As a group, Calgarians are as diverse as they come. But at this moment in time, we are of one mind. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Thoughts
Irish Everyone Was That Straightforward
If you’ve spent a decent amount of time with anyone from Ireland, you are likely well aware that they’re a straight-up bunch of lads and lassies. Unless there’s good craic to be had, or a bar stool to keep warm, the Irish just don’t have time to beat around the bush. Maybe it’s the ever-present threat of rain, or the need to get to the punchline before someone else comes out with a better joke. Who knows? Either way, the Irish get to the point and they do it quickly.
While it’s a little difficult to validate such a sweeping claim (and one that I make with love, to be clear), here are a few contrasting examples to clarify my point: Continue reading
Welcome to the Calendar, Black Friday!
Very rarely do you get to witness the birth of a widely-observed cultural event. Most holidays and celebrations have deep histories rooted in the veneration of a significant figure, commemoration of an ancient religious feast day and/or festival to usher in a new season. Given that they generally have historically-significant backgrounds, new holidays haven’t sprung up very often in the past.
But then the era of mass consumption came along. And now all the rules have changed.
A Virtual First for Women’s Hockey
If you live in North America and have been following the news at all in the last month, you’ll be well aware that the National Hockey League (NHL) is in the midst of a lockout. The labour dispute has left hockey fans scrambling to find alternative forms of entertainment while the NHL’s players and team owners squabble over how to divide more than $3 billion in revenue between themselves.
As the 2012-2013 season slips away, many fans who miss watching their beloved hockey team while sipping heroin beer have turned to video games to help ease their pain. Lucky for them, Burnaby-based EA Sports released NHL ’13 last month to help fill those hockeyless nights.
Normally, I would never ever take the time and energy to write a post about a video game. Don’t worry, this is sure to be a one-off topic. No need to stop following me now.
But here’s the thing: NHL ’13 is kind of a big deal when it comes to gender equality. Continue reading
Sanitizing Santa
If you don’t mind, I would like to start this post off with a few stupid questions:
- As a child, did you add a pipe to your Christmas wish list due to Santa’s penchant for tobacco?
- Are you worried about Santa’s longevity because he is known to indulge in a pipe from time to time?
- In high school, were you ever the victim of peer pressure that even remotely resembled the following argument “Smoking is cool because Santa does it. You want to be cool like Santa, right?!”?
- Have any of the kids in your life taken up smoking because they heard Santa can sometimes be found with smoke circling his head like a wreath?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. Continue reading
Sounds of the Season
Every season has its own sounds that let you know what time of year is on the way. Crunching leaves underfoot are a good indication that fall is underway. Chirping birds and lawnmowers loudly announcing their presence on a Saturday morning mean that spring has most definitely sprung. And you know Old Man Winter is going to rear his ugly head again when you start hearing windshields being scraped in the pre-dawn weekday hours.
When it comes to summer, there are a ton of sounds that you could associate with what is arguably the best time of year. But for me, nothing more definitively signals the return of summer than the Ice Cream Truck (let’s call it the ICT because we can, okay?).
I never really feel like the season is actually going to change until I hear the ICT’s much-too-catchy song in the distance…which happened today!! Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to chase the truck down for an icy treat, but I did get a photo to prove to myself that he wasn’t a figment of my imagination. Here’s the photographic evidence:
Smelly Hippies Produce the Best Research
Note: this post contains nerdy academic content pertaining to quantitative and qualitative research methods (aka the quant/qual debate). Since YouTube has a video for everything, here’s a primer on the subject for those of you who think I just typed the same word twice:
Okay. Now that we’re all on the same page, I should probably tell you that (according to this video) I’m one of those smelly hippy types. Anyone that knows me in the real world has had to suffer through at least one of my rants about statistics. It’s actually a little surprising that I haven’t gone off about the subject on this blog yet….until now, that is. Continue reading
Guess We’ll Have to Pinch our Nickels Now…
The Royal Canadian Mint recently sounded the death knell for the penny. Production of the almost-useless coin will cease by the fall, and I’m assuming this news is being taken fairly well by Canadians as no one seems bothered at all by this decision.
It costs the Mint 1.6 cents to produce each penny, which means that every year Canada spends $11 million more than the coin’s face value to produce something most of us consider to be worthless. All other Canadian coins are worth more than their cost of production, so it’s no wonder the penny is getting axed. Continue reading
Some of My Matchbooks are About to Become Collectable…
The good news is that a few of my matchbooks will likely be worth millions in a few days. The bad news is that’s because O’Sheas Casino is closing on April 30, 2012. Hopefully you’ve already heard this disheartening news elsewhere, as I hate to be the first one to break it to you. If not, please accept my apologies.
The Strip currently has precious little room for places of O’Sheas’ calibre, and I think that is the biggest travesty of its closure. Although we all go to Vegas for different reasons, you have to admit that sometimes you just want to wander into a casino that allows you to do whatever the hell you want regardless of how you’re dressed, what you’re drinking, how much you’re betting, or what show you’re going to see that night. Continue reading
Too Cool for Umbrellas
When you live in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, it’s impossible to know what to wear on a given day. In Calgary you can wake up to 10 cm of fresh snow, eat lunch amid a hail storm, and drive home with your windows open wishing you’d worn flip flops to work. There’s a saying that if you don’t like the weather in Calgary, just wait five minutes. And on most days that’s fairly accurate. I can’t image being a weather forecaster here because the odds of you being correct for an entire day are about as good as you winning a Lotto 649 jackpot.
So as you can imagine, Calgarians are used to dressing in layers and preparing for all four seasons to bombard us within a 24 hour time period. Our closets and cars are filled with mittens, scarves, earmuffs, snow boots, blankets, jackets, sweaters, and a number of other items used to save us from the elements.
The image below gives you an idea of what the weather was like in Calgary today. For context, please note that this morning the streets were completely clean, and the grass was just starting to turn green… Continue reading
Cultural Quirks 