Sunday, January 29th...

1 - Today's Out-of-Town Scoreboard:

Tree 1 theDING 0 (1st Intermission)
Mother Goose 1 Internet Culture 1 (1st Intermission)
Writing Addiction 5 Master Chief 0 (3rd Period)

(This game is about to get ugly. The Master Chief himself said if they gave up one more goal the blood would flow.....that was when it was 4-0.....now it's 5-0.....back to you Bob...)

2 - Remeber all the Mickey Mouse jokes going around about the Anahiem Mighty Ducks? The best one I remember was when a mouse actually ran on to the ice at the Arrowhead Pond in Anahiem. No one threw it on the ice, it just ran out the gate during the intermission. Well, after an appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, and a change of ownership, the Mighty Ducks are prepared to axe the final bond between the present team and Emilio Estevez's Disney Ducks. Are you sitting down? As of next season, the Mighty Ducks of Anahiem will become... the Ducks of Anahiem, or, more appropriately, the Anahiem Ducks. Anahiem fans took the news well (Quote from comments: 'We can only hope they get rid of the teal and purple too, top five worst jerseys ever.'). The new name doesn't roll of the tongue that well, but nobody said respectability was free.

3 - For all the talk about Dave Dickenson, Casey Printers, or Kerry Joseph coming to Saskatchewan, wouldn't Jeff Garcia look good in Green and White. Evidently The Leader-Post thinks so. It would be nice to be able to line-up across from Calgary and ask 'hey, how many Pro-Bowls has Burris been to?' The effects of failing to land Garcia are two-fold. For the Riders it means they will still be without a top-notch starting QB. For the Rider's fans it means their vocabulary will still be limited to 'Burris Sucks!' and 'Bring Back Joe '747' Adams!' The lone exception is the University Section, where they'll probably be talking trash with Ballsy (only Regina people will get that) or slurrying their request for another cold one.

4 - The champagne has been cracked, the cigar's have been lit, and the Prime Minister crowned, but the fat lady hasn't even started warming up her vocal cords: Election Investigation? For all I know this could be old news, but I havn't heard any follow up reports, so maybe they are investigating.

5 - Maybe there is no room for goons in the new NHL. According to www.hockeyfights.com the last five NHL scraps, as of 1:54 AM on January 29th were between:

Derek Boogaard (Wild) and Jody Shelly (Blue Jackets)
Oleg Tverdovsky (Hurricanes) and Marian Hossa (Thrashers)
Brian Willsie (Capitals) and Ryan Whitney (Penguins)
George Parros (Kings) and Scott Thornton (Sharks)
Marcus Nilson (Flames) and Karlis Skrastins (Avalanche)

Okay, so we've got a guy named Marian fighting a Russian who had to be rescued by his goalie in his only other pro fight four years ago. We've got a Swede (Nilson) taking on a Latvian (Skrastins, who by the way is one punishing hitter), and a guy (Whitney) who spent his pre-NHL days playing U.S. college hockey (where fighting is banned) taking on another guy (Willsie) who's only been in one other NHL fight, and failed to land a punch during the entire bout (he did manage to smack his opponent once with his stick though). There's no doubt that Boogaard vs. Shelly is a heavyweight tilt, but Parros and Thronton are cruisers at best. And that's over two and a half days worth of games. Maybe Mike Ulmer was right.

6 - Mario Lemieux Retires

Quote: "If I could play this game at a decent level, I'd come back and play."

I was on a plane heading from Amsterdam to Helsinki two years ago, having a nice chat with a middle aged man from Wisconsin who was born and raised in Turku (home of Saku Koivu and Kipper), moved to the U.S. and was flying back to Finland on business. As soon as he found out I was from Canada the conversation inevitably switched to hockey. Seeing as how I was from Canada, he couldn't possibly comprehend why I would cheer for an American team. My answer: Mario Lemieux. Since I was old enough to understand the game of hockey Lemieux and the Penguins have superceded national duty. Players have come and gone in Pittsburgh, but Lemieux has always been the man. He'll be forever remembered as the man who scored a goal on his first NHL shift, the man who put the puck between Ray Bourque's legs and fired it over Andy Moogs glove, the man who had the whole world thinking he was going to pass the puck to Larry Murphy, and instead burying it to win the 1987 Canada Cup, and the man who had the whole world thinking he was going to shoot before letting the puck slide between his legs to Paul Karyia in the 2002 Olympics. He stats will never compare with Gretzky's, but, then again, stats are for losers. Lemieux's hockey accomplishments will never reach the level of a scientist's, politician's, or general's, but for a young boy who grew up dreaming of playing on a line with Mario Lemieux, they're pretty flippin' amazing.

M.O.F.

Tuesday, January 24th,

1 - First things first. Here's a link for Jim Reed's comment: link.

2 - I've seen stranger coincidences, but... it turns out that January 23rd is the most depressing day of the year, election or not. Check out this article in the Edmonton Journal. Then check out NealeNews cause they found it first.

3 - From the 'Truth is Stranger than Fiction' file...

Quote: 'Invading Canada won't be like invading Iraq: When we invade Canada, nobody will be able to grumble that we didn't have a plan.'

Peter Carlson, Washington Post Staff Writer

Don Cherry must be choking on his mike as we speak. The American's come up with a plan to invade Canada (circa 1930), which Canada knows nothing about. Canada comes up with a plan to defend themselves from American attack (same time period), which the U.S. knows nothing about. Canada's plan of defense calls for us to fight... like Russians. First of all, if we suspect an American attack, we are to invade as much American territory as possible, then blow up bridges, burn crops, slaughter livestock, and rip up railway lines. Yup, scorched earth. Then we retreat back across the border and wait for winter. Et tu Cherry?

More quotable material:

"It gets to about minus-50 Celsius with a wind chill. It will be like Napoleon's invasion of Russia. I'm quite convinced that you'll meet your Waterloo on the banks of the Assiniboine River."

Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz to Carlson on plans calling for American troops to seize Winnipeg railway yards.

Katz is quite an aggresive little whipper-snapper. Never let anyone tell you Winnipeger's don't have guts.

Courtesty of Kevin Libin on The Shotgun.

4 - Another mistake... Michel Therrien is the Penguins new coach, not Claude Julien (who was just fired by Montreal). If you read the last post you know all about that one.

5 - January 23rd will go down in the history books as the day during which the 39th general election was held. Here's a look at some other things that happened on January 23rd:

Winnipeg Victorias win the Stanley Cup (1902)
Vietnam War ends (1973)
The most fatal earthquake in history kills roughly 830 000 people in China (1556)

6 - More quotable:

'I gave Terrell Owens a copy of Madden 2006 for Christmans this year. That way he can call his own number on every play, and bench Donavon McNabb.'

Santa Claus (wink-wink-nudge-nudge) in an interview with Regina Leader-Post columnist Rob Vanstone.

7 - When you consider Troy Polamolu's hair, Jerome Bettis' girth, and Bill Cowher's mustache, it's hard not to cheer for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the upcoming Super-Overhyped Bowl.

8 - Nice to see voter turnout increase for the election nobody wanted to have.

9 - The Penguins lose again, 4-2 to the Flyers. I was hoping that some of the Steelers success would rub off on the Pens, but instead they seem to be taking after that other Pittsburgh team. Pittsburgh has lost nine of their last ten. Only God can save them now. (P.S. - Sidney Crosby is not God!)

10 - It's hard to stay mad at the Saskatchewan Roughriders when the Penguins are sucking this bad. On the bright side atleast the Leafs lost again. I can't wait for football season.

11 - Russian's find British Spies:

Interesting. Here's a quick run down. Brits hide electronic devices in a fake rock. Nobody knows what the devices were for, yet. Russians catch Brits playing with said fake rock on camera. Russian's claim Brits funding pro-democracy groups in Russia. Later on a Russian double agent is arrested. James Bond, eat it.

12 - Finally, here's to Canadian voters turning over a new leaf. Congradulations Stephen Harper. I hope your stay is a little longer than the last guy's.

Man on Fire