Summer fun food and drink - 2010 Vancouver Oly rant · Friday August 29, 2008 by colin newell
My definition of irony:
Gordon Campbell and his band of merry scoundrels (The Liberal Party) are dropping in the polls.
Now wouldn’t it be ironic (Don’t you think…) if Gordo was ousted in the next election? An election date that he cast into law.
And he would miss Jock Fest 2010…
At least as premier of the Province that is…
By then he could be a member of VANOC… which is largely land developers anyway.
Something to think about. In the photo above, Mister Premier deflects bad words, thoughts and odors with his fingertips – let’s see if he can pull the next election out of his hat. What!? No hat? Whoops!
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Summer fun food and drink - Avoiding that mood killing moment in your favorite haunt · Thursday July 17, 2008 by colin newell
Picture this. You are just settling into your favorite table at your favorite cafe or bistro with your favorite girl or boy… the wine is poured… the music plays softly in the background… you have ordered your entrée…
and…
Pop… pop… pop…
The familiar report of a Glock 9MM semi-automatic pistol disturbs your serenity as a gun fight breaks out between patrons at an adjacent table.
Patrons dive for cover as the slugs cut a searing path through the restaurant. One projectile grazes your Hugo Boss sport coat – the one you wear for special occasions only. I guess this could be considered a special occasion.
Okay then. Let’s rewind shall we.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go out on a hot date and skip the gangland violence, gun fire and bloody carnage? And if you are as Gangsta as I am, you would really prefer to leave your Heckler&Koch MP5K machine pistol at home – I mean if only to avoid having to put down cover fire for your loyal buddie baddies…
Anyway. Digression. A new program in Vancouver hopes to quell nasty criminal activity in cooperating restaurants… at least during the dinner hour.
“Participating members of the Restaurant Watch program will display large decals to show that they strive to maintain safety for diners, Vancouver police said.”
Large decals? Like… “Gangsta? Shoo!” or “Packing? You ain’t snacking!”
Yea. Like that’s gonna work.
“Owners and staff of local restaurants have pledged to call police if they feel a customer fits the description of a gang member, gang associate, drug trafficker or someone with a propensity for violence.”
I have a better idea. Want to rid the restaurant of criminal riff-raff? Change the menu to vegetarian. You will never find a gangsta in a joint that sells tofu anything. No beef, no bullets I figure.
The Restaurant Watch program will give police more eyes and ears and ensure the public has a safe and enjoyable dining experience. Read the whole Story
I would have a way more enjoyable experience if I knew there weren’t going to be loud and annoying people there will cell phones…
But what you gonna do?
Bada Bing.
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Welcome aboard. Papers please! San Juan Island edition · Tuesday June 10, 2008 by colin newell
It smells like World War II Nazism but it’s homegrown Fascism – In Amerika’s continuing efforts to eliminate freedom in the homeland, the U.S. border patrol in Anacortes, Washington has begun checking the identification of people coming off domestic ferries from the San Juan Islands!
Can you imagine riding the B.C. Ferry from Swartz Bay in Sidney to Fulford Harbor on Salt Spring Island and being greeted with sweaty, brown shirted, fat white men with German shepherds. The brown shirts snarl orders at the cowering tourists as the dogs bare their teeth and grimace. “Papers please! Have your papers in order!”
Sound far fetched? This reality has come to the scenic San Juan Islands in one of Washington states loveliest regions.
From todays Times-Colonist – The spot checks have some San Juan islanders, U.S. citizens or not, in a flap. “Many Latinos in the community are paranoid about getting on the ferry,” says Kevin Ranker of Friday Harbor. Others fear the spot checks will hurt the islands’ tourism economy, says Ranker, a county council member running for the state senate. Some residents might be happy to see the illegals nabbed, but still resent being ID’d in their own country.
In George Bush’s America this might seem acceptable – but it isn’t and shouldn’t be. Where does it end? How long before there are street-corner check-points in every major city in America? If it is OK in the San Juan Islands, then it has to be OK in Los Angeles and Kansas.
Truth is, the Bush family, now running America are not far removed from their Nazi era relatives. That’s right. Do your homework. George Bush and Co. are directly related to the good people that brought you the Third Reich.
In the early 40’s the American administration did not find Nazism and persecution so offensive that they jumped into the fray early like Canada did. No. They waited for Pearl Harbor to be attacked. Some of us stomach oppression better than others I guess.
Here in the 21st Century, apparently, it does not comes as much of a stretch to whittle away the rights and freedoms of every day Americans.
So. Today in the San Juan Islands in beautiful Washington State… Well, they pick on people of color… Latin Americans… Tomorrow, who knows. Maybe they will be coming for you.
Have your papers ready.
Additional reading
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Gas Price Rant #11 caffeinated panic sets in · Thursday April 24, 2008 by colin newell
What happens when you have to make the choice; food or gas?
It seems that coffee hungry Californians have made of their minds – much to the chagrin of coffee giant Starbucks
Java junkies looking for that last legal rap on the cortex are counting pennies by sipping less expensive coffee drinks, home-brewing or eschewing the brown elixir entirely. The turning tide is effecting everyone from the mom-and-pop java joints all the way up to Starbucks, which reported Wednesday that it expected lower second-quarter profit and full-year earnings. The economy not its prices appear to be the culprit.
Faced with deciding between a 99 cent of black coffee from the 7-11 and a 4 dollar latte from the Green Machine has never been easier – or so it would appear.
Starbucks is also facing down the Ronald McDonald brand of gourmet Joe which threatens to shake up the specialty market entirely.
Unconfirmed reports have Starbucks C.E.O. Howard Shultz uttering: “Cannot sleep… Clowns might kill me…”
Now I know what he means.
“The current economic climate is the weakest in our company’s history,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks Corp.‘s chief executive. The company said it was being hit especially hard in California and Florida, which make up nearly one-third of its U.S. retail revenue.
No surprise considering that California and Florida residents would give up coffee, their spouse or certain vestigial appendages before getting out of their SUV’s.
There are exceptions mind you. I will take my coffee before the car thank you very much. I mean, I cannot drive if I am asleep.
I am running pretty lean anyway. I brew specialty coffee in my lab at the University that I work at. I bake all my own muffins from scratch… so my monthly treat budget is pretty low.
So. To those with this tough choice to make, I salute you… by raise a steaming hot mug of Organic Ethiopian Sidamo brewed at exactly 196 degrees (F) into a thermal glass carafe! Cheers!
Thanks to Jeanie Sepin for the inspiration and research that went into this blog
