This all makes me uncomfortable. But you’re supposed to take risks, right? Get out of your comfort zone. Whatever. I’m talking about this new podcast I’m doing called Storytime with Paul Dore. I put my name in the title to intentionally make myself uncomfortable.

Let me explain.

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So, let's just get this out of the way first. This entry is going to be all about how much of a grumpy old man I am becoming. I get it, I'm aware, let's just move on.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see the movie Get Out. I don't have to go on and on about how great this movie was, there are many other outlets that have expressed this opinion and I agree with them all. Go read about the movie somewhere else. Maybe HERE.

No, what I'd like to discuss is going to the movie theatre. There was a point in my life when I went to see a movie in the theatre at least once a week. Often, I went by myself, which I had no problem doing. I was - and still am - a single person, we need to participate in cultural experiences any way we can. Get over it.

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Next week, I’m heading to Finland. I must say that I am excited, but not for the reasons you may expect. You see, I’ve become pretty obsessed with all the seemingly endless supply of European detective shows being dumped on Netflix. I’ve written about this already HERE, but this entry is focused on a pattern that has emerged after watching too many of these shows.

Consider this a handy list of the common factors in most of these programs. This probably won’t mean anything to anyone except me, but you might find it useful. Or, you could take these points, put them into a spreadsheet and a drinking game. Whenever one of these appears in a show, you gotta drink. If you are planning on doing this, please be responsible and don’t binge watch all at once. That won’t be good for anyone.

Yes, I’ve gone through shows like River, The Bridge, Luther and Marcella. Although some of the points below show up in those shows, I’m mainly referring to Broadchurch, Shetland, Hinterland, Happy Valley, The Break, Wallander and Trapped, among others.

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After living in my current residence for almost two years, I'd finally had it. When I moved in here, the place was left in a mess. Don't get me wrong, I love living here, but even after all this time, I still find dirt hidden away in cracks and crevices. It makes me wonder how some people live.

My place is two floors and has a wooden staircase upstairs. The corners of all the stairs have been chipped away and the centre of the steps are extremely worn. It's like someone took a file and tried to crudely sand away the step corners at irregular angles. There's a crack in the tub, like not enough that it leaks, but enough THAT IT IS CRACKED. I mean, how do you crack a tub? The sink also has a loonie-sized chip in it. You'd have to literally drop a rock in the sink to chip it like this. You don't even want to know what a plumber pulled out of the drain in the tub. I finally got the dryer professionally cleaned because the insides were so full of some type of unidentifiable fur objects or UFOs for short.

I can go on, but I'll stop there. You get the idea. For a long time, I had wondered about who this person was that lived here before me.

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