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Friday has become comment day again by default this week. I'm at the beginning of a two week vacation and I'm bored. I was in Seoul for two days so there's only eighteen, possibly nineteen. Some of them are longer, though. I'll also add a poem at the end so let's get started!


February 23rd

They sure don't make movies like Octopussy anymore...what a shame. (Moore defends beleaguered Bond heir.)


Here's a different kind of song for you. I sang it last year at the Free Times cafe on College St. in Toronto. Sorry you missed it. no cop is afraid of a man with a gun for there's safety in numbers and what's done is done no cop would think twice about risking his life for the good of the nation, his child and his wife no cop is corrupt, they are all peaceful men and they help the downtrodden again and again no cop accepts money for service, or bribes but they pocket their pensions for the rest of their lives no cop is a martyr, they are all mercenary if you want to help people you don't need a salary i've seen poor people give, i've seen poor people save i've seen poor people lifted down into a grave but the cops they are rich, and the cops they are strong and so when four cops die let's ALL sing them a song so you carried a gun and you wore a felt hat and some dude shot you dead, that's enough about that Sorry if I caused offense, but that is the point. Sometimes it's difficult to get people to think. What was the name of the farmer who died? Anyone remember? And what was he charged with? (Art, in the line of duty. My response to the first angry comment is still pending.)


J F from Ottawa, learn to count. Canada beat Germany, Italy and the Czechs and lost to Russia, Finland and Switzerland. That equals 3-3. Now tell me how Mats Sundin can score two goals against Switzerland while Dany Heatly nets nary a point. Against three separate teams. In the Olympics. Watch the Senators slide for the rest of the season, and then keep on criticising Pat Quinn to your heart's content. I'll be smiling. (Canadian men's hockey team heads home. What a dedicated Leafs fan I am. It sure helps not living in Toronto.)


Back-to-back shutout losses for the Canadian team hint at a well-organized quarterfinal placement strategy as well. Let's see how they do against Russia.

I retract that previous comment. Could they please start scraping the crap off the ice before it freezes? (Cloud over Team Sweden won't go away. These two comments were posted during the first period and then immediately after the loss to Russia.)


February 22nd

Martha Stewart seems a class act, while Trump comes off as excessively brash. I'd rather be invited to the Stewart mansion for luncheon than taken out on the town by Donald and his trophy wife, if I had my druthers. (War of words continues between Trump, Stewart. I was sure 'druthers' would be a word of the day, but disappointments seem to abound this week. Except as far as the ladies are concerned, that is.)


Pierce seems so upset about not being able to play James Bond for the umpteenth time. I hope the petition works. Then Daniel Craig could fade into the oblivion of interesting roles with well-written dialogue that he so richly deserves. (Angry Bond fans threaten boycott.)


Any activity that relies on judging to decide the outcome of a competition is not, in my mind, a sport. That includes boxing, by the way. (Ice dance judging shuffle draws concern. Jean-francois from Toronto chose to remind me that ice hockey referees can greatly influence the outcome of a game. Doesn't he realise I'm a leafs fan?)


February 20th

“I feel that that's a very short-sighted, very partisan, very narrow position to put forward before Parliament's even begun.”
If the NDP is accusing the Liberals of something, they should try consistency. Let's not talk about partisan and short-sighted, coming from the party that helped force an election in hopes of garnering more seats at the expense of their coalition parthers, both federally and once upon a time against the Tories in Ontario. And is it any surprise that the seperatists want to support the Reformistes in driving a once-great country into the ground? Welcome back Mulroney. Wake up Canada! (Bloc plans to prop up Harper's minority. Now that the election's over and done with it's time to lapse back into political incoherency, don't you think?)


Why is math called maths in Britain? As an EFL teacher, I'd really like to know.
Seriously, the applied sciences in the fine arts and general arts programs possess import as well. Literature and history, painting, dance and film also require logic and reasoning. Not to mention foreign languages. How many accountants and astrophysicists do we really need? (Math crisis? What crisis? This comment was posted three days after I submitted it, and second to last. The last comment was from Laura Findlay in the UK, but she ignored my question as she submitted hers before mine. Someone must be screwing around with the posts!)


February 17th

"If it were to melt in its entirety, this ice would release such a torrent of water that sea level would rise by seven metres in the world's oceans, inundating almost every major coastal city in the world. No one is predicting such a deluge, which would take a millennium even in the most pessimistic assessments of the impact of global warming."
Aw, go on. Do we have to wait five hundred years? (Rapid melt shrinks Greenland's ice cap. Such lurid prose!)


Good thing I never use my administrator's password, as it's really unecessary for my purposes. I also prefer Skype to iChat, which I've actually never run. When Make-a-fee or Microflaccid start manufacturing their own hardware, I might give them a second glance. As it stands, my iPod Shuffle and G3 laptop suit me just fine. (First Mac virus found in wild.)


The Wheat Sheaf, King St. W., and Gabby's, King St. E. Leave no stone unturned, oh intrepid beer marketing scandal reporter.

Didn't the Marlboro man die of cancer? (Beer icon's the buzz of bars. I was wondering where the pith was hiding.)


Couldn't you have padded the article out a bit more for the sake of the legions of Madonna fans: young, old, gay, straight, Scottish, kabbala devotees, et al. ? (Madonna has hernia surgery.)


I regret missing Jeff's televised performances. Congratulations! (Buttle wins bronze in men's figure skating. I couldn't bring myself to make him the Buttle of a joke.)


'I don't want to get hurt for the rest of the National Hockey League season.' Aw, come on, suck it up for the place that spawned you. The Sens fans will be turning on you soon enough. (Hasek heads back to Ottawa.)

J Dawg from Atlanta, United States writes: I agree with comment 6...or in the words of my favorite former Leaf, OH BOO HOO... (Yours truly had comments six and seven. :)

attn: Hank Shymchuk. I'd rather be pulling for other internet content, but live and let live. (Hank is pulling for Dominik. I can't believe they let this one through!)


$50.00 over the past few years works out to maybe three dollars a month. Yes, indeed, I'd rather have my money back than be able to use my cell phone if I'm ever stranded on the Trans-Canada Highway. (CRTC vetoes repayment. Why do I care? I don't own a cell phone or a car, or live in Canada for that matter. Maybe it's the lazy, selfish Canadian attitude that I've been noticing for the past ten years, as evidenced by the men's olympic hockey team. Nice place to visit, though.)


And now for that poem...which one should it be? How about a Gordian sonnet?


anne-marie's the one for me
she doesn't what she ought to be
and isn't apt to either see
or be seen without revelry
so, as the cloud is by the tree
and as the fish is by the sea
as the dog is by the flea
i'm tickled by you, anne-marie

the grass is full of scaly snakes
and way up north there's lots of lakes
in every snowball, plenty flakes
in every bakery there's cakes
if life has only one mistake
you are the one i'd rather make