Only Canadians will get this: It's Mark Kingwell week at good magazine. Read more in this National Post story. I especially loved Dreams of Markennium:

"King me!" Douglas Coupland said gleefully as he jumped three of Mark
Kingwell's men and landed in the back row of the checkerboard.

Mark Kingwell glared irritably at Douglas Coupland before reluctantly
placing a previously captured piece on top of the foreign invader sitting
in his back row. This was an important game. It was more than a game.
As agreed upon beforehand by both competitors, the victor would
assume his rightful place as the pre-eminent Canadian pop-culture icon
and media darling. One man would emerge as the ubiquitous talking
head on television programs broadcast from coast-to-coast. One man
would take his place on myriad editorial boards and as author of a
thousand guest articles in a thousand periodicals distributed ad mari
usque ad mare.