Oh, sure

Apparently, the head of Hockey Canada, Scott Smith, thinks he is the right guy to clean up the tangle of million-dollar lawsuits it has paid out under the table to victims of sexual abuse and other crimes.  Oh, sure you are, buddy.  Aren't you the guy in charge?  

After the initial, years' long coverups, Hockey Canada issued a statement shot with powerful adjectives such as "abhorrent" and "repulsive", promising to get to the bottom of things.  Then it made sure to cover itself in case that turned out to be too much trouble.  "To the extent this may involve players who are now in the NHL, we will determine what action, is any, would be appropriate."  I love the "if any" part.  Talk about a literal get-out-of-jail-free card, this is a real beaute.  

Hockey Canada is finished, but we still have Smith asserting he is going to stay on and even lead an international tournament in Edmonton in a month.  Right now, he and his sidekicks are getting hot-pokered by MPs on the Hill.  And still the guy digs in.  He should have resigned -- or better yet, that sorry excuse for a minister and disgrace to her gender, Pascale St Onge, should have fired him immediately when this pickle first surfaced.  

Furiously trying to save his own skin, Smith issued a 19-page eye glazer that aimed to "shatter the code of silence" (that Hockey Canada created) and "eliminate toxic behaviour" (that Hockey Canada condoned, ignored and rewarded for generations).  Hockey Canada is so far gone it can't see what's happening.  What it's doing is leeching the wound.  What exactly does Hockey Canada do anyway?  Why does it exist?  Why are you and I paying for it?  If Hockey Canada had an iota of sense, it would be spending 24 hours a day trying to figure out to whom to surrender.  But it doesn't.  Smith just keeps digging in and tripling down.  Dumb 'cause this ain't goin' away.

Hockey Canada is a zoo keeper, trying to corral the animals and protect them when they gang rape someone.  "Players, no matter their skill, must know they cannot act with impunity," said game warden CHL president Dan MacKenzie.  It's the "no matter their skill" part that gets me.  In other words, if they are real superstars, they will get a hall pass.  The payouts have to happen before the NHL draft so no one comes out and squeals.  The sex-abuse piggy bank has to pay out before these "wonderful young men" get to stand with their "wonderful" parents during the draft and humbly accept their accolades.  

As Cathal Kelly pointed out in 'The Globe and Mail', what no one has bothered to do during all of this is rebut the idea that young men who are good at hockey are also inherently perverse.  Not some of them, all of them.  They get to do what they like to whomever is unlucky enough to cross their paths in the wrong hotel room late at night.  They've been pampered and excused since they were five years old.

For Hockey Canada, it's, "If you're caught, deny.  If you're really caught, find someone else to blame.  And if there's no one left to blame, blame the game and everyone in it."  Smith actually had the audacity to say his future bonuses -- bonuses! -- should be tied to this clean-up effort.  That's beyond it!

But, as I said, the NHL players I dated back-in-the-day were perfect gentlemen.  There was complete respect of me and whatever happened, or didn't, was my choice.  Evidently, that culture has disappeared.  What TF is the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner doing about all this!?  Seriously!?  That guy also needs to resign.  

Here's the boys' club running Hockey Canada.  Ever seen a bunch of guys looking so smug and out-of-it?  Me neither.

   

    

Tanya can always be counted on....

...to weigh in on what she has never lived.  Toronto-born and raised, Ms. Talaga knows about as much about growing up on a reserve, or in a residential school, as I do.  Nevertheless, she jumped on top of that life and took ownership of something with which she has no direct experience.  My question is, why does no one call her on it?   I do, but I am alone on this file.

Today in 'The Globe and Mail' she banged on about the pope's apology and how it, "left us wanting more."  More what?  What else can the poor guy do?  "Our Peoples came here today from coast to coast to coast.  Many came with a heaviness in their hearts -- not sure if they truly wanted to be here or not -- but they came looking for some solace from the man in while cloaks.  The man who represents the Catholic Church, the one that took away our children's childhoods -- their joy, the light in their eyes along with their hair, language and their teddy bears," moaned Talaga.

Phil Fontaine's take on the whole circus was similarly delusional and out-to-lunch.  He claims the biggest problem of all for natives -- excluding himself, of course -- is poverty.  Poverty!  With all the millions given the natives every year?!  Where's the money?  Naturally, no reporter challenged Phil on this whopper.  

Now the pope has called for a "serious and thorough investigation" into what happened and who perpetrated it.  Oops!  This will uncover the ugly truth that it was primarily student-to-student abuse.  Clearly, the Vatican knows this and this is their way of getting at the truth, instead of simply dumping on the pope.  Wonder what Tanya will do when this comes out?  

The coverage I saw depicted throngs of natives bowing down, cheering and revering Francis.  The coverage I saw indicated that thousands wanted to touch his cloaks, but weren't able to get tickets.  He was mobbed and revered, but for Tanya it was all a complete failure.  She was one of the ones who called for the poor scapegoat to come to Canada, grovel and prostrate himself in a hair shirt in the first place, but it's still not enough.  You knew it wouldn't be.  

Going on about "Our Peoples" would be akin to my claiming ownership of the troubles in Ireland because my ancestors emigrated from there.  It would be completely inauthentic because I have never lived there.  Tanya's plaints are phony.  "That same sense of nothingness, of deep numbness I came to Maskwacis with has not left me," she says.  

To hear her go on you'd think every, single child who ever set foot in a residential (i.e., boarding) school had been either routinely raped, starved or deliberately killed and secretly buried.

I'm getting sick of Ms. Talaga.  Would some status native please stand up and call her out, or would that puncture the opportunistic narrative?  Guess it's the latter.  Here's poor, beleaguered Francis giving it his all:

       

The poor Pope

Here is poor, old crippled Pope Francis, hobbling around in a wheelchair apologizing for the abuse of children in residential schools by Catholic clergy.  Sadly, what no one mentions is that the majority of the abuse was perpetrated by older students on younger -- not by those who ran the schools.

But don't take my word for it, do your own research.  Even Murray Sinclair affirmed it when he heard it repeatedly from witnesses across Canada during the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, but naturally no one picks up on this inconvenient truth because it doesn't fit the Indigenous victimhood narrative and would never play well on television.  So, the media spouts it and Francis, unfairly, has to wear it.

I was appalled watching a group of feathered chiefs at a press conference going on about how they and their people had been horribly abused.  Each chief had a turn at the microphone and really went to town.  They even had the nerve to ask for MORE MONEY to help "victims" with healing services because, "We don't have the resources," they claimed.  Really?  You have millions and billions -- much of it stashed away in secret accounts in The Indian Trust Fund no one (except me) seems to bother to know about.  Look it up.

Naturally, a bunch of natives came on the air saying that an apology does no good and they won't accept it.  So, why did the poor pope come?  You knew this would be the reaction.  He did it in good faith at the request of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops so they could dump the whole mess on Francis and slither out of it.  Cute trick, in my view.  

And where are the other religious leaders who ran residential schools?  Where are the Anglicans?  Where is the United Church?  Beats me?!

So, my hat is off to Francis.  He is really an innocent in all this while the Theatre of the Absurd plays out all around him.  I smell more money.  

  

A last hurrah?

My 2K swim in Sylvan Lake yesterday may have been my last hurrah.  After three years without a swim, it did not go as planned and I'm not sure why because I have done at least six such swims without incident?  

Was it because of the disgusting algae that filled the shallow beach, through which we had to slog to get to the start?  Was it that I was not familiar with the course?  Was it because of the blazing sun that seared through my un-tinted goggles and blinded me on the leg out swimming east?  A bit of each, I'm afraid, but mostly the sun issue.  Anyway, it was a struggle.  

I came fourth woman out of four in my age group, over 60, but I am waaaaay over sixty and the other women looked much younger.  The dumb thing about this race was that it was plotted so you had to swim directly into a low sun on the way out, which literally and figuratively blind-sided me.  And my artificial lenses made it all the worse because they make everything sharper and harsher -- great in a pool, but not in open water facing the sun.  

I don't want to admit this, but here goes:  I could not finish and had to turn back halfway to the first 1,000-metre buoy.  Of course, the way back was easy because I was swimming west, leaving that blistering light behind me.  Now, if the course had been south to north, not west to east, I would have had no trouble because I could simply have shut my eyes when turning my head to the sun side.

But they did not design it that way, thus I had to slink back and face the hoards awaiting their "champions" to emerge victorious from the waves.  I was not one of them -- although it looked as though I had come first!  Worse, the organizers all ran around concerned because they thought I had been struggling and near drowning.  Didn't need that kerfuffle.  But they were all very nice and even gave me a pair of beautiful tinted goggles as consolation for the next time.  

So, dear readers and friends, Sylvan Lake and its sun overwhelmed and ultimately defeated me, but for some bizarre reason, a "DNF" (did not finish) does not appear after my name in the results?  They may have calculated my theoretical time, had I swum the entire course, or it could have been a technical glitch.  Personally, I think it was a sympathetic gesture by the kind organizers to avoid the humiliation with which a DNF would have tainted me?  

Either way, it's over and the results posted.  I have to thank my hubby for waiting on the beach and consoling me in defeat.  "At least you tried and remember, you were the oldest swimmer in the race of either gender."

But, as I said, this may have been my last hurrah.  

                                                

 Optimistically setting out with my Swim Buddy (note the algae, yuck!)

Post-race dejection

My ill-fated number 234, which won't come off -- a sad badge of defeat (and no, I didn't wear all my bling in the swim).

The beautiful consolation goggles given me, which I should have worn, but which will be perfect when we go to the cottage and I do my daily, open-water swim there.

I did get a great bathing cap, which will fool people into thinking I finished!  Hahahah!

      

The "N" word

In the seventies, Pierre Vallières wrote a very provocative book entitled, "White N-----s of America" (he used the actual word, of course) about the lives of French Canadians from his perspective.  It became very famous, but apparently it now cannot be named because of the offensive word in its title.*  Apparently, someone on CBC Radio Canada actually spoke the word because, in discussing the book, he/she had to use its title.

Well, this caused an uproar and bruhaha to such an extent that the CRTC demanded the network apologize.  As you can imagine, this didn't go down too well with the French CBC and I agree.  No apology should have been required because the program was discussing the book.  I mean, how could you discuss a book without using its title!?  Two members of the CRTC wrote dissenting opinions insisting an apology was out-of-order and urged the network not to do so.  That was at least some good news, but English CBC has become unglued, with "wokeness" now reigning supreme.  

In a further nod to the absurd, veteran anchor Wendy Mesley actually had to resign from CBC because she used the same word in a similar context in a CBC meeting.  In a meeting, for Gawd's sake!  I put this all at the feet of Her Supreme Wokeness, President Catherine Tait, who has put "diversity" firmly ahead of good journalism.

Isn't upbringing so telling.  I used to babysit Ms. Tait and know a thing or two about how her parents reared her.  Her mother, coincidentally, worked for B back in the eighties and he had a helluva time getting around her rabid feminism which was constantly bleeding into operational matters and gumming up any issue on the table with women's lib tangents.         

To give you an idea of what he was dealing with, Mrs. Tait -- oh, sorry, Ms. Tait -- who had broken her leg and was in a cast, was riding in the back seat of the car with B to a meeting.  Now, this was a woman who aggressively eschewed any man holding a door to let her go first, for instance, so when they arrived, B got out, closed his door and began walking to their destination.  "Hey, help!" he heard Ms. Tait yelling.  Turning back, B said, "Oh, sorry, I thought you didn't want a man to hold a door for you."  Good moment, in my view.

Anyway, she raised Catherine and her other two daughters imbuing them with similarly pronounced views with no noticeable input from her docile husband.  So, now we have the uber-woke daughter running CBC with her eye fixed firmly on tangents.  All I can say is, there are many reasons I no longer watch CBC; this is one of them.

* As you can see, I was even afraid to use the word in this blog!

__________________________________

I have to say a word of objection once again to stepdaughter's taking her mother to our old cottage in the Gatineau.  It still burns my a-- that this person, who declared "It's war!" when their marriage broke up and, among other ludicrous demands, insisted through her lawyer, that we not take a holiday up there so we could give her more money, now enjoys annual visits to our sacred, blended family gathering place.  (I think that was a run-on sentence, sorry.)  I now see the world in terms of "right and wrong" and this move is wrong on so many levels.  But stepdaughter, S, has expertly picked up the crude and nervy art of mooching from her mother.  Every year, S globs onto another cottager and forces herself, her two kids and her only-too-eager mother to plant themselves gratis on their idyllic premises for a week.  

Did I tell you that after reading 'The Woman's Room' B's ex stated vehemently that she did not want to be "Mrs. Marley-Clarke"?  But what has she done in the 42 years since she stood up and exerted her "feminism"?  Kept the name.  Actually, when one of her cousins found out who she was marrying, she said, "Oh, we all knew it was only for the name."  

Yep, still p-sses me off.  Hey, find another lake and mooch off someone else.  Leave our place alone.  But until people up there get fed up with these squatters, they'll keep doing it with her faces hanging out.  Oh, and did I tell you B and I have not seen his grands for four years and likely won't be permitted to until they reach the age of consent?  That's purposeful and wrong.  In fact, she hasn't even called her own brother in Ottawa so he can have a sniff-of-an-oil-rag hour or two with his niece and nephew, preferring instead to glob onto another rich cottager in Muskoka for a second free week's holiday.

Wrong.       

  

I've said it before

Golf is fairly unplayable.  Firstly, the ball is too small and the club too long; the physics determine that you can't hit it.  Looks like Rory McElroy proved that theory when he pooched the British Open last weekend.  Tiger Woods also had to face that annoying reality when he left the tournament after only one round.  McElroy was supposed to walk away with it, but a young Australian came along and snatched victory from the jaws of Rory's defeat.  That happens a lot in golf.  The sure thing collapses and an unknown glides in to hoist the coveted claret jug.  Frankly, I hope Federer doesn't return to Wimbledon "one more time", as he has said, and become a slinking-away Woods.  That would be sad.  

Don't get me wrong, I admire the dogged determination of golfers who, against all odds, keep swinging away hole after hole, summer after summer for years and years.  Personally, my favourite hole is the 19th -- one I used to enjoy when we lived in Ottawa and were members of the beautiful Royal Ottawa.  B would head out to hit and bang away on the back nine, while I would enjoy a refreshing beverage on the verandah awaiting his frustrated return.  

___________________________________

Quebec's ridiculous new language laws, which now impose even stricter bans on English, is just another example of how the province is determined to turn itself even more into a ghetto.  It also ensures as few people as possible will want to emigrate there.  Limiting yourself and your children to just French means they have no chance of succeeding anywhere else where English is the dominant language.  I put it all down to an inferiority complex by Quebeckers.  They feel less-than, so they dig in and enact new cudgels with which to bang the hated English over the head.  An old friend, who lives in Montreal, said, "Nancy, every Quebecker is a separatist."  I believe him.  

Immigration is also a pretty predictable thing:  People go to where their kith and kin live.  That means that Vancouver and Toronto will continue to attract mainly South Asians and Blacks, Vancouver will attract Asians and South Asians, and Montreal will restrict itself mainly to French-speaking Haitians.  I know, I know, this is just a lot of ballparking on my behalf, but it's basically true.  All that means that, try as every civic politician might, housing costs will just keep skyrocketing and urban crowding will keep ballooning.  As for building new housing?  A myriad of building codes, which brings in a lot of money, and NIMBYism will see to it that builders don't bother.

Yep, there's really no answer to that one.

_______________________________

Doug Cuthand, who I had previously thought reasonable, has joined the screaming hoards demanding the the Pope's head over the "grievous and murderous" residential schools which, he claims, destroyed thousands of lives.  He erroneously blames a 1493 Papal Bull, which declared a pope infallible, as the reason no pope can apologize because presumably no pope has ever been wrong.  A pope is infallible in all things ecclesiastical and Catholic, but not in secular matters.  Cuthand doesn't seem to understand this, so yes, the pope can apologize, but how far he can go will depend on what the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops will permit him to say.

Angele White, head of the Indian Residential Schools Survivors* Society, seems to believe the pope will be arriving arms loaded with cheques.  She is demanding more than apology and we know what that means.  She wants compensation, which is spelled "money".  The pope will not be coming with cheques.  Richard Gagnon, who runs the Conference, will be the guy deciding where Pope Francis goes, what he says and how much money is doled out.  So, Angela, don't hold your breath.    

* Why are there no graduates, only survivors? 

______________________________

And didn't we all laugh in disgust as Trudeau castigated Hockey Canada for how it covered up the sexual assault and rape of a young woman by eight "unnamed" players.  That's taking the pot-calling-the-kettle-black to new heights!  Trudeau, a guy guilty as (lucky-for-him, but not) charged, has the nerve to call out Hockey Canada for covering up the very crimes he himself has been accused of!  Speaking of disgust, I am repelled that the mainstream media -- mainly the financially-compromised CBC -- never reports on Trudeau's own sordid past. 

The "unnamed" players aren't because guess what?  A bunch of them are currently playing in the NHL!  This should have been a police matter from the get-go, not an internal "investigation", payout and coverup.  These were crimes, but how could society even think of destroying the hockey careers of these fine, upstanding young citizens?  Society should, but it won't.

In this case, the players aren't named, but in the case now in court against ex-Vancouver Canuk Jake Virtanen, he is named, but the woman accusing him of rape is not -- the opposite of what is happening with the Hockey Canada fiasco.  I've never understood these arbitrary decisions?  Remember the case of the female NDP MP who named and accused a fellow MP of sexual assault, thus destroying his career, marriage and life before he was even charged, let alone convicted!  In that case she was also protected, but the MP named and ruined -- even though she admitted she had willingly had sex with the guy!!

Frankly, I give up!             

For no reason?

Johnny Gaudreau, the cornerstone of The Flames, just up and joined the Columbus Bluejackets.  Why?  No one has a clue!?  Wasn't money, 'cause he was offered more than the measly $68+million than Columbus is now paying him.  Was it Daryl Sutter's coaching?  Was it the suits running the club?  Was it the weird weather here?  Who knows?  He claims it's to be closer to his family, but in reality he won't be.  (Don't they always say that when something weird is going on in the background.)

"Every time I play in Columbus, it's a lot of fun.  The fans are into it and I dig the vibe," said Gaudreau at his presser.  To paraphrase the brilliant Cathal Kelly, that sounds like a four-year-old explaining why he likes daycare.  There's gotta be something else going on and it'll emerge.  One day.

Whatever happened to building a hockey dynasty, a la Montreal back-in-the-day?  Whatever happened to sticking with a club to win the cup?  Oh ya, no one really cares about winning the cup; it's all about money (except not in Gaudreau's case).  Through thick and thin, Flames fans have been loyal.  Not so Gaudreau.  It's very disappointing -- even to a non-fan such as I -- to see this happen and no, I don't wish him well.  To build a dynasty, you need discipline and you need to pick a plan and stick with it until it works and it will work because that's what plans do.  Unless you don't stick with it and I'm not just talking coaches and owners; I'm talkin' players too.  That means commitment and loyalty, both sadly lacking thanks to the money-hungry agents who run the players and the latter's greedy families.  I mean, how much money do you actually need or deserve to dash around a sheet of ice with a stick?   

So, now the Jays have fired poor, old Charlie Montoyo because they aren't winning.  Frankly, they always fire the coach when dumb player purchasing decisions are made, but don't work out.  Mark Shapiro should really fire himself.  When he arrived a few years ago, he swore up-and-down that it would always be about winning the World Series, but we all knew that wasn't true.  

Poor, old Toronto sports fans can't catch a break.  Look at Mathews.  We all thought his signing would be the turning point in the Leaf's sad losing curse.  But it wasn't.  His contributions, in spite of his talent, have been miniscule.  I suggested they trade him, Marner and couple of other "stars" a while ago, just to shake up the team.  But they didn't and now Mathews will be the next to go the minute his contract is up.  Loyalty?  None there either.

______________________________________

In 2006, B and I went on a little nostalgia trip to Wellesley and Chicago.  Chicago was to visit his first, true flame and Wellesley was to re-connect with an old tennis buddy from his teenage years.  We read today that the tennis buddy -- just a couple of months older than B -- has died.  The obituary brought back memories of that trip, which were not all pleasant.  This guy, let's call him "Tom", lived in a beautiful home (because he had scads of money), but which was a bit of an unravelling dump inside.  The furniture was threadbare and the bed we were assigned collapsed the minute we climbed into it.  

The living room decor centred around a racket-stringing machine, which was a tad weird.  As grateful guests, we bought two very expensive bottles of wine, which he promptly hid under the dining table while serving us his cheap brand.  I was appalled -- especially when I discovered that he was sneaking the good stuff for himself while pouring us plonk.  As for dinner?  I said I would teach his lady friend how to make gnocchi as a side dish to whatever she had planned.  Turned out, she had nothing planned so I had to make the entire dinner out of odds-and-sods scrounged from the fridge, plus throw in the gnocchi which takes a long time to prepare and cook.  Huh?? 

But the corker was a visit to his very posh tennis club.  "I can't wait to play on those beautiful grass courts," said B as we were driving in.  B and Tom had played competitively together as teens in Montreal because they were both fanatical about the sport.  "Did you bring your raquet," asked Tom.  "Of course," affirmed B anxiously.  Time passed, as I sat there with his girlfriend sipping wine, but no courts were booked and they didn't play.  I concluded it was because Tom was afraid B would beat him and he would not have been able to handle that -- especially in front of other club members.  B was understandably very upset.  As for the wine?  I was offered one glass and when I had finished it, a second was not proffered.  That's just plain rude.   

____________________________

A word about the killing of the guy acquitted of master-minding the Air India bombing 37 years ago.  This was retribution by other Sikhs long in the planning and execution.  Firstly, why it is always referred to as the greatest air disaster in Canadian history?  It was not a "Canadian" tragedy, it was a Sikh one.  Even though most of the passengers were Canadian, their primary identity was Sikh.  So, let's call it what it was:  A Sikh disaster carried out by Sikhs against other Sikhs.  

Like the troubles in Ireland, religious hatred is long, immortal and is passed down from generation to generation.  But 37 years later, the guy who did it finally got his.

Another $ 40 billion

I was going to get upset by another $11 million for a health-care centre for the Siksika reserve -- a reserve near here with only about 7,800 members.  We -- i.e., you and I -- are going to hand this money over so the residents don't have to leave home for treatment of drug additions and overdoses.  That upset me, but the latest cash grab is beyond the pale!  Nevermind a measly $11 million, no, we just handed the natives another $40  BILLION!!!!!  

I kid you not!

Apparently, the Ottawa clowns have inked an agreement to give natives $20 billion for "harm" done because of "chronic underfunding" of child welfare on reserves.  Firstly, why were the kids taken into care?!  Oh, sorry, I forgot.  Can't ask that.  

On top of that whopper, another $20 billion has been handed over to...."reform the First Nations child-welfare system over five years."  So, my outraged friends, that's another $40 BILLION!#%!@#$@!!!!  And the guy "mediating" the debate between the government and the natives?  None other than the "objective" Murray Sinclair.  Talk about letting the fox loose in the hen house?!  How can Sinclair have been fair and objective?  Impossible.  

How can this stand?!!!  

It all began with a ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which ruled in 2016 that the federal government had discriminated against native children and ordered the government to pay the maximum compensation of $40,000 to every child who was "needlessly" (who defines "needlessly?) removed their families since 2006 and taken away from their parents (gee, I wonder why??).

Googling who's on the tribunal, I learned it was chaired by someone called "Jennifer Khurana", a left-wing nut case whose only causes have been racial.  The rest of the gang, mostly women, are also similarly left-wing-inclined, so naturally, they ruled as they did with nary a thought to the beleaguered and ripped-off taxpayer -- you and I -- who have to foot this bill.  The chip-on-the-shoulder gang are totally out-of-control on these files!  (Karhana, by the way, is brown, so obviously that drives her decisions, her bent and her bias.)  

It seems the working Canadian toils only to give their hard-earned tax dollars to natives and other similarly discriminated against groups.  

So sickening. 

A real Irish wake

I remember my grandmother, Lillian Lord, talking about her father, Charles, who was a furniture maker and undertaker in Brockville.  She used to tell me about how her father went to the homes of the deceased, cleaned them up, dressed them and laid them out in the parlour in preparation for the wake.  "The Lord came down to bury the dead," her friends used to tease her.  It stuck with me.  

As  child, my mother often took me to Hulse and Playfair when she visited the family of a deceased friend because, as she said, "Death is part of life and you have to get used to it."  I was about five or six when she began to take me and I was never fazed because it was at the funeral parlour, not in someone's home.  

Tonight, I went to a real Irish wake.

When we first moved to Calgary, we met and were be-friended by a wonderful couple, Patrick and Maureen Doherty.  We knew no one and they had us to their magnificent home in Bragg Creek many times.  Devout Catholics with a large, extended family, they often had special Masses said in their home, with grand receptions following.  The booze and food flowed, priests were everywhere.  It was very special.

Sadly, Paddy died last week.  True to form, Maureen had an elaborate wake for him in their home.  "Dad's to the left," said his daughter Sibbohan, when she opened the door, "Mum's in the dining room on the right."  Taken aback, I momentarily thought, Paddy's alive?  But, of course, when we turned left and entered one of the front rooms, there Paddy was laid out magnificently.  We went in to see him beautifully dressed, surrounded by flowers and holding a rosary with a beatific look on his aged face.

The house was buzzing with hundreds of people all milling and thronging, partaking of the marvelous food and drink and thoroughly enjoying talking and laughing about their relationships with Paddy over many years.  We joined in.

What a wonderful way to wake a beloved man, in his own home, surrounded by family and friends.  "He was taken to the hospital last week because he couldn't breathe," said his widow, "but he didn't want to stay, so he pulled all the tubes and catheters out and I picked him up and took him home.  That night, we went to bed and he just drifted quietly away beside me.  It was perfect."

So it was.  That's the way to go.  And what an experience, an old-fashioned, traditional Irish wake with the deceased front and centre. 

 

      

  

Where did "sank" go?

It's, "sink, sank, sunk", but the middle tense seems to have disappeared?  People say, "He sunk that ball," among other incorrect uses.  And what about "wove"?  Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin actually wrote, ".......weaved into the conversation....." the other day.  My dearly-loved friend, grammar, is slowly being eroded and killed.  Texting, of course, doesn't help.

_______________________________

Watching Wimbledon and cringing at the women's matches.  Absolutely no winners, just pound it from the baseline until someone hits it out, or into the net.  Shameful.

With a few exceptions, the men are no better.  They seem to be playing hard-court tennis on grass, resulting in long, long rallies until, again, someone hits it out or into the net.

I am not enjoying Wimbledon this year, but can't turn it off.  Shockingly, Sinner bested Alcaraz, but Kyrgios -- the most exciting player on the tour today -- beat the young American.  Nick is a virtuoso who put on a clinic today.  The only thing I don't like about today's game is the two-fisted backhand, very ugly.  It was first used in the 1930's by a couple of players, but came into general use in the sixties, when Chris Everett and Mike Belkin started using it.  Everett was also the first who started the baseline pounding game, which ruined the kind of tennis I prefer.  

______________________________  

A word about the sh-tty weather here in Cochrane.  Today the "high" will be 13 and it's raining.  I made the mistake of looking at the seven-day forecast:  Rain all week, every day!  And cold.  Looks like summer will pass us by this year.  Soooooo depressing.

Three groups

That's who's ruined Canada Day:  The natives, the trucker convoy gang and Quebec.  These three groups don't like Canada Day and are determined to undermine it.  

In Moose Cree First Nation, along the shores of James Bay, the chief and council had designated July 1 as a day of mourning.  Yep, you read that right.  And it's all because of the "thousands (really?!) of children who were murdered (really?!) at residential schools."  At least 80 municipalities have also cancelled festivities across the country and many have held "#CancelCanada-Day" events instead of celebrating this great country.  In Winnipeg, natives have piled on and toppled statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.  In Thunder Bay, the city fathers have decided to skip fireworks and focus on a reconciliation theme.  Victoria desecrated:

"For many Indigenous Peoples, Canada Day is not a time of celebration, but a reminder of our country's colonial past and ongoing challenges," the city's website states.  Vancouver is also dropping its waterfront fireworks show and has re-branded the whole mess "Canada Together".  

Not to be outdone, urban-Toronto-raised "expert" on everything native, Tanya Talaga, has penned a damning column today in 'The Globe and Mail' about the Pope's upcoming visit, demanding he arrive with "precious artifacts" given as gifts to the Vatican a hundred years ago so they can be returned to "our communities".  Downtown Toronto, Tanya?  "The sight of these precious objects gutted me," moans Tanya.  "One of the First Nations youth delegates told me it was 'like seeing a relative you haven't seen in a long time'."  Frankly, I doubt a teen was this observant and articulate, but Tanya said so, so that's that.

"Many of us are still on a journey of reclamation and, as such, the leader of the Church is on his way here to Canada to seek redemption," she adds.  What's she trying to reclaim?  As I said, she was born and raised in Toronto; no "sacred artifacts" were stolen from her living room.  Talk about "cultural appropriation" by whites, Talaga is one of the most prominent culprits on that file.

I'm getting sick of the predictable Ms. Talaga.

And the trucker convoys are journeying to Ottawa to protest....everything.  And as for Quebec, it long ago abandoned Canada Day in favour of a St. Jean Baptiste celebration.  So, to these groups who declare war on Canada I say, head off to the Ukraine and fight.  That's where a real war is taking place.  Don't decry Canada while you live here and make a lot of money.  Stand where you sit.