The Sort Of Pub I Wish I Lived Near

278I have to admit that I am not exactly a guy with a regular pub. Frankly, when I head to the States on holiday with our pals like I will tomorrow for ten days, I am more likely to have a favorite bar I go to regularly than I would have here. But none are like the pub mentioned at the BBC today, “The Pigs” at Edgefield:

Locals at a village pub in Norfolk are beating the credit crunch by bartering home-grown produce for pints. The Pigs public house, in Edgefield, near Holt, encourages drinkers to contribute to its traditional food menu in return for free alcohol. A sign placed inside the pub reads: “If you grow, breed, shoot or steal anything that may look at home on our menu, bring it in and let’s do a deal.”

Who wouldn’t want to go to a pub where this could happen: “someone will say ‘that rabbit tasted great’ and we say ‘here, meet the person who shot it’.” But it’s not the food that particularly attracted me when I checked out the pub’s website, it’s the games. Sure there are quizzes, darts, billiards, dominoes and even shove ha’penny but right there to the lower left of the page so generously titled simply “drinking” it says you can play “I Spy“. What better indication of a genial spirit than the invitation to spy with one’s little eye something that begins with “J”.

A New Olympic Record! Blaming Ottawa On Day 4!!!

You knew it was coming. Usually it doesn’t start up until the second week. But accusations are now flying, claiming that the reason Canada has no medals in the Olympics yet is due to the fact that our “sport spending” falls short:

“Why are they so good?” Diving Canada technical director Mitch Geller said Tuesday after the Chinese synchronized diving team easily won a gold medal in the women’s competition and the Canadians finished seventh. “They screen tons of kids. They put them all through some very, very good fundamental training. And then the cream rises to the top.” In Canada, governments and business are offering more money than ever, but the country’s sport spending lags behind that of China, Russia and other modern countries.

Wow. Did anyone tell Mitch that China, that most modern of countries, is a totalitarian dictatorship which may go some way to explain how they get to “screen tons of kids”? That the Chinese even measure kids by the ton may have been a hint.

But setting aside of those dreams of Nicolae Ceausescu’s 1970’s gymnastics teams – though he apparently hated sport – have to explain how it is that those who are well funded, got to China and have the best chances have failed. Yesterday, Brent Hayden, Canada’s fastest man in the pool, the reigning world champion failed to make the Olympic men’s 100-metre freestyle final. Ottawa’s fault? Did you know we had the fifth best fencer? She lost in her first match. She gone. Stephen Harper made it so. Personally. So unmodern of him.

There are reasons our entertainments are not as entertaining as others – and Olympic sport is just that, entertainment. First, we are a middling nation with middling resources which are actually allocated by Federal and Provincial governments ranging from socialists to neo-cons with a great measure of prudence. Second, we lack a pervasive national joy in achievement that drives the competitive spirit. Third, we simply like winter sports better. Fourth, the CFL gets all the real cash from Ottawa and you might as well get used to it.

Do you care? I don’t. I am happy to see some Canadians play an excellent game of softball and even was interested to see we have a men’s field hockey team even if the Ozzies smoked them. That’s what the Olympics mean to me – learning that we have citizens who love weird sports, having a slight interest in that oddly placed passion rise to my mind’s eye for about seven minutes and then moving on, forgetting them for another four years.

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Friday Bullets For The Week Your Life Changed Forever!

OK, it didn’t change. It’s pretty much the same as last week – but it is really like that week twenty-seven weeks back if you think about it. It’s kinda eerie when you think about it like that. Or mid-May 2005. It’s like that, too. Weird:

  • Georgian military update: Castle Aaarrgh knows all.
  • Best Job Title Update: “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus Alexander Surikov said…” Wow. What a handle. I don’t care what he had to say but what a handle.
  • The Olympics are apparently on. I would like to maybe see the shot put. Not much else. Why not just have two weeks of shot putting on TV, you know, when the Red Sox aren’t playing. That would be better.
  • Olympic Update: is this pair of images to the right, including one created today, one of those separated-at-birth things? Click for more detail.
  • Even this link it so a .pdf, it is to a .pdf of a new map explaining international claims to the Arctic…and guess what: we are losing Santa.
  • Baywatch: it’s working out just fine.
  • Oh dear. This is the first real bit of bad economic news for Canada in yoinks. Pray for the return of the eighty cent dollar.
  • You know I like NCPR and you know I like “The Beat Authority” on Friday afternoons. Well, there is a Beat Authority Blog now, too. It’s the future and it’s all about that 1998 convergence thing. And throbbing dancing beats.
  • Australian monachists hate puns. Buns? No, puns.
  • Would a McCain Presidency with the Democrats running both houses be so bad?

So that is it for now. A late beginning to the day and an internet connection that fails makes for short bullets even when I write most of this through the week. I’d get a new internet service but I fear change.

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Group Project: Should There Be Different Grades Of Sorry?

I have to admit I know so little about the background that I am somewhat unsure what tho think about the recent incident of the Prime Minister’s apology. But perhaps you have an opinion on what happened:

…Mr. Harper ignored their advice. He offered the apology and left the stage immediately afterward, without waiting to see if his host would deliver the pre-arranged thank you speech. Jaswinder Singh Toor, the grandson of a passenger on the Komagata Maru who was sent back to India, said he was shocked to hear Mr. Harper’s comments “It was unbelievable,” he said, adding that he did not understand why the Indo-Canadian community was not treated in the same fashion as Chinese and Japanese communities that have received apologies for historic wrongs. “Only the Indo-Canadians are being treated differently,” he said. “This is not right.”

It is often said that Mr. Harper does not suffer fools greatly but that I think is a bit of a euphemism. It certainly does not mean he has a license to be unkind and ungracious as he represents my nation as opposed to his personal opinion. Leaving abruptly would seem to be unkind and ungracious.

But has he been placed in an unfair spiral of expectation? The one man cannot be expected to wear the entire mantle of representation of the national government. He may have played a big part in creating the expectation that he is his own PR representative, the figurehead as well as the leader of the administration. For a person who wants to weaken and decentralize the land, he sure likes the strength of centralization of authority. Ought this outreach to communities and history be the job of the Governor General or even the next Royal visit? If it is left to a politician – any politician – is there not a risk of the consideration of an important historic matter becoming politicized?

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Things I Didn’t Know About Until Today

When you think about it, blogs really should be just Friday Bullets. No one really wants to know the half-baked opinions of strangers. No one really is interested in how many ways the unhappy and unintelligent drop-outs and dopes who post comments can insult. They want to know about the stuff that fills the internet that, frankly, anyone would get along fine without ever knowing. Stuff like:

  • The contribution of Alan Blumlein to the invention of stereo sound is only now starting to be appreciated.
  • The RCMP spied on Rita MacNeil.
  • The cops are also after an Olsen twin.
  • Someone at The Globe and Mail actually thinks “Canadian team invades Beijing” is a good headline.
  • People apparently think customers paying for cell phone spam is good business.
  • The Calgary Herald apparently believes that calling an argument a myth is enough to refute it in an partisan editorial written in the 1908-ish style…or one borrowed from bloggers.
  • A man in Bulgaria had the equivalent of 60 beer before driving and then blowing 0.851 – over ten times the Canadian limit.
  • Obama’s lead in the polls may have vanished and advising to keep your tires inflated likely won’t help.

There might be more. There always is. And if Obama is actually in the pocket of big tire gauge industry, expect that to be the thing that swings the presidential election more than anything else.

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I Am Confused About China

So do we like the Chinese government or not? Apparently, Mr. Harper may be suffering from some indecision on the matter, allowing a policy to be defined – imagine! – by someone else:

“We’ve got a trajectory of diplomatic and other kinds of activities that we are laying out in front of us and I look forward to starting to put that together,” Mr. Emerson said in his first lengthy television interview since taking over his new role [as Foreign Minister]. Mr. Emerson is known to be a proponent of a strong relationship with China. His view differs from some Harper cabinet ministers and caucus members who are focused on human rights and want to emphasize that over trade. His appointment was seen by some as an indication that Mr. Harper was trying to improve the China-Canada relationship. “I think that the relationship with China is one that we’ve been cultivating and improving for some time now and my appointment certainly does not get in the way of that, but I don’t think it’s a signal of any profound change in foreign policy,” he said.

I seem to recall that the China-Canada relationship was all tickity-boo prior to the election of 2006, what with all Chretien’s Pacific rim and trade mission policy focussy stuff. But Emerson would know that, being a former Liberal cabinet minister. And I seem to recall it was Mr. Harper who made things a wee bit “who left the fridge door open?”

So have we now confirmed that Canadian policy is to call placing human rights before trade ridiculous in all contexts? Or is this yet another reversion to Chretien era policy with the hope of a Chretien era majority?

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Friday Bullets For The First Of August

Can you believe it’s August already? Can you believe the decade is almost over? This is crazy. Who sped up the clock? August is a month that is quite remarkable for standing for not much. Has anything remarkable happened in August? Here is a list of things that happened on this date. Hey, in 860 the Peace of Koblenz was signed by Charles the Bare, Louis the German and Lotharius II. Why didn’t I think of Lotharius when I was naming the boy?

  • I have written about Manny many times. I will write about him no more, however, as Manny is now a player for the Dodgers. Jason Bay, however, is a player for the Red Sox. I trust back bacon sandwiches and maple syrup laced cocktails are the order of the day where you are today.
  • I don’t cross pollinate the beer blog posts over here but this is a great example of DadLit.
  • Lawless? Would this be the same colonial French who in the 1680s took the leaders of the Iroquois nation invited to meet in Kingston, caged them and sent them to be galley slaves?
  • I like it when Harper stays away from policy and just taunts. He is better at mean than bright.
  • I hate the new Google little icon. I’ve looked at the damn lower case purple “g” for, what, a couple of months now and I swear it’s the stupidest logo I have ever seen. I’d ask them why they did swtiched from the old “g” but…
  • A great primer on the rainbow pitch.

Well, that is enough for today. What do you want from me? Find a TV set to watch the Sox v. Oakland today. Watch Jason Bay get a standing ovation and then watch him quietly play great baseball.

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Is Obama Really The Next Paris Hilton?

While I have to admit I still really have no idea what the policies of an administration led by Mr. Obama might look like, I really had no idea that this sort of thing was what would be going on:

After spending much of the summer searching for an effective line of attack against Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain is beginning a newly aggressive campaign to define Mr. Obama as arrogant, out of touch and unprepared for the presidency. On Wednesday alone, the McCain campaign released a new advertisement suggesting — and not in a good way — that Mr. Obama was a celebrity along the lines of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Is this unfair? Is there a ring of truth? I think the contrived protests that “the media ♥ Obama” are whacked. When did it dawn on those unhappy with his popularity that popularity is a factor in the political game? When did it dawn on them that the media is the conduit for information? What will be the charge against him next – that he is maybe anti-Bush? But is he really Paris Hilton?

Still…there is that “change” thing. As I was a wee laddie in the Maritimes I was familiar with the scenario of an opposition party facing a well-entrenched well-operating government and campaigning on “time for a change”. Whoop-tee-doo. Meaninglessness. So is this “change” of Obama’s the same as that “change”? Can we identify yet what change means?

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Wisconsin: Bitter Woman IPA, Tyranena Brewing, Lake Mills

My mid-west beer territory has expanded care of Stan’s visit the other day. The New Glarus Spotted Cow of the other night was my first WI brew (of the non-cricketing WI that is) and here’s the next one – Bitter Woman IPA from Lake Mills’ Tyranena. The brewer tells us that the bitter woman in question was one Aunt Cal, an old sweetheart of the famous American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and early local resident. See – a literary connection overcomes political correctness every time. And, well, I suppose that’s better than being a headless man, one of whom their alt is named after.

But what about the beer? It pours a smoked orange ale under a huge cream head releasing a bit of an orange marmalade aroma. In the mouth, a sweet wave of fruit-filled malt: plenty of graininess but also the sweet smoothness of residual maltose…mmmm, maltose. In the malt there is marmalade, sultana and kumquat. At least two distinct hop sensations with the black tea on the tongue as well as a bit of hot pine more to the back, cresting on the swallow. Plenty to chew on for a very reasonable 5.75%. Nothing thumb-index-pinkie salute here yet high praise from the BAers.

This might be the beer you really wanted.

Friday Bullets For Stay-cation Week

Well, I suppose that the promised break in the days of rain that have been mid-July in Easlakia has to stand for something. I can’t think when I last took a summer week off and did not load the family for somewhere – which is just as well as a van full of damp is not a happy van. It has been a time of napping and of reading something other than the glowing screen. I did not home repair. Of that you can be truly proud.

  • Byelection Fever Update: About 1% of the Canadian electorate go to the polls on 8 September. Woooot!!! This is what we have been waiting for.
  • Ben is proxy blogging Berlin. I hear we need change.
  • What do you think about the fence?
  • My new found status as Canada’s sixth most popular political blogger demands that I make some obtuse observations on the state of doings in Ottawa. Except nothing seems to be going on. Who cares about election plans – I want substance. But aside from the general quality of Federal leadership, there seems to be only one big issue: carbon tax. I still think this is a yawner and a loser for whoever gets marked with the green tint. It shouldn’t be so but as there are no strong answers yet, proposing the unpopular and the unlikely-to-succeed is seldom a yellow brick road to a majority hold on Parliament. And it’s no more than a plank at best. We need more.
  • So which Federal issues deserve more airplay?? The recent premiers’ gathering raised the prospect of actual steps towards First Nations reconciliation. Wouldn’t that be nice of real steps were taken towards that national quandary? How about infrastructure – Ottawa and Toronto have made nice to buy bridges and buses. But do you run an election on that? Rideology not ideology??
  • Al Purdy’s cottage is for sale. Owning that would be rather neato.
  • This week’s weather shattered the promise of a massive harvest for a lot of Ontario fruit growers. Hailstorms. We need to start the “Buy A Peach With A Bruise” campaign. Why do all the farmer’s protests have to be around the combine harvesters? Who’s behind this anyway?
  • Apparently the oversight committee decided to lay off hitting each other in the head with hammers. Who thought that was ever a good idea?

Full disclosure: I wrote most of this Thursday. Between the dodgy internet access and my new found love for not being up at 6:15 am, I thought it would be prudent to plan ahead so as to ensure you desk jockeys have your moments of bulletty bliss at the crack of dawn.

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