What a day! A squeaker in the first game at 14 to 13 for RMC over the St. Lawrence after RMC entered the bottom of the ninth down 10 to 13. In the second game a more reasonable 12- 5 by the Canadian military elite over the slothful loutish lumps. Each game was roughly an hour and a half. Great fun and a wonderful reason to retire to the Kingston Brewing Company for a great variety of interpretations on what exactly happened. Oatmeal stout is such a tonic. No word of a lie when I tell you there was TV, radio and newspaper coverage from two nations present. A great way to welcome in the warmer months.
Friday Bullets For Tra-la It’s May!
I was not so much in a production of Camelot as I was part of the production. OK, I raised curtains. I sat in a closet for a week’s worth of evenings when I was 14 and raised curtains. But I heard the “tra-la, it’s may song” more than most humans have and I really don’t mind it that much. I bet Iggy is saying tra-la this weekend. It is sort of like listening to Robert Goulet, so manly and mapled. By the way, when preparing for a conference I spoke at this week, I was quite pleased to learn that, no, I did not have a head shot for the materials. Why do people lean at a 17% angle for promotional head shots?
- I am not sure whether buying a bit of Chrysler is a good idea for us all. I mean, I have not been in one since the old Dodge Diplomat died around 1993 – no, not true – I drive an inherited van here in 2003 before trading that in at Ford.
- How to deal with invasive species – eat them. Shows them who’s top of the food chain.
- I had no idea that the Edwards Opera House was so close. Now that I have a passport I may nip over for a bluegrass Saturday night sometime. Which reminds me – we are weeks away from the Watertown Wizards.
- Stephen Fry on something other than Twitter – thinking about himself at 16.
- Ted Reynolds, CBC 70s and 80s sports reporter and part of my youth passes away.
- Why isn’t PEI just a column in the paper every day like “your daily smile” except it would be “look what happened in PEI today!” and it would have a story like this one about the Environment Minister telling everyone how great it was when he was a kid and dynamited beaver dams. And they sell citizenships for profit, too!
- The season finale of Private Practice last night was the worst hour of TV ever but it was like watching a shopping mall burn – can’t stop staring as careers are destroyed.
That is it. Vintage base ball tomorrow. A three team event, too. We even have hats this year. And I will be sporting a hurlihee and a part well to the side. Huzzah.
Friday For The First Stinking Hot Weekend
It’s the meteorological chitchat that keeps you coming back. I know it. We spend so much time looking forward to a bright hot day that you would think we would record them in binders like family albums, categorized by how nice the breezes were or how long the evening seemed to last. Tomorrow bodes very well. Perhaps 80F in April on a sunny Saturday. 70F this Friday evening. This very day. It’s the anti-blizzard weekend. The one you wanted on a Tuesday in late January.
- I sure love it when people who accuse others of having no moral compass then have to admit that the guy was pretty much right. Oh, what a giggle we will have in the next era when we look back on these times.
- I would have thought the whole “eating a replica of our bodies” might have been a bigger issue than the name.
- SPACE BLOB!!!
- I thought this was pretty funny. When to worry about the IT geeks planning to control your lives? When they say “…people are passionate about your product…” or “IZ: You mean enhance civilization, make it even better?” you know someone is quite enraptured by an impending cash-in.
- In the same vein, when someone says “Can we just retire this stupid line of questioning once and for all?” after referring to “the straw man” you may need to realize they are facing an argument they don’t want to admit is lost due to the weight it places on the possibility of being enraptured by an impending cash-in.
- Sometimes the things that got cashed-in die and, quite surprisingly, take 675 employees. Can you believe GeoCIties was bought for 2.9 billion ten years ago?
- Not necessarily my deepest love with a french fry van – I reserve that for Colburne’s of Pembroke, Ontario – but certainly my first. Sitting on the wall at the Halifax central library having a Bud the Spud was a big part of my youth.
- Why are we not hearing news item after news item about how Ford saw this coming, may well never ask for a penny of public money, is about to crush its competition through sheer prudence and actually makes cars people buy?
And you may ask yourself how do I work this BBQ? You may ask yourself where is my suntan lotion? And you may ask yourself where does that garden path go? Is this my beautiful yard?
None
Text: I Am A Craft Brew Fan
No, I think there has been a little too much attention placed in the wrong direction lately what with this wave of celebritosis, not to mention with the new found right for some beer people calling other beer people hateful, idiotic and uninformed on the one hand while others are acting like outright sycophantic cheese eating schoolboys on the other. You know what I think? We need to find our center again. We need to understand who is the most important person in each beery universe and that is the person in the mirror. Lew knew when he wrote about describing taste today:
But “Don’t write to impress, write to communicate” is good stuff. I can’t believe that one of his commenters — “Dr. Wort” — actually advises him to use the Lovibond scale to make more accurate descriptions of color. Great, let’s just all do it by the damned numbers. Useful. Beer tasting is subjective. There’s no way to get around that. Period. Never will. That’s why medals are usually awarded by blind judging and consensus, by panels. Best you can do. I don’t present my “reviews” as anything but my opinions. I don’t say you’re right or wrong if you agree or disagree; frankly, I don’t care, in the end. If you find them useful, and I hope you do, that’s great; if you don’t, I can understand that, too. They’re descriptive, not prescriptive. I hope you find the following reviews useful. I’m not going to worry about it, though, and neither should you.
I thought a similar thing when I was thinking about how to describe the fact that I really do not care about the preciousness of the thoughts of others to the detriment of my own ideas. And when I think like this, like you, I think of the Romantic poets as I mentioned over at Maureen Ogle’s place during a good exchange about ideas when I realized I needed to mention Billy’s Wordsworth’s fantastic 1804 poem “Daffodils” aka “I wander’d lonely as a cloud…” which ends:
“For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”
That is it! I said that it’s all the “truth of the couch” – except with web twenny I get the interpretation of the daffodil… or the beer… or the movie… or anything under the sun from a hundred, a thousand folks laying upon the couch in pensive or, more likely, vacant moods. That is in fact so it. My sofa. My mood. My vacancy. So, if you want to go to movies and gush or crap about movies, feel free. If you want to go to fest and gatherings where you can meet brewers and folk that present about beer and think that was money well spent or a total drunken waste, fill your boots. If you want to read a book and think you’ll never be as clever as someone who gets their words set by members of the typesetters union or think it was a really dopey way for the author to spend two years of their life, well, to each their own on that, too.
But if you want any of those things or you just want to think about the beer in your glass and then tell people what you think of it – good or bad – don’t take guff off of anyone because at the end of the day it is only you… and the beer.
Holding A Proper Who-la-thon
Tired of the pap that has passed for children’s TV since the advent of “My Little Pony” and that damned purple dinosaur Barney? Needing an opportunity to introduce fear and other lessons into the lives of your kiddies in a controlled yet, err, meaningful way? Hold a Who-la-thon! And if you are going to hold a proper Who-law-thon, you need a number of things:
- A room full of pre-teens ready to be fed junk food then unknowingly being prepared to be terrified. Sit said kids packed on to one sofa to maximize huddling in terror (HIT) effect.
- A selection of Doctor Who episodes from a variety of eras and series. Avoid the first and second Doctors as black and white TV confuses people under forty. Prepare screening in an order to maximize HIT through developing a crescendo of fear. We chose 1975’s two-parter The Sontaran Experiment with the Fourth Doctor, a Sarah Jane Adventure with Slitheens followed by a two-parter from the Tenth Doctor, the most recent, featuring Cybermen.
- Remove all pillows and hats from the immediate viewing area so as to limit the face hiding opportunities within the rec room.
- During showing use phrases like “oh, you are not going to like this bit” and “make sure you see this bit” just before the bodies begin to pile up or a well loved semi-minor character gets zapped so as to encourage more HIT.
- Adopt vocal tone of most evil character during mid-screening chit chat.
- Remind children periodically that things always work out in the end never indicating clearly when the end shall come.
- Leave lights off throughout the house and plan Who-la-thon so as to hours of darkness to provide for immediate trip in dark well past bedtime leaving little opportunity for answering of questions.
Remember, the Who-la-thon is a teaching moment with lasting consequences. Consider using the Who-la-thon as the moment to introduce cola drinks into your children’s diet to avoid the faint likelihood of nodding off after the spike of sugared snacks from the early hours wears off. Also, this is the time when the illusion of the perfection of parents can be helpfully dispelled so understand that the right answer to questions like “why did the Earth blow up, Daddy?” or “what happens if the invasion fleet isn’t destroyed” is a quietly spoken and slightly delayed “I have no idea.” Because you really don’t.
What Is A Canadian Citizenship Worth?
Quite a number of years ago, I check out a cousin’s child’s right to Canadian citizenship and, as the person in question was born somewhere else, they needed to assert their Canadianness before a certain date or lose it. Apparently the rules will tighten tomorrow:
April 17 marks the implementation of a new rule created by the Canadian government. If you are a Canadian living overseas, passing on your citizenship will now become more difficult: Your children won’t get a Canadian passport unless one of their parents was either born in Canada, or had become a citizen by immigrating into Canada. Many Canadians are up in arms about this, ex-pats in particular. But I didn’t even know about the rule changes until a friend in Toronto forwarded me a mass-circulated protest e-mail. The message vilifies the policy, suggesting that all children of Canadian have a “right” to Canadian citizenship — no matter where they are born — and is accompanied by the obligatory petition to sign and forward.
I have a second nationality so this sort of scrutiny does not seem odd to me. In the 80s, I applied for and got UK right of abode. Under the current UK rules, I am pretty sure l am able to still apply for full citizenship based on family ties but that is not absolutely clear to me due to the complexity of the rules. Plus, I may have to show I am of good character. I hope I qualify. Maybe these bloggy posts would be my downfall.
I think these sorts of things are good. I am reminded of that by the scandal in PEI related to the selling of citizenships leading to an impossible but for-profit local explosion of immigrant investors which has come to the point that a Minister of the Crown has told people involved to retain lawyers. Those out of pocket may have to wait years to even get their papers.
Wouldn’t it be better if we had a firm set of rules around these things and rules that were actually administered by the level of government responsible for citizenship? Wouldn’t it be nice to know your citizenship is worth something, that I have been part of a process that relates to, you know, ideas like good character?
None
A Great Day In Sporting As The Rare Double Occurs
It seems like the Morton and the Red Sox never win on the same day. Sure, they basically play in opposing seasons but still you would think there would be more days like this when Livingston and the Angels know the sting of defeat. Bay and Wake both doubled, too.
None
CAMNA: The Campaign For Nipped Ales
So far I have created, with a certain underwhelming success, The Pub Game Project to note the things people like to do when they get together for beer, The Society for Ales of Antiquity to celebrate those brewers who are brewing beers like those brewers who used to brew the beers as well as CAMWA or The Campaign For Watery Ale, to encourage movers and shakers to consider the thing that makes 87% to 96% of what is in the bottle.
The response has been, well, insignificant if I want to brag it up out of all proportions. But we cannot stop there. Now we need CAMNA, the Campaign for Nipped Ales, to demand that the higher the strength the smaller the beer. Look at that bottle of Anchor Old Foghorn. Look at the dime. That is a small bottle. Seven small ounces. A nip. And it is only an 8.8% brew. I am getting really tired of opening 22 ounce or even 750 ml bottles of 8% to 13% beer. It is too much. It costs too much, it is too much booze and it is an invitation to excess. You will say they are to be shared or saved for special occasions but I want the option to sip a little one alone on a Tuesday. Why can’t I except with a handful of beers from a few forward thinking brewers? How much would it really cost most moderately sized micros to put out a line of nips of their stronger offerings? Would it not make them more accessible, allow more people to have a try?
These are the questions asked by CAMNA – the only international organization of its stature which dares take on this cause and those lined up against it. Some may think the utter irrelevance of CAMNA to the discourse is a challenge but I say it is an opportunity – an opportunity to be the mouse that roared… in the forest where trees fall when no one in around… in a land far far away.
Vermont: Odd Notion Spring ’09, Magic Hat, SoBurl
Extreme. Experimental. Weird. Weirdo. That is my new sliding scale to express a facet of the craft brewing world, like the crap-snob continuum. Granted it is only half the scale, missing the BFW¹ – X3M portion to the left. But it is a good scale and Odd Notion Spring 2009 inspired it.
One problem with “extreme” is that right now it’s the centre of the pack. This beer points out that there is plenty of room beyond extreme, including places you will likely not visit again. Because this beer and those like it are weird. Last spring’s peaty brown ale called Odd Notion helped generate a lot of heat over diacetyl that I don’t expect to be repeated with this one’s poppy seed and agave flavours. Will not one defend the honour of the agave? Who stands for the poppy? None.
It pours an attractive orange amber with a nice sheeting white head. But the smell is like a fresh and well-crafted beer trying to replicate the smell of an old, off skunky one. In the mouth, it’s a bit like fancy hotel soap, the stuff you put on a bad sunburn made from cactus as well as that hard astringent poppiness. There is other stuff in there like a little orange marmalade and maybe a bilious note. It is hard to explain but for all that, this is not entirely off-putting given that (1) it is generated in large part by the poppy seed, a taste I took to when I worked in Poland and (2) I have been sunburned a lot and support the post sun burn lotion industry. But it is weird. Yet not quite a weirdo. Good BAer support.
Kingston St. Lawrence Base Ball Stats 1873
The big second season for the Kingston St. Lawrence was held in the summer of 1873. The 1872 stats are here. In 1873, there are reports in both the Kingston British Whig and the Kingston Daily News. In the Monday, 23 June 1873 issue of the Kingston British Whig, it asked:
Such is the mania for base ball just now. Will it be like lacrosse – up like a rocket and down like a stick?
It was called “a mania” by the KBW again on 30 August 1873. It was also a year of controversy as letters and articles in the KBW in June set out complaints about the base ball players taking over the Cricket Grounds which City Council had given the use of to the city’s cricket club some years before. Also, the Whig on 30 June states that the game has “ridden rapidly into popularity since its introduction last year by Dr. Jarvis and Mr. Eilbeck. Both men are listed as playing in the published box scores.
In addition to the second reference to KBW 30 July reference to “the silver ball” as the trophy of the Canadian championship (after the earlier reference in KBW 21 August 1872), one most interesting notes in the papers is in the Kingston Daily News of 24 July 1873 which reads:
The St. Lawrence Club has received a challenge to play from the Red Stockings of Boston. It has not been decided to accept this challenge yet.
The Boston Red Stockings of 1873 won the national Association championship and, in August, were on a tour of Canada winning all 14 games and outscoring their opponents 524-48. They became the Boston Braves, then the Milwaukee Braves and the Atlanta Braves. Al Spalding, shown in 1871, pitched for them. He later when on to found the sporting good company.
The team also had its own western Ontario tour in August 1873. Here is a listing of the games played by the St.L BBC in 1873:
2A: Saturday, 30 May – St. Lawrence (90) v. Locomotive Club (14). Played on the Cricket Ground. No umpire named in the KDN report.
2B: Saturday, 7 June – St. Lawrence (8) v. Ottawa Club (54). Game played at Ottawa. Ottawa had 4 US professionals. St. Lawrence served a written protest but played (KBW, 9 June 1873). Game mentioned. (KDN, 2 June 1873)
2C: Monday, 23 June – St. Lawrence (70) v. Stars (12). Umpire Dr. McCammon. Reported in both the KBW and KDN as part of a three match day. Only 2 hours despite the score.
2D: Thursday, 1 July. St. Lawrence (10) v. Silver Star, Port Hope (25). Played at 2 pm on the Cricket Field on Dominion Day 1873 (KBW, 30 June). Long report in KBW 2 July. Ten cents paid to watch, betting reported, sidelines crowded and ladies filled the cricket stand and benches. Umpire was named “Shibley” and was a nephew of a Port Hope player. Protests at his biased calls, defends himself by addressing the crowd, saying he is from New York and “was a success as an umpire”. Crowd takes the field in second inning and Dr. McCammon replaces Shibley as umpire. Game ends after seven innings at 5:15 pm as Port Hope needed to travel home on 6 pm boat for Ottawa game the next day. “Shibley” appears to have returned to the field to declare this as a “no game”. Much drama.
2E: Friday, 4 July – St. Lawrence (70) v. B’hoys, Cape Vincent, NY (9). (KBW, 3 July 1873). Box score in KBW 7 July.
2F: Wednesday, 16 July – St. Lawrence (26) v. “Union” Club (13). St. Lawrence had issued a practice challenge against best of rest of city. Practice is for upcoming game against Guelph Maple Leafs. St. L. states it is willing to play 9 to 18 players or give other side 6 outs per inning.(KBW 14 July; KDN, 15 July 1873). Game played at Cricket Ground as a “union” of the Union Club and the Stars Club. Umpire was Dr. G. W. Oliver of Cape Vincent, NY. Five innings with St. L allowed 15 outs and the Union team getting 30. Report in the KBW on 17 July states
2G: Friday, 18 July – St. Lawrence. first nine v. St. Lawrence second nine. No further reference than the advance notice is found in papers.
2H: Monday, 21 July – St. Lawrence (35) v. Guelph (27) Maple Leaf. Anticipated as “the great game of the season” in KBW 17 July 1873. Kingston defeats Guelph – headline in the KBW 22 July reads “The St. Lawrence Boys Astonish Guelphites and Every Body Else”. Game started 2 pm (2:15, KDN, 22 July) at the Cricket Field. Dr. McCammon umpired. Described as very gentlemanly – compared to recent Port Hope experience no doubt. 16 to 7 for Kingston after first inning. “Their backers at home would not believe the news of the defeat and telegraphed again and again in hope of a contradiction.” 700 to 1,000 watched (KDN, 22 July). KBW 23 July: Excellent supper afterward at the American Hotel. Fifty attended. No liquors were introduced to the table “out of respect to the temperance members of the Clubs”. Gathering ended at 11: 30 pm.
2I: Tuesday, 29 July – St. Lawrence (23) v. Cobourg (14). Game ends at 4:45 pm and score makes that day’s KBW. Full reports the next day in both the KBW and KDN. Played at Cricket Field. Mr. Salisbury of Cobourg umpired and judged to have done so very fairly.
2J: Thursday, 7 August – St. Lawrence (12) v. Newcastle Beaver(s) (5).
2K: Friday, 8 August – St. Lawrence (25) v. Victorias of Bowmanville (12)
2L: Saturday, 9 August – St. Lawrence (2) v. Dauntless, Toronto (7)
2M: Monday, 11 August – St. Lawrence (3) v. Maple Leaf, Guelph (36)
2N: Monday, 25 August – St. Lawrence (?) v. Boston Red Stockings (55?). Report in KBW of 26 August indicates a pounding.
2O: Monday, 25 August – St. Lawrence Second Nine (23) v.Maple Leafs, Kingston (31).
2P: Monday, 1 September – St. Lawrence (24) v. Mutuals Ottawa (31). Originally was to be against London Tecumseh Club but they canceled or were late. Good report in KDN 2 September 1873.
2Q: Monday, 2 September – St. Lawrence (19) v. Tecumseh Club, London (1). Played on Cricket Field on short notice after rescheduling. Inning in which no score is made as called “whitewash.”
2R: Monday, 25 August – St. Lawrence Second Nine (49) v. Harvesters, Kingston Twp (32). Mr. J McCammon was umpire. Played at Welburn’s Farm on Front Road. St. Lawrence traveled by wagon. “Wielding the willow” is description of batting. Cold with a strong west wind. Montgomery’s Quadrille Band was present.
2S: Monday, 25 August – St. Lawrence (57) v. Black Rivers, Watertown NY. (49). Game took 3 1/2 hours with team coming by Cape Vincent boat. St. Lawrence “batted themselves out” to get the game in before darkness. Black Rivers stayed in Kingston and took the morning boat back to Cape Vincent for game there. Last game of the year. Umpire was Mr. E. Nolan.
And here is a list of all the base ball teams mentioned listed in the KBW and KDN during 1873:
- St. Lawrence Club, Kingston.
- Locomotive Club, Kingston. Played in 2A. Played the Stars at 7 am (!) on Monday 30 June at the Cricket Field.
- Ottawa Club. Played in 2B. Played Guelph on July tour on 23 July 1873, losing 16 to 2. Called the Ottawa “Mutuals” in KDN, 2 September 1873.
- Foundry Club, Kingston. (KBW); Victoria Club of the Victoria Foundry
- the Piano Forte Club, Kingston.
- the “Stars”, Kingston. Played in 2C.
- the employees of Messers Chown and Cunningham, Kingston.
- the employees of Mr. R. M. Horsey, Kingston.(KBW/KDN). Played Foundry and beat them 41 to 30 on 23 June 1873.
- “Union matches”(?), Kingston (KBW); the Unions Club (KDN). Beat Locomotive 26 to 14 on 23 June 1873. Played the Stars Wednesday 16 July 1873. (KDN).
- Maple Leaf Club, Kingston (?). Played the Stars on Monday 14 July 1873, losing by 4 runs (KDN). Box score in KBW, 15 July. Score was 23 to 19 for Stars with Stars getting 29 outs(?) to Maple Leaf getting 27. Mr. J. Carson was the umpire.
- Silver Stars, Port Hope. Played in 2D. Had a new base ball song composed by Mr. Fred Lockwood (KBW, 30 June). Played Guelph on July tour on 24 July 1873. losing 33 to 0.
- The Maple Leaf Club of Guelph. Played late July tour. Swift, pitcher, and Maddock, catcher, noted in KBW 15 July 1873. Stated to have held the Canadian championship for four years (KBW, 17 and 22 July 1873).
- Cobourg “Travellers”. Played in 2I. Played Guelph on July tour on 19 July 1873, lost 36 to 6.
- Ogdensburg Pastimes. Played Guelph on July tour on 22 July 1873. Named in KBW and KDN 22 July. Played the “Bostons” (ie the Red Stockings) on Friday 29 August and lost 37 to 6. Pastimes still playing in 1921 (pdf!).
- Newcastle Beaver(s), Ont. Called “Beaver” in the KBW but “Beavers” in the KDN.
- Victorias of Bowmanville, Ont.
- The Dauntless Club, Toronto, Ont.
- Tecumseh Club, London, Ont. Played Cob(o)urg on 1 September 1873 (KBW 2 Sept)
- Wolves, Kingston (?) KBW, 30 August 1873.
- Bears, Kingston (?) KBW, 30 August 1873.
- Dockmen, Kingston (?) KBW, 30 August 1873.
- Dockmen, Brockville (?) KBW, 30 August 1873.
- Volunteers of the 14th P.O. Rifles, Kingston
- Barriefield Club. Played and lost to the Volunteers of the 14th P.O. Rifles on 19 September 1873 (KBW, 22 Sept).
- Harvesters, Kingston Township. Played the St. Lawrence Seconds on 20 September 1873.
- The Black Rivers, Watertown NY.