ramble through the bronx

Monday, April 26, 2004

joe

I don't have much time, but I couldn't not blog this one... what do y'all think about Joe Clark's comments?

Man, I wish I were home to hear the buzz on this one...

(though I am sad about the leafs)

jane 3:16 PM [+]

How absolutely glorious

Is there anything prettier than:

---
3 Period: Ottawa @ Toronto

1st Period
# 13:41 REMAINING IN THE 1ST PERIOD Toronto Goal - Chad Kilger (1), from Tie Domi at 6:19.
# 12:19 REMAINING IN THE 1ST PERIOD Toronto Goal - Joe Nieuwendyk (4), from Brian Leetch and Alexei Ponikarovsky at 7:41.
# 0:21 REMAINING IN THE 1ST PERIOD Toronto Goal - Joe Nieuwendyk 2 (5), from Bryan McCabe and Nik Antropov at 19:39.
2nd Period
# 19:38 REMAINING IN THE 2ND PERIOD Ottawa Goal - Vaclav Varada (1), from Zdeno Chara and Marian Hossa at 0:22.
3rd Period
# 12:01 REMAINING IN THE 3RD PERIOD Toronto Goal - Bryan McCabe (3), from Chad Kilger and Robert Reichel at 7:59.
---

Just listening to the last five minutes of the Leafs - Sens game over www.mojo640.com (which I won't actually link to, since their constant repetition of "Talk Radio for Guys!" annoys me). So exciting! Yay Belfour!

So, here's hoping our beautiful boys can relax & heal enough in time for meeting Philadelphia....

(and that Toronto won't screw up its lead in the next 4 minutes!)

Tie, oh Tie, a holding call at 16.31, a power play for the Sens... go McCabe! Keep on the attack! The announcer just reminded us that there are no guarantees... but surely we've got it, right? come on Toronto... a minute and a half left of the Sens power play... watch out for Chara! 2 minutes left to go of the third period! Belfour saves! watch out! Belfour! McCabe! along the boards but not out! Penalty out in 10 seconds! ok ok ok.... happy singing Toronto fans... hey, no ankle slashing! meanies! We need Bryan in top form for Philly! Of course McCabe wants to stay on, but he must go to the dressing room - behave! Crowd standing & cheering! cheer! cheer! McCabe totally doesn't want to leave - he's just standing there on the way out...

...of course he's no longer my future husband, but he'll always have a warm place in my heart...

What an exciting series! I wish I had a TV with cable! Last minute of play!!!

OK, going to go hug Richard now....

jane 9:37 PM [+]

Souvenir of Canada

There's a new one!

For those who never saw Douglas Coupland's first Souvenir of Canada, read the publisher's blurb. I quote a couple paragraphs:

'Douglas Coupland offers new ways of seeing and experiencing Canada-looking at how it feels to be a Canadian right now and speculating what it might feel like to be a Canadian in the future. From our collective memories, he locates objects like stubbie beer bottles and ookpiks, Kraft dinner and maple walnut ice cream. And with the same unique sensibility, he considers the flq crisis, our relationship with the United States, medicare and the landscape itself.

'In the section humbly titled "Cheese," he writes: "When you assemble them together, foods that feel intuitively Canadian look more like camping trip provisions than actual groceries...Canada is a cold and northern country...from a biological standpoint, it is imperative that Canadians stockpile concentrated forms of sugars, carbohydrates, fats and salt."'


How exciting that there is a second! Huzzah! Yet another book to not quite purchase, but simply read at Chapters while killing some time!

jane 2:05 PM [+]

invitation

Comments on Svend? Questions on why none of the Canadian teams are making it out of the first round in anything less than seven games? Anything? Bueller?

jane 1:30 PM [+]

Richard, the new convert to Maple Leaf Nation

In response to my email "hockey sadness" and link to the CBC coverage of last night's game, Richard wrote:

'I weep with you. In our woe and as we look forward to the next game, may we find some consolation in the words of the Bible: "You made my enemies turn their backs to me, those who hated me, and I destroyed them. They looked, but there was no one to save them; they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them. I beat them fine like the dust of the earth, I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets." (2 Samuel 22:41-43) GO LEAFS!'

Ah yes, the zeal of the new convert. How righteous.

(yes, the hockey-and-buffy immersion process is going well... excellent...)

jane 1:29 PM [+]

game seven on tuesday

aaargh!!!

jane 8:47 AM [+]

way to go Belfour!!!

Just finished listening to the game. Way to go Belfour! And way to go Mats! (Megan loves him 'cause his name is plural). Huzzah!!!

jane 9:37 PM [+]

Back in the Bronx

Richard and I got back to the Bronx last night at around 11pm, which was pretty good given I don't think we left Ottawa until 2.30 or thereabouts -- we had brunch in the newly cleaned-up Rockwell's in Merivale Mall (the mall was otherwise closed due to Easter Sunday).

Of course, right now I'm supposed to be working on my poststructuralism paper, which is going to use the case study of residential schools in Canada as a clear example of why Derrida's conception of justice & ethics & stuff is better than Rorty's. But, meh, it's more fun just to post on my blog & check email & all that sort of stuff.

It was fun to be in Canada, even just for the weekend, but it was kind of strange to be there with someone who'd never been to Canada before. I kept feeling that I had something to prove, as if Canada could somehow be totally grasped in one weekend.

Often I'll tell people that I'm from Canada, & then specify that I'm from Ontario (generally I just say Toronto, no offense to Ottawa, since more Americans know where it is). What's amusing is what will come next. "Oh, Canada's beautiful, I was in Vancouver once." Or, "Canada's lovely, they're really nice in Banff." Or, "My wife and I were once in Nova Scotia, it was incredibly beautiful." Obviously all of these places are geographically quite distinct. And it's kind of people to greet my Canadianness with a general affirmation of the beauty of the country -- I'm not offended at all, obviously, just amused. I've never been to Banff or Cape Breton Island, and I've only been to Vancouver once, and yet I then feel the need to affirm their statement.

"Oh you'll love NYC," this woman on the Greyhound bus once said to me, as I was heading to the Big Apple for the very first time "It's just like downtown Canada... all the big buildings...." She'd been to Toronto, once, for Caribana.

I guess Americans travelling through Europe may feel the same way. "I'm from the US." "Oh, New York, that must be exciting." I've had Americans complain that all Europeans seem to think about with regard to the US is LA and NYC, and maybe a little hint of Texas -- the Midwest, for instance, seems to entirely slip below the radar. And I'm learning more and more about the possible virtues of the South...

Anyway.

So Richard and I were wandering around Montreal, and all I wanted was for everything to be perfect. I wanted "Canadianness" to radiate from the ground and the skies, to enthrall and seduce him into loving "Canada." But how is that possible? Every place is just one place... nowhere else in Canada is just like Montreal (geographically or attitudinally), so why did Montreal matter so much? Similarly with Ottawa.

I guess that's why we have CBC and Tim Horton's. Our small, possibly hopeless, attempt to encapsule all of Canada, and to express it in unity. (Though of course I realize that the West doesn't have as many Tim's, and that there's a longstanding dispute about whether the CBC is too Ontario-centric...)

Is driving along 40/417 from Montreal to Ottawa while listening to Ottawa-Toronto playoff hockey on the radio somehow paradigmatic of a Canadian experience?

Is having vinegar on fries?

Anyway.

Go Leafs go.

jane 1:50 PM [+]

the true north strong & free vs. the land of the brave

Alternet has an article about Americans wanting to move to Canada. It's not especially deep - nothing anyone doesn't already know, is likely. It closes with the (pretty good) advice to Americans to stay in the US & fight the good fight (although if you live in Canada you can still vote against the evildoers by proxy voting or absentee ballots or whatever).

Anyway, I'm taking the new boy up to Canada* this weekend - going to Montreal & Ottawa. Should be good times. He's never been before... I wonder what he'll think?

---
* Since I still don't drive, actually, he's taking me -- as in, it's his car & he'll be driving. But dammit, I'll be giving directions.**

** They're really easy directions. 87 North. Keep going. Cross border. Road changes name. Keep going. Cross bridge. Ta-da! Montreal.

jane 6:05 PM [+]

google ad up top

How on earth did google 'look' at my blog and decide that a link to the republication national convention was appropriate?

oh dear.

oh deary dear.

huh.

jane 6:01 PM [+]

in other (hockey) news

You just gotta love the title of this CBC article about Saturday's Leafs - Sens game: "Leafs crush Sens; Battle of Ontario fizzles". yee-haw!

So, Toronto - Ottawa in the first round - what to expect?

Ah, I love playoffs... finally the chance to watch some of the games without cable (ABC broadcasts the Saturday afternoon games... baseball and basketball get all the other broadcast times... stupid US! you'd think, with 2 broadcast region teams in the playoffs, more of the games would be accessible? ah well... maybe I'll just have to get ESPN for the next couple months)

I miss the CBC.

jane 11:28 AM [+]

this won't be a long post

I have piles of things to do. Like taxes. Yes, taxes. I should do those, shouldn't I? (Deadline here in the US is April 15th... my mom says Canada's is April 30th, so hopefully I'm not yet doomed)...

but there's wonderful news, which I've pretty much probably told many of you, but it may as well be blogged, especially as the last entry was all about that boy who never called...

there's a new boy. And he does call. huzzah!! Oh, it's all very sudden and crazy and wonderful.

jane 11:22 AM [+]