Blue must be the colour of the blues... and diabetes.

You almost have to admire a staff writer who, faced with the unavoidable truth that a given humourous conceit is simply not working, chooses to soldier on to the end, wings flapping and gears grinding the whole way:

Visions of a blue Christmas were dancing through the heads of people on Parliament Hill this week. Each evening, at dusk, an eerie blue light cast its glow on the Hill, making the Peace Tower look like it had accidentally been thrown in the wash with the blue jeans.

Given that Canada Day had a distinctly Conservative blue tint this year – as opposed to the traditional, if a bit Liberal, red and white – it seemed reasonable to assume that blue was also going to be the Christmas colour, too. And why not? The red-and-green combination has taken on its own political overtones this year, with the co-operation pact between the Liberals and Greens.

But actually, the blue glow on Parliament Hill this week had a less political meaning. In honour of World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14, a number of countries, including Canada, agreed to light up their landmarks in blue. The Empire State building in New York and the Eiffel Tower in France, among many others, were similarly lit this week.

Heh, heh – diabetes. Pure gold.

Another 100 words of taxiing and that jokey intro would have been in the grass at the end of the runway. I especially like that the Empire State Building is in "New York," while the Eiffel Tower is in "France." I guess Big Ben is in "Europe."