An interesting week. The Red Sox have gotten back in gear and gotten back into the groove as the Yankees again falter. Summer is now here which means it will be a bit colder this weekend compared to last. Gary reports a tornado yesterday from the cold front that gave us hail up here. That was the sports and weather. Here is the news:
- Neato Update: Excellent. Excellent. Excellent:
Your order #202-6921784-XXXXXX (received 18-February-2007)
Excellent. Did I mention this is excellent?Amazon.co.uk items (Sold by Amazon EU S.a.r.L.):
1 Pub Games of England (Olea...) £11.94 1 £11.94
Shipped via International Mail (estimated arrival date: 29-June-2007)...
- Update: Good thing they gave him a ticket.
- Update: I have officially coined "Royal Sombrero" and, implicitly, the intense version "Sombrero Royale". Alert the media.
- Chris, Darcey, and the Flea all note the most offensive and apparently acceptable thing I have ever seen in a Canadian newspaper.
- NCPR's Brian Mann won an Edward R. Murrow award this week for his report on a rugby tournament in the Adirondacks.
- My good pal the Pope announced his rules of the road earlier this week. I think this is a good thing. If the Conservative party is going to co-opt NASCAR, the Vatican was wise to grab the branding of the drive home. But I am sure he ripped this one off from me, something of a personal motto: "courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events."
- Remember when cable TV was in its teens and the new channels got notice? One, the History channel, quickly was dubbed "the war channel" as it was odd to see old battle footage documentaries all the time. The other night, I was watching one about WWI and followed up with some surfing and came across this extraordinary contemporary report on the fall of Brussels in 1914.
- I find these addiction to email stats interesting. I can't say I am addicted to email because it's died back a bit compared to a few years ago as a tool for me. A bit over the top to write: "[h]alf of Britons could not exist without e-mail..." Also noteworthy is the observation that Facebook is establishing itself as MySpace for adults.
- The forces of anti-Canadian flag waving in Los Angeles have backed down. I suppose there being so few Canadians in the area, the Dodgers didn't know what they were looking at when they saw the Maple Lead flapping up there in the bleachers.
- Having only lived in Canadian military towns for most of my life - without being a military kid (except for that Berlin airlift bit in the RAF) - it was odd to see the brief flap in Toronto over the yellow ribbon thingies on the Big Smoke's emergency vehicles. In the end the right thing was done which is good as I support supporting. Russon's a bit surprised that the Star supports supporting those supporting us.
Comments
cm - June 22, 2007 8:40 am
History Channel's got a bit of 'splaining to do right now, what with all those CSI reruns they're showing. I'm not addicted to email. I just have my blackberry for my main sympatico account, leave my one gmail account open all day, and have the notifier for the other.
Morning, guys. Ha, gr.
gary - June 22, 2007 8:47 am
Famous quote from CM the blackberry addict: 'I try not to drive and type at the same time but...'
The tornado swung south of us or something. I am not off to see the wizard.
Alan - June 22, 2007 8:55 am
Tonight, I need what five hours in America can get me: cheap hoodies, multi-coloured goldfish crackers and a ten dollar family ticket for a ballgame.
gr - June 22, 2007 9:53 am
Likely a few beers too?
David Janes - June 22, 2007 10:10 am
I'm not sure why the cartoons should shock anyone watching Quebecers (though it should appall). To great cheering at the loss of the 1995 referendum, Parizeau went on about "money and the ethnic vote" -- to spell it out bluntly what he meant: "jews and pakis". And when he talked about "we", it's quite clear what that means in Quebec: the "60%" with the right bloodlines. So, no surprises that Dumont gets labeled as collaborating/selling out Quebec with the money grubbing outsiders.
Alan - June 22, 2007 10:15 am
By "we" you also mean the Harper-recognized "nation", right?<p>And, as we Scots share the money-grubbing slur, I was wondering what "grubbing" was.
David Janes - June 22, 2007 10:35 am
Good sir, by the Government of Canada! Sigh.
<p>
grubbing: Slang To obtain by importunity
<br />
importunate: Troublesomely urgent or persistent in requesting; pressingly entreating
<br />
The Poet McTeagle:
<blockquote>
<p>
To Ma Own beloved Lassie. A poem on her 17th Birthday. Lend us a couple of bob fill Thursday. I'm absolutely skint. But I'm expecting a postal order and I can pay you back as soon as it comes. Love Ewan.'
<p>
Since then, McTeagle has developed and widened his literary scope. Three years ago he concerned himself with quite small sums - quick bits of ready cash: sixpences, shillings, but more recently he has turned his extraordinary literary perception to much larger sums - fifteen shillings, £4. I2.6d ... even nine guineas ... But there is still nothing to match the huge sweep ... the majestic power of what is surely his greatest work: 'Can I have fifty pounds to mend the shed?'.
<p>
There seems to be no end to McTeagle's poetic invention. 'My new cheque book hasn't arrived' was followed up by the brilliantly allegorical 'Whaes twenty quid to the bloody Midland Bank?' and more recently his prize winning poem to the Arts Council: 'Can you lend me one thousand quid?'
</blockquote>
Alan - June 22, 2007 10:40 am
Thanks. No reason not to perpetuate.
gorthos - June 22, 2007 11:02 am
Funny how though my last name is Scottish I am in truth (when one does the math) 80% Irish (not counting Canada as anything more than a temporary ancestral staging ground). I am however very much the stereotypical Scot when it comes to my moth filled coin purse.
I like the way the Pope's rules of the road include Praying While Driving. Should a Zen Buddhist meditate while driving? I wonder.. ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.. (thud)
Alan - June 22, 2007 3:32 pm
Gordo emailed me this but I think this is the most interesting bit. If the license at time of sale did not permit use as a rental there is a wrong. If it did not, there is none. The rest is fluff.
Jay Currie - June 24, 2007 4:33 pm
I wonder what the National Post's media critic and self proclaimed anti hate crusader will have to say about this bit of crude 1930's anti-semitic agitprop...