Sunday, April 2nd

1 - Once a year in Saskatchewan a great migration takes place, let's call it the 'Exodus'. The Exodus involves young people who have just graduated from high school who move to Calgary to (a) attend school, (b) work, or (c) buy Flames season tickets. Roughly half of Calgary is made of former Saskatchewan residents (how do you think Ralph Klein keeps getting re-elected?), so it makes sense that if half of Calgary is made up of prairie folk, then half of their football team should be made up of ex-Riders, hence the signings of receiver Elijah Thurmon and special teams wiz Walter Spencer. This is a great signing for the Stamps, but the Riders won't be hurt by this as much as everyone thinks. The Leader-Post's Rob Vanstone hit the nail on the head when he wrote:

"Denizens of the Rider Nation have wondered how their beloved CFL team will withstand the departure of Thurmon, who led Saskatchewan in catches (88), receiving yards (1,048) and touchdown grabs (seven) in 2005.

"The answer: Roughriders general manager and personnel guru Roy Shivers will replace Thurmon with ______________.

"Does that clarify matters?"

In the CFL, more so than any other pro-sports league, it's rare players come to camp surrounded by hype. Most often they just show up out of nowhere, like Thurmon did. Shivers has a proven track record of pulling solid prospects out of thin air. I just wish he was as good at finding QB's as he was at finding receivers.

2 - A few weeks ago I figured out that if I was Russian my last name would be Davydov. The -ov in Russian literally means 'Son of'. So Sergei Fedorov is literally translated 'Sergei Son of Fedor'. Since my father's name is David (Davyd in Russian), I become Jason Davydov, or literally 'Jason, Son of David'. If I was Swedish, my name would be Jason Davidsson, or literally 'Jason, David's Son'. The Finnish form of David is 'Taavi', so I become Jason Taavinen, also translated 'Jason, Son of David'. You can entertain yourself in this way all day if your father has a biblical name, especially since many surnames in European culture are patronymic. Unfortunately I'm not Russian, Swedish or Finnish, I'm Scottish. Although it's debatable, 'Kerr' generally means 'Marsh Dweller', so Jason Kerr is, literally translated, 'Jason from the Swamp', which would be kind of neat if I had been born in New Jersey.

3 - Scouting aside, here's another great thing about having Roy Shivers as a GM. Whenever other GM's say something to the media, the headline on the story the next day usually says something like 'Taman Optimistic about Year' or 'Buono Sick of QB Controversy'. It's like the press has to justify putting the GM's name in the headline. But check out this headline on the CFL website: "Shivers Speaks". Looks like he's been upgraded from GM, to demi-god.

4 - From the 'Why Don't You Kick Us While We're Down?' file comes this needless cheapshot from Ed Willes of the Vancouver Province, after the Canucks snapped a ridiculously long losing streak with a win over the Edmonton Oilers:

"Incredibly, they managed to keep it out of the papers but we can now reveal the space aliens who kidnapped the Vancouver Canucks three weeks ago and turned them into the Pittsburgh Penguins returned them unharmed and intact."

5 - Speaking of Edmonton, the tables were turned on Saturday in their final regular season meeting with the Calgary Flames. You all remember what happened last time, with the broken stick? Anyway, this time the Oilers were burned when one of the refs called a delayed penalty against Edmonton, but somehow forgot to blow his whistle until the Oilers had scored. Fortunately, the other official figured out what was going on, and they called the goal back. Instead of a goal, which would have made it a 3-2 game, Calgary got a power play, which they scored on, making it 4-1. What goes around comes around. Some friends wanted me to skip the Battle of Alberta to watch King Kong. I declined, but I got to watch Chris Simon go at it with George Laraque, so I feel like I've seen the movie. Before that fight I thought Chris Simon was the only guy in the NHL capable of working Big George over. Next!

6 - Remember the plagiarism/computer program debate? Here's the opinion of someone who attends Mount St. Vincent University. I thought it was interesting.

7 - Around this time I would usually present the sign of the Apocalypse. Unfortuanetly this weeks sign is definetly not appropriate for public viewing, however, Sports Illustrated mentions it in one of their recent magazines, so if you are obsessed with finding out what it is, you can. It's the one about the Welsh Rugby fan, and that's all I'm going to say.

8 - Oh how the times have changed. A letter to the editor on the CBC website reads:

"It seems the Canadian media are taking a nod from their American counterparts, and quickly becoming lap dogs to Mr. Harper and his smooth and secretive inner club of PR-savvy advisors."

Remember back in the day when people would have laughed at you if you called the conservatives PR savvy? If I'm Stephan Harper I take this one as a compliment.

Man on Fire