Queen stresses importance of friends, family during pandemic

Enjoy your own estate

Back in 1999, a young couple had a vision.

They wanted a safe, beautiful place where they could raise a family, and they searched long and hard to find a suitable place to put down roots.

Eventually, they found a 6.12-acre plot of land in St. Anne, Man.

It had pretty much all the attributes they were looking for — it was peaceful and private, yet only 20 minutes from Winnipeg and a short commute to other centres, like Steinbach.

Track records keep falling in fast Tokyo Games

Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom grabbed the first-round lead with a five-under-par round of 66, the conversation mostly revolved around the 42 C conditions in Tokyo.

Oliveira inks three-year extension with Bombers

Brady Oliveira is staying home.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers announced Monday afternoon the star running back has agreed to a three-year contract extension through the 2028 season.

The 28-year-old was scheduled to become a free agent in February.

“I know what I can bring and I know I’m a calibre of player that can help a team win a championship, so I want to put myself in the best situation to win a championship,” said Oliveira in his end of season press conference in November.

iPhone started fire, Winnipegger says

The iPhone has long been a hot item, but for one Winnipeg family, it got too hot.

Wally Hill says earlier this month, he, along with his wife and daughter, were watching television, with his daughter's iPhone 6 sitting unplugged on the cushion between them, when the smartphone set the couch on fire.

"It was frightening," Hill said. "It didn't explode... it fizzled and popped open at the back, and then smoke and flames came out the back. It then ignited the cushion."

Hill said he quickly picked up the entire couch cushion, with the burning phone still on it, to move the device to a tile floor in his residence.

TV that makes the cut

Ambition is a great motivator in fields as diverse as professional boxing, high-school dance team, photography, animal wrangling and even — stay with me here — bank robbery and alien-summoning?

Sure, some of these are more relatable than others, but the solutions, and the series and movie that contain them, are intriguing. Press play to become a better you.

● The Greatest (docudrama series premières Wednesday, Nov. 4 on Prime Video)

This dramatization of the life of acclaimed boxer and activist Muhammad Ali is billed as the first authorized scripted series on the subject. Its executive producers include his widow, Lonnie Ali, as well as serious name brands Jay-Z and Michael B. Jordan. Newcomer Jaalen Best plays the title role, supported by Giovanni Ribisi (American Hostage) playing Angelo Dundee and Michael Ealy (The Following) as Malcolm X.

A guide to some of television’s greatest Christmas sitcom episodes

Many of us return to the well-loved holiday specials every year — your Rudolphs, your Charlie Browns — but the Christmas Episode is also tradition.

Most sitcoms do them; in the days before streaming, they aired in the weeks leading up to The Big Show.

Encountering a Christmas episode in reruns in July or during an unseasonal series binge watch is a bit like eating a candy cane in April, but it’s no accident that many holiday episodes end up being the classic, well-quoted ones. The holidays, with their pressures and relatives and parties, are loaded with comedic potential, sure, but they’re also a chance for a sitcom to show its heart.

Thanks to streaming, you can pretty much watch anything, anytime, so we’ve assembled a little advent calendar of seasonal episodes to get you into the spirit.