Jinx

On Saturday nights when I was a young boy I used to watch the Leafs with my dad downstairs while my mom watched the gripping duo of The Love Boat and Fantasy Island (da plane! da plane! --sorry, couldn't help myself...) They would habitually lose.







The absolute worst thing that could possibly happen to me was that the Montreal Canadians would come into town and beat my beloved Leafs. Of course, this was the 1970's: the time of Lafleur, Gainey, Shutt and Dryden...Of course the Leafs lost.

Using the argument that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, I became convinced that I should support the Boston Bruins...and well, why don't I let anecdotage take it from here...

In 1977, Don Cherry's Boston Bruins faced their arch-rival Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup finals. The Canadiens swept the bruins (winning four games in a row).

In 1978, Cherry's Bruins again found themeselves facing their nemesis in the Stanley Cup final. Though they lost the series, they put in a more respectable 4-2 performance.

In 1979, the Bruins faced the Canadiens yet again, this time in the semi-finals - and this time the series went to a seventh and deciding game. With less than two minutes left, the Bruins, winning 4-3, were called for a penalty. Sure enough, Guy LaFleur scored in the last minute and Montreal won 5-4 in overtime and went on to win the final series over the New York Rangers.

The penalty for which Boston was called? Too many men on the ice!

[The disorganized Bruins had six men on the ice for what seemed like an eternity to knowing fans. Eventually the officials were obliged to call a penalty. Cherry later called May 10th 1979 the worst day of his life. (Boston finally beat the Canadiens in the 1988 playoffs. Boston had lost to the Canadiens in their previous fourteen meetings.)]

But I never lost my love of the Bruins, frustrating as it has been these past 26 years.

------

We moved to Kelowna, BC in 1980, several thousand miles away from Toronto. This being before the era of the 300 channel universe I became a fan of the hometown Vancouver Canucks, because, well, because they were always on!

And in 1982 they went to the Stanley Cup Finals against the mighty NY Islanders (Bossy, Trottier, Potvin, Smith!)...and lost 4 straight.



But, of course the true fan says wait 'til next year...and the years that followed delivered upon us the lousy stinkin' Edmonton Oilers, a team with so much firepower that they could beat you in the last 5 minutes of a game even if your favourite team had a 3-goal lead over them (Gretzky, Kurri, Anderson, Messier: I could go on and on.) This was if they hadn't just opened up in the first or second periods with 5-10 goals like they usually did. I didn't cry myself to sleep like I did when the Leafs lost...I...was older.

It would take 12 more years of suffering, BUT- 1994 delivered another Canucks team that made it to the finals: a fast, dangerous team that had the Russian Rocket Pavel Bure, Kirk Maclean in net and Trevor Linden playing the best hockey of his career...and losing it all by one goal; the tensest ending to a hockey game I've ever known; and the most bitter because everyone believed until that damn siren went off that the Canucks would tie the game. Even the Rangers looked nervous.

I moved back to Toronto that year and the hockey strike that fall broke my hockey-watching habit. I've found it hard to watch a complete game since...

Hehehe! :-b

WHO's on first?

So now we wait for the press conference...

Ever since the WHO labelled us a plague city, the news coverage in town has changed. Before they were near hysterical with count stats: probable cases - suspected cases - probable AND suspected cases - and the inevitable death count; now the issue is how deeply this will hit Toronto in its WALLET. Biological doom and gloom has been pushed to the back pages - economic doom and gloom is front and centre.

Many say that the WHO over-reacted when they slapped its "Travel Advisory" on Toronto, warning people to not travel here. I'm sure that every disaster movie scenario from The Andromeda Strain, Rabid, The Stand, and Outbreak played itself out in people's heads. Even those who thought the WHO was out to lunch, when faced with the choice of booking their events in Toronto or someplace else that doesn't have the stigma of SARS, will definitely choose someplace else.

Now we wait for the 1pm news conference from Geneva to see if WHO will reverse its Travel Advisory.

Personally I don't think it will happen. Even if the WHO did over-react in Toronto, to cave in and reverse their decision now would discredit any future pronouncements that may be more justified. All the effected city/country would say is "But you did it for Toronto" and bitch and moan and complain about economic impacts, while a public health emergency is underway...

It's safer for the WHO to screw Toronto internationally rather than screw itself by backing down. They will probably justify these actions by [sarcasm] being over-cautious because of the great responsibilities they are charged with...[/sarcasm]

UPDATE: 2:05 PM.

I was wrong. The WHO has lifted the travel advisory, but still considers Toronto a "centre of outbreak." As a resident of the GTA, I feel this is great for business, but already on the radio coverage of the press conference at lunch there was an Asian-accented reporter asking if Beijing will receive the same courtesy of being reviewed before the customary waiting period. This will be politicized further...

What the Hell am I in for?

So, I'm watching the Godfather with my wife while my daughter is playing on the floor...

We get to the scene where Woltz is waking up in his bed covered in blood. I'm thinking that maybe it's not a good idea to have my little girl witness such a traumatic scene, but I'm too late on the remote...

Woltz sees the horse head in his bed and starts screaming at the top of his lungs.

"WWWAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
AAAAARRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!



...and my little girl sees the man on the screen and starts laughing- not just a chuckle; not just a smirk- a big rolling belly laugh...

"He funny Daddy!" my little girl squeals.

And then she turns and goes back to her Lego chuckling to herself in her baby-talk with a not-so-baby expression on her face...

She then laughs again when Paulie Gatto gets whacked in the car while Clemenza takes a leak at the side of the road...

My wife just looked at me and shrugged. "My family found the strangest things funny..."

The first blog I ever read...

...mysteriously stopped blogging weeks ago without a word and is now back. A lot of times I don't comment on many blogs where I feel I am out of my depth and this is definitely one of them. If you want to get your fill of American Politics and International items wander on over to Tacitus

Hopefully the Moveable Type problem experienced there won't be a recurring thing...I need my fix.

- Yeah, I know, not really a new entry on my part, but Tacitus' site was the first that made me take a good look at this whole "blogging" thing...

The Game's Afoot

You know, the one thing I've always marvelled at is that when you open your mind to new possibilities and try to plan a course of action, other possibilities come up which can totally shoot holes in your original plan...

When I transferred away from Vancouver in late 1994, it was with the idea that I'd work myself up in the field office (in this case the Mississauga sales office) then transfer back to the head office of the company I worked for at the time. Well 2 years after that initial move I was promoted back to the head office; but the head office had moved to Mississauga!

The only consolation is that I actually liked the Toronto area ("SACRILEGE!" scream my western Canadian friends...) and that my life has been pretty good here, aside from job stress, career change and then career change BACK to what I was originally doing...

So here I was, getting a gov't job last year, taking Accounting courses, waiting for the eventual next job when an opportunity came that would require me to sell my house, uproot my family and move to a town I'd only driven through a couple of times on one of my cross-county hell-is-being-confined-with-your-parents trips...

So I went home, talked it over with my wife and we decided that if it was good for my career, then why the hell not?

So: flash-forward to today and I'm cruising websites, trying to ignore the boring monotony that has become my workplace and I come across another opportunity that I wouldn't have considered if my wife and I hadn't already agreed that moving WAS IN FACT AN OPTION...so the plan now has another variation...

I won't go into details now, but this is for certain: we probably will be moving this year...

The Game is afoot.

100 things about me

1. I have a large bald spot that is totally invisible to me without mirrors. It is plotting something.



2. My temper is quick but manageable. But do not cross my wife!



3. I've had two cars stolen from me, I got back the one I didn't want and lost forever the one I did want back.



4. Cats or Dogs. Dogs always and forever.



5. I always come into a trend too late: grunge, rap, dot-com stocks, [this entry?]



6. I've heard "I just really want to be friends" five times in my life



7. Only two of the girls who said "let's be friends" actually are friends



8. A best friend/room-mate from the past betrayed me twice over two different women.



9. I have been tempted to take revenge. It's a 50-50 chance that I WILL at some point (nervous yet, asshole?)



10. I cannot take a compliment without thinking that it may somehow contain a hidden insult.



11. My favourite all time car is the Porsche 959
    
    



12. I've lived 14 years in British Columbia and 18 years in Ontario.



13. I've been in 20 of the 50 US states...



14. I work for the Ontario government.



15. I don't speak German to my grandmother's never-ending shame.



16. My parents claimed at 2 years old that I "didn't want to learn German."



17. The truth is that by the time I showed up, my family had entirely switched to English: German wasn't in general usage and it would've been a pain to teach me.



18. I've never met either of my grandfathers (one died in 1942, the other was a mysoginistic alcoholic dick that my mother wouldn't allow near me: he might be dead, he might not. From the stories I've heard, I don't want him near my kids either.)



19. Nothing is sweeter than hearing my 1 year old daughter scream "Daddy!!" when I walk in the door...



20. I consider myself a feminist (non-radical) but am the bread-winner in a "traditional" one income family (at least until the kids are in school)



21. I've owned 4 volkswagens: 1 Jetta turbo-diesel, 2 GTI's and 1 Golf 1.8T (although the last one is the "family" car)



22. Favourite Book: Dune by Frank Herbert



23. Favourite SERIES of Books: The Aubrey/Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian. You can smell the salt water and feel the characters age as they grow older at sea.



24. Favourite Drink: Bushmill's Irish Whiskey on ice.



25. I skipped the 5th grade.



26. When I was younger I acted slightly stupider than I was because I didn't want to get singled out and beaten up. The bullies just picked another reason to beat me up.



27. My brother is 16 years older than I am. We aren't as close as I'd like.



28. When I was 8 and wanted to play hockey, my Dad told me I'd have to skate 3 hours of laps a day for 6 months to strengthen my ankles. Suffice it to say that I never played hockey.



29. My father confessed that he didn't want to go to 5am practices, like he did with my much older brother (*bastard!*)



30. My younger nephew looks so much like me that my catch-phrase when this is pointed out is: "I never touched her, I was two thousand miles away!"



31. I never wanted to work in Accounting, yet that path has always brought me the most success.



32. Favourite Artsy Movie: Ran by Akira Kurosawa



33. Guilty pleasure movie: Victory with Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.



34. Last DVD rented: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets



35. Favourite Blog by someone not related by blood/marriage: A Small Victory. Go Michele!



36. Favourite Classical Composer: Beethoven. The ninth, baby!



37. I can't watch a sport for more than 15 minutes without getting bored.



38. At 8 I realized that both my Mother and my Grandmother (his mother) scared the beejeezus out of my Dad



39. My parents let my brother name me: he chose two actors from TV for my first and middle names - the shows were Ironside and The Saint



40. My current car is a '99 Ford Contour SVT that is two months away from being totally mine. 200HP, baby!
    
    



41. After a fight at school in the 3rd grade I had to go to the hospital due to internal swelling.



42. I'd been fighting two other kids and was losing until one of them kicked me in the balls.



43. I got so mad at this transgression of the rules that the look on my face scared one of my opponents into running away instantly.



44. The other I pounded so hard that afterward whenever I came within 20 feet of him he ran away to the teachers on the yard.



45. I didn't notice anything was wrong until that night when I realized the pain hadn't gone away.



46. My dad took a look, made a face I'd never seen before and rushed me to the hospital.



47. At the hospital I was more concerned about counting backward from 100 correctly than about the fact that they were gassing me to knock me out.



48. When I woke up in the hospital the next morning I thought my family had abandoned me.



49. When I was one month old my mother took me along when she and my father went sailing in a 15-foot dinghy



50. When I was four years old I could sail that 15-foot dinghy like a pro (with Dad's supervision, which I hated)



51. I got caught shop-lifting at 11. It was a Rubik's Cube (Looking back that's an embarassing thing to get caught shoplifting)



52. The detective that caught me scared the hell out of me so bad I was convinced until I was 16 that I still "had a record."



53. The department store chain closed down in the late 80's.



54. I was elated for weeks afterward thinking that my record would finally be cleared. Teenagers are stupid.



55. My first computer was an Apple IIc with a Roland DG dot-matrix printer that cost my parents approx $CDN 2,500



56. My parents bought it because I was staying late every night at school playing Ultima IV.



57. My English marks jumped from a C to an A+ because I wrote much better using a word processor.



58. I was no longer cheap with paper and didn't have to rewrite 1st and 2nd drafts (Gawd I hated rewriting perfectly good sentences just to show the English teacher that this was in fact my work...)



59. At high school graduation I was top student in English and English Literature, thanks to my Apple IIc.



60. Because of my improved marks, I earned a $2,000 scholarship. Thank you Apple IIc
    
    
61. I still have it in the garage. I can't throw it away and don't know if it still works.



62. I have many things I can't throw away.



63. My favourite movie from the '80's was Wall Street -except that sad part at the end when Michael Douglas lost all that money and got framed by that sneaky Charlie Sheen



64. I wanted to be a broker because of that movie.



65. I was a broker for a short time in 2001



66. I hated being a broker. (The schmoozing, the lying, the whining of clients who don't take your advice; the wrath of those that do - that and a stock market crash drove me back to Accounting)



67. I've never been outside the US or Canada. I have no urge to travel.



68. Does violence solve anything? Sometimes and sometimes it's unavoidable so you have to be prepared for it.



69. Ever been robbed? No, but I was extorted once by two angry-looking Native men outside a strip-club in Vancouver's east-side.



70. I was the only under-age member of a UBC pub-crawl at the time that had gotten carded and thrown out.



71. They got my second last 2-dollar bill (when Canada still HAD 2-dollar bills.) I'd hidden bus change (last 2-dollar bill) in my shoe and left all bank/credit cards at home (good thing, too!)
    
    -Their unique approach was:
    1st native guy: "Gimme your cigarettes."
    Me: "I don't have any cigarettes"
    1st native guy: "Maybe my friend wants to party with you if you don't give us something..."
    2nd native guy: [big toothless grin]
    Me: "Let's see what I've got..."



72. I hate it when I see living examples of stereotypes that reinforce the negative image I'm arguing against at the moment (drunk natives, materialistic Jews, "flaming" homosexuals, "mobbed-up" Italians, nazified-Germans, welfare-immigrants, drunken/stoned homeless people, violent Jew-hating Muslims etc.) because they totally deflate any argument I'm making AGAINST the stereotype and sometimes make ME doubt my conviction...



73. My father will not work for Germans even though he himself is German (he never explained why, just looked at me like I was stupid for asking...)



74. I have relatives who were members of the Nazi-party in Germany. They explained that "everyone" was a member who was of any social standing in Germany, and that they didn't really agree with the whole "kill every Jew in the world thing." These are invariably the same relatives that complain about how "cheap" and "greedy" the Jews are. My answer is "Sorry, but I think you lost that war. Move on."



75. I have found most of my friends wives/girlfriends attractive. I'll leave your dirty little minds to ask whatever questions you want to ask...



76. Canadian politics time: Liberal, Conservative, NDP, or ReformAlliance? Not a fuckin' clue at the moment, however I would NEVER vote NDP (admire -but don't agree with- their convictions, howls of derisive laughter at their inability to base any policies in "the real world") am leaning towards "anybody but Chretien" and am waiting for some other party to make the least bit of sense (looking at you, Conservatives and Reform) so that I can at least have someone to vote for, rather than abstaining as I did last time...



77. American politics time: Democrat or Republican: grrrrrr, tough one. Can I be Republican and still hate Bush? Can I be Democrat and still hate the anti-war protesters who can't form a proactive alternative that the Democrats seem to have embraced as "their people?" Do the parties even represent their traditional viewpoints any more? (Clinton was way more fiscally conservative than Bush, who has no problem spending a lot of money they don't have...) Does it matter considering I'm Canadian?



78. I AM CANADIAN! My wife is American. My daughter is whatever she wants to be: that's the legacy of both countries.



79. Do you actually enjoy sauerkraut? Yes, especially the way my Italian-American wife cooks it.



80. At 27 I realized that my 86-year old Grandmother scared the beejeezus out of me too!



81. Biggest regret: not telling my mother that I loved her one more time before she died and that she never got to meet my beautiful wife and daughter...



82. Favourite Shakespearian sonnet: Sonnet # CXVI "Let me not to the marriage of true minds/admit impediments." Used that at a wedding where I was best man and brought the house down...And left with the sexy young thing that became my wife in 2000...



83. I drink 4 full mugs, not cups, mugs, of coffee each and every day. And if you prevent me from getting my full caffeine fix you dirty little...



84. My favourite Christmas movie is the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim. In black and white. Lousy stinkin' colourizin' Ted Turner...



85. One summer I had a job treeplanting. I lasted 3 weeks before I realized that I hadn't got on with a good company. They in fact tried to screw us out of our wages at the end of the season. I sicked the Labour Relations board on their asses...



86. In 1996 me and my friend Chris went to New York City and stood atop the twin towers on a sunny October afternoon.



87. In 2001 I stared at the TV screen as those very same twin towers tore themselves to shreds and collapsed under their own weight as they burned. In Toronto it was wondered if those planes being turned away from American airspace and headed for Canada might not be carrying more of the same for us. Sometimes I think that maybe those towers might be still standing if I went to New York, that this was all some movie...



88. My mom's favourite sayings that I still hear in my head more than 10 years after her death:
    - You can't go to jail for what you're thinking
    - You want to cry? I'll GIVE you something to cry about!



89. I hate McDonald's burgers...And Burger King's. I love Harvey's and Wendy's, but the best I've EVER had is Lick's Burgers



90. My favourite snack spot of all time is Benny's Bagels in Vancouver, BC. If I could time travel back to 1989, before they renovated and were just a little tiny spot on Broadway it'd be so perfect...at 3 am during exams in December, with the same hipster-doofus behind the counter asking if we'd like to "partake fluidly" - ie. do we want any coffee...



91. I am worried my career is at a standstill



92. I am concerned that at some point my daughter won't want to hang around with us anymore (she's only 17 months, talk about an irrational fear!)



93. The first concert I went to was U2 at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver in 1987. That's just before the extreme pretentiousness had set in.



94. I am nearsighted in one eye, farsighted in the other. Every optometrist has made some stupid crack about this since I started wearing glasses. Optometrists must lead such lonely lives...



95. I am terribly impulsive when it comes to big-ticket life changing decisions (jobs, moves, house ownership etc.) yet agonize with analysis paralysis over books, CDs, the right grocery brand choices etc.



96. Star Wars or Star Trek? Star Trek, though it has to be the original series- no political correct non-interference in genocidal developing cultures bullshit as spouted by Next Generation and all that followed. And I LOATHE Enterprise...



97. My last name is German, but for some reason has been mistaken for Arabic. I once had a job interview where they had me waiting for 20 minutes because they were "waiting for someone who looked Middle-Eastern" to show up while I was waiting in the reception area the whole time, even though I'd told the receptionist who I was...



98. I have always disliked Michael Jackson, unlike all my friends that bought Thriller, then hated him saying they never bought that album, then bought Bad, then hated him saying that they never bought the album, on and on and on...I didn't like him then, I don't like him now, however give the poor freak a break; even I think the press is roasting him too much these days...



99. I am not religious, but do believe in something greater than what we know right now...The Force will be with you, always...[sorry, just had to throw that in somewhere...]



100. Unlike many other people I know, I am a happy man...

Middle Earth is Mine!

via the Flea



Wow, a quiz that defines the REAL me!

36 years and counting

6

1

I wonder how much WHINING I'll be hearing at the office tomorrow...

I was listening to CFRB 1010 this afternoon, and the normal bandwagon jumpers had already picked out their spots on the parade route. I'm all for being a fan, but come on...Did anyone objectively think the Leafs could've won with the bruised and broken line up they fielded? Not that Philly can expect to do much better against Ottawa or New Jersey...

Enjoy it while it lasts boys...



...'cause it never does.

He's Alive!

-- sent to me by a co-worker...