Exit, Pursued by a Bear

‘The most violent hockey league in the world’

When the NHL strike started, there was a school of commentary that held that it was just the right thing to have happened: it would bring the game back to its wholesome heartland roots and take it away from a gang of overpaid mercenaries. Few buttons were left unpushed: the crack of a puck on a starlit pond, etc., the glow in a child’s eye, etc., skates under the Christmas tree, etc., innocence of youth, etc. It was as it you’d told a creative-writing class to improvise based on the kids on the back of the five-dollar bill, or how Norman Rockwell would have painted if he’d grown up in Swift Current.

It could work out that way. On the other hand, hockey culture could follow the example set by the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey, where the fans roar for blood (‘Du sang, asti! Du sang!!!’) and where the incompetent defence – look on the bright side – means that the play is more fluid and exciting than in the NHL. (Are the teams are so butch that it’s a loss of face to play defence? That’s probably it.)

Maisonneuve visits a LNAH game in Montreal:

With about five minutes left in the third period, the Laval goalie jumped into the fray, and started whaling with his blocker on an unidentified Dragon. This somehow instigated the various fights in the stands. This is when Cherine and I learned why there were so many cops around. It took four or five of them to get the crazed fan away from the Dragons' bench and out of harm’s way.

Andrew at the This Magazine blog tells a similar story.

quote. of. the. day.

from today's Star:

Pavel Tsatsouline, the former Soviet Special Forces training instructor and now North America's kettlebell guru, has declared that old school strongmen used them in the U.S. a century ago, but "then the West got prosperous and soft and the hardcore kettlebell faded into history along with many other manly pursuits of our grandfathers. Everywhere but in Russia, a rugged land that never knew easy living."
" ... Tsatsouline has been fiercely promoting the sport as well as the related merchandise, including books and tapes which he sells on his website.
"And he guarantees, "maximal strength gains, huge strides in your conditioning, and stunning fat loss without the dishonour of aerobics."

Finder’s points to clive thompson’s blog, again

Back when Clinton mandated all U.S. federal agencies to develop kid-friendly Web sites, I’m not sure he visualized this. Or maybe he did; he’s a cynic with a sense of humour.

The Agency’s offering: Ginger’s CIA Adventure, the heart-warming tale of a friendly bear at, um, Langley. Check it out: it’s heart-warming in a disturbing sort of way, or maybe the other way around. The thing is premised on guilt and fear of discovery, kind of like Peter Rabbit’s encounter with Mr. McGregor in the vegetable patch.

I’m hoping for further episodes: Ginger Helps Her Guatemalan Friends, Ginger, Fairly Sure Who to Bomb, Ginger Speaks Truth to Power, anybody?

added, 9pm: At Wired, Noah Shachtman collects the full set. Money quote:

The National Reconnaissance Office used to be so hush-hush that officials wouldn't admit it existed. Now the spy-satellite agency has gone cute. The site has songs ("Whoosh Goes Satellite," to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"), stories of cats in space, and "simple-to-make, paper-plate satellite puppets."

‘after the first three or four days I started to get a little disgusted.’

So here I was all set to post Alden Nowlan’s Ypres, 1915, always a favourite poem, for Remembrance Day (‘And that's ridiculous, too, and nothing on which to found a country’).

But now it’s November 12, and the this magazine blog beat me to it, and on time, too.

Anyway, Andrew, (Andrew Potter?), the original poster, then went on to say in his comments section that “I'm a child of maritime military folk. Nowlan probably hated them.”

Which is wrong, clearly, and I’d say so if their comments weren’t broken. I’m grateful to him, though, because he sent me back to The Officers' Mess:

So right now this place belongs to the third component
of the Canadian officers ' corps: the roaring boys from places like
Burnt Coat, Economy, Widower's Mountain,
Virgin's Cover Sally's Tickle and Desolation Creek,
who express love by emptying their tankards over
one another's heads, do Parachute rolls off the tables,
dance on broken glass and do imitations of Harry Hibbs
singing Newfoundland songs about Belfast.

rest here. It would be hard to be more exhaustingly authentic as maritime military folk than to be a roaring infantryman from Burnt Coat or Virgin's Cover; I’ll leave it at that.

I love Nolan, though he can be morally terrifying – people who are less perceptive than he was are easier to deal with, on the whole. He’s sort of the thinking man’s Frost.

Wish you were here

Dorset Police is sending postcards to criminals as part of Operation Disrupt – the initiative to cut the number of house burglaries in Dorset – warning them of their fate if they re-offend.

The postcards show images of local prisons – Guys Marsh near Shaftesbury and Her Majesty’s Prison in Dorchester – and the message on the reverse of the cards reads ‘If you don’t want to end up here….stop offending!’.

rest here

just a thought -

If 'the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved', as John Ashcroft wrote to Bush in his five-page resignation letter written out in longhand, why was it necessary to appoint a successor?

Finder's points to Clive Thompson's blog

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rest here