I am in no way affiliated with the Petcetera chain of pet stores but I must say, their Petcetera Plus membership is something I swear by.

The Petcetera chain of stores went under a while back. They had all kinds of going-out-of-business sales, which were pretty good, and then closed shop. To my surprised, our location in Kitchener opened up again a few months later. As it turns out, a bunch of the retail stores were bought back out of bankruptcy and opened up again. Same stores, same logo, but new Petcetera, they say.

I signed up for a Petcetera Plus membership when I first got Lewis, my cat. At the time, it didn’t seem to really be worth anything. I got “points,” I think, and that was about it. I never heard about any exclusive membership deals and I didn’t shop their very much since their prices, for food and litter, were considerably higher than a department or grocery store. But when the chain closed and then reopened their stores they also relaunched the membership program, in a serious way. The number of really good sales and coupons that the Petcetera Plus membership has been giving out since the chain’s reopening has been incredible. One week it’s all cat and dog toys, half-price. The next week it’s half off all carriers and crates. And this week, I got a $20 off coupon just for being a member, good for anything in the store as long as you spend $50. That meant that a bag of dog food for Penny, normally $55, was only $35. That’s like free money, people!

Truly, I’m not an advert for Petcetera but if you’ve got a pet, and live close to a Petcetera, it’s worth checking out. If you become a member you receive maximum 2 e-mails per week and those e-mails only serve to tip you off to the great sales that they seem to always have. I’m not a member of a lot of things, but being a Petcetera Plus member is something that I genuinely swear by!

I swear by ice because, really, when is a drink not made better by being colder. And if you were going to say coffee or cappuccinos, sorry friend but Tim Horton’s has made those better too by adding ice.

Everyone should use ice and I think I can make a pretty convincing argument that anyone who doesn’t use ice on a regular basis is lazy. Yep, I used the L-word. If you don’t use ice then you are most likely a pretty lazy person. I won’t say useless because perhaps you are still contributing something to society with your iceless ways but I can bet that in a pinch you’d be hard-pressed to tell me what that was.

See, ice is great but it requires work as well and those lacking in dedication or a strong Protestant work ethic are least likely to find value in frozen water. These people are wrong and, like I said, simply lazy. Ice, by definition, is frozen and so some regular ice cube tray maintenance is required. You need to fill up that tray, you need to freeze it, and when you use all the ice in the tray, you need to replenish it. I find that for half-hearted ice users—the borderline lazy—the last step is the most difficult but I’d prefer frozen water to frozen air, thank you very much, so don’t put that tray back empty.

So ice requires work which is an immediate turn-off for the lazies among us. Ice is also a work out. Studies have shown that the body is actually forced to do work when drinking colder beverages. Through some process known only to scientists, and certainly not to me, the body has to actually heat up cold beverages in order to process them. So the consumption of cold drinks, cooled via ice, is actually a lot like exercise. What an easy way to shed those pounds! Another reason, of course, that those who do not understand or utilize ice on a regular basis are most likely exercise-hating lazy slugs. I rest my case.

Truly then, unless you hate doing work—in which case you are contributing nothing to society—or hate exercising—in which case you are a lazy bag of bones—then you have no excuse to not love ice. Ice is simply great.

I switched from primarily using an electric razor to a manual one a few years ago after finding that my face was constantly irritating—and shaving was no fun. I guess I have sort of sensitive skin and dry running an electric razor over it was an unpleasant experience bordering on painful, at times. So I switched to manual and with the shaving cream and all that it became a pretty enjoyable experience to shave a couple times a week. But there was still something left to be desired.

I got a Badger Hair Shaving Brush and a bowl of shaving soap for Christmas last year and this, for me, has truly capped off the whole shaving experience.

I didn’t know what kind of difference it would make from using my fingers to rub shaving cream around on my face versus using a brush but, let me tell you, the difference is worth the switch. There’s just such a pleasant feeling of having a warm gentle brush lathering on the shaving soap versus your boring old fingers. Not to mention the brush helps to open up pores on your face to make for a better and closer shave—and it shows. Using the brush, I get a much more comfortable and enjoyable shave, plus a closer shave and I find that with the brush there’s much more control over how much shaving cream I use and where it goes.

And there’s something to be said for shaving soap, too. The kind that I’ve been using since December is very natural and seems to last a really long time. It’s enjoyable even just to lather up the soap in the bowl. It all feels so much more natural and organic versus something that comes shooting out of a cold can.

If you’re on the fence, just try it. Now that I’ve tried it, shaving with a badger hair brush is definitely something that I swear by.

It’s like a little tea pot that you fill up with a saline solution and stick in your nose. This, my friends, is the neti pot.

If you’ve never heard of it before then you must not watch Oprah. For the record, I don’t watch Oprah, but heard about this wonderful instrument from someone that does. The neti pot is something that I absolutely swear by for relief from allergies and nasal congestion.

It works by adding a bit of salt and some warm water, tilting your head, and pouring the solution into one nostril. The result is the water flowing through your nasal cavity and out the other nostril. Then you switch nostrils and repeat. The whole process flushes out lots of stuff from your nose and clears you right up. In allergy season, the neti pot helps to flush out allergens before they have a chance to build up and disrupt your otherwise peaceful existence.

I swear by the neti pot because it works, but it takes a lot of work. During the winter months I use the neti pot at least once a day. I find this helps fight off colds. If I get a cold, I’ll use it twice a day or more because it’s great at flushing out congestion. Sounds awesome, eh? During allergy season I use the neti pot twice a day, in the morning and at night, and the results have been incredible. While in University, I used to get allergy shots because my allergies were pretty bad. Since I started using the neti pot—for the past two summers—I haven’t got shots and haven’t had a lot of problems with my allergies either. The neti pot flushes everything out.

I know it’s weird and kind of gross, but it’s something that I swear by. The neti pot works as long as you’re willing to commit to it; it’s not a one-off solution you have to stick with it. If you do get a neti pot there are a slew of helpful videos on YouTube to guide you through the process. You could also take a look at them if you’re curious to see what kind of weirdos use this thing.

Part 2 of my new series, Things I Swear By. If you have things that you swear by, I’d love to hear about them whether it’s something that you use, something that you do, somewhere you go, etc. etc. Drop me an e-mail and let me know about it. I’d enjoy featuring some of the things that my readers swear by as well.

CBC Radio One

I can’t remember precisely when I began listening to CBC Radio 1 but it must’ve been sometime in late high school or early university. I was actually first turned on to talk radio through NewsTalk 1010, a Toronto station, on the AM dial. A certain show host named Michael Coren won my heart with his dry sense of humour, his love for politics and his tendency towards controversy. I became a frequent listener for a while. From AM I jumped to FM and discovered our commercial-free national broadcast radio CBC Radio One. I have lived there ever since.

I’m not a big radio guy, in the traditional sense. When I say I live at CBC Radio 1 I mean that the presets in our car are set only to Radio 1—the 4 different frequencies that we find ourselves using as we travel around. I only listen to Radio 1. No other stations. I’m not big into regular radio stations because I don’t care for the music or the material, and all the commercials can be nauseating. CBC Radio 1 is commercial-free, worthwhile and interesting.

While there are a few shows that I don’t much care for on the CBC, most of its programming is engaging and entertaining. From our national science show Quirks & Quarks, to Stuart Maclean’s Vinyl Cafe, or Metro Morning as I’m driving to work. It’s good stuff, good radio, and it’s such a joy to listen to. There is always an interesting interview or story or song and it’s informative. CBC Radio’s journalistic consistency is something that it’s been praised and award for again and again. It’s reliable news and information and shows like The Current and As it Happens go behind and beneath the headlines to dig deeper—something that we’re in desperate need of.

What’s more, CBC Radio is on the cutting edge of new technology. They were among the first stations to be available online, to have podcast feeds, and now to have an iPhone/iPod Touch application enabling listening through WiFi or anywhere if you’ve got a data plan. I think it’s safe to say that among wonderful gems of Canadian media, our national radio broadcaster is certainly among the top. At least, it’s something that I swear by.

In this new series Things I Swear By, I want to take a little look at some of the things that I swear by.

The rationale is this: we all have things in our lives that we depend upon, that we swear by. These are things: products, goods, services, routines, rituals, etc. that we’ve picked up somewhere along the way. They’ve become important to us, essential to us, and something that we couldn’t do without. I think we all have these things—we hear about them, or start doing them or using them, at the suggestion of a friend, a relative or a colleague… and they work. I thought it’d be fun to share a few of the things that I swear by, and maybe you can suggest some too.

Ricola

I first heard about Ricola from my wife, Maria, who knew about these wonderful cough drops from her aunt, a musician. Ricola are incredible. If you know nothing about them you might, at least, recall this commercial from the 90’s which featured two Swiss men alternately yelling, “Riiiiiiiicola!” and blowing into some kind of enormous horn. Does that ring any bells?

Ricola are cough drops made from all natural ingredients, some kind of mix of herbs found in the Swiss mountains, I gather, and they work great. As a teacher, I’m talking a lot so when I’m sick and have a sore throat it’s an absolute pain to try and teach. But Ricola are soothing and wonderful, and they taste good too. I personally can’t stand the menthol taste of Halls or the other alternatives but something like Ricola, which tastes pretty good and seems to be natural too, is really agreeable.

Out of all the stuff I’ve used for coughs and sore throats, Ricola is hands down the best. They’re natural. They taste good. And they work, tried and tested by musicians and teaches alike Ricola is something that I swear by.