Month: September 2007

Friday Bullet and Chat and Autumn’s Just Around The Corner

OK, so it wasn’t the end of summer last week. It’s this weekend. You wouldn’t know it. as it is going to push 30C later today in some parts of Ontario today. A weekend of actual sunshine, warmth and nothing to really do lays out before me. What to do? What to do? We have been playing a sort of lawn bowling with our boules set nightly. Likely the land will hear more of the click of the steel.

  • Update: Do you have any idea how nice it was to know that the Red Sox could not lose again last night because they were not playing. The New York Times shares my pain.
  • I did not watch the provincial election debate last night. Ontario politics, due to the odd polite role Ontario plays not actually pulling its weight in the national scene, is sort of dull. All three candidates are reasonably polite and reasonably good intentioned people leading a huge government bureaucracy of the scale of a nation within a nation that has seeming difficulties expressing itself as a cultural fact. Though, to be fair, the conservatives use of the phrase “catch and release” justice is getting tedious. And the idea that a broken pledge to not raise taxes is wrong after the promise maker gets in power and finds out, as we all do from time to time, that conservatives (the accusers now) have no idea how to run a finance department without a resource windfall attached to it is simply laughable. I will, however and again, not vote for the winner. If you are interested, the Globe blogged the debate backwards requiring you to read the impressions from bottom to top. The MSM is sooooo bad.
  • Ry has a request:

    Ack. We needs a fun topic, Al. Writing 4 page essay length stuff for John and his commentators is killing me. How about we start a pool for the MLB playoffs. It’s almost Oct after all. Something like March madness would suffice I think. It’s smaller and easier than that, but could still be fun.

    That is reasonable but I am crawling into my shell what with the collapse of the Sox. Did you know that they are in the lead now but not by a huge amount? I mean I should be absolutely shattered because they are in the lead but only by a bit. Any ideas how I can overcome my despair over them being in the lead?

  • I have seen this sort of claim from Western apologists before and it is the oddest falsehood for someone to cling onto. From Ezra Levant in (yawn!) Canadian Lawyer‘s September issue:

    But tens of thousands of Canadians think otherwise. They’re not choosing Saskatchewan, a province with nearly as much oil and gas, more wheat, more potash, and more uranium. Alberta’s wealth is not because of its natural resources but precisely because of its free market is working so well.

    If this shabby thinking is what you need to get you through the night, fine, but it is good for the rest of you to know that as Alberta’s oil reserves are 174.8 billion barrels and its gas reserves are 41 trillion cubic feet, Saskatchewan has only 1,244 million barrels of oil (0.71% of Alberta) and just 3.3 trillion cubic feet of gas (8% of its neighbour). Once again, say it out loud, Alberta is incredibly wealthy because it is sitting on the one resource the world is begging for and it was blessed with that by fluke of geology and late Victorian boundary-making. People move there to make a lot of money just like people move anywhere there is plenty of money to make.

  • Jay is writing longer pieces. I used to write longer pieces. I used to be able to hold that much in my mind. Jay can. Or maybe he writes a bit each day. Yeah, that must be it. So apparently we could be the new Switzerland. Switzerland?

    In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

    Hoo-ray. Melted cheese for dinner, too.

That’s it. The computer just about froze so I better send you on your way.

Alberta Considers Not Selling The Farm Anymore

What an odd debate it is that is breaking out in Alberta over the report that is stating decades of Conservative governments have been giving away their oil. Alberta’s government owns the resource and gets to charge a royalty for it’s exploitation. While the new Premier has to make the decision, former Premier Klein is showing where his loyalties are to be found:

Speaking yesterday to an industry group in Calgary, Mr. Klein criticized the report, insisting that the province’s previous fiscal regime had provided the necessary stability for companies to invest in Alberta. “These are the things that separate us from places like Venezuela and Iraq, where governments hold foreign companies hostage by arbitrarily hiking royalties,” he said. “We don’t do business like that in this province. We have a fair, clear and comprehensive royalty regime, where the rules are the same for everyone and they don’t change on a whim.”

This is on top of another former Premier, Peter Loughheed causing controversy by suggesting that concern should be had for the state of the Albertan environment in light of the expansion of the oil patch and suggesting increased claims for extra-provincial wealth sharing were coming.

The other day, bouncing around ideas someone came up with beerocracy but it turns out that was an idea once before, one blogger ranking tops on Google for noting in 2003 that the “term was coined by Lady Nancy Astor to describe the Scottish brewing families that entered politics and were influential in Parliament in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they somehow never brought about a boozy paradise for all.” The influence continued longer than that. Point? I don’t know. But it is interesting to note the unique difficulties and disadvantages that come with windfall booms and monoconomies.

That Is The Sound Of Choking You Hear

It is something of a comfortable feeling, this free fall. Sure some people say things like this:

“We still have work,” Manager Joe Torre said. “We won’t allow ourselves to get caught up in what people will assume is a foregone conclusion.”

But those are the words of someone planning on winning, not one trying to avoid losing. Still, the Red Sox have good company with the Mets bumbling, tumbling and stumbling as well. It’s not just that they are losing. They are losing with a certain style. Last Friday’s eighth inning collapse that turned a 2-7 lead, Sundays failure to convert bases loaded in the ninth into a David Ortiz grandslam…or hit. Last night’s snatch of failure from the jaws of victory was particularly sweet – after getting two outs holding a 2-1 lead, Gagne decided to throw bean balls at the right handed pitcher. Except the guy was batting left. In an act of utter remorse and considered correction, Gagne decided to aim for the leftie’s ankles. Again, he adjusts. You can see him making one of the next pitches above. Read the rest here. Not pretty.

My new pal Clay Buchholz pitches tonight.

Sour Beer Studies: Vichtenaar, Verhaeghe, Belgium

Sibling to the more popular Duchesse De Bourgogne, I got this one at Beers of the World in Rochester at the beginning of August. Frankly, I can’t believe that it’s lasted this long as one thing I am learning from these sour beer studies is that I could be a wee bit obsessed with these Flemish ones.

At 5.1%, not a heavy-weight by any length but not many of these are. The brewery’s explanation of the beer is in Flemish but have a go, tell us what you think it says – this bit especially:

De smaak van de “Vichtenaar” kan men omschrijven als licht zurig en complex en dit door de lange gisting in eikenhouten vaten.

If you need a hint, I recall that “smaak” is taste, which you might have figured out yourself. “Omschrijven”? – not so sure.

Translucent mahogany ale under fine tan froth and foam, the aroma is sherry and nuts, vanilla and a little vinegar. Very soft water, as the website states, makes this very moreish – surprisingly so with one of this style. Initially I thought that this was less complex than other Flemish sours I had had but it’s just a bit less strident, the sour a bit recessed, the yeast milky, the malt all full of cherry and pear and maybe, just maybe, a tiny note of maple. Plenty of BAer respect.

One Effect Of The Self-Determined Meritocracy

The 50th anniversary of a sorry excuse for a belief system is being noted today – yet even in light of such sad news one can still find a favorite stat:

Every year, 400,000 copies of Rand’s novels are offered free to Advanced Placement high school programs. They are paid for by the Ayn Rand Institute, whose director, Yaron Brook, said the mission was “to keep Rand alive.” Last year, bookstores sold 150,000 copies of the book.

It is was really that good, would you not have readers actually pay for all that excellence? And, anyway, how can you trust libertarians that organize themselves into an lobbying group that rejects market rules so flagrantly?

But What About the Surfers?

Shocking news at the lack of consideration being paid to surfers in the face of a new apparently perfect energy generation project off Cornwall England:

The Wave Hub – a seafloor “socket”, will connect wave energy machines to the mainland. The proposed power station will involve up to 20 sets of machines, with pumps, pistons and turbines, about 10 miles (16km) out to sea off St Ives Bay, generating electricity for 14,000 homes.

There was some objection to the scheme among surfers who were worried the farm would reduce wave height on the beaches.

Oh. My. God. The inhumanity of it all. Anyway, I wonder how common these sorts of things might become before I kick off. You look at all the efforts to capture energy coming off the air movements above the Great Lakes, for example, but there must be far more that might be done with the power of the water itself. Less surfer backlash as well.

Me And TV Sports Yesterday

Having messed up my sleep this weekend due to watch The Guns of Navarone on Friday until 3 am (I was in need of watching something where the right team won after the Sox choked after being up 2-7), I spent a rich and rewarding day napping and watching sports with half an eye.

In a nutshell: Syracuse was really bad in the game that started at noon and the Sox were really good in the one that started at four. And over steak and kidney pie (punchline: “No, I didley!?!”) out visiting, it became clear that the young guys and the bench on the Sox are maybe a bit better than the young guys on the Yanks. Though no pup anymore, Hinske did a good number on Posada:

“[Third base coach] DeMarlo Hale said I’m going on contact,” Hinske said. “I’m trying to score a run. I realize I’m going to be out. The only play is to try to run [Posada] over. I hit him pretty good. I think it pumped up the team a little bit.” Hinske, who gained more than 1,000 yards as a running back at Menasha his junior year, once dreamed of playing football for the University of Wisconsin. But when his Badgers didn’t recruit him, he went to the University of Arkansas on a baseball scholarship. Years later, the football mentality has never left. “I put my shoulder down – I hadn’t done that, I think, since the minor leagues,” he said. “It felt great. I had fun playing high school football. I asked Posada my next at-bat if he was OK and he said he was fine.”

To be fair, he said fine like a man who was trampled by an ox on national TV says he’s fine – though Posada did hold onto that ball.

And to be entirely fair in relation to the headline above, I listened to the Syracuse game on 100.7 FM as much as I watched it on the five hundred cable TV channel universe, that wonder that provides what the internet has given only promises about for a decade. It was not prettier audio-unvisually. Getting the first field goal was a balm to their emotionally fragile offense. A great hit on a receiver just about to take the corner was apparently a surprise in the class of the child who first gets to the pool’s edge without assistance. Apparently a win against Buffalo is now even in doubt.

The Tribute To Michael On The High Seas With Pete Brown

petebf

Plans for the international support the National Toast for Michael Jackson are taking off. Events so far are planned for across the US, London, Glasgow, Oslo and even my backyard. Getting the word out has been greatly encouraging for everyone but sometimes difficult. You all should be aware that Pete Brown, author of Man Walks into a Pub and Three Sheets to the Wind is off on the adventure of a lifetime researching his new book by traveling with a cask of India Pale Ale from its brewery of birth to the great sub-continent itself. But how to contact him? He’s already started out on his voyage. Good thing I earned that Morse Code badge in cub scouts:

Alan: [clickity-click-click…, various shortwave radio noises] Ahoy Pete! […click-clickity…] Are you there, Pete? Over!

Pete: [time passes……click-click…, faintly] Who the hell is that? The captain had to interrupt my coal shoveling! I have a deadline for a freelance piece in Coal Stokers’ Weekly in two hours!!!

Alan: [(silence)…click-click-click…] Jeesh, sorry. Have you heard about the National Toast for Michael Jackson to be held on the 30th? Can you take part? Where will you be? Over!

Pete: […clickity-click-click…] The day of the mass toast, I’ll be a day out of Tenerife on a nineteenth century tall ship with a barrel of IPA bound for India, the old-fashioned way. I wouldn’t have been doing it if it hadn’t been for Michael, and I think he would have approved. I’ll certainly be raising a glass, whatever time zone I’m in.

Alan: […click-click-click…] Fabulous! I’ll let you get back to your boilers. By the way, did you hear about the scandal in dwile flonking? Over!

Pete: […clickity-click…click…, fainter] Sorry…unclear…that did not come acro…message…as if you said dwile flon…dw… flonking!!! I’ll have to upda…article for…Flonking Monthly!!! […transmission lost…]

Wow! It sure is a bracing life of adventure for the freelance author on the high seas. But good for him to join in the tribute as he can. And you should, too. Give to the NPF or your local Parkinson organization and hold an event on September 30th wherever you are.

The Big Papi Remedy

What better way to end a grumpy day?

For the first time this season, and the 10th as a Red Sox, Ortiz ended a game via a walkoff home run. This one came with Julio Lugo at first base, one out, Tampa Bay closer Al Reyes on the mound, and, perhaps most importantly, Delmon Young in right field. Ortiz, who supplied the Sox’ earlier offensive output with a three-run homer in the third inning, launched Reyes’ 3-1 fastball high into the Fenway night. As the ball started tailing away from the right field foul pole, Young remained drifting toward the line. By the time the rookie recovered, Ortiz’ blast landed in the first row of Section 86 for the Red Sox’ first walkoff home run since Carlos Pena lived his dream, one year and eight days before.

I touched the TV right after and I swear it made me feel better. So now the last Yankees v. Red Sox series of the season begins this Friday at Fenway. New York has, frankly, been on fire facing some weaker teams, including last night’s win over the collapsing Glaus-gate-ridden Jays. Taking 2/3 off of Tampa was good work for Boston as the Rays have been hot as well. Anyway, find a TV or a radio because come Monday Boston can be anywhere between two and eight games up.