That would be better than a half-assed corporate letter of mea culpa!

I’m sorry… I see what they are trying to do, but like their February swoon, they come up miserably short.

Don’t want to even think about hockey until next year.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

… but here are my fearless predictions:

First Round Matchups

1) NYR vs. OTT

Rangers in 5. Sens aren’t in the same league… well, they are, but not, figuratively… goaltending will choke for the Schmens. Losing Neil for this series will hurt big time…Spezza will get arrested outside Madison Square for solicitation.

1) VAN vs. 8 LA

LA in 7 – upset of the playoffs – but aren’t we used to the CanYucks choking year after year? And yes, there will be riots.

2) BOS vs. 7 WSH

Bruins in 6. I hate both teams so maybe they’ll both be eliminated! Sigh. if ONLY that were possible…Tim Thomas will retain his sense of stupidity. Chara will still be the 2nd ugliest guy in the – right after Ovie…

2) STL vs. 7) SJ

I think the Blues are the real deal. Best goaltending in the league… and that wins Cups…they’ll take this series in 5. San Jose is useless in the playoffs.

3) FLA vs. 6) NJ

Yawn… Joisey in 5. Who cares?

3) PHX vs. 6) CHI

The surprising Coyotes will take the Hawks in 5. Phoenix may go deep… look for a Coyotes/Blues series to produce the Cup winner.

4) PIT vs. 5) PHI

Bad blood here. Can Sid the whiner stay healthy. How about Malkin, the other whiner? Pens in 7. maybe. Look for lots of fights. Blowhard Cherry will be happy.

4) NSH vs. 5) DET

NEVER COUNT OUT THE WINGS!!!! NEVER! They’ll take it in 6.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

So Harper is acting all smug and tough in Davos, isn’t he?

Although short on details, Mr. Harper’s speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday made clear the sweep of his ambition. He will change how Canadians finance their retirement. He will overhaul the immigration system. He will make oil and gas exports to Asia a “national priority” and aggressively pursue free trade in India and Europe.

Sigh. I agree with most of that but too bad no one in Davos is calling him on the G8 slush fund, the In and Out scandal, abandoning the environment to oil companies, corporate welfare enhancements, etc., etc.

Message to the Cons – the pendulum will swing back one day – and it will smack you right in the forehead!

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It’s All Star weekend in Ottawa! So why aren’t I smitten? I dunno, but I guess I’m getting more cynical as I get older and see these things more as money-making circuses and less like celebrations of the game.

Am I becoming a curmudgeon?

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Good to see that the OC Trashpo head, Alain Mercier has backed down from his “you’ll get GPS data when I say you can” stance -,albeit under enormous political pressure from both some Transit Commissioners (thank you Councillor Tierney!) and the public at large.

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Hens in the backyard? Why not, as long as there are strict controls in place and enforced. I grew up on a hobby farm where we had fresh eggs every day. Nothing like them.

There is a movement building in O Town to convince Council into changing the City Bylaw that prohibits the keeping of backyard hens. Keeping hens in an urban setting is not exactly an unusual practice and provides food for a household and education for the little ones. If done properly, there is little noise and no smell.

Check out this link to see how a successful urban hen policy can work.

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So, O Canada ranked 4th out of 6 national anthems examined in a British study…. in terms of sing-along-ablily, that is…

I’m not surprised at all… The ol’ Soviet National Anthem rocked… didn’t understand a freakin’ word, of course.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

… it has been that type of year…

LMAO!!!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

From Ken Gray’s blog…

Facebook friend Jean-Pierre Allard commented on my blog post Don Cherry Must Go Because of Latest Outrage. To read the post with the original and infamous Don Cherry Coach’s Corner segment on hockey violence, click here:

“Not sure our otherwise fine country could ever recover (without Cherry) as there will be no more violence in hockey, no more hatred for anything that’s not PURE K-TOWN, no more shameful plugs for becoming a senator via suffocating rah-rahring of our troops, no more cross-dressing on the state-sponsored TV, no more votes by otherwise balanced citizens for Donald La Cerise as The Greatest Canadian Ever.”

Yeah. It would be mighty tough to go without the directionless and troglodyte droolings of a has-been from the last century. Real tough…

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

About time!

Now let’s see about getting a team back to Québec City and another one for Ontario and maybe the Maritimes!

Bettman? Your great experiment is a failure!

I do happen to feel a little sorry for those fans in Atlanta… all 60 of them!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

Just got word – Shayne Orok was eliminated from the competition tonight (Korean time). This is a teen who didn’t speak a word of Korean; and look at what he has done! Congrats to him.  He has done his City and country proud!

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Rapture. Tomorrow. Be there for the looting!

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Winnipeg. Be still. Soon your patience will be rewarded! And I like the sound of the “Winnipeg Wascals”.

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My FB status a few days ago:

John Marshall

Can’t believe that I’m actually looking forward to my first root canal.

A response from an oh-so-sympathetic “friend”:

‎”grit” your teeth…

And another:

If I knew you like pain that much I’d have bought you a Liberal party, limited edition “Keep Iggy for life” sweater……LOL

Who needs enemies?

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I am NOT. Repeat, NOT, Arnie’s Love Child.

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Not to anticipate a verdict, but, if true, this is the face of a slimebag.

Finally, speaking of scumbags and slimebags. I found out this morning that my one of my elderly neighbours was defrauded out of a considerable sum of cash when someone called posing as his grandson. The “grandson” claimed that he was in jail and needed bail money. Money was wired and the fraud was successful.

He figures that the scum got the information off of his Facebook page.

Now what does this tell you, boys and girls? KEEP YOUR FB SETTINGS AT THE MAXIMUM PRIVACY LEVELS POSSIBLE!

Or this could happen to you too. Be careful.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

AWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOME

And WooHoo! Congrats to the ‘Peg!!!!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

First of all, in light of the horrible tragedy that is taking place in Japan, I’d like to wish all affected the very best and hope that you and those you care about are safe and sound.

And that goes for anyone else in the Pacific Rim who may be affected by the quake or subsequent tsunamis.

I was going to bitch about the crappy weather that O Town has been getting lately, but that seems so trivial now.

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Zdeno Chara is a lumbering moron who deserved to have the book thrown at him for his hit against Max Pacioretty the other night. But in true NHL fashion, no one had the guts to do it. Gotta keep the dullards who drool at the fights and hits like this happy, ya know.

Accident? Bullshit. These guys, even ones as dull as Chara, know where they are on the ice at all times. Period.

This is yet another black eye on what can be a beautiful sport. But it is obvious that the league is going to sit on its hands until someone dies. Shame.

Duh....

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Apparently, it is OK to use electroshock treatment on misbehaving students who attend a school in the States. And Congress agrees!

(NaturalNews) For nearly 20 years, the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (JREC), a special needs school for children and adults in Canton, Mass., has been utilizing a controversial, “moderately painful” electric shock discipline technique on its students that many say is inhumane. JREC is the only school in the US that uses the technique, and legislation to ban it has repeatedly failed. Last year, JREC spent $100,000 lobbying Congress to block a piece of legislation that may have outlawed the practice, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) filings indicate that the school has spent more than a million dollars lobbying for protection at the state level.

Yes, I was wrong about an election being called yesterday. Quit bugging me about it!

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I have volunteered to provide input into a park renewal plan for two parks in my area: Grasshopper Hill and Canterbury. If you live in the ‘hood and have some ideas, feel free to share them with me!

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As much as it pains me to admit, OC Transpo has been quasi reliable lately in spite of the crappy weather. Props.

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Stephen Harper’s smirk: hate it about as much as I hate his lies.

This pic is an accurate portrayal, don’t you think?Thanks to The Non Conformer for this.

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For those of us in my part of the world (except Saskatchewan) don’t forget that we switch to DST this weekend!

Turn your clocks ahead at 2 a.m. this Sunday, March 13, 2011.

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Finally, a very Happy 22nd Anniversary to my brother Jim and sister-in-law Kim! Hard to believe it has been that long!

Kim – I woulda booted out the bum years ago, but thanks for keeping the bro’ on the straight and narrow!

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario

When is punishment not punishment, but revenge? I was reading a number of the comments on the cbc.ca site that related to the horrendous abduction and murder of that little girl in Woodstock. Not at all surprising was the amount of anger in those comments.  To kill a child is a terrible and evil act and those responsible must be brought to justice.  But many on the site were calling for capital punishment. And again, this isn’t surprising given the nature of this crime.  But is this justice or simple revenge?  As a deterrent, we see by looking to our neighbours to the south that executing criminals doesn’t work.  And are we not letting them off rather easy? Regular readers will know that I’m not a believer in an afterlife per se so I don’t think these animals will be judged at some point after death.

‘Tis better to cage them up for the rest of their lives and effectively rather than literally taking away their right to exist.
I have a button stowed away somewhere that says: Why do we kill people to show that killing people is wrong.

But if my daughter was the victim, would I hold true to these beliefs?

o    Why do the Harperites insist on continuing these ridiculous attack ads? Do they not realise that the only segment of the voting population is that which would have already voted for them in any case? The only folks who believe the rubbish coming from the PMO are those who are one or all of the following:

o    From Alberta
o    From Saskatchewan
o    From B.C, outside of the urban areas
o    Low level of education
o    Rural residents
o    NASCAR fans
o    Robots

Now, don’t anyone flame me for suggesting that all folks from AB are NASCAR-lovin’ rednecks who have a poster of Stevie on their outhouse wall… I don’t mean that!

Anyhow, most of we Canucks are tired of these attacks. Let’s back away from that for a while and show some civility, shall we?

Hey – Justin Trudeau has a nice perspective on this matter too.

o    The Brian Mulroney Commission: Who cares!!! I personally didn’t much like the guy when he was PM but I’m watching the proceedings while sitting on a bike at GoodLife the other day and I watched a full 30 minutes of the “cross-examination” of ol’ Bri explaining that he DID pay taxes on the full amount just NOT in the taxation year in which he was given the funds! What? Is this the best scandal that we Canadians can dream up?

Drop it. There are more juicy things going on, like…

o    The Larry O’Brien criminal trial…. though from the sounds of things, the defence lawyer is tearing Kilrea a new hole on the stand.

I woulda loved to have been there today when Bulldog Baird took the stand.  I cannot stand that guy and would have liked to have seen him squirm a bit.

Is O’Brien guilty? Probably. Will he be judged so? Probably not. But it makes for good entertainment…

o      Lastly… dump Gary Bettman and bring in someone who has an ego smaller than Baffin Island and a hockey sense that is more developed than a Bedouin farmer.

Trashy,
Ottawa, Ontario