Tuesday November 27, 12:25 a.m.
It must be a great day to be a journalist of any kind in Toronto. I can imagine reporters everywhere kneeling in their bedrooms tonight and just looking upwards with a beatifically joyous gleam, screaming "THANK YOU, LORD!!! OH, THANK YOU!!!"
I would've thought that the only thing that could steal the headlines from the Argos winning the Grey Cup (the first time the team has done so on home turf in 50 years) was a miraculous agreement between the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association. I was quite wrong. Instead, it turned out to be the firing of Mayor Rob Ford, around 12 hours after the Argos made it official.
Ford was found guilty of breaking conflict-of-interest rules for using official City Council resources to ask for donations for his football foundation back when he was still a councillor. This was back in 2010, and I guess it isn't just the arm of the law that's long....so is the memory. And the judge was having none of it. Citing the need for administrators of high office to be held to a high standard, the judge took away Ford's council seat and gave him 2 weeks to clear out his things and get out of City Hall. Wow! I thought this reality was the least likely option; my feelings had been that the judge would've given Ford a stern lecture and ordered him to return the donated money but allowed him to keep his job.
But with this verdict, the journalists are just jumping and jiving. And it looks like the population may be evenly divided. In any case, Ford was at his most truculent and said that he would fight the verdict "tooth and nail". Politics just became a nuclear hotbed in this city. And the ironic thing is that the Argonauts are gonna have their victory parade later today which will involve the team handing over the trophy to guess who? It should make for a fascinating and awkward moment.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Wow, Toronto Actually Wins a Championship!
Sunday November 25, 11:13 p.m.
A month early, but Toronto got an early Xmas present in the form of a sports championship. Been a while but the Argonauts won The Grey Cup less than an hour ago. I think a lacrosse team won a league championship a few years ago but amongst the big four sports of NHL, CFL, NBA and MLB, it's been a good long while.
I was a bit worried at the beginning of the game when it seemed like QB Ricky Ray looked a bit like his early season self. However, things started rolling along very nicely as the game approached the end of the first half. And his hanging Chads were in fine form(no snickering please). Right now, the downtown streets of Toronto are flooded with an atypical sight: ferociously celebratory fans. I haven't seen anything like that since the Canadian Olympic Hockey Teams won Gold Medals in Salt Lake City a decade ago, and I haven't experienced that kinda fun since the Jays won the World Series at Skydome 2 decades ago.
Let us enjoy the next week or so. And the victory parade is on for Tuesday.
A month early, but Toronto got an early Xmas present in the form of a sports championship. Been a while but the Argonauts won The Grey Cup less than an hour ago. I think a lacrosse team won a league championship a few years ago but amongst the big four sports of NHL, CFL, NBA and MLB, it's been a good long while.
I was a bit worried at the beginning of the game when it seemed like QB Ricky Ray looked a bit like his early season self. However, things started rolling along very nicely as the game approached the end of the first half. And his hanging Chads were in fine form(no snickering please). Right now, the downtown streets of Toronto are flooded with an atypical sight: ferociously celebratory fans. I haven't seen anything like that since the Canadian Olympic Hockey Teams won Gold Medals in Salt Lake City a decade ago, and I haven't experienced that kinda fun since the Jays won the World Series at Skydome 2 decades ago.
Let us enjoy the next week or so. And the victory parade is on for Tuesday.
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| courtesy of easy1994 from Flickr |
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Weird Space
Saturday November 24, 4:35 p.m.
Pretty quiet start to the weekend. The weather people got it wrong for my neck of the woods, at least, in that it's been sunny here and there hasn't been a single flake of snow. However, there is that snap of cold in the air that we haven't felt during the past week. Perhaps the sign is here that we're finally heading into Winter.
It's supposed to be Grey Cup Weekend, but again, I get the feeling that this is more of a downtown Toronto phenomenon. Not feeling much excitement here in the relative boonies. And there haven't been any more Alex Anthopolous blockbuster surprises for the Jays, so perhaps, we may be in withdrawal right now. But what's making me feel this existential null void is that there is no hockey. Just realized it right now, but we haven't had "Hockey Night In Canada"in well over a month, and with now the All-Star Game on the scrap heap, it looks like this will be another in the series of "The Year Without An NHL". Heck even Don Cherry is now being forced to put out newspaper articles of his diatribes. I guess showing up on brokerage commercials only gets so much satisfaction.
Mind you, I've got Mr. Moriya for his Skype lesson tonight. It'll be 3 weeks since I've seen him.
Supposedly, in the last few days, NASA and its Curiosity Rover on Mars may have found something big but are keeping mum about it. Some of the Scully Skeptics are grumbling that it's all ado about nothing but you never know. Maybe they found a beer can.
Pretty quiet start to the weekend. The weather people got it wrong for my neck of the woods, at least, in that it's been sunny here and there hasn't been a single flake of snow. However, there is that snap of cold in the air that we haven't felt during the past week. Perhaps the sign is here that we're finally heading into Winter.
It's supposed to be Grey Cup Weekend, but again, I get the feeling that this is more of a downtown Toronto phenomenon. Not feeling much excitement here in the relative boonies. And there haven't been any more Alex Anthopolous blockbuster surprises for the Jays, so perhaps, we may be in withdrawal right now. But what's making me feel this existential null void is that there is no hockey. Just realized it right now, but we haven't had "Hockey Night In Canada"in well over a month, and with now the All-Star Game on the scrap heap, it looks like this will be another in the series of "The Year Without An NHL". Heck even Don Cherry is now being forced to put out newspaper articles of his diatribes. I guess showing up on brokerage commercials only gets so much satisfaction.
Mind you, I've got Mr. Moriya for his Skype lesson tonight. It'll be 3 weeks since I've seen him.
Supposedly, in the last few days, NASA and its Curiosity Rover on Mars may have found something big but are keeping mum about it. Some of the Scully Skeptics are grumbling that it's all ado about nothing but you never know. Maybe they found a beer can.
The Trouble with Tracy
I saw the No. 1 listing, and it was "The Trouble With Tracy". Suddenly memories of the old CFTO logo (now CTV Toronto), Uncle Bobby and lunchtimes at home during my elementary school days flooded into the old melon. I don't recall laughing one whit at it despite the canned laughter that all but said "You are supposed to laugh now!", but I had just thought that the humour was above my age grade. Little did I know that there was apparently no humour to be had at all. All I remember was this perky blonde, her harried husband (played by the late Steve Weston who used to be on those old Labatts "Laugh-In"-like commercials) and her good-for-nothing hippie brother, living in a high-rise apartment building that looked like some of the towers that populated my old neighbourhood of St. James Town. At the time, I probably thought that Tracy and company lived just down Ontario Street or over on Bleeker.
In any case, I wouldn't mind seeing a sliver of "The Trouble with Tracy" if only to get that bit of nostalgia and that awe at seeing what adults wore back in those days.
Larry Hagman (1931-2012)
Of course, he will always be known as J.R. Ewing, television's most famous psychopath, decades before "Dexter"hit the screen. But since I was never all that much of a drama fan (saw "Hill Street Blues" and "St. Elsewhere" in small bits and pieces), the only real interest I ever had in the original "Dallas"was when the "Who Shot J.R.?"cliffhanger came out, and even non-fans of the series had no choice but to listen to it since it completely subsumed TV and print media.
For me, Hagman will always be astronaut Major Tony Nelson on "I Dream of Jeannie". It might be hard to imagine for those who only knew him as the evil J.R., but Hagman could play a completely comedic and harried straight man to Barbara Eden's kooky Jeannie. He was as good as Dick York in "Bewitched".
But getting back to "Dallas", reruns of the original were playing regularly on the local cable channel in Japan, Super Drama TV. And yet, I'd read somewhere that when the prime time soap had first premiered there, it had gotten a lot of flack from critics and viewers alike since apparently Charlene Tilton's character laughed out loud without doing the proper thing of covering her mouth when she did so. Not sure how much of that was urban legend. It's certainly not a problem now since if that so-called faux pas had held up to the present day, pretty much every female tarento in Japan would be having weekly press conferences of apology.
Not sure how the new "Dallas"is going to be able to continue much longer without J.R. I've heard that some of the Season 2 episodes had already been filmed. Perhaps it would be better that all of the plot lines be tied up by the end of the season and just have the series end right there, although the bean counters in Hollywood would burn me in effigy if they ever heard that from me.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Heading into Winter?/Rogers on That
Friday November 23, 1:16 p.m.
It's been pretty balmy over the past few days, but it looks like we might get our first taste of Winter in the next few days. They're forecasting flurries or sleet over the weekend and into the next week. Just a shot across the bow before December arrives. Not sure when the big snowstorms are coming in.
I woke up this morning with the parentals grumbling that they couldn't get their TV Japan. I checked; it seemed as if a lot of the higher channels weren't coming through either. I waited in the hopes that the trouble would sort itself out, but when it didn't around noon, I sent a tweet to Rogers, and considering the bad reputation the organization has had, I was surprised when I got a friendly reply within 10 minutes of sending it. I don't think it was a bot. Anyways, I unplugged the digital box for about 30 seconds as advised, and after the TV reset itself, everything was back online and hunky dory. Cannot complain about that sort of service.
Looks like downtown Toronto is getting into Grey Cup fever. The rest of us in the burbs just have to take CP24's word for it. Apparently, Marty the Calgary Stampeders mascot was making his rounds, and after one failed attempt, finally got to enter the Royal York Hotel with a big bowl of fresh veggies waiting for him. Not sure if anything else came out of the other end during his walkabout; just hope noone was walking immediately behind, lest that person got the literal form of a politican's campaign speech.
It's been pretty balmy over the past few days, but it looks like we might get our first taste of Winter in the next few days. They're forecasting flurries or sleet over the weekend and into the next week. Just a shot across the bow before December arrives. Not sure when the big snowstorms are coming in.
I woke up this morning with the parentals grumbling that they couldn't get their TV Japan. I checked; it seemed as if a lot of the higher channels weren't coming through either. I waited in the hopes that the trouble would sort itself out, but when it didn't around noon, I sent a tweet to Rogers, and considering the bad reputation the organization has had, I was surprised when I got a friendly reply within 10 minutes of sending it. I don't think it was a bot. Anyways, I unplugged the digital box for about 30 seconds as advised, and after the TV reset itself, everything was back online and hunky dory. Cannot complain about that sort of service.
Looks like downtown Toronto is getting into Grey Cup fever. The rest of us in the burbs just have to take CP24's word for it. Apparently, Marty the Calgary Stampeders mascot was making his rounds, and after one failed attempt, finally got to enter the Royal York Hotel with a big bowl of fresh veggies waiting for him. Not sure if anything else came out of the other end during his walkabout; just hope noone was walking immediately behind, lest that person got the literal form of a politican's campaign speech.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Decompressing Time
Thursday November 22, 1:47 p.m.
Just taking some time off for the next few days. I had that all-day translating assignment yesterday, and considering the written version of a stern lecture from the boss the other day for not providing a high-quality product, I concentrated even more on this one on Wednesday. After a triple check, I handed it in a few hours before the deadline. Got the acknowledgement from the boss this morning, and he even offered me another assignment today but I turned it down. It was even larger but I'm feeling even more tired. So, today is just taking care of my blogs.
Started my Xmas time this morning when I sent out the first 8 Xmas cards over to Japan, and bought a couple of calendars for my former students since the two of them had been kind enough to send over a small parcel of rice crackers and peanuts a couple of months ago. I figure things are gonna get nuts starting in a couple of weeks.
This morning on NHK News, it was being reported that there was some sort of hostage-taking incident happening at a store in Aichi Prefecture. At the time, the psycho released a couple of hostages and got some bento for the remaining people inside. As bad as that situation is over there, I can't even imagine what it's gonna be like tomorrow on Black Friday in the States. I can guarantee that it will be violent.
Meanwhile in the final sumo championship of the year, there are two yokozuna grand champions for the first time in several years. Hakuho is protecting his one loss as the leader but the new yokozuna, Harumafuji, is looking a bit uncertain after losing 3 bouts. Not too yokozuna-like in performance but then again, the pressure is probably a bit harder on him right now.
Just taking some time off for the next few days. I had that all-day translating assignment yesterday, and considering the written version of a stern lecture from the boss the other day for not providing a high-quality product, I concentrated even more on this one on Wednesday. After a triple check, I handed it in a few hours before the deadline. Got the acknowledgement from the boss this morning, and he even offered me another assignment today but I turned it down. It was even larger but I'm feeling even more tired. So, today is just taking care of my blogs.
Started my Xmas time this morning when I sent out the first 8 Xmas cards over to Japan, and bought a couple of calendars for my former students since the two of them had been kind enough to send over a small parcel of rice crackers and peanuts a couple of months ago. I figure things are gonna get nuts starting in a couple of weeks.
This morning on NHK News, it was being reported that there was some sort of hostage-taking incident happening at a store in Aichi Prefecture. At the time, the psycho released a couple of hostages and got some bento for the remaining people inside. As bad as that situation is over there, I can't even imagine what it's gonna be like tomorrow on Black Friday in the States. I can guarantee that it will be violent.
Meanwhile in the final sumo championship of the year, there are two yokozuna grand champions for the first time in several years. Hakuho is protecting his one loss as the leader but the new yokozuna, Harumafuji, is looking a bit uncertain after losing 3 bouts. Not too yokozuna-like in performance but then again, the pressure is probably a bit harder on him right now.
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