Author: Dan Dickinson

Own the podium

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Another event, another medal for Cindy Klassen (she finished third; Clara Hughes won the gold). Five medals in one olympics. Pretty incredible. Speaking of incredible, and speaking of Clara Hughes, not many people could win two medals in olympic cycling and two medals in speed skating.

.:.

Still on incredible women: MacLeans talks to Neko Case. She loves her some Canada, and Canada loves her back.

.:.

We’ve had a really easy winter so far here in Toronto. I can barely remember any sustained snowfall (certainly nothing like this storm in St. John’s; I hope they got all their curling-inspired partying over with before it hit!) and very few days of really numbing cold. Still, it’s been really grey and dreary, so I can’t wait for spring.

.:.

The Raptors tanked another one today, blowing a 28-point halftime lead over the Mavs. Well, I guess they didn’t tank it so much as Dallas just caught fire from beyond the arc. Chris Bosh is good, but he’s just not as clutch as Dirk Nowitzki. Yet.

.:.

Economics is almost done. One last bit of reading to do, and then one last assignment; if I finish it by the middle of next week, I’ll have three weeks off before the class starts. Good thing, too; I have a trip to New York and a ton of March Madness watching planned in there.

Hawks, vultures and taun-tauns

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Oh, hot dog. From the Toronto Star: Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor says he’s willing to reopen the controversial debate on ballistic missile defence if the United States extends another invitation.

.:.

My copy of Rogue Wave‘s Descended Like Vultures (metacritic | pitchfork) finally arrived today. I ordered it from Amazon two months ago and it still hadn’t shipped; I canceled the order (there were two other books and a movie) and re-did it with Indigo. It all arrived within a week.

.:.

Marten is so totally gonna get some…unless Dora guts him first.

Hoop dreams

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I just saw a clip on The Hour that freaked me out. It was about an autistic high school student in Rochester, NY named Jason McElwain who helps manage his high school basketball team. In the team’s last game of the year, with the large lead late in the game, his coach put him in the game, so that Jason could have a team jersey.

With four minutes left, the kid went six for seven from beyond the arc. SIX FOR SEVEN!!

Check out the video clips; you’ll see his teammates lose it every time he scores. And check out the quotes:

His coach: “I’ve had a lot of thrills in coaching. I’ve coached a lot of wonderful kids, but I’ve never experienced something like this ever in my life…I couldn’t stop crying.”

His mother: “This is the first moment Jason has ever succeeded and been proud of himself. I look at autism as the Berlin Wall. He cracked it.”

Wow. You can be cynical about a lot of things, but it’s hard to be cynical about that.

.:.

Via Spacing: Howard Moscoe wants condo developers building near subway lines to buy Metropasses for buyers. I think this is a great idea. In fact, I hope someone enforces it before we move into our building next year. 🙂

The best-laid plans of mice and plastinated men

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We were foiled in our attempt to see BodyWorlds last night at the Science Centre last night with CBGB. Apparently we left it too late (the exhibit leaves Sunday) and it was sold out by the time we got there. I guess we shouldn’t have left it so late, but vacations and house purchases and xmas trips just got in the way and, alas, we may have missed our chance. I’ve seen the show (in an earlier incarnation) so I wasn’t that disappointed, and CBGB may be able to see it this weekend, but Nellie probably will not. I felt bad about that.

Defeated, we went back down to the Danforth and had some food & drink at Dora Keogh, then home to watch The Shield, which kicked ass.

Russia 2, Canada 0.

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That’s it. Canada’s out. I could talk about how the referee fucked Canada in the last 5 minutes when he blew the whistle too quickly and Canada put the puck in the Russian net an instant later. I could talk about how stupid penalties — Bertuzzi’s and Pronger’s, both late in the game — killed the canadian chances. I could talk about how badly the defense — especially Chris Pronger and Bryan McCabe (in what little time he was actually on the ice) — played throughout the tournament. I could talk about how much the gambling scandal or Bertuzzi lawsuit might’ve distracted the team. I could talk about how the only players that actually looked good were Doan, Smyth, Richards, Sakic, Bouwmeester and Brodeur. I could talk about all that, but what it came down to was that the Canadians only managed to score a goal in one of their last twelve periods.

I wonder if this will set off a round of soul-searching like the loss at Nagano did.

Gold #4 [updated]

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OK, how awesome was Chandra Crawford this morning when she won gold? Dancing on the podium, giving ecstatic interviews, getting mobbed by her teammates at the finish…she’s really become the face of the Canadian athletes at these games. Nellie pointed out that she’d make a good flag bearer at the closing ceremonies; unless Cindy Klassen wins another medal, I think she’s right.

[UPDATE] Klassen just won gold in the 1500m, her fourth medal. I think she’s got to be a lock for flag bearer now.

Disdain or imprisonment?

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Like those referenced in the title of this story in the Sydney Morning Herald, I’m not sure I agree with the three-year jail sentence given to David Irving for denying the holocaust. Obviously I disagree with what he says (or said; Irving claims to have reversed his views, as do many people when facing jail time); I think it makes him wrong, and an ass, but I don’t know if it makes him a criminal. I tend to agree with the rabbi who said “Personally I prefer to treat him with disdain than with imprisonment” or the historian who said “However nauseating, these people should be confronted in debate rather than chucked into jail and turned into martyrs.”

I understand that Germany and Austria have extraordinary political currents that shape their feelings on such matters, and it could hardly be expected otherwise, even several generations on from the Holocaust. I can’t reach into the mind of the average Austrian lawmaker and determine the extent to which guilt plays a part in such decisions; it just smacks of…atonement, I suppose? Again, understandable. But would Irving have been found a criminal in most other countries? Or simply ridiculed and made a fool of in public debate? Does jailing him really turn him into a martyr?

It’s incredible, the destructive power of war and genocide, that we’ll be feeling effects like this for another century. In some ways, I suppose it’s changed things forever.