YuleTube

As announced in an amusingly tongue-in-cheek press release, Shaw's holiday fire log is back.

Actually, this year's burnt offering isn't a Yule log at all; it's a standard fireplace fire, fuelled by three or four chunks of split wood (depending on when in the pre-recorded loop you happen upon it).

In years past, the Shaw fire log is something I have blown by on my way up or down the channel roster, barely pausing to wonder to myself, "Who the hell watches this thing?"

But this year, it turns out that I'm the one who watches it. Thanks to my recently acquired widescreen TV, the goddam Shaw fire is bigger and brighter than the one I can get from the gas fireplace sitting not three feet away from the TV. It's mesmerizing.

Puts out more heat, too.