Friday, June 2nd

1 - Last Fall the Edmonton Eskimos won the Grey Cup despite the fact the Shawn 'theDING' Rotchford cheered against them in every single play-off game. I wondered if this was merely co-incidence, or perhaps Shawn had the ability to shape sports destiny. Well, if the NHL play-offs are any indication the answer is 'almost'. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks advanced to the Western Conference Finals after disposing of Shawn's beloved Flames in the first round. I have no idea if Shawn was at all bitter or vengeful after that series, but if he was his magic seems to be wearing off. However, I do think that it was ironic that the Ducks were beaten out by the Edmonton Oilers.

2 - My apologies. As of game 5, it's now Anaheim Ducks, at least un-officially.

3 - I'm getting the impression that most Canadians are pleasantly surprised by Stephen Harper's government. Polls show that if Canadians were head to the polls tomorrow they would elect a Conservative majority. What has changed? Well, for one thing, the Conservatives are much more decisive and direct than the Liberals ever were, and I think people like that, but the real reason I think people are happy with the new government is because they expected so little from Harper. He has easily exceeded their expectations because they were so simple to begin with. Low expectations are Harpers greatest ally. Compare and contrast that with Paul Martin, who wasn't as terrible as everyone makes him sound. His problem was that the expectations voters and (mostly) journalists placed on him were too high to begin with, and when he failed to meet them that gave the opposition parties plenty of ammunition to fire at him.

4 - I'm with Rob Vanstone of the Regina Leader-Post, who says if Ricky Williams can't turn his career around playing under 'Pinball' Clemons in Toronto then no one can.

5 - For what it's worth, Vanstone has been just as bad as I have in the play-off predictions department. If fact, he has been so bad that an Oiler fan in Regina phoned him up a few days ago and begged him to pick the Oilers to lose the Stanley Cup final, hoping his string of failure would continue. Vanstone happily obliged by predicting that the Oilers would be swept in the Cup Finals by the Buffalo Sabers (whom Vanstone had pegged to win game 7 against Carolina).

6 - After seeing the new 'I am Man' ads Burger King is putting out I have decided that I will no longer support any other fast food chain but them. I like to reward good advertising.

7 - Soccer fans in Israel have organized an economic boycott that actually works. Forced to pay hundreds of dollars to have a few World Cup (soccer) games, broadcast on local networks, the Israelis boycotted have the network packages, and prices have dropped significantly. Meanwhile, on the other side of the security fence, the Palestinians have turned their diplomatic guns on Iran, after the Iranian network responsible for broadcasting the World Cup into Palestinian homes jacked up their prices too. It wouldn't surprise me to see the deaths and bombings in the Middle East slow to a crawl as everyone but the Americans stop fighting so they can watch soccer, unless of course, it's too expensive.

Man on Fire