These people are nuts - part 2

A pseudo-Christian church in Florida is inviting people to burn the Koran:

It's astonishing that there are people in America who are so far gone in their islamophobia that they actually would celebrate 9/11 with a book burning.

Ahh, but, just like Breitbart says about the NAACP, any anti-Muslim racism in America is really Muslim people's own fault, because their very existence is just so provoking.
Hmmm, seems to me that we've come across this type of argument somewhere before...

For crying out loud

What a bizarre spin to put on a news story about an upcoming theatrical production -- 'Sympathetic' terrorist play gets boost.
I guess whenever government funds are involved, we are only supposed to see approved versions of history, not versions which ask whether an injustice might have been done?
So I certainly hope the media has investigated to make sure there were no government funds anywhere near this film or this one or this one. And let's hope the movie Ben Stiller is trying to put together about these guys isn't going to get a penny of public money, either.
Much closer to home, here's another one that I guess people shouldn't be seeing at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, which is supported by federal, provincial and municipal funds.

"you can't be neutral on a moving train": special film night in support of war resisters support campaign

Join us at The Bloor! Special guests filmmakers Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller, and war resister Jeremy Hinzman. Emceed by war resister Chuck Wiley.

windsor, sonoma county, california

Yesterday was a travel day, a short distance that took a long time.

If the Oakland Airport wants to be a viable alternative to San Francisco, they have to fix their rental car problem. And PS, don't ever rent from Payless out here. But after the BART to the "Air BART" (bus link between airport and BART), to the insane rental car shuttle, and almost to a second, nonexistent shuttle for Payless, we finally did get a car from National. If Payless wants to try and charge us for the reservation we didn't keep, bring it on.

We immediately drove to the nearest In-N-Out, which we had seen from the Air BART bus, and Allan had his first In-N-Out experience. By that time it was late and we were very hungry, and ate copious amounts of cheeseburgers and fries. I've already noted this on previous California posts, but it's amusing that there's a "double double" here, too. As we would say in a Joy of Sox gamethred: In-N-Out Double Double > Tim Hortons' Double Double.

After a few wrong turns, we joined a slow parade of traffic crawling northward from San Francisco, to the town of Windsor in Sonoma County. This is the heart of wine country, very near the hip, happening town of Healdsburg which everyone tells us to check out.

The cottage is so sweet - just perfect. It's a bed-and-breakfast cottage, so our hosts have stocked it with everything we need for breakfast. Last year in New Mexico, as soon as we put down our bags after a very long day of travel, we had to head out to a store for basics like coffee, tea and cereal. This is easier and more convenient.

We were late for the rehearsal dinner, but by coincidence it was being held at a golf club right down the road from where we're staying, so we were able to relax for a bit before getting ready for the party. Like last year, the best part of this trip is seeing our nieces and nephews, sibs and sibs-in-law, and some extended family (not necessarily related to us). We have a lot to catch up on with a lot of people, and it's great just to be around them.

Cue take 4,573 of how freaking amazing it is to enjoy family gatherings now. After half a lifetime of approaching these things with anxiety and dread, I now look forward to them with joy and excitement. And people think death and divorce are bad things! They've done wonders for us.

Our cottage are adjacent to a farm. We hear baby goats bleating and horses whinnying - and this morning we actually woke up to a rooster crowing. (Then went right back to sleep.) Next to the porch, there's a plum tree laden with ripe fruit. It's beautiful and quiet, and hearing the animals talk is so peaceful.

The wedding is this afternoon, so I'm not sure what, if anything, we'll do besides that.

HBIC Comics - Volume 4

I'm going to be away this weekend doing a variety of non-hockey things, so I've prepared a few posts to go up in my absence. I'm hoping I did everything properly in my haste to get away for some rest and relaxation - R&R, to the layman - so that you, the reader, can get your HBIC fix over the long weekend. I'll be back on Monday to check to see if things went according to plan in my absence, so if things seem askew, just roll with it until Monday. Once I'm back, I can look into any and all problems, but I'm off the grid for this weekend. That means no connection to the HBIC world, so let's hope this place holds together! With that in mind, here are your HBIC Comics!

Benchies is a comic strip produced by Rick Pearson. Mick and Mike find themselves in all sorts of humorous situations, and hockey is just one of those situations where crazy things happen to the guys! You can find more of Mr. Pearson's Benchies every weekend on Uni Watch Blog where Mick and Mike get up to all sorts of hijinks!

Here is your Benchies for July 31, and it seems the boys think of an old TV show when talking about an Eastern Conference city!
Small Market Sports is a comic strip produced by Bill Charbonneau where his cast of characters are always up to something. There's Carter (the baseball), Doug (the football), Dave (the sports radio), Nash (the basketball), and Wayne (the hockey puck). Named after the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, Wayne the puck is "a hot-tempered and slightly egotistical 'super-star' (in his own mind, anyway). As the ambassador to his sport, he is quick to defend the unrelenting jabs about the excessive violence that permeates his hockey. Even if he has to drop his gloves and knock some teeth in to do it." Mr. Charbonneau produces a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday about these characters, and you can find them on Small Market Sports!

Here is a Small Market Sports comic strip for July 31. Doug is impressed with Sidney Crosby's clothes-dryer routine on The Tonight Show which prompts him and Wayne into a discussion of NHL rules.

Just to reference what Doug is talking about, here are Crosby and Max Talbot shooting pucks at a dryer while selling merchandise for Reebok:

A big thank you goes out to Rick Pearson and Bill Charbonneau for allowing me to put together a hockey-related comics page each and every Saturday. If you know someone who would like their work published, please have him or her contact me here. Whether you're an amateur or a professional artist, I'd be happy to feature your work on my site!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Brand-New Forgotten Looks

I was speaking to a friend today who is a pretty big AHL fan, and he seemed pumped that Darren Haydar is heading back to the Chicago Wolves. I asked him what he would equate the change to, and his response was "Remember when Hulk Hogan joined the NWO". As I stared at him with some confusion, he proceeded to inform me that it was the biggest coup in wrestling history, and how he went from the biggest hero in wrestling to one of the biggest heels ever. He didn't seem impressed that I had little knowledge of such a historic event, but it got me thinking about hockey players who played in cities after being so iconic in a previous city. There are a pile of players that can be included here, but I want to run through the few that seem to jump to the front of my mind.

• We'll start with the most iconic player in Wayne Gretzky. We all know of his exploits in Edmonton and Los Angeles, so when he was traded to the St. Louis Blues, it left a lot of people puzzled. Including Wayne. He signed in the off-season with the New York Rangers after appearing in a mere 18 games with the Blues.
• Guy Lafleur was a star in his home province of Quebec, racking up Stanley Cup victories with the Montreal Canadiens before not playing for three years between 1985 and 1988. However, Lafleur in a New York Rangers jersey just doesn't seem right. Lafleur would spend a mere 67 games on Broadway before heading home to play for the Nordiques.
• Another player who appeared on Broadway had a long career in a different city where he is hailed as a hero. Marcel Dionne's tenure with the New York Rangers lasted all of 67 games in 1988-89 after spending his entire career in Detroit and Los Angeles. Of course, he is a legend in Los Angeles for his work there.
• This list will never be completely correct if it didn't include Bobby Orr. Orr had a phenomenal career with the Boston Bruins before knee injuries caught up to the legendary defenceman. Orr spent all of 26 games with the Chicago Blackhawks before retiring. Orr had previously played 631 games with the Bruins where he carved out a Hall-of-Fame career while redefining a position on the ice.
  
• Another Bobby who played with the Blackhawks will make this list. Of course, Bobby Hull was a much more vivid Blackhawk, and he will always be remembered for his time as a Winnipeg Jet when he jumped to the WHA for $1 million. But Bobby's career basically came to an end in Hartford with the Whalers where he played a mere nine games. Not quite going out on top, but Hull had himself a very impressive career.
• There's a player who won three Stanley Cups with three different teams that made two cameos on two different teams. Mike Keane spent time with Montreal, Colorado, and Dallas in winning his three Stanley Cups, but he also spent 70 games with the New York Rangers and 56 games with the St. Louis Blues! I have scoured the Interwebs for a Mike-Keane-St.-Louis-Blues image with no success. However, there is evidence of him in a Rangers uniform. Keane most recently retired after playing for his hometown Manitoba Moose where he is still spoken about with Winnipeg legends like Hull, Selanne, and Hawerchuk.

There are probably a pile more, but these players represent the iconic players who jumped to new teams through free agency or moved through trades. Gretzky, Lafleur, Dionne, Orr, and Hull all had Hall-of-Fame careers with their previous teams, and Mike Keane is one of nine players who won a Stanley Cup while suiting up for three different teams.

Is there anyone you think that should be added to this list? Leave names in the comments!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

san francisco, day two

On Thursday I amazed myself by sleeping until 9:00 a.m., something I very rarely do on Eastern time, and never when my body thinks that means noon. Two consecutive nights of very little sleep plus a dark room and an extremely comfy bed worked wonders. By the time we finished breakfast, blogged and organized our day, the morning was over. But hey, it's vacation.

First thing, we headed down to the Ferry Building Market, new since the last time I was in San Francisco. The Ferry Building is a San Francisco landmark, more than 100 years old and the survivor of many earthquakes, including "the" quake of 1906. It's been lovingly and impeccably restored (and made accessible), and is now home to a beautiful market, along with commuter and travel ferries to dozens of towns across the Bay. We love markets and like to see them wherever we go, so this beautiful building right on the water was a must.

Three days a week there is a farmers' market and street food outside, which we saw briefly. We mostly wandered around inside, browsing through the permanent shops and restaurants. They're all independent and locally-based, but somewhat high-end, which is very easy to do out here. A shop selling only varieties of olive oil or organic mushrooms is not something you see in Toronto or New York, but it's not uncommon here. We had some delicious sandwiches from Boccalone - "tasty salty pig parts" - and gelato, and browsed through a nice bookstore.

Outside, from a huge array of tables, I found a pair of earrings, delicate hand-painting on shells. I told the artist I would link to her website, but at the moment her domain seems to be up for grabs. Rosa Moore and her husband Joso Vidal do beautiful work, and in case the site comes back, it's Clearlight Jewelry dot-com.

My Ice Hotel keychain died a few months ago, and yesterday I replaced it with a keychain made from a Susan B. Anthony dollar, showing that radical woman smoking a pipe. The artist creates figure-ground art by cutting out the backgrounds of coins, to leave only a face, or a buffalo, an eagle, and such. He's cut out several figures in such a way that has them smoking pipes - George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, for example. He said if I didn't want Susan B. Anthony to be a smoker, he could remove the pipe for me. But the pipe is great. I like to think if our hero Anthony had wanted to smoke a pipe, she damn well would have.

Leaving the area, we ran into some young canvassers from Equality California, wearing great t-shirts with the bright EQ CA logo. We let an enthusiastic young man named Oscar give us his whole pitch, proudly telling him we are from Canada, where we have full marriage equality. California activists, working towards a ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8 in 2012, are raising money to open more local offices throughout the state. We made a donation, wished them luck and got directions to our next stop.

On the streetcar, an incredibly friendly driver - an Ellen DeGeneres lookalike - directed us to a better bus route, and dropped us at the appropriate stop at no charge. When we said we were going to City Lights, she mentioned Vesuvio next door. She also asked where we were having dinner, and tipped us off on $1 oysters and half-price beers at Hog City Oyster bar, at the Ferry Building Market. It seems I exclaim, "These friendly Californians!" at least three times a day. I love New Yorkers and I will never badmouth my own breed. But I never understood why people find Easterners unfriendly until I spent time in California and the Pacific Northwest. I used to think the difference was urban versus rural, but SoCal, the Bay Area and Seattle are plenty dense, yet people are still incredibly friendly compared to New Yorkers, Bostonians, and others in the east. And whereas Canadians are extremely nice and friendly, they are still (stereotypically speaking) reserved, compared with the openness and warmth I feel here.

We took the bus up to North Beach, the old Italian neighbourhood that is still chock full of Italian restaurants and cafes. Maybe it's me, but I think the area still has a very authentic feel, despite the tourist interest. Our destination, though, wasn't Little Italy, but City Lights. City Lights is a landmark bookstore and publisher, founded by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It was the home and hangout for Beat Generation writers, and perhaps most famous for publishing Allen Ginsberg's "Howl".

But City Lights is no museum. It is still a vibrant bookstore, still publishing fiction, nonfiction and especially important political work, and still fanning the flames of free expression. There's an entire room of poetry upstairs - in which I confess I never get past Whitman and Ginsburg - and a whole floor of revolutionary politics downstairs. We love this place and go whenever we're here. Not least among my reasons for loving City Lights is my love for Allen Ginsberg - writer, New Yorker, early out queer, compassionate humanist, and literary descendant of another writing hero of mine, Walt Whitman.

City Lights has recently published The Bomb, a short monograph by Howard Zinn, taken from some of his earlier writings plus an new introduction Howard finished just a month before he died. It is a concise and painfully true treatise against war. It felt good to buy this from people who were so recently working with and publishing Howard Zinn. I also bought Hungry Planet: What The World Eats, which I blogged about when it was making the rounds in newspapers and magazines. The book is extraordinary: NPR feature about the project, website for What The World Eats, reviews on Amazon.

Allan also bought a 'zine - an actual old-fashioned, ink-on-paper 'zine - published by a woman in New York: The East Village Inky. He also found a cool magazine called Rejected Quarterly, dedicated to publishing fiction, poetry and art that other publishers have rejected, along with the rejection letters themselves. The inside cover says: "All fiction submissions must be accompanied by at least five rejection slips"!

I left Allan to continue browsing, and went across the alley to Vesuvio, a legendary cafe/bar/club/hangout of Beat fame. Although it's a famous spot that every tourist sticks their head into, it's also a thriving neighbourhood hangout. I came in expecting to have a coffee but ended up with a Guinness instead. Hey, it's vacation!

After Allan reappeared, we took the bus back to our hotel for the afternoon wine reception, then walked down to the Museum of Modern Art, or SF MOMA, half price on Thursday nights. Most of the museum is currently taken up with the newly acquired Fisher Collection, which had some limited interest to us. It seems like a nice museum and I'm glad we went - but also glad we went for half price.

Back at the hotel, Allan was having horrible foot pain, an ongoing issue that is worsening. I was so lucky to have solve my foot pain with orthotics two years ago, but his new orthotics are not yet doing the trick. We had more wine and tapas at the bar downstairs. The hotel's restaurant, Postrio, is top-notch, but the real attraction was only needing the elevator to get home.

Today, Friday, we go back to the Oakland Airport to pick up our rental car, then drive up to the cottage in Sonoma County. The rehearsal dinner is tonight. The only other thing on the agenda today is In-N-Out. Allan was exceedingly jealous of my In-N-Out fests on my last two trips to visit friends in California, so now he'll find out what all the fuss is about.

How hard would it be?

How hard would it be for the Canadian government to just adopt a policy that says, if you are a Canadian citizen and you get into trouble outside the country then our top priority is to help you?
Oh, yeah, him.
Never mind...
UPDATE: Just to clarify, in case it wasn't clear -- I believe citizenship is supposed to mean something. That neither the Harper Cons nor the Paul Martin Liberals would would try to repatriate Omar Khadr, however odiously that citizen and his family may have behaved, is shameful and has weakened the value of Canadian citizenship around the world.

Vancouver Russkies?

The last time we saw a large contingent of Russian-born hockey players in the same Canadian city at once was during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The city of Vancouver played host to the Olympics, and Russia sent a very good squad over to Canada to compete for a gold medal. While they fell short in their quest to capture Olympic gold, there was nearly another Russian invasion into the city of Vancouver back in 1970 that would have seen some serious changes in the National Hockey League. Surprisingly enough, the national Russian hockey team were almost Canucks.

I know it seems hard to believe that the entire Russian hockey team would suddenly emigrate to Canada, especially in the 1970s when the Cold War was at is height, but the expansion of the NHL left a few general managers and owners somewhat worried in terms of the talent level of the players they needed to ice an NHL team.

According to Sports Illustrated's Scorecard on December 15, 1969, Punch Imlach had a radical and somewhat controversial idea in how to make the newly-founded Vancouver Canucks immediately competitive.

"Expansion franchises in the National Hockey League have been awarded to Vancouver and Buffalo, but the question of where to find players of adequate stature to put on major league ice has yet to be solved.

"George (Punch) Imlach, former manager and coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose move to Vancouver is anticipated, had an idea, though. In his Toronto Telegram column Punch disclosed that he had offered the Russian national hockey team $300,000 to 'rent' its 20 best players to Vancouver from Sept. 15, 1970 to May 15, 1971. The players would split $200,000; the Soviet sports federation would get $100,000.

"Imlach met in a Montreal hotel room with Andrei Staravoitov, chief of the Ministry of Physical Culture's hockey committee and, through an interpreter, put his dollars on the table.

"'It was suggested,' he explained in his Punchy way, 'that the Russians would be as a whole much better than the garbage that would be available to Vancouver in the draft. Also the Russians would be a great drawing card.'

"The Russians have, of course, dominated international hockey in recent years and have expressed an inclination to meet a few NHL teams in exhibitions if the Soviet eligibility for 'amateur' and international competition would not be endangered, a question that must be considered in the Vancouver situation, also.

"Another question arises. The Vancouver team was to call itself the 'Canucks.' Will it now be the Vancouver Russkies?"

That is some phenomenal reporting, and a simply astounding revelation in Vancouver Canucks' history. From all I've read about Imlach, I knew he was wired a bit differently, but this? This is absolutely insane! He wanted to rent a national team to play as an NHL team!

It's hard to imagine that players such as Vladislav Tretiak, Valery Kharlamov, Alexander Maltsev, and Valery Vasiliev could have been Vancouver Canucks, but that's exactly what Imlach wanted to do - bring the Soviet national team to Vancouver, and let them compete as the Canucks in the NHL. Innovative, interesting, and downright insane are the only terms I can come up with to describe Imlach's idea.

Gems like this that are buried in hockey's history are exactly why I love this game! Of course, Vancouver would be a landing pad for Soviets in the late 1980s as Igor Larionov and Vladimir Krutov joined the Canucks in 1989 after years of living under Viktor Tikhonov's regime in the Soviet Union. They, along with two others, would be the first Soviet players to legally move from the Soviet ice hockey program to the NHL.

This is one of the coolest stories I've heard in a long time, and it's one of a number of excellent tidbits of historical info in the Sports Illustrated vault. I recommend spending some time sifting through it! You might find something like this that just seems unbelievable!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Questions abour the G20

The Facebook group Canadians Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20 have released the list of the most urgent questions that an inquiry into police behaviour during the protests should answer:

1. Why were the police forcing peaceful protesters out of Queen's Park on Saturday when that was the designated protest area? ...

2. Were special powers actually extended to police for the duration of the G20 summit? If so, what exactly were they? ...
3. Why was the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms trampled on by the police through actions such as: Unwarranted searches, Intimidation to deter people from assembling, Arbitrary arrest, Detainment of innocent bystanders. Who is responsible for giving police orders to act this way? ...

4. Why are police officers allowed not to wear a nametag? Why are police officers allowed to refuse to identify themselves when a citizen asks for their name?
5. I would like to see every dollar of the security budget accounted for in a detailed expense report.
6. Who were the men seen in numerous videos in plain clothes, with batons, arresting peaceful protesters and putting them in unmarked minivans?

7. How does the 'kettling' technique (surrounding protesters with riot police and blocking exit paths from the protest area) comply with the rights of Canadians as laid out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
8. Will the tapes documenting the holding facilities be reviewed by an independent reviewer?
9. Why were members of the media cleared out of protest areas or in some cases, arrested?
10. Why were protesters blocked in and not allowed the option of leaving peacefully, especially those in designated protesting areas.

11. What were the reasons behind the orders sent to front line officers to 'stand down' when windows were being broken and cars were being torched, and who gave them?

san francisco, day one

If you're new around these parts, here's a quick note of explanation. I've kept a travel journal for every trip I've taken since 1982. Since 2006, with my trip to Peru, I began keeping these journals online, on this blog. I write it almost exactly as I would if I were writing for myself. So be warned!

* * * *

Tuesday was a long travel day, from Buffalo to JFK to Oakland and into San Francisco. Our four hour wait in JFK extended to five, then close to an hour wait on the plane for takeoff. We took public transit from the Oakland Airport into town. If you go to San Francisco, you should always check fares to Oakland. It's usually less expensive and always much easier.

So by the time we got into Oakland, with the time change working against us, we were tired and bedraggled. Imagine our surprise when the front-desk clerk told us he had no record of our reservation!

The hotel was completely booked, not one unreserved room, and Hotels.com - did you know that is an offshoot of Expedia.com? - had oversold them by 15 rooms. In chatting with him about it, we learned that this has been happening a lot. Recently when the San Francisco Marathon was on, the hotel had to send 50 people in cabs to a hotel in a nearby city. It's been something of a nightmare to them, but this person could not have been more gracious and unflappable.

He said he'd book us a room at a hotel around the corner, at their expense, and then there were plenty of rooms for the next two nights. But that hotel was oversold, too, as was the second one he called. Finally, the poor guy made what must have been a scary decision - there were six rooms that were reserved but for which guests hadn't shown up yet, so he gave us one of those.

There is nothing quite like sinking into a clean, fresh bed after a long day of travel. We were so tired and very relieved.

We're staying at The Prescott, a bit more luxurious than usual for us, but the online deal was very good - although of course that only works if the reservation service actually books the room! The front-desk clerk upgraded us to include breakfast (not always done in the nicer hotels) and an afternoon wine reception.

* * * *

Since we've been in San Francisco several times, we've done all the big tourist attractions, at least the ones that interest us. We just want to hit a few favourite spots, do a couple of new things, and soak up the atmosphere. San Francisco is a really special place. It's so beautiful, the houses rising on the hills, the Bay, the views, the bridges. It also has an energy and an excitement found in very few US cities.

We had a brief breakfast in the hotel, then took a bus to the Chestnut Street area, a fun neighbourhood not far from the Bay. The bus goes through Chinatown and North Beach, another cool SF neighbourhood, and provides a nice little tour. Time zone difference being what it is, by the time we got to Chestnut Street, we were hungry again, and stopped at a great cafe for coffee and breakfast burritos. Chestnut Street has been infiltrated by Starbucks and Gap, but for the most part it still has an independent feel.

From there we walked to the Bay, cutting through a piece of The Presidio to the Golden Gate Promenade or Crissy Field. This is a walking and bike path right on the bay, with a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge. If you walk the entire path, you can visit the historic fort at the base of the bridge. If I recall correctly, this fort was almost torn down when the Golden Gate Bridge was built, but preservationists were successful, and the bridge was designed to go over it. (On the Fort Point website you can get the whole story and see how the bridge now shelters the fort.) On our first trip to San Francisco together in 1988 (which was my third or fourth time here), Allan and I hiked down to the fort. We were fascinated with the Golden Gate Bridge and learned everything we could about it.

This time we strolled along the Bay, enjoying the perfect weather and the incredible view. Along with the cyclists and walkers, there were dozens of dogs romping on the sand and playing in the surf. Some were with their owners who were walking on the beach, but there were also many dogwalkers with six, eight or twelve dogs each. It seemed an ideal place for both dogs and people, such a beautiful and relaxing setting.

We're not taking photos here in San Francisco, as we already have hundreds of photos of these areas. But a Google image search will give you an idea.

We took the bus back to the hotel, had some tapas and wine at the bar, and headed to the ballpark. I really like the "new" (now ten years old) park in San Francisco, sadly named AT&T Park, but beautifully designed and situated on the East Bay overlooking the Oakland Bay Bridge. We've been to this park once before, and had also been to Candlestick, where the Giants used to play.

We met a friend from Joy of Sox, and a friend of his, for the game. It was a wild one: the Giants were up 9-2 after six innings, blew the entire lead, but came back to win 10-9 in ten innings. Unfortunately for us, I neglected to consider our seat locations and didn't use sunscreen. We sat in the blazing sun for eight innings and now have strangely-patterned sunburns.

After the game, our SF friend brought us to a great Chinese restaurant, very different than the Chinese food I eat in Toronto, and a real treat. Then we went to their neighbourhood bar hangout.

2010 Platinum Eagle Design Revealed

Although a formal announcement has not yet been made, the designs of the 2010 Proof Platinum Eagle were recently revealed on the United States Mint's website. The design theme is "To Establish Justice" continuing the six year series exploring the core concepts of American democracy.

Earlier this year, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) had reviewed nine candidate designs provided by the United States Mint. Six of the designs had presented an image of blindfolded Justice holding scales with additional allegorical symbols incorporated into some designs. The remaining candidates included a depiction of the Statue of Liberty's torch, the Supreme Court's western pediment, and the west front door.

The CCAC had supported the version of blindfolded Justice that has been chosen, with some recommended changes to the design and inscriptions. It appears that the US Mint did act on their suggestion to add a loop to the scale to make it mechanically correct. The CFA had supported the design featuring the torch of the Statue of Liberty, citing its suitability in combination with the obverse design. By law, the final design decision was made by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Some details about the offering were also revealed. The coins will carry a maximum authorized mintage of 10,000 coins. This represents an increase from last year's level of 8,000 coins, which sold out after about a week. The household ordering limit is set at five, which matches last year's level.

The price of the one ounce platinum coins will be dependent on the average price of platinum in the week leading up to the release. Within the current range of $1,550 to $1,649.99 per ounce, the coins would be priced at $1,892 each. Last year, the coins were priced at $1,792 based on an average platinum value from $1,450 to $1,549.99 per ounce.

The release date for the 2010 Proof Platinum Eagle is currently scheduled for August 12, 2010.

These people are nuts

The closer the United States gets to the November mid-terms, the crazier some people are getting.
I watched this Red Dawn fantasy and I thought -- WTF?
It makes references to "Patriot Uprising" against "Despotism", but the most chilling line is this one: "I sincerely hope that enough people have crossed that personal line in the sand to join forces with the rest of us so that a small number of us are not required to use force and use of arms".
Why the Horst Wessel Song is playing at the end, who knows.


Boo Man writes about the Red vs. Blue divide:

Over hear in Blueville, there are certain things you don't do in polite company. For example, you don't break out in song with your rendition of "Barack the Magic Negro Lives in DC." You don't pose open-ended questions about the validity of the president's birth certificate. You don't use every cold day as an excuse to remind people that Al Gore is fat. If you don't know what socialism is, you avoid the topic and remain silent when it comes up. . . .
We increasingly live in two different, largely incompatible worlds. It's not all North vs. South. But it's definitely Blue vs. Red. And all of it is dividing people along the wrong lines. It should be those who have vs. those who don't. Instead, it's those who are tolerant vs. those who are not.

Maverick Or Genius?

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to the man that might just be the smartest hockey man on the planet if it weren't for him being in charge of the second-best league on the planet. Alexander Medvedev, pictured to the left, is the head honcho when it comes to the KHL. He calls the shots, he makes the rules, he is "the man". However, Medvedev's offer to free-agent-in-limbo Ilya Kovalchuk today should have a few heads turning as players no longer just laugh off the KHL as some "old-timer league".

While Kovalchuk is still the biggest diamond available on the market, Medvedev decided to drop a bombshell of an offer in trying to lure the Russian sniper back to the Motherland. While the NHL and NHLPA slap each other around in front of an independent arbitrator at some point in the future, it could all be moot if Kovalchuk took Medvedev's offer as seriously as he did Lou Lamoriello's offer.

Medvedev floated this offer across the pond to Ilya Kovalchuk and his agent, Jay Grossman: a seventeen-year contract, and the ability to play where ever he chooses. As for money? Well, Medvedev really isn't hurting when it comes to his financial statement, so I'm quite certain that the $102 million that is up for grabs in the NHL would be delivered by Medvedev to Kovalchuk if he chooses the Russian offer.

Now, let me make something very clear here: Kovalchuk has stated time and again that his interest is playing in the NHL. However, with the contract he signed with the Devils being disputed by the NHL and NHLPA, the financial security that he was searching for may not be there if the arbitrator rules on the NHL's side. So if the arbitrator rules that the 17-year, $102 million is invalid as per the NHL's salary cap rules, there is absolutely no reason why Kovalchuk couldn't accept Medvedev's offer as the highest bidder.

In that scenario, Kovalchuk gets financial security in a relatively tax-free environment, he gets to play at home in Russia, and he is the poster boy for everything KHL. Not a bad deal, I'd say, and one that Kovalchuk may actually consider if the NHL wins the grievance.

The key in all this is that Medvedev would have secured the best player available on the free agent market by simply doing what the NHL wouldn't. If Kovalchuk doesn't sign with the KHL, Medvedev is out nothing and can continue on as if nothing happened.

If the KHL really wants to stick it to the NHL, this is how it can be done. It's savvy, it's intelligent, and it is all within the IIHF-NHL transfer rules since free agents can sign anywhere they like. For all the animosity between the NHL and KHL, this is probably the craziest move that could pay off in a big way that we've seen yet.

Kovalchuk, meanwhile, is in the best win-win situation he could ever hope for as long as he is open to moving back home. If he doesn't get $102 million from the New Jersey Devils, he can get it from the KHL. The NHL loses one of its marquee stars while the KHL secures its "Sidney Crosby"-like player to market and promote their league.

Alexander Medvedev could be just crazy enough for this offer to work. All it will take is selling Kovalchuk on the beauty of the Siberian winter over the New Jersey swamps. $102 million could be the price in that sale.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Summer of discontent

For a government which tries to pride itself on how well it handles problems, the Harper Conservatives have shot themselves in the foot with the census issue and the boss-from-hell at the RCMP.
Now the Wikileaks Afghanistan papers could result in the Afghan prisoner issue circling around to bite them in the ass again.
And its not even August yet.
No wonder Harper has disappeared.
Meanwhile, Iggy is kicking ass and taking names.

An alternate reality

I like parallel universe stories, so I enjoyed this Chris Kelly column on Huffington Post about the Alternate Earth in which the JournoList scandal is important:

The problem with the JournoList scandal is the problem with a lot of right wing news: It's not happening on Earth I, where you and I live. Like the Black Panthers taking over the Justice Department, or Shirley Sherrod's night raids on Andrew Breitbart's small family farm or Glenn Beck's lonely one-man struggle against the Tides Foundation, it exists in a parallel universe that only superficially resembles our own.
A universe where straight, rich white men are the only victims of anything, ever, and shrieking like an infant is their only defense; where Christianity and capitalism are in constant peril, where black lesbians and the very, very poor run everything and Iran has the Bomb and we don't. And where Andrew Breitbart is Biko, and revolutionary political power doesn't come from a gun, it comes, under TV lights, out of the puckered, anus-like mouth of a whining pink face.
You can imagine why the people in that universe are so unhappy. You wouldn't want to live there for five seconds.

Price Increases Hurting Annual Set Sales?

Sales of the United States Mint's two most popular annual sets, the 2010 Mint Set and the 2010 Proof Set, debuted with lower sales compared to previous years. The increased price for each set may be one of the factors contributing to the decline.

This year's annual sets included price increases of $4 and $2 for the Mint Set and Proof Set, respectively. Both increases took place despite a reduction in the number of coins included in each set.

The 2010 Mint Set went on sale July 15, 2010. In the debut sales period through July 18, the US Mint recorded sales of 200,764 sets. In the most recent sales report covering data through July 25, sales had reached 247,085. This is a far cry from the initial sales for the 2009 Mint Set. The first reported sales figures covering October 1 to October 11, 2009 were 392,007.

Besides pricing considerations, the huge drop may have also been the result of seasonal factors, since the 2009 Mint Set was released in October rather than the slow summer months. Also, the set included the popular 2009 Bicentennial Lincoln Cents struck in 95% copper and was released following a delay, which added some anticipatory demand.

For further comparison, I went back tot he 2008 Mint Set. This year's set shows a drop in sales which is less dramatic, but still apparent. Within the initial sales period covering July 30 to August 3, 2008, the US Mint recorded sales of 234,762 for the 2008 Mint Set. If this is considered a base year, this year's sales are down 14.5%.

Examining the 2010 Proof Set, a drop in sales is also apparent, although different durations for the initial sales periods hinder exact comparisons. The 2010 Proof Set recorded sales of 296,379 during the debut period from July 22 to July 25, 2010.

The prior year 2009 Proof Set sold 437,178 units in the initial sales period covering June 1 to June 7, 2009. The 2008 Proof Set sold 424,402 units in the initial sales period covering June 24 to July 6, 2008.

It's interesting to note that the 2009 annual sets both included pricing increases, which were tolerated by collectors. The key difference was that the increased prices were viewed as necessary due to the inclusion of additional coins and the special composition Lincoln Cents. In situations where price increases are necessary and justified, the US Mint has generally provided collectors with an explanation.

Most recently, the press release for the 2009 Mint Set stated: "The price increase is due to the inclusion of the two additional quarters and the special metallic content - 95 percent copper - of the eight one-cent coins."

This year, no explanations were offered for the price increases to the annual sets. Earlier in the year, I did see an explanation for the bronze medals, which had prices increased by 60% from $3.50 to $5.50. The US Mint simply mentioned higher material costs. While this might be true, it cannot fully justify the extent of the increase.

The 2010 annual sets have actually reverted back to the same contents by denomination and metallic content as the 2008 annual sets, but prices are much higher. The table below shows the number of coins and face value for the past three years annual sets, along with the original US Mint prices.

	coins	face value	issue price
2008 Proof Set	14	$6.91	$26.95
2009 Proof Set	18	$7.19	$29.95
2010 Proof Set	14	$6.91	$31.95
2008 Mint Set	28	$13.82	$22.95
2009 Mint Set	36	$14.38	$27.95
2010 Mint Set	28	$13.82	$31.95

The only explanation for this year's price increases that I can fathom relates to the lack of precious metals numismatic products like the Proof Gold and Silver Eagles. It seems that these products carry higher profit margins that the annual sets, which sell in higher volumes.

In the latest fiscal year, the US Mint cited the shift in demand for higher margin precious metals products to lower margin recurring products as the reason behind the 50% drop in numismatic products net income and seigniorage. As bad as things were last year, they could have been worse. To some extent the damage was offset by sales of the 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin. Overall numismatic sales were down 21%, but excluding the UHR, sales would have been down 41%. The UHR's contribution to net income was not broken out.

With this year's schedule (so far) lacking any widely popular higher ticket items and the prospects of Proof Gold and Silver Eagles still uncertain, the US Mint's product mix has shifted even further towards lower priced items with historically low margins. This year's price increases may have been established in large part to bolster margins to make up for the income lost through the lack of precious metals numismatic products. Of course, if sales volumes fall, gains made through higher margins may be lost any way.

If this is what's behind the recent price increases, the saddest part is that effectively all collectors are being asked to pay the price for the lack of Proof Gold and Silver Eagles.

New Coin Grader Capsule: Crossover, Cross-under, or Cross-out?

Talbot Stirs The Pot

There's a lot to be said about intense rivalries in the NHL. The battle of Alberta, the battle of Ontario, the battle of California, and the crosstown rivalry in New York City are all based upon proximity and familiarity. Familiarity, as they say, can breed contempt, and it sounds like this year's Winter Classic at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh might be the first outdoor game to resemble a classic game of hockey from yesteryear, complete with brawls. You see, the man in the upper left posing like a superstar has turned the heat up between the two teams by calling out one of the game's most dangerous scoring threats.

In promoting the upcoming 2011 Winter Classic in Pittsburgh, Talbot decided to tee off on Alexander Ovechkin during an interview for radio station 105.9 The X, using a few choice words to describe the flamboyant Capitals superstar while telling the world just how much he dislikes The Great Eight.

"I just hate the guy," Talbot informed The X in the interview. "I can't lie. Sorry. Even more so for a guy like Ovechkin. Like, seriously, okay...yeah. I don't like him."

You would think that he might be done there, right? Nope. He continues with some venom towards Ovechkin.

"The first time I met him, actually, when I met him off the ice," Talbot continued. "You hear a lot of stories about a guy, but sometimes they're not true. You hear of guys who are not good guys, and you're like, 'Yeah, okay, I'll give the guy a shot.' The first time I met him, let's say he didn't give the best impression to me, so better reason to hate him even more."

Wow. Yet Talbot continues to hammer away on Ovechkin's character, bringing another encounter into play.

"I was actually at the NHL Awards last summer with Malkin, and we brought the Stanley Cup over there after the season," Talbot recalled. "Malkin knew Ovechkin, and introduced me to him, and the first impression wasn't great. I'm not really gonna say what happened, but I'm like, 'Ok, this guy is a real (expletive deleted).'"

That "expletive deleted"? The word "douche". Not a good description by Talbot of Ovechkin's character, and normally you never hear players talking trash about other players. That's just not kosher when it comes to the unwritten Code in the NHL.

The Capitals and Penguins already have a serious dislike for one another, and the amount of disrespect these teams are showing one another harkens back to the days of the Bruins and Flyers in the 1970s when lots of words were said in the heat of the moment. Of course, they normally dropped the gloves moments later, but it remains to be seen if Talbot's outburst will prove to be a catalyst for a dominant season by Ovechkin.

Sometimes, it's better to not light a fire under a player who needs a little motivation to do spectacular things.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

in which all questions about our new canadian passports are answered

The good news is the US border guards didn't care about my Canadian passport.

The bad news is the US border guards didn't care about my Canadian passport.

Several people had warned me that as a dual Canadian-US citizen, I could be hassled, denied entry or - as one person put it - "face certain criminal prosecution" for entering the US without a US passport. I know many dual citizens who hold only Canadian passports, and who regularly travel back and forth to the US without the slightest hitch, so I knew this wasn't true. I understand it may technically be true, a law on the books, but it's obviously not enforced in any way.

The only unanswered question was whether my troubles at the border would continue - whether, without my US passport to scan, if I would be flagged. That question has now been definitively answered. Border hassles are now a way of life.

The border guard saw the US birthplace on our passports, typed in our names, and we were off to the races: surrender the keys, escort into the building, the long wait, the questions they already know the answers to. This one took about an hour and 15 minutes.

Once we were cleared, Allan asked the guard returning our passports, "Can you tell us why we were brought in here?"

The guard was clearly uncomfortable with the question. "Don't you know?"

We both said, "We have no idea. No one ever tells us anything. We just come in, answer questions, and they let us go."

Guard: "Have you ever been in trouble?"

Us: "No, never."

Guard: "I'm not at liberty to tell you." He said he could give us a paper explaining how to apply for more information. We said we'd like that, and he went off to get it. When he returned, he was downright chatty. "Here's the information, you fill this out, and you will get a response. I'm sorry, I'm not at liberty to tell you more, but you can apply here, and they will respond. . . . "

Yeah thanks have a nice day.

So. I am flagged with the US state department, and that is that.

* * * *

We had dinner with our friends Bruce and Mary and Russell, great peace activists from Buffalo, then stayed up til all hours talking. Bruce Beyer is kind of a legendary figure in the peace movement, a Vietnam draft resister who turned in his draft card, lived in Sweden and then Toronto, returned to the US without amnesty, and continues to work tirelessly for peace and on behalf of military resisters. Bruce is a mainstay of the War Resisters Support Campaign. And becoming friends with him is one of my favourite benefits of this blog.

We had a really good time last night, and we're now groggy and sleep-deprived. (Those things often go together, eh.) Now we're in JFK Airport with about a five-hour wait for our flight to Oakland, equipped with music, netbook and plenty of reading material.

Silence implies consent

Susan Delacourt discusses Munir Sheikh's testimony today that his enforced silence on the long-form census issue was being spun as approval of the Harper Conservative's census debacle.

Dutiful silence is an honoured tradition in Canadian public service, but if it becomes a weapon in someone else's hands, that should make us all worried. And it might make public servants reconsider whether discretion is always the better part of valour.. . . we in the media, yes that means me too, should be careful about allowing mischievous spin to fill a duty-bound silence.

So this is what it has come to -- Canadian civil servants have to resign if they want to tell us the truth?

You Are What You Eat

If there is one thing that makes the game experience better regardless of the sport, it is the food and amenities offered by the team at its home building. Whether we're talking garlic fries at baseball games, taco in a bag at hockey games, or the plethora of other food options at sporting events, there's always a delectable delight for fans to enjoy. Today, however, ESPN decided to pull the curtains back on food prepared at stadiums by exposing the health inspections done for each team's stadium or arena. Some of the findings are startling. Others provide a sense of relief in knowing that you may have eaten there at one time. Needless to say, HBIC wants to show the hockey side of these findings.

What makes me a little disappointed in some of these findings is that we, as fans, spend our hard-earned cash on arena amenities, and we expect high-quality food and drinks with little consideration to the dark underside of the arena's food preparation. That's not to say I'm disappointed in the findings themselves. Instead, I'm disappointed that NHL teams allow some of the horrendous findings to be found. Health is something that all people - Canadians and Americans alike - take very seriously, and you better not mess with our food. Especially comfort foods.

That being said, here are the health inspection rankings for each of the NHL teams. The lower the percentage shown, the better the NHL team did in the health inspection, and that's good for all of us. The score is based on the percentage of vendors in violation of health requirements. Here they are in order of percentage with the health inspector comments, and I'll comment below with my thoughts:

1. United Center, Chicago Blackhawks - 0%. *
   
2. Nassau Coliseum, New York Islanders - 0%.
   
3. ScotiabankPlace, Ottawa Senators - 0%.
4. Scottrade Center, St. Louis Blues - 0%.
5. Air Canada Centre, Toronto Maple Leafs - 0%.
6. Honda Center, Anaheim Ducks - 3%. The only major violation was for not having chlorine sanitizer in the kitchen's dishwashing machine.
7. Bell Centre, Montreal Canadiens - 3%. Food found at an improper temperature.
8. Prudential Center, New Jersey Devils - 6%. Inspectors noted that at one location, the person in charge "did not demonstrate adequate knowledge of food safety," and the sink lacked soap and paper towels, and there was no sanitizer solution.
9. HSBC Arena, Buffalo Sabres - 8%. Two critical violations for having a toxic chemical in an unlabeled spray bottle.
10. Nationwide Arena, Columbus Blue Jackets - 9%. One of the stadium's critical violations was for employees' handling lemons, limes and oranges with their bare hands while placing them on beverage glasses.
11. GM Place, Vancouver Canucks - 9%. A sushi display cooler was malfunctioning, and the temperature of the sushi rose above safe levels. Inspectors also cautioned one stand regarding properly heating donairs, which have been tied to E. coli outbreaks elsewhere in Canada.
12. Staples Center, Los Angeles Kings - 11%. One stand dumped 9.5 pounds of sushi after inspectors found that it become too warm.
13. Pengrowth Saddledome, Calgary Flames - 14%. Utensils and equipment at one location were not being cleaned and sanitized properly.
14. Wachovia Center, Philadelphia Flyers - 15%. Inspectors found evidence of mouse and fruit fly infestations at one bar location.
15. XCel Energy Center, Minnesota Wild - 17%. Chicken strips for topping a Caesar salad were found at 105 degrees, when they should have been at least 140 degrees.
16. HP Pavilion, San Jose Sharks - 20%. At one location, inspectors found Chinese chicken salad had warmed to 60 degrees, about 20 degrees above a safe temperature.
17. TD Garden, Boston Bruins - 21%. Storing dishwashing chemicals on top of an ice machine resulted in a critical violation for one location.
18. Rexall Place, Edmonton Oilers - 25%. At one location, workers used contaminated cleaning items.
19. Jobing.com Arena, Phoenix Coyotes - 33%. Inspectors spotted an employee scooping ice with his bare hands instead of using scoops.
20. Philips Arena, Atlanta Thrashers - 35%. At a couple of locations, inspectors found food not being protected from contamination.
21. American Airlines Center, Dallas Stars - 40%. Expired milk, brown lettuce and employees caught drinking or eating while they were working in the stand accounted for some of the stadium's critical violations.
22. Joe Louis Arena, Detroit Red Wings - 52%. Poisonous or toxic materials were stored atop items used to serve customers, posing a potential risk of contamination. Inspectors also found roaches below a soda dispenser at one location.
23. Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh Penguins - 55%. In one of the arena's higher-end clubs, inspectors found a live cockroach on top of a soda dispenser holster behind the bar.
24. Bridgestone Arena, Nashville Predators - 59%. Nashville inspectors, who also score vendors, gave the facility's lowest score - 75 - to a vendor with three critical and nine non-critical violations.
25. Madison Square Garden, New York Rangers - 61%. At one stand, inspectors found "53 mouse excreta" (38 on top of a metal box underneath the cash registers in the front food-prep/service area and 15 on top of a carbonated-beverage dispensing unit).
26. RBC Center, Carolina Hurricanes - 67%. Inspectors cited one vendor after watching employees handle raw, breaded chicken while loading fryers and then handling cooked food without changing gloves or washing hands. The employees placed cooked chicken back in the same container used to pre-portion raw chicken before cooking.
27. Pepsi Center, Colorado Avalanche - 67%. At one bar, inspectors found phorid flies, sometimes called coffin flies, in a bottle of cognac.
28. BankAtlantic Center, Florida Panthers - 67%. Inspectors issued several violations for soiled ice bins and coolers.
29. St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa Bay Lightning - 88%. At one location with five critical violations, an inspector saw an employee handle dirty dishes and then put away clean dishes without washing his/her hands or changing gloves. The same location lacked soap at a hand sink.
30. Verizon Center, Washington Capitals - 100%. Mice droppings, a critical violation in Washington, were found at at least 10 vendors.

* - Chicago stadiums and arenas were tested while the venue was empty. This may cause a false inspection due to no food being prepared during the inspection.

We even get a chance to check out a few AHL rinks thanks to those teams being tenants in arenas that were reviewed by the health inspectors.

1. Toyota Center, Houston Aeros - 13%. At one stand, knives were put back into a knife rack without being cleaned.
2. Quicken Loans Arena, Lake Erie Monsters - 14%. Inspectors found three critical violations at one location for coolers that weren't working, food that was improperly refrigerated or marked with an incorrect date, and an employee who touched food with bare hands.

And, not to forget the Winter Classic games, here are the reviews for the stadiums where the NHL has held and will hold the Winter Classic games.

1. Wrigley Field, Detroit vs. Chicago - 0%. *
   
2. Fenway Park, Philadelphia vs. Boston - 4%. Inspectors found raw steak that had warmed to almost 60 degrees, which was above safe temperatures.
3. Ralph Wilson Stadium, Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo - 12%. In one case an inspector ordered workers at one stand to toss all hot dogs and sausages because they were too warm while waiting to be cooked.
4. Heinz Field, Washington vs. Pittsburgh - 61%. Inspectors found employees lacking in overall food-safety knowledge after observing one worker washing his hands with his gloves on. Another location had a gallon of milk that had expired 10 days prior.

* - Chicago stadiums and arenas were tested while the venue was empty. This may cause a false inspection due to no food being prepared during the inspection.

Wow. I mean, what else can be said, right? Wow.

Let me just make a few casual observations here.

• First, massive kudos go out to the Islanders, Senators, Blues, and Maple Leafs for their commitment to their fans. The other 26 teams should be calling these four teams for information on how to improve their standing on this list.
• Pittsburgh's track record of food safety must be questioned when two of its venues have over 50% of the vendors in those stadiums in violation of health ordinances. PNC Park, where the Pirates play baseball, scored a 53%. Expired milk and a cockroach might only be the tip of the iceberg.
• Chicago's seemingly perfect record is definitely not accurate. Don't believe those numbers until the inspectors actually perform an inspection while the games are being played.
• Florida's two NHL teams apparently have no interest in keeping their fans healthy. This could be one of the reasons the attendance marks in those cities are declining. Soiled ice bins and coolers? No soap? Wow. I'm a little horrified.
• While I may be a little paranoid about this, anything above 10% is pretty disgusting. If one-in-ten vendors is my mark, what is yours? And if you live in an NHL city, how do you feel about your team's food vendors?
• Philadelphia's mice and fruit flies, Phoenix's bare-handed ice-scooping, Dallas' expired milk, Detroit's and Pittsburgh's roach issues, New York's MSG mice, and Colorado's coffin flies are enough to turn me off of all arena food vendors in those cities.
• Does it bother anyone to see a lot of the Sunbelt teams near the bottom of the list? In fact, if it weren't for the California teams, the Coyotes would be the highest of the Sunbelt franchises. Yes, the same Coyotes who had a bare-handed employee scooping up ice.

The scariest part of all of this is that we, as fans, really don't get a say in how our food is handled by the majority of these vendors. A good majority of the time, we walk up to a vendor, and the food that you choose is pre-wrapped in a warming window where the salesperson simply plucks it out of the window and pushes it across the counter. When was it prepared? How was it prepared? Are you sure it has been prepared?

In the ESPN article, a food service worker from Sun Life Stadium near Miami, Florida reported that, "several small insects were mixed into frozen alcoholic beverages at a stand where workers hadn't cleaned equipment". The complaint reads, "'The whole stand needs to be properly inspected before hundreds, if not thousands, of fans (are) subjected to the possibility of becoming ill". Um... how gross is that?

While the inspections in all of these cases vary depending on country, state, and county rules and regulations, the vast majority of major problems - insects, fecal matter, expired food - seem to bring the "critical violation" mark, and that is good to see. I'd like to see harsher penalties for these violations as these are visible and highly-dangerous infractions, but the fact that we are talking about them today makes for a good start. After all, you now might be more inclined to open up your next arena burger and take a look at what's inside. It could just save your life.

I'm not here to tell you not to enjoy your favorite bite or drink at the next game you attend, though. Instead, I just want you to be aware of what you may be ingesting. After all, we're talking about mini-restaurants that pump through thousands of people every night when there is a game. Nicholas Casorio, who was interviewed by ESPN, said, "There's so much volume going through at one time that it's hard to do the necessary things to keep everything clean. Sometimes you sacrifice the cleanliness for expediting the service."

However, Nicholas' last line is the problem: sometimes you sacrifice the cleanliness for expediting the service. Personally, I'd rather wait a few more minutes to get a properly-prepared meal than to have it hurried through the kitchen where mistakes will happen as people "expedite the service". I don't need E. coli or salmonella or staphylococcus aureus or anything else ruining my fan experience, so I beg all vendors at stadiums to take a few more seconds and ensure that things are done right.

There's a reason why good food takes time to be prepared, and arena food can be great food if it is done right.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

***Amazing work done in the ESPN piece by Paula Lavigne, Lindsay Rovegno, and Derrick Pina, and they deserve all the credit for bringing this to light. I applaud their Herculean efforts in bringing this to light!***

Yawn

There must be something wrong with me.
I could care less about Conrad Black.

Yosemite National Park Quarter Bags and Rolls

Today July 26, 2010, the United States Mint began sales of the 2010 Yosemite National Park Quarter bags and rolls. This represents the third release of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.

The reverse design of the Yosemite Quarter features a view of El Capitan. This vertical rock formation rises 3,00 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor and is the largest monolith of granite in the world. The reverse was designed by Joseph Menna and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. The obverse of the coin features a restored version of the portrait of George Washington designed by John Flanagan.

The US Mint is offering 100-coin bags of the newly released quarters from either the Philadelphia or Denver Mint. The bags have tags stating the mint of origin, "Yosemite", "CA" and the $25 face value of the contents. Bags are priced at $35.95 each.

A two roll set is also offered, which includes one 40-coin roll from the Philadelphia Mint and one 40-coin roll from the Denver Mint. The coins are packaged in US Mint branded wrappers, which indicate the mint of origin, "Yosemite", "CA", and $10 fave value of the contents. The two roll sets are priced at $32.95.

According to the US Mint, the Yosemite National Park Quarters bags and rolls will remain available for one year from the initial offering date. This prolonged availability period is a change of procedure from the prior State Quarter and DC & US Territories Quarters Programs. Bags and rolls for each design were only available until the next design was released.

Another change for the America the Beautiful Quarters Program is the introduction of the Bulk Purchase Program. This program allows orders to be placed for bulk bags of 200,000 quarters for the $50,000 face value plus a 3% processing fee. So far, the US Mint has reported 19.4 million quarters sold through the program.

When the America the Beautiful Quarters series first began, the potential for low mintages provided an interesting draw for collectors. Preliminary production figures do show mintages for the new series to be a fraction of the levels for the State Quarters Program. However, since the US Mint is providing prolonged availability for each release, the ability to bulk order, and the prospect that production can be restarted, the low mintages are difficult to get excited about.

new monument discovered at stonehenge

A team of archaeologists from the UK and Austria have discovered a major monument located less than a kilometre from Stonehenge. While there are standing stones, stone circles and henges throughout the UK and Ireland, it is very rare for such a large, impressive monument to be unearthed. That is was discovered less than one kilometre away from the most iconic of all stone circles is quite amazing.

History is set to be rewritten after an archaeology team led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria discovered a major ceremonial monument less than one kilometre away from the iconic Stonehenge.

The incredible find has been hailed by Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University’s IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre, as one of the most significant yet for those researching the UK’s most important prehistoric structure.

The new henge was uncovered this week, just two weeks into a three-year international study that forms part of the multi-million Euro international Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project.

The project aims to map 14 square kilometres of the Stonehenge Landscape using the latest geophysical imaging techniques, to recreate visually the iconic prehistoric monument and its surroundings and transform how we understand this unique landscape and its monuments.

“This finding is remarkable,” Professor Gaffney said. “It will completely change the way we think about the landscape around Stonehenge.

“People have tended to think that as Stonehenge reached its peak it was the paramount monument, existing in splendid isolation.

“This discovery is completely new and extremely important in how we understand Stonehenge and its landscape.”

The new “henge-like” Late Neolithic monument is believed to be contemporaneous to Stonehenge and appears to be on the same orientation as the World Heritage Site monument. It comprises a segmented ditch with opposed north-east/south-west entrances that are associated with internal pits that are up to one metre in diameter and could have held a free-standing, timber structure.

Oh man, I love this stuff. I've been to Stonehenge a few times, including when you were still able to walk among the stones. (It's good to be old.) We've also visited Avebury and other neolithic sites in the UK.

The best neolithic sites we've seen were in Ireland - Newgrange and others in the Boyne valley. Newgrange is a passage tomb and a solstice site, much older than Stonehenge, and you can walk inside. But standing stones and stone circles are everywhere in Ireland. We would pull off the road to check out a stone circle now in someone's front yard.

wikileaks exposes devastation in afghanistan. canada out now.

Guardian:

A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.

The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years. . .

Tons of links and videos at this Channel 4 (UK) News website:

The extraordinary leak made public by whistleblowers' website Wikileaks has lifted the lid on more than 90,000 US military documents involving classified information direct from the battlefield in Afghanistan. It is the US army's secret war diary - 200,000 pages of it - written by soldiers on the frontline.

The files reveal previously classified information about civilian deaths, a mysterious "assassinations squad" named Task Force 373, an alleged Pakistani plot to kill President Karzai, evidence of suspected foreign support for the Taliban and countless daily incidents in which Nato troops are engaged by Taliban forces.

Der Spiegel:

In an unprecedented development, close to 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war in Afghanistan have been leaked. SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Guardian have analyzed the raft of mostly classified documents. The war logs expose the true scale of the Western military deployment -- and the problems beleaguering Germany's Bundeswehr in the Hindu Kush.

A total of 91,731 reports from United States military databanks relating to the war in Afghanistan are to be made publicly available on the Internet. Never before has it been possible to compare the reality on the battlefield in such a detailed manner with what the US Army propaganda machinery is propagating. WikiLeaks plans to post the documents, most of which are classified, on its website.

Britain's Guardian newspaper, the New York Times and SPIEGEL have all vetted the material and compared the data with independent reports. All three media sources have concluded that the documents are authentic and provide an unvarnished image of the war in Afghanistan -- from the perspective of the soldiers who are fighting it.

New York Times:

A trove of military documents made public on Sunday by an organization called WikiLeaks reflects deep suspicions among American officials that Pakistan’s military spy service has for years guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants.

california bound

We're off today, first to spend the night with friends in Buffalo, then on Tuesday flying west. We'll be in San Francisco two days, then head up to Sonoma County for the weekend for wedding festivities, then down to Yosemite National Park for three days.

I wasn't very happy about this trip, being the second consecutive year we've had our destinations determined by weddings. It's not that we don't want to be there; we're close with our nephews and nieces and wouldn't miss their weddings for the world. But this is not the trip I would choose this year, and I can't afford two vacations. (I actually can't afford any.) At least I had never been to New Mexico, so last year's trip had that excitement. I've been to California many times.

So I was generally feeling grumpy about this vacation, until last week, when I started getting excited about it.

San Francisco - the second best city in the US - is one of my favourite places. For me the cool thing about going someplace you've been many times is how it frees your exploration. When we return to a city for the second or third (or more) time, we've already done all the big tourist sights. We'll just pick a few things to do, go at a leisurely pace, soak up the vibe.

This year on the San Francisco agenda: a Giants game with a friend from JoS, a walk on the esplanade to see the bay and the bridge we love so much, the Ferry Building Market (new to us), dim sum, and San Francisco MOMA (I have never been). And if possible, our usual pilgrimage to City Lights Books.

And when I thought of going to northern California, I immediately thought: Yosemite. Yosemite is a place where the word "awesome" applies in its forgotten meaning, a place of awe and wonder. Allan and I were there on our first big trip together, in 1988. I was also there as a child, probably in 1970.

This time, instead of staying in the Valley, the more typical and popular place to stay, I snagged us a spot in the White Wolf area, a more remote location. (To give an idea, there are accommodations for hundreds in the Valley, and less than 50 in White Wolf.) We'll be staying in a tent cabin, the closest we come to camping. Washrooms and meals are in a common area. I'm excited about staying in this area. I'm hoping there is still horseback riding in the High Sierra country.

Yosemite has a huge range of accommodation options, from backcountry camping passes to luxurious lodges. If you ever go, I highly recommend planning ahead so you can stay within the Park itself. If you don't, you will spend hours driving in and out of the Park every day, much of that in traffic. This is important in any US National Park, but in Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, it's essential.

In between San Francisco and Yosemite is the real reason for the trip, our nephew's wedding in Sonoma County. J is my oldest nephew, born on my 20th birthday, and I'm so happy for him and C. It's also another opportunity to see my mom, siblings, nephews and nieces, and some amazing friends of my brother and sister-in-law's.

Sonoma County is wine country, so we might do a winery tour. Some friends of the couple run a tour company of small, artisinal wineries, and are giving a half-price discount to wedding guests. We've never done a winery tour before, always preferring to explore on our own. But there are hundreds of wineries in the area, and it's way more fun if you don't have to drive. So we might work that in.

For the wedding, we're staying in one of these cottages.

Hey, this sounds like fun! Why wasn't I looking forward to this trip? I know. My insanely strong desire to see new places, combined with the sense of time ticking away and not going to those places. But putting that aside, this will be a great trip.

"They hate us for our freedom"

Phil Nugent describes the situation of racists in the US today:

...most of the people who look at Obama and start thinking such deep thoughts as, "We need to take our country back!" probably have kids who grew up in the post-King era--hell, in post-Yo! MTV Raps-era--and they have no idea why Mom and Pop are so het up ...
I know that living in a world that the Fonz and Richie Cunningham never made is rough on them, but in a way, they brought their seething misery on themselves. They look at all the people who disgust and bewilder them because they're not howling in protest about the black president and the immigrants and the welfare bums whose existence they register like a fish bone in the throat, and they can find no peace, a condition made all the more unbearable by the fact that so many people who ought to be on their side find peace with it just fine. They suffer from an apparently unbeatable psychological condition, one that I think George W. Bush described best: they look at all the sane people in the world, and they hate us for our freedom.