Hockey, drinking and soccer/football

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Freakonomics + NHL = dishonest parents?

.:.

This Malcolm Gladwell post is chock full of interesting stuff (which he nicely distills so that I don’t have to read anything complicated myself), especially the following:

“One of the curious facts in the study:  in both the United States and the United Kingdom, the more money you make and the more education you have, the more you drink. There are roughly twice as many heavy drinkers in the best educated English cohort as there are in the least educated English cohort. So much for class assumptions about alcohol.”

Huh. Who knew?

.:.

Toronto is getting a Major League Soccer team. I had no idea. But I might actually go. I have no desire to shell out my life’s savings to watch a hockey team I despise (not that you can get tickets anyway), and I don’t particularly care about/for the Jays or Argos. I occasionally buy Raptors tickets, but am less inclined to do so in recent years, for obvious reasons. I’m guessing the tickets will be reasonably priced, at least.

[tags]freakonomics, malcolm gladwell, toronto fc, mls[/tags]

"I think I'll leave it at that."

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SmartEconomist [free subscription required] estimates that the Iraq war has cost between $750 billion and $1.27 trillion, and could cost another $380 billion to $1.4 trillion…even if it stopped today. By their reckoning, $1.27 trillion would be the “moderate” estimate.

.:.

From MSNBC: Even ringtones can be racist sometimes.

.:.

From the Star: this pollster has a pretty skewed view of our prime minister:

“The Canadian and U.S. leaders could not be more different…Stephen Harper is a genuine intellectual, brilliant in his understanding of issues. I think I’ll leave it at that.”

Still…while few Canadians would consider Harper a high-grade intellectual, he’s right about Bush.

.:.

Farewell, Veronica Mars. [warning…if you haven’t seen the season (series?) finale and you care at all, don’t read that article. spoilers abound.]

[tags]economics, iraq war, racist ringtone, stephen harper, dubya, frank luntz, veronica mars[/tags]

His meat was locust and honey

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I made another CD for my father last weekend, and sent it off along with some maple-flavoured chocolate that we picked up in Montreal (at Suite 88, whose site is still dead, dammit!). The lineup:

  • Old Crow Medicine Show . “Wagon Wheel”
  • Cowboy Junkies . “Misguided Angel”
  • Blanche . “Superstition”
  • Grant Lee Phillips . “Susanna Little”
  • Holly Golightly . “Without You Here”
  • Isobel Campbell And Mark Lanegan . “Black Mountain”
  • Jack Rose . “Sunflower River Blues”
  • Cat Power . “Could We”
  • Robbie Faulks . “Cry Cry Cry”
  • Clearlake . “Trees In The City”
  • Robert Cray & Shemekia Copeland . “I Pity The Fool”
  • Rocco Deluca . “Gift”
  • Pedro The Lion . “Criticism As Inspiration”
  • Royal City . “Under A Hollow Tree”
  • Constantines . “Soon Enough”
  • Sarah Harmer . “I’m A Mountain”
  • Sebadoh . “Perfect Day”
  • Lonnie Pitchford . “Lonesome Blues”
  • Neko Case . “John Saw That Number”
  • Sinead O’connor . “All Apologies”
  • Set Fire To Flames . “Fading Lights Are Fading”

Little blues, little indie, little CanCon. That should hold him ’til xmas.

[tags]blues, indie, gifts, music, chocolate, suite 88[/tags]

Breakin' shit down

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

From Cinematical: Mara Leveritt’s book Devil’s Knot about the West Memphis Three has been optioned, and could be made into a feature film. Regardless of how well (or how poorly) the film is made, it can only help draw attention to their cause. Here’s hoping it gets made and more people become interested in finding the person who really killed those three kids.

.:.

The head of Homeland Security in the US has declared that the media will henceforth be embedded with government agencies during natural disasters. Presumably this will be to keep the public from seeing and hearing the, you know, facts about what’s actually going on. [from Antonia Zerbisias]

.:.

It’s been a nervous couple of days for us pet-owners. One of our cats — Michael, the smaller/stupider one — ate some string on Sunday night. About eight or ten inches worth, which can be fatal to cats (as it gets bunched up in their intestines). A couple of phone calls and a visit to the vet later, he seems to be ok, but they told us to keep a very close eye on him as things can turn very quickly. As such, we’ve been practically in the litter box with him for the last couple of days, and have found ourselves doing unpleasant things like breaking up his shit to see if there’s string inside (there is). This, I have decided, is a sad state of affairs. The things we do for our kids…even the furry ones.

Anyway, he seems to be ok for now. Fingers crossed.

[picture from QuestionableContent]

.:.

[tags]west memphis three, wm3, devil’s knot, homeland security, chertoff, cats[/tags]

Toronto: "the wilds of Ontario"

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Is there any more certain sign that you’re right than that you’ve pissed off Fox News and the National Review? This line, in particular, was a spectacular mix of racism and stupidity that must have Neil doing cartwheels:

“If it’s not Mexican fence-jumpers trying to dictate legislation to us, it’s fur trappers from the wilds of Ontario insulting our head of state.”

Zowie!

.:.

[tags]Neil Young, impeach the president, ITMFA, fox news, national review[/tags]

Leek & morel

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Last night Nellie, T-Bone and I partook of a Santé Wine Festival event at Pangaea, a restaurant near where we live. It was sponsored by Lungarotti wines, and hosted by a former sommelier who now works for the winery. The idea was that the chef would make dishes to match each wine course for the dozen or so tables in attendance.

As soon as we sat down our server poured a 2004 pinot grigio; as we were waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive they just kept pouring the wine and bringing appetizers: grilled quail with plum sauce, truffle quiche, a seared tuna amuse bouche, and a shell containing scrambled egg and caviar. I loved the quail, skipped the quiche, didn’t mind the tuna and cautiously tested the caviar. I’d not tried it before, and I can’t say I’d spend a small fortune on it, but it was interesting.

Next came two appetizers: rabbit stuffed with wild leek and morels, paired with a 2004 torre di giano (both of which I liked a lot), then fiddlehead risotto with grape tomatoes paired with a 2002 cabernet sauvignon…also both good. The main course was a lamb shank with lingot beans (whatever those are), truffles and vegetables — which I thought was just okay — with two wines: a 2002 rubesco and a 2000 rubesco riserva. It all ended with a raspberry Bavaroise (like mousse sandwiched between a thin shortcake and a biscuit, I guess) with poached rhubarb and fresh berries, paired with a 2001 dulcis. I liked this a lot more than Nellie, who gave me most of hers, but it was all so sweet that I felt a little sick. But it was nothing a little water splashed on my face couldn’t fix.

The funniest part of the evening was when T-Bone’s social instincts took over and she made friends with a nearby table. While the rest of the room emptied out we all turned around and chatted with the two couples, probably for half an hour or more. I think T-Bone knew their life stories by the end.

It was a pretty great deal, really, since the tax and tip was included, and we had a great deal of wine to go along with our food. We also found out that Lungarotti makes some pretty decent wine for some pretty low prices, so Nellie could be looking for it on her next trip to the LCBO. Which was the point, I suppose.

.:.

For the first time in a few years, the films we saw at Hot Docs didn’t win any awards.* Martyr Street, which we had on our short list but didn’t end up picking, won the best documentary award; Mystic Ball (which I think T-Bone went to see this weekend) won the special jury prize.

*unless, of course, one of them wins the audience award, which will be announced tomorrow

.:.

Ever see the movie Cop Land (imdb | rotten tomatoes)? It’s not bad. Nellie and I saw it eight or nine years ago, just after she moved here, and I remember being severely annoyed with the old woman behind us who exclaimed “Oh my! Oh dear! Tsk tsk!” every time anyone swore or fired a gun.

Anyway, it was on IFC last week and I tifauxed it just for kicks. I forgot how many good actors were in it: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Cathy Moriarty and John Spencer, with Edie Falco and Deborah Harry in bit parts. Even Sylvester Stallone, who stars in it, is pretty good, and you can’t say that very often. If you skipped it ’cause it looked like another dumb Stallone cop movie, give it another chance.

.:.

[tags]santé, pangaea, lungarotti, hot docs, martyr street[/tags]