As It Happens

As It Happens: Monday Edition

Dec. 21, 2020

Episode Transcript

Part One

COVID mutations explainer
Reports of new a COVID-19 mutation are grounding flights, closing borders and generally freaking people out. But our guest says stop the doom-scrolling and focus on what we know for sure, some of which is even reassuring. 

Ontario lockdown
A northern Ontario restaurant owner says she understands why the province has to shut down again. She just hopes there's some support on the way to get her industry through a long, hard winter. 

Great Conjunction
The stars are aligned for a rare celestial event starring the planets Saturn and Jupiter in a duet that only happens once every 800 years or so.

Part Two

Reading: The Necklace
We bring you another classic holiday reading by the late, great As It Happens co-host Alan Maitland. Guy de Maupassant's cautionary tale: The Necklace — a story about the price one woman paid for caring a bit too much about looking like a million bucks.

Part Three

Encore: As It Happened: Food, Glorious Food 
We prove there's no such thing as a best-before date. At least, not when it comes to the items we've ordered up from the As It Happens archives. We've prepared a smorgasbord of delicious stories from the last 52 years that still manage —somehow — to pass the smell test. Like the ones about a King Kong-sized mound of chopped liver or a slice of belly button cheese.