1. December 2000: North American premier of Guy Ritchy’s black comedy Snatch . Guns, criminals named Boris the Blade (or Boris the Bullet Dodger), Bullet Tooth Tony, Franky “Four Fingers”, and the unforgettable Brick Top.
2. January 2002 – Canadian mocumentary FUBAR is premiered. The film follows the days in the lives of two rockers living in Calgary. Spawns the famously manly expression : Just give’r.
3. August, 2003 – Penthouse files for bankruptcy protection, marking the dominance of the internet as the medium for pornography. According to Top Ten Reviews: Every second – $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography. Every second – 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography. Every second – 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines. Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States.
4. March, 2003 – Cluster bombs, napalm, and bunker busters. A US-led military coalition invades Iraq.
5. May, 2005 – The release of John Vaillant’s Golden Spruce, the nonfiction recount of a slightly deluded logger who is so tough, that although he disappears while kayaking the most dangerous waters in the world, the Hecate Strait, and even after his gear washes up on shore, the RCMP refuse to write him off as deceased. As a former supervisor explains, “You’re dealing with a person who, with few resources, could be dropped anywhere on earth and come up smelling like a rose.” A tough book about a tough, slightly crazy man.
6. February, 2006 – While hunting, Vice President Dick Cheney shoots a friend in the face with a shotgun.
7. June, 2006 – The release of District 13, and the mainstreamization of the Parkour, the sport of running, jumping, vaulting, climbing over whatever urban obstacles get in your way.
8. July, 2006 – Zinedine Zidane headbutts Marco Materazzi in World Cup Final. At first, it was thought that Marco had insulted Zinedine’s mother, but as it turns out, when Zinedine offered Marco his shirt – the Italian player had grabbed it – Marco responded: Preferisco la puttana di tua sorella, or to put it nicely, I would prefer your whore of a sister. The headbutt was lampooned on the internet and even spawned an online video game.
9. September, 2006 – Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic, father and son tale The Road, is released. It’s a straight-forward concise story of a man, a boy, a shopping cart and a thousand miles of cannibal-ridden wasteland America to get through.
10. February, 2009 – 70 people charged in a bust of a cockfighting ring in East Gwillimbury, Ontario.
11. December 2009 – Pirates! And we a talking the read deal here, not the scrawny cyber kind, nor the Boy-Chicks of the Caribbean. 2009 marked a record year for the grizzled, armed buccaneers operating across the Gulf of Aden and along the coast of Somalia. They attacked 214 vessels this year, resulting in 47 hijackings. Twelve of those ships, with a total of 263 crew members, now are being held for ransom by the pirates. In comparison, only 111 ships were attached in 2008.