Dead birds, dead crabs, dead fish, more dead birds, and a Russian comeback in the third period of the World Juniors: obviously it's the end of the world... if you're Canadian.

Watching  Canada's gold medal hold dissolve late in the World Juniors game on Wednesday was like seeing fire falling from the sky.

There were many hockey hangovers this week. Everyone's in some kind of post-game therapy.

But on Saturday, New Year's Day, in Pittsburgh, there was another novel experience for NHL fans: a rain delay.

The Winter Classic finally opened, several hours late, on a soft looking rink under the stars on Heinz Field. Two elite NHL teams battled it out before a full house and a massive American TV audience.

HBO had been following the Penguins and the Capitals in a doc series called 24/7. It's great TV, fascinating even if you don't love hockey.

This week on Day 6 we talk to the president of HBO sports about finding a new narrative for our national game.

Floods in Queensland, Australia must feel like the end of the world to the people whose homes are under 9 metres of water. Add to that the threat of reptile invasion and you have a readymade 3D Hollywood blockbuster - Inland Crocs. It writes itself!

Waterlocked Australians were warned this week that snakes and crocodiles could be lurking in the rising waters.

So we checked in with a croc farmer in the region to make sure all his animals are accounted for. He says he thinks they are, but they're pretty riled up.

Remember MySpace?

Visiting MySpace these days is a bit of a post-apocalyptic web experience.

The once flourishing social network site is now a ghost town with abandoned pages and hopeless. pokey-looking profiles.

The party's moved over to Facebook. Zuckerberg wins again.

Mike Balazo looks for life lessons.

He's a literary heavyweight. Mick Foley is a pro wrestling superstar who's written memoirs, fiction and kid lit. He's a philanthropist, a dad, a sensitive creature and hugely motivated by Tori Amos. I know, the improbability just keeps coming.

His latest book Countdown to Lockdown: A Hardcore Journal is largely built around his relationship with Amos but it also connects art and literature to the sport and spectacle of wrestling. 

Listen to Mick Foley in conversation, you'll be drawn in by his compelling voice. He's quite a guy.  

Snooki has also written a novel.

It's possible someone else did the writing. OK, it's a certainty. The Jersey Shore sensation dictated her ideas over the phone to a ghost writer and a book jumped out.

I bet some Contemporary Studies program at a liberal arts college already has Snooki's book on their reading list. We actually think it's pretty good. You should hear who agreed to read it for us.

If someone in your office won a big lotto jackpot, do you think they'd rub your nose in it? 

They would! They'd say something like: So long sucka! I'm outta here!  Make sure you turn off the lights when you're finished 30 years from now.

And you'd be all like: I have to stop the gravy train.

But what happens when there are competing claims over the winning ticket? We'll talk to the former chief investigator for the California Lottery.  

Garry Trudeau has been drawing Doonesbury for 4 decades. He talks to us about keeping his characters relevant through 8 administrations, several wars and countless hits of LSD.

Trudeau is a legend among cartoonists, and for someone who obsessively guarded his privacy for years, he's a lucid, generous conversationalist.

We're also giving away his 4 kilogram retrospective book.         4 kilos! I don't know how we will pay for the postage.

And about those birds falling from the sky... Kathleen Phillips doesn't want you to worry.

But she also doesn't want you to find out why it's happening. Kathleen likes the mystery, the opaqueness. She wants the birds to be an oracle but not a revelation.

And she sings some fine disco tunes, too.

I already like 2011 more than 2010.

Brent Bambury @CBCDay6