01 October 2024 - CFL, Say It Ain't So!

Well, the mighty leaders of the Canadian Football League have foolishly decided that their game is inferior to that played on the NFL gridiron. Accordingly, they plan to change the field size, to restrict the scoring of the rouge, and a host of other rule changes aimed at making the CFL an NFL-Lite, as it were.

Don't they realise that there already is an NFL-Lite league in the US? After all, what is the UFL - what remains of the two other recent failed attempts at adding a league, the USFL (redux) and the XFL - if not just a minor league version of the NFL?

Surely there's room for an actually Canadian game in Canada, eh? Perhaps I'm taking this too personally, but when the powers that be attack my own favourite flavour of football my hackles can't help but raise themselves.

Good grief: they didn't even consult the owners, players, or fans - they just assumed they knew best and went ahead and announced the demise of the Canadian game.

Join me and thousands of other fans by signing this online petition to postpone (at least!) these rule changes:

https://chng.it/g576CbZ5qB

 Here's hoping there will be enough of a groundswell to convince these folks to leave our game alone!

Oskee Wee Wee!

 

21 August 2025 - A Plea for Capitalization

 When, Dear Reader, when did the world stop capitalizing 'Earth' when it's a proper noun?

Earth is the place - the planet - while earth is the soil - dirt.

It's not difficult to understand. I don't see articles on trips to mars, but rather to Mars - as is only proper (pardon the pun). Even plaster of Paris gets its capital P.

What has the Earth done to English speakers to relegate it to a second-class status?

Please, I implore you, stop this madness!

 

grr 

04 January 2025 - Quantum Disentaglement

 This is the anniversary of a very important event in the history of quantum physics. 

On 04 January 1961, Erwin Schrödinger's cat, Lagerung, burst out of his box and observed his master's state, thus determining that Schrödinger was dead.
 

A New Song for the "Season" - 30 December 2024

 This song was "composed" while walking my dog, Billie, through the non-stop rain yesterday; just one day after taking two walks in the gorgeous sunshine and near-60F (15C) temps the previous day.

It's Refusing to Look at All Like Christmas (apologies to Meredith Wilson)

It's refusing to look at all like Christmas,
Anywhere I go;
There are puddles of rain all 'round
Deep enough mice have drowned.
For safety's sake we skirt them all, you know.

It's refusing to look at all like Christmas,
soon we'll need a torch.
But the saddest thing, you know,
is the sodden box they throw
on your own front porch.

A pair of hip-wader boots
or a big bumbershoot,
is the outfit now holding sway
If rain turned to snow, then the puddles we know
could be white and cushion a sleigh,
And Mom and Dad keep telling us
it snowed more in their day.

It's refusing to look at all like Christmas -
Rain and gloom all day.
All the water that's in the street,
Soaking our freezing feet,
It gives us chills that just won't go away.

It's refusing to look at all like Christmas,
soon we'll need a torch.
But the saddest thing, you know,
is the sodden box they throw
on your own front porch.

© 2024 Charles van Becelaere

Looking Forward to Spring - 11 December 2024

I'm already hard at work on enhancing our harvest with some new hybrid crops for our 2025 garden.

This should go well, as I have the help of my Garden G(e)nome!

Heirloom hybrids, here we come!

Coinage du Jour - 03 December 2024

mal de merde (n.)

Illness due to consumption of food or beverage containing e. coli bacteria.

Example:

After eating the contaminated lettuce at the ship's salad bar, John felt quite ill, suffering from mal de merde.

Life Imitates Art ... Again - 26 Jul 2024

 It's amazing how well films used to predict their futures (back before they all became vehicles for berating their audiences, anyway) - especially comedies.

I've been thinking of the 1996 film, "My Fellow Americans" recently, especially this scene with the sitting Vice President addressing two former Presidents. Uncanny.