This Week's Poetry Corner

Starbucks line-up.
Three people
talking in line.
For five minutes.
Time to order.
Who wants what?
Nobody knows.
Bullet to head.

Edmonton: A Concise History

The City of Edmonton was founded in the summer of 1795 by Sir Thomas Wolfe of Manchester, England. Initially selected because of its proximity to the mighty North Saskatchewan River and its position on a hill overlooking the river valley, the city quickly expanded east and west during those early summer months. Sadly, the arrival of winter brought with it the lynching of Sir Thomas Wolfe. The city was subsequently named after the man responsible for the lynching, James Edmonton.

Required Reading for December

• From ESPN's The Sports Guy: How to Brainwash Your Daughter into Hating the Lakers. Simmons should be up for Parent of the Year for this. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/101201&sportCat=nba
• From Slate: The Federal Reserve (after Congress forced its to) finally comes clean about the emergency measures it took in 2008. Here's an interesting fun fact: Goldman Sachs would have failed without Fed loans (about $35 billion a day at one point). Also scary -- companies as seemingly sound (and foreign!) as Toyota, Harley Davidson, and Caterpillar also used the Fed facilities (to roll over commercial paper). http://www.slate.com/id/2276605/
• From the Department of the Obvious and the Ministry of Hypocrisy (via Wikileaks): Booze, sex and drugs in the house of Saud. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-cables-saudi-princes-parties
• Personally, I think Ricky Gervais is hilarious. I also knew he worked his atheism into his stand-up, which I admire and respect. However, I didn't know he was this well spoken about his disbelief in God. From the WSJ, Ricky Gervais explains why he doesn't believe in God: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/12/19/a-holiday-message-from-ricky-gervais-why-im-an-atheist/ And the follow-up piece, Gervais answers critics of the previous piece: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/12/22/does-god-exist-ricky-gervais-takes-your-questions/ Merry Christmas!!

Required Reading for November

• Rest in Peace A.I. From 2006, a pretty moving NY Times piece on the Kelly Slater-Andy Irons rivalry. Although Kelly and Andy eventually put their differences behind them, becoming friends in recent years, the article does a great job of describing just how intense their rivalry was from 2002-2007. They were the Magic vs. Bird of surfing, if Magic and Bird hated each other. The surf world has lost one of the all time greats. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20slater-irons.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
• Excellent Op-Ed from the Wall Street Journal. "California: The Lindsay Lohan of States". http://tinyurl.com/2cf4xtn
• From Fortune, a profile of Corporate America's Number One 'gun for hire,' lawyer David Boies. I had no idea who Boies was before reading the article, but he's the guy who represented Al Gore v. G.W. Bush in 2000, defended Napster in 2001 and took on Microsoft in 1997. A really good read. http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/19/news/companies/david_boies_profile_full.fortune/index.htm
• Given the general political slant of its reporting, I'm not one to lavish praise on the CBC. However, and I can't believe I'm going to say this, I couldn't be more proud of the CBC's investigation into the (Hezbollah) assassination of Lebanon's (democratically elected and Western-leaning) Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. This is some seriously impressive hard hitting investigative journalism that at once outs Hezbollah as the state sponsored hit squad it is (with the backing of Iran) while also outing the utter uselessness of the United Nations. I'd say that deserves some high praise http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=26441906

Rediscovered Youth

I haven't owned a video game system since the original Playstation. I stopped playing NHL back in about 1996 after the game became too complicated for me. But last week I did something crazy -- I bought a PS3. I justified the purchase on the grounds that 1) I needed a Bluray player (the PS3 comes with a Bluray player built in) and 2) I will be buying NBA Jam when its available on PS3 after Christmas (it's currently only available on Wii). If you haven't seen it, here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bUm4_dyiI4. Anyway, today I came across a hilarious review NBA Jam on Deadspin (http://deadspin.com/5672597/searching-for-big-country-an-outsize-guide-to-the-new-nba-jam) and reading it was like walking down memory lane. If you grew up in Victoria during the mid-90s I guarantee you shattered virtual backboards with Shawn Kemp and heated up while launching tres from half-court with Detlef Schrempf (btw, will somebody please remind me why Gary Payton wasn't part of that duo?). And if you weren't ballin' with the Reign Man, you were definitely dominating with Clyde 'the Glide' and Terry Porter. Long story short, come Christmas, we'll be able to do it again and I couldn't be more stoked.

Anyway, to pass the time before Jam is released, I picked up the new NBA 2K11 last week. The game is amazing, especially for a guy who had never seen a video game in HD (they exist?). For me playing 2k11 was roughly equivalent to going into a coma when Zach Morris cell phones were new and waking up as the iPhone 4 is being released. Mind-altering stuff. But last night I decided to play one of the game's 10 "Greatest Jordan Moment" scenarios. Namely, game 6 of the '96 Finals between the Bulls and Sonics. If you'll recall, the Bulls won the first three games of that series before the Sonics forced a game 6 in Chicago. In 2k11, your job is to replicate (or better) Jordan's totals from that game (22 pts, 9 rebounds, 7 assists)..oh, and win the game. Well, seeing as I haven't played video games since roughly the same time the Bulls and Sonics met for game six in '96, I failed in this endeavor. Shawn Kemp on the other hand was more than up for the challenge. In four (not real time) 8 minute quarters the Reign Man made it rain on my Bulls to the tune of about 55 points. That's like 8 points for each of his kids! Seriously, his posterizations were so awesome that I couldn't help but watch the replays. I had seriously forgotten how good he was back in the day. Also forgotten -- how great Gary Payton was in his prime. During that game, GP broke more ankles than the staircase at a Victoria old folks home. Suffice to say, I wasn't able to replicate Jordans '96 performance. Rather, I rewrote history so that the Sonics forced a game 7 in Chicago and in all likelihood won the series if I were the opponent. In any event, all of this is to say the Sonics leaving Seattle is a crime against humanity. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0mibkryC4Y

Required Reading for October

• Who's bankrolling anti-oil sands groups, many of which claim grassroots/local credentials? Multi-billion dollar American charitable foundations actually. An excellent expose in the Financial Post: http://opinion.financialpost.com/2010/10/14/u-s-foundations-against-the-oil-sands/
• A Vanity Fair story about tragedy on Mont Blanc, Western Europe's tallest mountain, and the world's deadliest (in absolute terms). Throw in a successful Mt. Everest summit and the world's first (north) pole to (south) pole journey fueled entirely by manpower and natural power and you have one helluva read. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/11/prep-school-climbers-201011?printable=true&currentPage=2
• From Deadspin, a hilarious review of the new NBA Jam video game. The highlight: Bryant 'Big Country' Reeves is back baby!! http://deadspin.com/5672597/searching-for-big-country-an-outsize-guide-to-the-new-nba-jam

Observations/Rants (October 2010)

• It's been reported that a Turkish basketball team from Istanbul has offered Allen Iverson a one year contract worth about $2 million. Yes, that would be the same Turkey that routinely dishes out 20 year prison sentences for a little Hashish. What could possibly go wrong?
• Am I the only person who's proud of the fact that Canada didn't win a UN Security Council seat? Clearly, Canada's foreign policies (and aid decisions) pissed off enough Middle East/African dictatorships to cost us the votes needed for a seat. Isn't that something to be proud of? Latin America heavily supported Canada's bid by the way. Simply put the UN and its Security Council are not institutions I care about at all. It seems to me the Council's sole function is to condemn the West (which the Western members allow) and veto condemnations of serial human rights abusers (China, Russia, Iran, etc). We're supposed to be upset Canada doesn't get to contribute to this farce? To wit, federal Tories, keep doing what you're doing internationally!