hitchhiking distance. So, lots of swirls and crazy cloud formations. Like this one, with the added bonus of a rainbow.