Sports Update

The sports pool is suffering from a gap and I realize I should have had some first round NBA questions to fill in at this point – like “how many techical fouls will Iverson pick up?” for 30 points. That being said, I am astounded how I do not miss the NHL in any way. My gawking at athletes life is entirely complete without it, exemplified by how much I enjoyed last night’s 2-0 Jay’s victory over the Yankees.

Of my three disliked teams across all sports – the other two being the Habs and Man U – I admire the Yankees the most. So while I will turn on the TV just to see them lose, when they do lose it is quite the thing. And losing to the Jays is quite the thing as well. Roy Halliday, the pitcher for Toronto, threw a three hitter was as in control and dominating as any pitcher I have ever seen making veterans dive back at pitches that transformed from beanballs to middle of the plate strikes but the time they hit the catchers glove. Their shortstop, MacDonald, made a unbelieveable snab at a sure looper and Hudson at second was very strong. Randy Johnson, by comparison, appeared as weak as I have ever seen him but he still had a more than decent start with a complete game and nine strike-outs. He was just over-shadowed. The New York Times this morning says of the game:

Halladay throttled the Yankees, 2-0, spinning a three-hitter and doing his best imitation of Josh Beckett in the 2003 World Series. On a night when Randy Johnson also threw a complete game with nine strikeouts, Halladay shone brightest. “He was nasty, that’s just the bottom line,” Derek Jeter said. “Everyone talks about the great pitchers in the game: Clemens, Randy, Pedro,” Jeter added, referring to Roger Clemens and Pedro Martínez. “They need to start talking about Halladay, because he’s as good as they come.”

With the Big Unit out to a poor start along with the rest of the team, the judges now will be out for a good long time to determine whether Boston, with Wells, or New York was craftier in their selection of guys my age as starting ace.

Baseball has won me back. I have box seat tickets for a Pawtucket Sox game in late July and may even take the kids to see a Jays game from the cheap seats – seats you can actually afford at nine bucks and seats that are actually available. I may even drag them over the river to see the Watertown Wizards of the NYCBL. June 18th there is a whuppin’ of Glens Falls scheduled at 3 pm on a Saturday. Soon, CFL will start up. Soon, there will be talk of NFL. Soon, Bettman will be fired and, someday, the new 16 team NHL will figuring out how to get a revenue stream when you force a lock-out and declare that you will not use replacement players.

Election Watch: Tories

It took some coaxing from certain parties but here is a link to the March 2005 Policy Declaration of the Conservative Party of Canada. I do not seem to be able to actually save the document and even my operatives deep within the Big Blue Blob had difficulty locating the document on the rather badly laid out CPC website so read it while you can.

Update: I have had a quick look through and am not drastically concerned except for all the wingy property rights things not to mention a federalism (aka constitutional) review of the needs of those poor Western Canadians (aka the rich Albertans!). Here is a list of some of the highlights as far as I am concerned:

    Apparently, you will not be encouraged to be an autonomous slacker under Tory rule. Being yourself is not part of well being, just money, money, money and I, me, mine. Nothing to fear as a constitutional amendment will never never never pass. It is nutty dreamerism of those with to pretend that their Audi and cottage on the lake is worth the same protection as the independent media or those personal characteristics which are used by discriminating state agencies against individuals.

  • Tighter breach of public trust provisions are fine and the Tories will be able to consult with their own incarcerated Senator on the idea.
  • Big science projects are the best science projects. I love big science.
  • I am happy living with the health care and pharmacare principles which include universal access and public funding but public and private delivery as well as catastrophic illness drug coverage.
  • The principle of respect for provincial jurisdiction over housing and immigration gets a little confused as deals with municipalities appear to be on the table.
  • I have no idea what it means that Parliment will run foreign affairs matters. Leadership by disfunctional committee in time of crisis. Brilliant.

So all in all the best thing is it is all there for you to see. I will have to see whether the other parties can pull our a broad ranging paper on what they stand for. Operatives behind the blue wall inform me that this document will form the basis for the election platform in the next election. I may think some of it is nuttsy Alberta speak but at least it is speaking. So not more hidden agenda talk from me. It is all there and some of it is scary but no scarier than those guys who date or married your female pals from undergrad who monopolize dinner parties boring everyone with softie rightist monologues on whatever. Do you want to see that guy on TV every night with PM after his name?

Two Years

Noonish tomorrow I will have been doing this blog for two years. I was blogging for years before that at other places but for two years, I have had this pulpit. I can’t for the life of me think of anything of value that has come of it other than the daily pleasure at seeing the stats and the converstaions with some of those people represented by those stats. Some things I might draw from the 1849 posts prior to this one:

  • I like music less than I thought I did and I like sports more. A quick look at the number of post under category tells you that. Unlike sports where I have a deep and abiding relationship with my favoured teams, I have an interest in politics similar to my interest in NASCAR and Formula 1. I watch for the crashes. I am quite surprised by those who are strongly Tory or NDP. I dislike Tories but only due to their consistent record of practical incompetence rather than for any theorical basis. I vote NDP but whenever I think I will pop round for a night of envelope stuffing, the whole fellow traveller thing puts me off.
  • I find the discourse of the nature and place of the web and blogging is quite poor. Participation in the medium appears to qualify in itself as expertise. Could there be a more classic example? The web is less interesting and less important that fans grant it but it is more promising than most futurists project. It wil be replaced by an unknown and this era will seem quaint. That is as certain as death and taxes. We will obey fascist ants controlling it all one day.
  • Very little consideration is given to the downside of the medium of the internet generally and blogging speficically. Far from being a self-correcting system, it is most often a self-justifying one, confusing opinion for fact and popularity for reliability. I have not become more intellegent through blogging. I have likely become stupider. Will may be feeling the same thing. I have warned people away from its use in professional contexts and been later thanked. Yet I will continue to do this. I can’t think of a process other than blogging where so many people in it feel it a curse. Maybe relying on employment for income. Quitting is often a badge of honour. It is a fantastic waster of time and productivity which, like pollution, is never calculated into the cost-benefit analysis.
  • Blogs do not compound knowledge or create opportunities for collective advancement of a proposition. Where there is a shared interest there can be growth in an idea but for the most part it is genial yapping – not a bad thing in itself but I have also come to have quite visceral dislike for individuals who I have never met and who otherwise have absolutely no affect on the course of my life. On the other hand, I have learned much about being gay in America, being a former artillery officer, being on anti-depression medication, Kylie Minogue and central and western New York State.
  • Of all the things I post I am happiest about the photos. I am proud to share my ribs with you. I have chronicled the sparking of my new fascination with the USA which has little to do with 9/11, the war on terror, societal envy or access to sun in the winter. It’s the BBQ and the bold freedom to celebrate slow cooked meat. I love the experience of experiencing and that is always better with a smokey tomato based sauces. And beer. And jets on sticks.

I may have more to say about this before the end of tomorrow and some of you might care to point out the hypocrisies in what is above. That is fair. Anniversaries ought to be days of atonement as well as celebrations.

Bar Harbor Brewing Company, Maine, USA

Amongst all the cargo hauled back up north the other day were more than a few 22 ouncers from Maine micros like these two from Bar Harbor Brewing Company of that sea coast town about an hour south of the US-Canadian border. Bar Harbor is a bit of a hot bed of micro-brewing, being also the home of Maine Coast Brewing as well as the Atlantic Brewing Company whose Coal Porter and Blueberry Ale I have enjoyed in the past. Pretty good for a population of about 5,000 folks. But that is not including the 476,452 tourists and 345,958 seals. I split these bottles with my kin as we watched the Braves spank the Phillies Saturday night. I received a “hmmm…pretty good” on each. High praise.

The Thunder Hole Ale is described as an english brown and I would say it is meant to be a southern english brown as opposed to the slightly tangy style of Newcastle Brown. It is a good moreish brown without the high hoppiness of many US brown ales. It is on the lighter side of browns but has a malty richness cut with layers of grain, pear and chocolate fruit and various sugars. Lighter than you would describe as dried fruit like in a Belgian brown. The hops provide structural support a bit green working with the pear, a bit twiggy and a marked astringency. All very medium which for a brown is usually a good thing. Well crafted rather than amazing as befits the style, this would make a great session ale. A long long finish. Advocates approve. I have not been able to identify the alcohol content.

Their Cadillac Mountain Stout was on my list of beers to buy as it came first in a recent All About Beer review of stouts and porters. I am starting to think that Maine is one of he hotbeds of world stout making, given the consistent excellence I have found there. This beer pours a big dark beige rocky head. It is rich and creamy, even buttery, and maybe is more smokey than dry burnt roasty. It has some of that fruitiness that Maine Coast’s dry stout provides in large measure. There is some mint to the hops but also a characteristic I can only call hardwood. Notes of treacle and cocoa, too. In a way, it is more like a more complex and less sweet caribbean stout like Royal Extra from Trinidad. Certainly one of the best stouts I have ever had. Up there with Freeminer. Here is what the advocates said. Again, no info on the alcohol content.