FFWD Weekly
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| SPLICE It's a plant not a weed After convincing Health Canada to give its approval, The Body Shop Canada has launched a new line of unisex products using hempseed oil to treat dry skin - lip care, body and bath oil, hand care, soap and elbow grease - uniquely packaged in show-polish tins, oil cans, and silver tubes. As a result, the retailer joins major companies such as Adidas, Armani and Mercedes Benz in rediscovering the useful properties of hemp - something independent hemp stores already knew. The Body Shop has also joined the fight to legalize hemp, distributing information about the difference between hemp and marijuana (pot gets you high; hemp doesn't) and promoting the various practical uses for the plant, which can be made into an estimated 25,000 different products, from cosmetics to fuel, to clothing to food. The Body Shop International has agreed to share its research and testing technology with Health Canada to assist the department as advancement is made in the hemp industry. They also provide some enlightening facts about hemp and its 12,000-year history: · George Washington and Thomas Jefferson farmed hemp, and Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper; · hemp was effectively prohibited in Canada from 1938 to March, 1998, when new federal legislation legalized the growing of hemp for commercial purposes; · industrial hemp has a THC content of between 0.05 and one per cent, while marijuana has a THC content of 20 to 30 per cent; · the first pair of Levis was made from hemp; · actor and hemp advocate Woody Harrelson wore an all-hemp tuxedo created by Giorgio Armani to the Oscars; · it has been estimated that since industrial hemp was outlawed as a commercial crop in the U.S. in 1937, about half of the forests in the world have been cut down to make paper, and the use of paper has risen from 14 million tons in 1913 to 250 million tons in the 1990s. Web watch Do you ever sit back with a warm mug of Ovaltine and thank the good Lord for giving us monkeys? (By monkeys, we of course mean everyone in the whole wonderful, knuckle-dragging primate family - with the exception of bigfoot.) Maybe you should. And maybe, while you're at it, you should think of all the joy monkeys have brought to your sad pathetic life. There's Curious George, truck-driving Greg Evigan's (BJ) soulmate The Bear, the Tourister Luggage monkey, Clyde from those wonderful Clint Eastwood Every Which Way fist-fighting flicks ("Right turn Clyde" - hahahahhaha)... the list is endless. So it should come as no great surprise that the TV series which has brought so much joy to all of our sad pathetic lives - The Simpsons - has its own little monkey obsession. Don't believe us? Maybe you should check out the Monkeys on The Simpsons page at Mr. Monkey's Web site. How could you forget the recent episode where Homer gets himself a helper monkey? Then there's all of the Planet of the Apes references. What about the Stonecutter show where Homer - who on many occasions has been described by Patti and Selma as a big, dumb ape - dresses up some monkeys and has them re-enact the Civil War? What about Krusty's cigar-smoking, rollerskating companion? Oh we could go on and on, but we're lazy so we'll let you see for yourself by checking out the site. And if you have any they've missed or haven't got around to yet (it was last updated over a year ago) you're more than welcome to submit some of your own. Free stuff! Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis and Annette Bening are starring in the new, very American action-thriller, The Siege. If you'd like to go the the advance screening on Wednesday, November 4 at 7 p.m. at the Eau Claire Cinema, then you're gonna have to check out the ad in this issue. If an adult comedy is more your speed, then you may want to see the advance screening of Living Out Loud, starring Danny Devito, Holly Hunter and Queen Latifah. The screening will be held on Thursday, November 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Showcase Grand and details on how to get passes are in the ad in this issue. This is your last chance to win a trip to Vancouver to see Rob Zombie in concert! See the "Best Music you Don't Have Yet" in this issue to enter. We start giving away free stuff on Fridays unless otherwise noted. Only people who have not won (excluding movie passes) within the last four issues are eligible. Office hours are weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. |