Life

TORONTO — Online dating is clicking in a big way with singles, with Internet love connections outpacing all forms of matchmaking in the U.S. besides meeting through friends, according to a research analysis.

NEW YORK — They’ve bitten their handlers, refused to budge from their beds and lost their shadow-casting jobs to potbellied pigs. And it turns out, not all groundhogs are really that good at predicting the weather.

OTTAWA — Canadians appear to be on a collision course with harsh reality when it comes to their increasingly unrealistic expectations for retiring early and comfortably.
As evidence mounts of underfunding in company pension plans, and rising household debt, a new survey conducted for TD Bank suggests Canadians haven’t adjusted their notions about retirement.

Unhappy with today’s health care? Think of what it was like to be sick 200 years ago.
No stethoscopes, antibiotics, X-rays or vaccines. Bloodletting was a common treatment. If you had a heart attack or a stroke, doctors put you in bed and hoped for the best. If you needed surgery, you got a few shots of whiskey and a bullet to bite.

SALT LAKE CITY — Reality TV stars Kody Brown and his four wives say they just want one thing: to be left alone.
As authorities investigate them for bigamy, the TLC “Sister Wives” family is asking a federal judge to overturn part of Utah’s bigamy law because it bans them from living together and criminalizes sexual relationships between unmarried consenting adults.

TORONTO — The new year promises a wave of returning TV favourites and buzzy rookie series, with most of the big U.S. networks expected to roll out ambitious, star-packed fare that includes a comedy with Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell, a slick musical drama from Debra Messing and Anjelica Huston, a new thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland and the return of bad boy Charlie Sheen.

LOS ANGELES — An auction official says a huge and well-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex tooth has sold for more than $56,000 at a Los Angeles auction.
The sale took place Sunday during a natural history-themed auction at Bonhams in Los Angeles.

WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Jets are packing in the fans and sold out for years to come.
But does the return of the NHL hold the benefits for the city’s troubled downtown boosters have always insisted would materialize?

TORONTO — Here’s a word to throw around at your next cocktail party — tergiversate (TUR-ji-ver-seyt).
You may not have heard the word before now but according to Dictionary.com it’s the word of the year.
The online dictionary says it chose the word because it wanted to pick a difficult word for a difficult year.

That’s what two young children in New York’s Hudson Valley have learned.
The Daily Freeman of Kingston reports (http://bit.ly/uy78Xo ) that around 11 a.m. Sunday, police in the city of Kingston responded to a home after two children, ages 4 and 6, called 911 asking to speak to either the police chief or Santa Claus.