We stayed up for the whole game. What the hell is the dea with the 8:25 pm starts? The game ended at 12:45 am. It's a work day for flibbertyjibberty's sake - though there is some question whether Friday is still a work day. After game one, I heard Joe Morgan on ESPN radio say that he didn't care whether he lost 13-1 to 1-0. Losing is losing. But when you lose 13-1 you basically relax after the opportunity is lost. Struggling against a team that can hold you to a one deficit for inning after inning must be worse. Having Papalbon come in the eighth and destroy any hope you have must be worse.

• I like this point:

  Perhaps it's symptomatic of our problem that Mr. Flaherty believes consumers can't stand up for ourselves. If he thought we were quick on the uptake, he wouldn't have needed a lectern and backdrop telegenically labelled: "Standing up for consumers." If our politicians don't think we can understand what they're saying without props, maybe we do need standing up for. (Who pays for such message-packaging, by the way, the Conservative party or us dim-witted taxpayers?)

  Seeing as I have great respect for the guy who approved or even came up with the "Standing up for Consumers" (my pal Chiz) I won't get into that so much as the idea that we Canadians are to shop around but not really to shop in the US. Hogwash. Shop in the US, Canadians. See what the standards of others and and decide for yourself if a fifteen dollar hoodie at Steve and Barry's is what you want. You know what? It's what you want. Then come home and ask for the same.
• Further evidence that Friday is not so much a real workday.
• Crossing topics from the beer blog, I think that this post over at Jay's place is one of the best rants against bad lawyering I have ever read:

  So okay, she made a mistake. I could almost excuse her behavior up to this point as being over zealous in trying to protect her client's or her company's interests (it's not clear if she's a lawyer but if not she's clearly consulted with one and cites specific law in her letter to the radio DJs). But then she pours gasoline on the fire with this statement, again from the AP story. "Bornemann said she's willing to discuss Adams' use of his name on his Web sites 'probably for the length of the time the election is being held.'"

  See Bornemann is representing Sam Adams beer and the person she is talking about is a guy called Sam Adams who is running to be Mayor somewhere. Can you spot the PR disaster?
• James Taylor's version of the American national anthem before the game last night was simply wonderful. He made the last sentence whistful rather than rhetorically strident. Don't you love it when that happens? And I don't really like James Taylor that much. He made a love song out of a nationalistic war lyric that was attached to a British tavern shanty. Maybe it's time for our rural overlords to give us a new anthem.
• Good for Alberta:

  The government said that under the new regime, money collected from the energy business could be 20 per cent higher in 2010 than forecast, potentially bringing an additional $1.4-billion to the treasury. That figure is nearly half a billion dollars less than the expert review panel wanted. Starting in 2009, royalty rates will be increased across the board – for example, in the oil sands, rates will start rising when the price of oil is higher than $55 a barrel, with a new maximum of 40 per cent of a company's net revenue, up from a fixed rate of 25 per cent.

  It's not like the stuff will go bad. Reminds us all that the oil industry is essentially an out-sourced production of a nationalized resource. Or what Albertans generally call "pinko-ism".