Nature got it right with the cranes. They have been around since the Eocene, which ended 34 million years ago.

A million years went by quick.

Perhaps two million years ago the creatures of a planet in some remote galaxy faced a musical crisis similar to that which we earthly composers face today.

I'm the product of 6 million years of evolution? Come on, man. I crawled out of a swamp yesterday.

Most of the Amazon basin is as flat as a pancake and laced with extravagantly meandering waterways. One school of thought holds that more than 145 million years ago, when Africa and South America were joined, the Amazon's main stem was connected to the Niger River and actually flowed in the opposite direction, toward the Pacific Ocean.

I haven't been back in Montreal, at all, since the playoffs ended two years ago. It's been a while.