Why Are You So Surprised?

Toyota Tim - It may just be a typo or a slip of the old clutch but I thought I saw that the new Roll up the RIM contest  features 31 000 000 Toyotas as prizes. That solves a few problems all at once.

Avatarest? - Say it ain't so Jim. Say it ain't so. You are not really going to re-release Avatar in an extended version in summer 2010, are you?  If you do it will just have to be Avatar Avarice. There's no other name for it.


EDT - We in North America have been living with early Daylight Time for a few years now and I must say it's improved my life immeasurably

• I have an extra hour to get the car out of the mud hole that once was a driveway. 
• I have an extra hour to really perfect my slice at the driving range.
• I have an extra hour to work on my roll cast to use at the creek on opening day
• I have an extra hour at the Mall because I don't like driving in the dark.
• I have an extra hour to use those low energy  compact light bulbs.

LCBO for SALE? It appears that Ontario's Liberal government is seriously considering the (at least) partial sale of the LCBO., which might soon stand for Lavish Corporate Bonuses Often. Put your hand up if you think this move will bring the price of booze down? Wave if you think this will lead to business decisions that will promote domestic wine and spirits over imports which are flooding our markets currently. Honk if you think that Ontario taxpayers and consumers will actually be better off after the sale just like users of the 407 are better off after Mike Harris' yard sale. 

 

Why Are You So Sorry?

I'm so sorry. There was an error in the recipe for Egg Benedict posted on Groundhog day. The price of saffron spiked to $US700/gram. That was supposed to be the unit, gram, not kilogram. Pricey stuff but it was worth it wasn't it?

Speaking of apologies, we are all owed big ones from whoever coined the phrases "Going forward" and "Drill down." GF is almost always used by someone who is not the least bit interested in G'ing F. They want us to think they're G'ingF when they're really quite happy to ride the status quo train and typically display a fondness for the "Good Ole Days." "Drill down," must have been coined by a dentist. I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean but it sounds like I'm soon about to experience some kind of pain. These phrases are no better than "Like, you know." They are the mean-nothing fillers that are the "Hamburger Helper" of English. They are the bread crumbs in the meatloaf of this rich and noble language. These may also be the same people who use the phrase "As far as," incompletely. You may hear them say "As far as the weather, it's raining," or "As far as my salary, I'm not making enough. They say one is getting old and curmudgeonly when he starts to complain about language and usage. Have they read the title of this blog? As far as my complaints I will go forward to drill down to get to the bottom of all these errors.

Toyota's sorry. This is a big one and it hits home. Hundreds of employees in Canada may be affected even further by this. Imagine the scale of this bailout.Toyota can't be allowed to go under but who's going to buy one when/if production starts again? Somehow it's hard to shake the image of incompetent executives getting more megabonuses with bailout bucks. Maybe that's what the mint should start printing, bailout bucks. We would know they're worthless but we would all let on they're not. What's going on in GM corporate HQ? Are those popping champagne corks?

Stephen Harper is sorry. He's sorry he underestimated how many dictionaries there were in the country and how many people could use them. The Liberals are actually 0.9% ahead of the Conservatives. Now that's a lead that could be overcome by the margin of error like a Boxing Day tsunami on a Bali beach but it gives the Liberals momentum in the upward direction. Pro-prorogationists are dismissing protests on the basis that the PM's actions were all "legal." We all know that sometimes "the law is an ass."Consider these; the Senate is a legally instituted body which many protest and strive to change. Slavery was once legal. Women were legally non-persons. The list is long. Many see prorogation as an abuse of power and they strive to change that situation. That change begins with protest.

I'm sorry there isn't more snow this year for snowshoeing. There's an activity that is richly rewarding and ironically its greatest reward comes from looking back not forward. There is beauty in the stitch work the shoes make on the snow blanket. The path is there, every step, and every slight and not-so-slight deviation from that path. You see it in the solidity of the snow and the ice that supports it. There it is, for a time.