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Originally posted by roogalator:

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Posted 03-01-08 05:43 PM Hide Post

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Originally posted by dance girl:
**** off, Roog.



May I have a DNC Universal translation of that?

Knowing my junior cub reporter as I do that would probably translate to pass off, just substitute the 'a' with an 'i', and you'll have it.

You're welcome

Really ? How British ! (I forget she's one of us, but saw the light !)

We're trying to get her to walk into the light but so far she's not going for it.

She does like shiny things though.

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Originally posted by roogalator:
We're trying to get her to walk into the light but so far she's not going for it.

She does like shiny things though.

Listen up Canuck boy; you know what happens to people in the operating room when they walk into the light..so just in case, I'm not taking any chances.
As for me liking shiny things..sure I do. And if there was any justice in this world, I would be a shiny silver enthusiast, and YOU would be bronze. Bedstor assured me I'd be silver, (or was it gold?) by LAST Christmas.
A word of advice to you..don't get to friendly with Fred, he bites and he hasn't had his shots.
Anyway, I'm off to find some more interesting Canadian news.

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interesting Canadian news

An oxymoron I would think.
But we'll keep looking.

So Fred is not to be trusted EH?

Thanks for the heads up.

Regarding my shiny silver status/rank we all know how hard I worked to become that and how hard I work for y'all to maintain it.

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Originally posted by dance girl:

A word of advice to you..don't get to friendly with Fred, he bites and he hasn't had his shots.

Ssh! I asked you not to say

Yes,I admit it.When I last came back from the States I was kept in quarantine at Stansted Airport for six months. (I didn't dare admit it to the family.I lied. I told them I was in jail, busted for importing fake Kong toys in my baggage. )

Guitar hero Jeff Healey dies at 41

By Michelle McQuigge, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - Acclaimed jazz and rock guitarist Jeff Healey was remembered Sunday as a musician of rare ability who had a wicked sense of humour and a generous nature as fans and bandmates mourned his death at age 41, following a battle with cancer.

Bandmates of Canadian rock and jazz legend Jeff Healey were among those shocked by the news of his death Sunday.

Healey died Sunday evening in a Toronto hospital surrounded by family and a bandmate, Colin Bray.

Bray, the bass player with Jeff Healey's jazz Wizards and the frontman's long-time friend, said he and many others expected the guitarist to rally from this latest illness.

"I don't think any of us thought this was going to happen," Bray said in a telephone interview. "We just thought he was going to bounce back as he always does."

Healey had battled with cancer since the age of one when a rare form of retinal cancer known as Retinoblastoma claimed his eyesight.


Bray said Healey had been hospitalized for a week and that his advanced lung cancer made his final hours difficult.

Healey had undergone numerous operations in recent years to remove tumours from his lungs and leg.

Bray and fellow bandmate Gary Scriven remembered their frontman as not only a world-class musician but an incredibly strong person with the capacity to motivate those he worked with.

Scriven called Healey inspirational and praised the boundless enthusiasm that allowed him to continue performing live only four weeks before his death.

"He drew his strength from somewhere, I don't know where, but it spread among the band and flowed into the audience," Scriven said.

Healey rose to stardom as the leader of the Jeff Healey Band, a rock-oriented trio that garnered a Juno award, international acclaim and platinum record sales with the 1988 album "See the Light."

But Bray and Scriven said Healey's true love was jazz, the genre that dominated his last three albums with the Jazz Wizards.

Healey's guitar prowess was characterized by a unique playing-style that saw him lay the instrument across his lap.

It led him to share stages with such rock luminaries as George Harrison, Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. King, but Bray said jazz allowed him to exercise his other instrumental talents such as trumpet and drums.

Healey's love of jazz also led him to host radio shows on the CBC and a local Toronto station where he spun long-forgotten numbers from his personal collection of over 30,000 vinyl records.

But Bray said his "best friend" saw himself first and foremost as an entertainer and said Healey seemed to derive therapeutic benefits from playing live shows.

Recalling Healey's weakened condition at his final performance on Feb. 2 in Goderich, Ont., Bray said Healey seemed to draw strength as the set progressed.

"At the end of it, I can't believe how much better he looked. It was like blood to him."

Healey's death came weeks before the release of his first rock album in eight years.

"Mess of Blues" is slated for a North American release on April 22.

Healey is backed on the album by the resident band at Jeff Healey's Roadhouse, the blues club he founded and named after a 1989 Patrick Swayze movie in which he appeared.

The album features two live tracks recorded in the last few months of his life.

The Grammy-nominated musician is survived by his wife Christie and two children; daughter Rachel, 13 and son Derek, 3.

Funeral and memorial arrangements have not yet been announced.

This was sad news, Roog. I remember the jazz show he did on the CBC. The guy was a wealth of information and such a genuinely nice person.

This isn't the best quality video of him, but here's a clip from Letterman, that shows Healey's distinctive style of guitar playing.

Jeff Healey - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

This is a big loss to Canadian music. I don't think anyone realised how ill he was.

Meanwhile, beloved Canadian magnate, Conrad Black, began serving his 6 1/2-year sentence in a Florida prison today.

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Originally posted by juanruiz:
Meanwhile, beloved Canadian magnate, Conrad Black, began serving his 6 1/2-year sentence in a Florida prison today.

Canadian ? Did you want him back ? Isn't he Lord Black of Crossharbour, the well-known peer of the realm, who abandoned his Canadian citizenship to get to wear the ermine (white with streaks of black was his ideal colour scheme)? Fittingly his rank in the peerage is Baron, as in 'robber'.He can't lose his title by reason of being a crook. This is some ancient convention, based upon the eminently sensible idea that, if we demoted every peer who was a crook,the peerage would soon cease to exist and the House of Lords would be emptied overnight.

A mere knight has no such protection. None is needed: knights are worthy and honourable men who have actually done something of value to the world (Note that Winston Churchill, the son of a peer, refused a peerage but accepted a knighthood )

It's just that Canadians from every walk of life love and respect him so much that a little glitch like a peerage would not cause them to think of him as anything less than a fellow countryman.

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Originally posted by juanruiz:
It's just that Canadians from every walk of life love and respect him so much that a little glitch like a peerage would not cause them to think of him as anything less than a fellow countryman.

Stop pushing my buttons, jr!
You just knew I wasn't going to let that last comment slip by, didn't you?
For anyone not familiar with Black, let me tell you he is almost universally LOATHED by Canadians.
And here's why:

The World according to Conrad Black

And Fred, after he has served his sentence, which I sincerely hope involves scrubbing toilets, there is every chance he won't be allowed to return to Canada:

Ex-Hollinger Chief Conrad Black Entered Prison Today

Because Black renounced his Canadian citizenship and was then convicted of a felony, he may have difficulty returning to his native country when his sentence is finished.

``If he tried to come back to Canada, he could be deported to Britain,'' said Mariel Grant, a history professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Grant, who holds a doctoral degree in modern British history from Oxford University in England, said Black wouldn't be the first member of the House of Lords to be jailed. Novelist Jeffrey Archer in 2001 was jailed for four years after being convicted of perjury.

``There's no legal precedent to strip somebody of their title except in cases of treason,'' she said. ``He can keep his title because he hasn't committed treason.''

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Stop pushing my buttons, jr!
You just knew I wasn't going to let that last comment slip by, didn't you?

Moi?

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Originally posted by dance girl:
``He can keep his title because he hasn't committed treason.''

Told you so

You see, all he did was rob the poor (shareholders) to give to the rich (him). That could never be treason. Why, it's in Magna Carta somewhere, after that bit that says a baron can only be tried by a jury of other barons, who'd understand (of course) . You'd never pass your Barons' exam if you got that wrong (sorry, dg, I do include the Baroness' exam).

An interesting modern feature of Magna Carta is that the first part of the 'agreement' is all about drainage in Somerset and weights and measures, all the boring, unimportant stuff, and it goes on like that for ages. Then, in the tiny small print, hidden where only the most assiduous and legal- minder reader would ever find it, is the stuff about the barons being allowed to do whatever they fancy, killing peasants etc,demolishing your village to build the new Runnymede bypass extension.... and this contract is for 100 years and can't be cancelled unless in writing delivered at 4 am on the third full moon in March of a leap year (but you get a free upgrade from one to two bowls of gruel at Christmas, stocks permitting)

Note: "stocks permitting" means you can get the gruel only if you are not sitting in the stocks on the village green at the time (that's in the Explanatory Notes, which you binned with the other bumf ) Or not, depending on who's benefitting under the contract.

The PM has threatened to sue the leader of the opposition over the Cadman affair. Damn, I love Canadian politics.

PM threatens to sue Liberals over Cadman allegations

So what do you think will happen, jr? Will the Liberals back down and apologise? And even if they do, will anyone understand Stéphane Dion's English? Will Stephen suddenly grow a personality? And more importantly, do you think there will be another lawsuit this year over the Tim Horton's Roll Up the Rim to Win coffee contest?

What is there to love about Canadian politics? Not much seems to happen.
Take a look at Alberta. They have had a Conservative government there since 1971. Monday night's election put the Tories back in power for the eleventh consecutive time.

The Libs will back off, say it was a misunderstanding, and utter something that may sound like an apology. Dion will go the the Chrétien School of Language and improve his English while taking Ignatieff pills. Tim Horton's will swear off contests.

As for Alberta, when you are flush with money, you vote Tory. When you need money, you vote Liberal. When you want complete redistribution of the wealth, you vote NDP.

Interesting that the CBC's National's lead story tonight was the US primaries. Tomorrow they promise a story on Obama. Wonder what can be inferred from that?

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Take a look at Alberta. They have had a Conservative government there since 1971. Monday night's election put the Tories back in power for the eleventh consecutive time.

The farmers have tunnel vision here. It doesn't matter what the issues are or who the candidates are. They just vote PC cos they always have, their daddy's did and their daddy's daddy did.

The New Democrats technically aren't even a party anymore. They only have 2 seats and you need 4 to officially be a party.

I am so fed up with this @#@#@#* snow, Roog!
Another foot of it last night, and yet another snow day for the kids.
I think we got Alberta's quota for the winter, as well as our own.

Yes, jr, I saw the news last night. I don't think there' a whole lot going on in Canadian politics right now.
Did you see they passed the budget without much fuss?

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I am so fed up with this @#@#@#* snow, Roog!
Another foot of it last night, and yet another snow day for the kids.
I think we got Alberta's quota for the winter, as well as our own.

Sure sounds like it. We have plus side temperatures and the grass is smiling through what's left of the snow.

Yes, the budget passed. (yawn) Canadian politics is as exciting as ever.

Remember kids, Daylight Savings Time comes into effect this weekend.