The Press Gallery Dinner took place this past Saturday and, apparently, the new practice at this event is to give out tongue-in-cheek awards.

In the bad old days the Governor General and political party leaders made speeches that were intended to be funny although they didn't always succeed.

At a Dinner in the 1980s, Ed Schreyer, then Governor General, was working his way through a plodding effort at comic rhetoric when someone started a call of "en français," which was followed by a round of bun throwing. The GG was not amused.

Michaëlle Jean, as GG, pulled off a speech that was actually credibly funny in parts and got good reviews from those in attendance.

This week rabble.ca was tickled to win "silver" for best online only news site (in the aptly named "red" category) at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. Congratulations to Torontoist for the win!

As we wrote when we became a finalist, the best things probably do sometimes come in small packages. At rabble.ca we use our small (tiny, really) budget to bring news for the rest of us to Canada and the world.

Squamish-based writer and journalist Cathryn Atkinson has been named as a finalist in the short story category of the 2009 CBC Literary Awards for her story "The Nonsense of Waiting."

"I am thrilled to make it this far in the competition," Atkinson said.

The CBC Literary Awards are Canada's only literary competition celebrating original, unpublished works in both official languages. There are three categories in English and three in French: short story, poetry and creative non-fiction.

At the centre of "The Nonsense of Waiting" is a 92-year-old woman, Millie, on an end-of-summer visit to her childhood home in a small B.C. town. There, she has a chance encounter with Death between birthday cake and family spats.

Margaret Atwood's acceptance speech at the Crystal Awards was cut due to time constraints at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week. Here's the text from her speech she published on her blog.

It's a great honour to have been chosen by the World Economic Forum for one of this year's Crystal Awards. As you know, these awards are presented on the basis of artistic achievement, but also for having somehow contributed to the world's well-being in other ways.