A lot of people say I'm crazy to put my support in the NHL labour dispute fully behind the players. But, here is why I have elected to support the millionaires over the billionaires: nobody is holding a gun to the head of these owners to pay the players more than they can afford. It's a simple choice. Further to that, but one of the hardest of hard-line owners (Craig Leipold of Minnesota) handed out $200 million in contracts over the summer to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, then held a press conference saying that despite an increase of over a $1-billion in revenue over the last seven years that he could no longer afford to do business. I wouldn't put it past Leipold to play real dirty in that when he signed these two players, he foresaw a 20% wage cut coming as a result of the new CBA and had it in the back of his head that he might only have to pay $160-million. Meanwhile, Boston owner Jeremy Jacobs, who is in favor of a five year cap on contract lengths, just signed Tyler Seguin to a SIX year deal! The owners are huge hypocrites and what this dispute comes down to is this: the owners want to pay the players less money so they can make more. And, there is nothing wrong with them making as much as they can, but exercise some self-control.
I spent Saturday in Windthorst, taking part in the KW Oil Kings first annual golf tournament. The Kipling-Windthorst area has senior hockey for the first time in eight years and the communities are abuzz with excitement. The organizing group has done a tremendous job raising funds to this point and I wouldn't be surprised to see them compete near the top of the Triangle Hockey League this season. Windthorst, by the way, has sand greens. I've never before golfed on a course with sand greens. It was quite an experience. I thought since my putting on grass greens wasn't very good, perhaps I'd make up for it by being an ace on the sand green. Ummmm, no.
Golf is a funny game. I went through the first eighteen years of my life and golfed four or five times total. Then I moved to Manitoba and started golfing, at least, once a week. In 2001, we started having kids and I've golfed maybe twenty times in the last eleven years.
Here's an example of the slippery slope we are on when it comes to tolerating people's sexual orientation: Director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) says the taboo on incest is out of step with the times. "Love who you want. Isn't that what we say? Gay marriage - love who you want? If it's your brother or sister it's super-weird, but if you look at it, you're not hurting anybody except every single person who freaks out because you're in love with one another." There you have it folks. I may see, in my lifetime, a society that tolerates marriage between a brother and sister. The spiral continues. Cassavetes, by the way, is in the midst of making a new movie based on an incestuous relationship.
I wonder if the ever increasing socialist country that we live in can find a way or create a law to curb the increasing number of spam telephone calls. It's one thing to get these calls at home where a simple look at call display can allow you to decide whether you want to answer or not; but at a place of business where you should be taking all calls and are, quite often, busy it's a real nuisance and waste of time.
I read an interesting story last week where the ten worst jobs were identified by careercast.com. They are as follows (can't say I necessarily agree): Lumberjack, Dairy Farmer, Military Soldier, Oil Rig Worker, Newspaper Reporter, Waiter/Waitress, Meter Reader, Dishwasher, Butcher, and Broadcaster. The only one I can vouch for is Broadcaster and all I can say about that, is that it sure isn't what it used to be. And, for a change I'll keep my mouth shut and say no more! Newspaper Reporter doesn't count since I'm only a columnist. And, I've had people ask me how much I get paid to write this column and I don't mind saying the answer is $0. The deal I've made with this newspaper is not to censor me. Let me hang myself should I so choose. I've come close to doing exactly that a couple of times! So, when I get fired, eventually, will I really be fired?
I have to give two big thumbs up to the City Of Yorkton for the new skate park and the walking trail that was recently paved. The beautification of the downtown area continues to improve by leaps and bounds. I'm a little old to be doing a Christian Hosoi impersonation though so I'll continue to be a bystander for now.
Nice person mentions to Rachel Kraynick, Tammy Stevenson, Susanne "Windthorst" Andres, Tim Cameron, and Ken Wiens.
