Tag: Kingston

Royal Military College’s Arch Ceremony 2011

One of the things I love most about my town is the ability to have met and get to know some folk at Canada’s Royal Military College. It sits across the harbour from my window at work and the fourth year cadets organize the annual charity vintage base ball game. Today was the final day of their graduation process and I got over to the college to witness the final ceremony, the march through the arch.

We came early as family members gathered. Brass showed up and soon the bagpipes were heard leading this year’s class down towards the memorial that names each of their colleagues since the 1870s who have given their life. Above is a hat. It was thrown to my feet by a newly minted 2nd lieutenant who got a little over enthused. Usually your hat goes on your sword when you pass under the arch. I got it back to him.

A nicer bunch of young men and women you will never meet. Canada’s pride.

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Friday Bullets For The January Thaw

Things are loosening up. There is no minus sign in front of today’s temperature and that is in Celsius. It’s back to the deep cold tonight but one day of a lighter jacket and slushy rubber boots not mountain climbing gear is good. Things are lightening in the political world as well. Obama (aka Barry) is at his desk. The clench of fear may be relaxing. It may also be just moving to another part of the body, less about anticipating a body blow and more about handing out what those who wield fear deserve. Up here, Iggy seems to be trying to get us off the roller coaster of brinkmanship that we have be saddled with for most of the decade. “We need an election in February like we need a hole in the head,” Good point:

  • I am learning more about the founding of Kingston and those who founded it. Really really interesting stuff. Go here and search for Cataraqui, the French name for the town. We are Yorkers!
  • I like the ability in the US to break down party lines without causing a constitutional tizzy fit.
  • Looking at the people from space.
  • Reason enough to understand why having some idea that Any Rand offers legitimate ideas is nutty. The ideology of paranoia.
  • This is quite an extraordinary web page if you think of where China has been as a culture in my lifetime.
  • Occasional comment maker and fellow Zapster Ian (and Tesse) know the new US Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, based on them helping her past campaigning. I now have three degrees of separation from Obama…or is it two. Do you count yourself or only the intermediaries?

A busy day ahead. Planning for the weekend. Getting into that relaxed state. Picking out my casual clothes from the pile. A really big day.

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Chitchattery Fridayesque

Another week is gone. It was a good one except for the Red Sox starting their August collapse a little early. In other sporting news, apparently there was a move to press gang the Chilean U20 soccer team for the Hudson Bay fleet last evening. And I play vintage base ball this weekend in another country. Who knew? Sunday sees me and the other member of the Kingston St. Lawrence Base Ball team taking on Sackets Harbor, NY in a game that will use rules somewhere between 1860 and 1875. Gary may even be seen tomorrow but we are still uncertain as to what the day will bring. I may, too, be in a canoe. What a wonderful week. Here is the linkfest:

  • Constitutional Update: Where is the balance of powers when one branch asserts autonomy?

    • Update: The Flea guides us to the new enemy – New Victorians.

  • I caught a good story from Reuters about a journalist embedded with Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
  • I haven’t read any Harry Potter and boycott the movies due to the lack of claymation so I see not reason to give a hoot about spoilers and the release of a page or two early. Doesn’t there seems to be an over-enlistment of the authorities in the propping up of a franchise?
  • Are we entirely over 9/11? It appears that travel has hit a high but are we forgetful or confident. Americans are staying home we assume due to the dollar…but is that it? Why does no one come to Canada?

    Americans are coming to Canada much less than they used to…”Canada needs to add more fun and adventure to its image,” the report, released by Deloitte and the tourism association, said. “We need the right product — the right active tours and adventure experiences. And most importantly, we need to promote them.”

    Soon lighters will return.

  • It has been announced that a father and son team of metal detecting nerds hit the motherload with a Viking treasure trove being announced in England this week. Did you know that metal detection is really cool? That you can get a Bill Wyman model metal detector? I wish I metal detected.
  • Acquitted conduct. I was listening to CBC Ottawa last evening on the drive home and there was a “sentencing consultant” from the US being interviewed who said that Conrad Black faces the prospect of facts relating to the charges he was acquitted upon being still included in the sentencing on the charges he was found guilty. That makes no sense and I am sure, ten years past any criminal work, that it is entirely unknown in Canada. Wow. I actually feel a little bad for Connie this morning.

That is all for now. I wish I were in England where I could spend some time watching for ocean-going rubber floaty toys. I bet I’d meet up with Bill Wyman if I only spent more time doing things like that.

Friday Bullet Point Chat…No “-a-ramas” Or Nuttin’

How many ways can you write the same thing week after week before there is any coffee on the desk in front of you?

  • It’s the Kingston Brew Pub’s Wellie Toss tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm. We are talking the kids as this is the closest thing we have to a good cheese roll around here. Wellie Boot Hurling seems to be a legitimate Highland Games activity so maybe I will have a wee nippy sweetie while we are at it. Definitely a KSPC sanctioned event.
  • The Flea and others point out the decision to raise the right flag at the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge this summer. I added my two cents to remind that Newfoundland had its own flag of its own Dominion and that should be added, too. I even let my mole know. I have a mole again now. A mole with ambition as well.
  • Besides that good move, it was a tough week but was it as tough as the Prime Minister’s? He showed his dopey mean side, practically offering the nation the wisdom of the person who asks the question “are you still hitting the bottle?” while politicizing the troops in Afghanistan for his own purposes. Nice. He may have guaranteed the separatists win in Quebec. Brilliant. He seems to be cooking the books of the electoral reform review. Perfect. Oh yes, and the transparent intention budget leading to the fastest Federal-Provincial tax break transfer in history. I will be so happy to think of that and the other “special interest placation through tax break” aspects the NuGov National Vision as I prepare my own taxes this year.
  • Best Blue Jay’s slag of the week:

    Who else is ready for another season of Jamie Campbell starting his home run call for pop-ups that get caught by the shortstop?

    Days to go now.

  • Rita Joe passed away, too. One of the good things about growing up in Nova Scotia with a cohesive people like the Mi’kmaq in the community, with neat aspects like creation stories mentioning things you take school bus trips to see like Glooscap’s canoe, is you hear about people like Rita Joe when you are a kid and you get fed some respect. Not really enough but some.

That is it for now. Thanks for all the kind thoughts about the Frobster.

The Final First Friday Of A Month Of 2006 Chat

I remember like it was yesterday that it was recently not now but that was a lot longer ago than I recall.

What is going on? It is a moving day for someone I know and I am lending a hand so a half day. It is also a double party evening. It’s been so long since one of them came a long I can’t recall how they work. Sweater vest and red tie for the first, ball cap and mandolin for the latter. Have we discussed “mand-o-lin”: violin for the hands, no?

  • Old logo good, new logo swooptastic!!!
  • This is neat if you have a British last name as illustrated by “Campbell” here.
  • This is just weird:

    When Christopher Fleming-Brown, a banker living in the exclusive area of Kensington, London, kicked a ball about with his five year-old son in a large private garden communally owned by the houses in his crescent, little did he know he would later face a two year court battle for inadvertently turning the garden into “a public recreation ground,” contrary to the Town Gardens Protection Act 1863…[because]…[l]ast November, a magistrate court held that this game did not constitute football, as there were no ‘teams’ involved. According to the present law, they concluded, teams means football…

    What!!! I am not one to just on the “Europe is dying” bandwagon but this is just…what…they appealed?

    This week, on her appeal, the High Court decided that Mr Fleming-Brown’s game had amounted to football, with Mr Lord Justice Waller saying that “By any common-sensical, natural interpretation the respondent and his son were playing football or a similar game.”

    Well that’s alright then.

  • Well, I suppose I better make my call on the Liberal Leadership Campaign:
    • Iggy – The Grit Stockwell Day. Day was elected, Iggy might be too. It will be weirder for a while and then it will be over.
    • Rae – the nicest guy in Canadian politics. If he wins I might vote for him as I have usually voted for some version of a soft socialist with a faint hope of winning power. Experience and I expect him to give a great speech. My hometown Senator Hugh made the point that few of the candidates have ever spoken to a crowd of 5,000. Rae has.
    • Dion – I don’t know that he has done anything to attract the attention of anyone who isn’t supporting him. Is he a Grit policy wonk?
    • Kennedy – less a no-chancer than three weeks ago but corduroy jackets are so 1974 and also 1994. He would probably make a good leader but he can make a good leader next time. They have to vote for someone who can win in six months.
    • Dryden – he played hockey, right?
    • The others – there are others?

      • I will likely track tomorrow’s second to sixth voting rounds via the radio.

  • Big brother has been watching…no, really – he’s my big brother…has been watching events and implications of the great “Wuzza nation?” debate and considers how nations have hockey teams so Quebec may now need one, too.
  • A freaky weather event may happen down our way later today:

    NORTHEAST WINDS AHEAD OF THE LOW PRESSURE AREA WILL DRAW DOWN THE WATER LEVELS ON EASTERN LAKE ERIE…BY ABOUT 2 FEET. THE SUDDEN SHIFT IN WINDS ALONG THE LENGTH OF LAKE ERIE AS THE COLD FRONT PASSES BY WILL LIKELY SET UP PRONOUNCED SEICH AND FORECAST PRODUCTS ARE SHOWING A RISE OF 8 FEET FROM THE LOWERED WATER LEVEL TO THE HIGHER WATER AS THE LAKE SHLOSHES BACK. A LAKESHORE FLOOD WARNING WILL BE IN EFFECT FOR LAKE ERIE FOR THIS EVENING. LAKE RISES ARE POSSIBLE ON LAKE ONTARIO AS WELL…AS THIS STORM PATTERN IS SIMILAR TO AN EVENT IN FEBRUARY 2006. WATER LEVELS ALONG THE EASTERN SHORE OF LAKE ONTARIO AND THE UPPER SAINT LAWRENCE RIVER ROSE A COUPLE OF FEET FROM OSWEGO TO CAPE VINCENT AND DOWNSTREAM TO ALEXANDRIA BAY ON THE RIVER.

    Freaky. I wish there were some sort of over the counter product to deal with “PRONOUNCED SEICH”. On the upside, this is a rare boogie boarding opportunity.

  • I will go to the Dinosaur BBQ again. I do not care. I ♥ it.

That is it. Gotta go. That must be enough. Can’t you stop emailing me? Someone is at the door. What? WHAT??? Argghhhhhh!!!….

[Exeunt. Ovation. Bows. Exeunt. Fin.]