Edmonton is the City of Champions Once Again!

Here's Mike Reilly, quarterback of the Edmonton Eskimos, hoisting the Grey Cup in victory after yesterday's game! Edmonton won the championship game 26-20, although the Ottawa Redblacks certainly didn't make it easy by taking an early first quarter lead.

Looking forward to the victory parade here in Edmonchuk in a couple of days or so!

P.S. Mayor Iveson and City Council -- it's time to restore our signs and put the slogan back!

It's Grey Cup Sunday!

Great news! For the first time in 10 years, the Edmonton Eskimos are playing for the Grey Cup! YAY!

Today the Eskies square off against the Ottawa Redblacks for the Canadian Football League championship. The big game is being played in Winnipeg at the Blue Bombers' beautiful new stadium which is located on the grounds of my old alma mater, the University of Manitoba.

Edmonton is always careful to emphasize that our team is called "the Eskimos" because Edmonton is so friggin' cold in the wintertime, rather than the team being directly named for the Inuit First Nation. To reinforce this "weather connection," the football club never uses human imagery in its marketing . . . hence, polar bears and the Double EE logo. However, calls are quite rightly getting louder for the team to change its culturally insensitive name, coming from such prominent organizations as the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (Incidentally, my suggestion for a new name is "the Edmonton Edge," so the team can sound modern and keep the Double EE logo).

"The Redblacks" are so named because historically, Ottawa was a forestry town with log booms on the river and pulp & paper mills on the shore. And of course, Canadian lumberjacks stereotypically wore red-and-black plaid shirts and jackets . . . hence the Redblack name and their sawmill blade logo. Hey, nice tuque as well, eh?

Well, gotta go now and find our foam fingers in the storage room before game time on TV. As a prairie girl and an Edmontonian, you know for whom I must cheer. And this may be one of the last times this phrase will still be used . . . .

GO ESKIES GO!!!

A Supersized Tribute -- You Want Fries With That?

Who doesn't love McDonalds?

Who doesn't love working at McDonalds?

Who doesn't love eating at McDonalds?

Who doesn't love going through the drive-thru in the middle of the night?

Who doesn't cheer for Ronald McDonald in a fight to the death against any other fast food spokesperson?

It's like he's a . . . a . . . superhero or something! The Mighty McThor!

Okay, admittedly, that went too far. Sorry.

Crazy Cat Ladies, Yay!

One of the very first blog posts I ever wrote concerned my ambition to be a Crazy Cat Lady some day. Alas, I am not any closer to achieving that ambition now, seven years later. If anything, I'm further away as I no longer even have one cat since Her Royal Highness departed for Kitty Cat Heaven.

But a girl's gotta dream. One day, this will be me --

So, anybody got any spare cats?

Ugh. Proselytizers.

Everyone is entitled to their religious beliefs, but I hate it when they come to the door in an attempt to convert us. They're getting cleverer every day too --

Now in an attempt to gain better access to us, some denominations are using critters to do the proselytizing!

But the problem is that wildlife often have their OWN religious agendas that are completely different . . . .

Gawd, even fictional beings are getting in on the act!

But cats know that the last laugh is on all of them bastids.

A New Low For This Blog

I don't know why, but I've always found urinals inherently funny. So before the opportunity gets pissed away, it's time to flush out a few urinal LOLs -- hey, just shake it off, man!

And what the hell, this is not entirely on topic but while we're laughing about bodily functions, here's a special shart LOL just for you, Pickleope --

"Remember"

If you see only one movie this year, make it this movie. It's the best film My Rare One and I have seen in a long, long time! Christopher Plummer gives the performance of a lifetime.



Seriously, see it.

The Game Is Afoot!

So at the end of October, My Rare One and I went to Manitoba for her niece's "social," which is an engagement ritual unique to our home province. About six months to a year before engaged people get married, a big community dance is held in a local hall to raise money for the happy couple. You purchase tickets to get in, all the beer-and-liquor-sale profits go to the couple, and there are always 50/50 and doorprize tickets to buy as well. If the bride and groom come from different communities, a social will often be held in each of their towns. The couple use the profits from the social(s) to help pay for the wedding, honeymoon or what-have-you.

Anyway, because this social was held on October 30th, it was also a Halloween costume party! My Rare One went as Sherlock Holmes and I was Dr. Watson . . . sheesh, if you can't cross-dress at Halloween, when can you?

Here we are in the foyer of the Legion --

Not perhaps the most flattering of photos (note to self: lose that paunch!) but I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing our costumes. We dug deep, deep into our Tickle Trunks to put the costumes together -- the only things we actually had to buy were the deerstalker hat, the bowler hat and the pipe. By the way, in case you're wondering, that's a stethoscope I'm fiddling with.

It was a wonderful social -- just packed with people! Everyone went way above and beyond for their costumes too. There were so many awesome ones! We had a great time.

(P.S. Bigga bigga thanks to John M at REFLECTIONS blog for telling me about the free website software that allowed me to pixellate our faces -- FotoFlexer.)

TGIF, Bitchez!

Time to hop on your moped and head downtown . . .



. . . to the thrift shop!



I love Macklemore!

Thanks to LL Cool Joe of Capture the Beat for tipping me off about Macklemore's latest single, "Downtown." You help to keep this old lady current, man.

Phoney "War on Christmas"

Isn't this controversy just too ridiculous for words? For the holiday season this year, Starbucks is not featuring a generic winter design (snowflakes, trees, deer, etc.) on its coffee cups but has just placed its green logo against a plain red background. Some right-wing Christians in the USA are now all bent out of shape because they view this as yet another "attack" in the "War on Christmas."

Of course, not everyone is worked up about it --

A wise message to anyone who's angry about these coffee cups --

Of course, this is my favourite solution to the controversy, LOL!

But, seriously, here's the real solution --

Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada. Like the armistice which ended World War I, it is marked at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. This year's Remembrance Day, however, has a special resonance for us. It is the centenary of Canada's most famous poem, In Flanders Fields, written by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae following the second battle of Ypres in 1915.

Here's a short video about the poem's history (thanks, Guillaume of Vraie Fiction, on whose blog I first saw it) --



It is said that In Flanders Fields achieved the prominence it did because, unlike the bitter and disillusioned poetry written by other famous soldier-poets of the Great War, John McCrae's poem of grief and loss was still tinged with patriotic romanticism, speaking of "glory and honour in a war that has since become synonymous with the futility of trench warfare and the wholesale slaughter produced by 20th century weaponry." (wikipedia) Certainly, the poem was promoted and made use of for propaganda purposes by the wartime governments of both Canada and Britain.

Yet, the sincerity of the poem's central focus on those who died saves it from being true propaganda, I think. While it does not challenge the institution of war, In Flanders Fields transcends its specific circumstances and touches the universal grief of war.

In Praise of Rabbits

The beauty and whimsy of rabbits know no bounds. Rabbits inspire artists of every style and period. Their cuteness just cannot be denied.

Look at these Japanese bunnies dancing with dragonflies under the light of the full moon!

I would term these cuties "Etsy style" . . . .

Perhaps a steampunk rabbit is more to your taste?

Let's not forget artists who work in fruits and vegetables.

Italian Renaissance, anyone?

How about 20th century Soviet realism instead?

Rabbits make beautiful subjects for any work of art!