Morning, everyone. <i>June: God's own weekend.</i> Nice analogy. Or is it a metaphor? I never could remember, which explains having to repeat Survey of English Lit II.

Re the pool -- save yourself some time with the NHL pool - don't bother counting my score as there is nothing to count! Couldn;t have been any wronger. Haven't watched much but Carolina-Buffalo was some good hockey.

Actually I stopped counting your score after the second round as I think all your points were gone by then. I can't wait to go back and find out who won the cricket scores though.

What I'm not the only one who didn't pick an Edmonton-Carolina final?

As for the Senate, its reform was one of the early pillars of the Reform movement of Preston Manning. You might recall the phrase "Triple E Senate" which calls for an Elected, Effective and Equal Senate. The idea of Senate reform came out of the aftermath of Meech Lake as did the Reform movement in general. Triple E was the ideal and it looks like Harper is taking small steps to get there. You're right, though: Complete Senate reform can't happen without constitutional amendments. And nobody wants to get into that.

(Home again, home again, jiggity jig. The overall experience of the Detroit airport counts as a...'Detroit experience' shall we say)
I am into the idea of Gen x at 40 road trips, but maybe a big comfy bus is needed. With a big fridge.

And wireless internet. Careful with the jigging there, gr, wouldn't want to cause offense.

I'm still counting on TnT, and I will red and black and sip on gin & Fresca.

Isn't 'home again...' etc from Wizard of Oz? Is that offensive? You can have all the gin cm, Alan can choose the brews. Cheese can be discussed. Perhaps we should get one of those special tailgating buses with party deck up top, for grilling and other youthful activities.

NHL: is anyone, outside of the happy Oilers fans, going to watch this Cup? I am happy for the teams, but the total numbers of fans and likely viewers might be a record low.

It's a nursery rhyme:
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, jiggety* jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,
Home again, home again, jiggety jog.

* "riggity" jig in my version.

We'll need a variety of cheeses. And Doritos. And ice cream, although perhaps we should make stops along the way for that.

Jiggety Jig is also in Blade Runner.

I've been watching hockey the last two months now, more frequently in the playoffs. This is the first time I've had any real interest in the game since 93. The changes they made to the rules this year have really improved the speed and flow and it's not-over-till-it's-over-ness.

"because who votes themselves out of power"

I think voting ourselves out of power has been Ontario's main strategy since Confederation. We are meant to be embarrassed by our success, apparently; particularly so in Toronto. Not that it stops the whining. It is time for Ontario to stop trying to appease the rest of this country.

Is that not a call for a new flag and a rallying cry? Vive Ontario Libre!!!

The local thememe is that the GTA, or 416 alone, should become it's own province.

I am not sure how far north 416 extends but I get a nose bleed once I am north of St. Clair (and become queezy west of the Drake or east of, say, Pape)(ice-cream trips to the Beaches excepted).

When I lived in TO my motto was, elks begin at Eglington...I had heard that if you kept driving up Yonge Street you hit Algonquin Park and Eglington seems a logical place to start looking out for fauna.

Someone beat me to "Triple E". PEI could probably be bought. the real bitch is Quebec's guaranteed 75 seats. But, hey, as Charest only wants slightly less than twice as much as he's getting now from equalization, I suspect a deal could be done there as well.

Good luck with that Ontario stopping appeasing the rest of the country thing there Nick. you will be surprised, nay shocked, to know this appeasement has gone unappreceiated, nay, un-noticed out here beyond the Rockies (and the Strait of Georgia but why be picky).

DJ is correct: I think hockey is a lot more interesting and zippy this year, but I can't get too excited about teams from places I couldn't find on a map (sure, I am an ignorant fool)
back to the Gen x tour bus: I saw a monster limo today and I have to wonder if that might be even more comfy. Probably couldn't walk back and forth easily from jacuzzi to fridge though.
cm my friend, what a favor you have done me. Pigs and jigs. A jig is a little dance right? Back to my question, is jiggity jig offensive? To pigs?

This is the problem with appeasement. The righteous, self-entitlement of the appeased is untroubled - in fact, encouraged - as the <i>danegeld</i> grows.

This is the problem with appeasement.

The problem of appeasement is that the word itself is often misused and abused to stymy ordinary (and leveled) discussion between people. Count the commenters who used to word 'appeasement' and you know what I mean.

I just appeased my wife. When is the last time you hit your wife?

Via David, the EU has one more enemy this morning

Now, that sucks.... There's nothing more dangereous than 'second hand drinking'. Quick, empty the glasses!

I think that is not the connotation on appeasement that Mr. Flea meant but let me know what you mean, Arthur.

I think that is not the connotation on appeasement that Mr. Flea meant but let me know what you mean, Arthur.

'weakness, cowardice and self-deception' vs. 'bring to a state of peace or quiet'?

I am 1-0 Arthur-Flea on this one so far.

Something else about non-416 peeps: An astonishing humour deficit.

That I will admit.

"I am into the idea of Gen x at 40 road trips, but maybe a big comfy bus is needed. With a big fridge."
My license is lapsed, but I have driven semis before. I still can. I can still drive 19 hours in a day. We can do this, oh yes, we can. We can have the Gen X version of the Madden Cruiser or the Kiss Tourbus.

Oh dear. I hate when nutty ideas start to become plausible.

It would have to be a bus, due to washroom facilities, unless you guys are willing to stop every half hour or so (and no, I'm not joking) (and no, I won't go along the side of the road, thank you very much).

gr, jig is apparently offensive to the premier of NS when referring to it being up (which may not be grammatically correct but it is well past my bedtime).

And come on guys, it's really quite lovely up here in the wilds of Davisville. I used to work with people who thought Sheppard was downtown.

I saw pictures of Willie Nelson's tour bus one time. You've got your kitchen, living room, rec room*, bedrooms etc, bathroom, shower et al. But as I say, we will also need to find one with a party deck up top, with grilling facilities, and heck, a topside fridge too.
cm--can't say I am up on my NS (Nova Scotia, I think) politics, but I wouldn't want to offend them or any other Maritime resident.
*foosball? darts? ping pong?

I am suddenly reminded of another famour bus tour, about 40 years ago. Ken Kesey and the Magic Bus (I think it was called that, the Who certainly said that) which was a converted school bus or something. That trip was all about (as Ian Drury said) sex and drugs and rock and roll ('is very good for me') with sleeping bags and whatnot. I think, though, as cm points out, to a person over 40ish, comfort is key. So maybe to the above list we add 'comfort and a good bathroom'.

I'm not up on NS politics either, but lucky for us Alan is.

We could probably skip the living room in order to accommodate the extra beds and a larger rec room. Don't forget the air hockey table.

The merry pranksters, that's what Ken Kesey's group was called. How can we forget air hockey? As for beds, I want a Sealy mattress at least. Funny about your reference above, but it shows how much attn. I give to Alan's posts about Canadian politics (not much I guess).
BTW-- have a fantastic photo of Alan in Cooperstown, and wish I could figure out how to post it, whether he wants me to or not.

No, Gary. We can't let ourselves become a breeding ground for that sort of thing.

gr, as long as I have a bathroom, you can have a Sealy.

Alan's right. Besides, I much prefer picturing him in a clown wig.

Rude of me to joke about it. 50 lashes with a wet noodle.
My apologies, now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Two decker, with major fridge(you guys love your beer), and a serious bathroom? That's a serious rental(thumbs thru rather sparse wallet. I've got a $5US.).
I think we can do the grilling when we stop for Doritos.

I think we need a mamoth sound system too. Playing Madness and The Specials as we go.

Hey, I have a ton of change in my piggy bank. Maybe even 20 bucks!
While yer at it, Talking heads and Iggy Pop on the stereo.

PS-in all seriousness, I just submitted a review of a brewery to beerblog that is just heavenly. I would like to suggest a northeast Gen x at 40 meetup there sometime. Fresh beer (and food) on Seneca lake, NY. Gorgeous.

I can check the couches for loose change.

Chesterfields?

The entire time I lived in TO I lived south of Queen...Bloor seemed the beginning of suburbia.

Couches. Chesterfield's a cigarette.