I think I mentioned that I got the Firefly boxed set for Christmas (sorta.) Well, apparently it’s catching on, and a lot of people who never even watched the show once when it was initially on the air are watching it now. They’re making a movie, which they’re hoping will springboard into a new TV series apparently. Hopefully that works out.

I’m not the kind of person to go all “Save this sitcom from being cancelled” or whatever, but I truly believe that it was a good show that was never given a decent chance. I’ll even admit that I didn’t much care for it after the first episode that I saw, but after the fourth or fifth, I was a rabid fan. It’s just so well done. (for the record, I don’t usually keep watching shows that I don’t care for, but Erin seemed to like it, so I gave it a chance.)

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Mmm…64 slices of American cheese.” - Homer

So, as Jason mentioned, we had a little get together last night. The plan was to have some green beers at Macguires, but predictably, the lines were too long, and we wound up back at our place instead. We ordered Chinese food, and talked, drank beer (though only mine was green - buncha lazy chickens) and played some Eye Toy.

It was a good time.

Erin’s posted some new pictures of William. Since it’s not an everyday occurence, I thought I’d point it out.

Simpson’s quote of the day:
Pepe : “Your the best dad Papa Homer.”
Homer: “Your the best son Pepsi.”
Pepe : “Pepe.”
Homer: “Pepe.”

Erin made a really good minestrone for supper last night, and William seemed to agree. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him eat so much food, with no spitting it back out, and no complaint. He just couldn’t get enough of the stuff. I finally stopped feeding him, because I thought he might get sick on us - he’s been known to eat/drink too much, and then throw up all over the bed, which isn’t fun for anyone.

Actually, he also really likes Kraft Dinner, though he gets to feed himself that, so it’s a little different situation. He’s turning into a little grownup.

Barenaked Ladies quote of the day: “If I had a million dollars, we wouldn’t have to eat Kraft Dinner.” “But we would eat Kraft dinner.” “Of course we would, we?d just eat more, and buy really expensive ketchups with it. That?s right, all the fanciest dijon ketchups”

I don’t have much to say today.

Simpson’s Quote of the day: “Whoa-ho! A talking dog! What were you guys smokin’ when you came up with that?” - Otto

I watched a very entertaining hockey game on Saturday night, between Montreal and Toronto. Who won is somewhat irrelevant to the whole concept of entertainment in this case, because I was enjoying the game almost from the drop of the puck. There was great flow, and some incredible skill in evidence. There wasn’t much play in the neutral zone, and not a whole lot of clutch and grab in general. So, here’s my quandry. This game had very few penalties called. There were certainly more than a few missed interference calls, and at least one dangerous boarding/checking from behind call that was missed/not called.

It was entertaining hockey, and the refs just “let them play.”

Then, I tried to watch the Ottawa at Vancouver game…The refs called a lot of penalties (in the first part of the game - that’s all I could stomach.) The game had no flow. I watched a little over half of the first period, and gave up on it. I don’t know - maybe it got entertaining after that, but after having just watched a very entertaining game, with lots of great plays and some truly beautiful goals, I couldn’t sit through a game with no tempo, no flow.

So, here is where my proposed solution from Friday comes crashing down. If the NHL were to crack down, and institute much more harsh penalties, the game would be unwatchable for the first little while, while the players adjusted to the “new rules.” The game is unhealthy enough right now, that a year like this could kill off a lot of fan interest for a long time - which could ultimately lead to the demise of the league.

So, what’s the solution then? Work with the support systems. Gradually work new, stricter rules into the game, from the peewee level and up. If kids playing in the WHL for the first time have been brought up to not do dangerously violent things to each other, they won’t do them in the WHL - then they won’t do them in the NHL. It would take a long time, but eventually, the game would be more entertaining. Those few calls that were missed in the Montreal Toronto game wouldn’t need to be missed, because players would be smart enough to avoid taking such stupid penalties in the first place.

The key though, is to make the dangerous and violent plays be penalized heavily, from a young age. Yes, hooking/holding/interference doesn’t make for an entertaining game, but that’s not what’s hurting the image of hockey. It would be good to reduce that stuff too, which is what’s been attempted every year for the last 5 or so. I think it’s working. At the same time, calling penalties when players sneeze (as in the Ottawa Vancouver game) doesn’t make for good hockey either.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Immigrants! I knew it was them! Even when it was the bears, I knew it was them!” - Moe

I haven’t mentioned the Bertuzzi hit in a regular post yet, so I thought I, as a hockey fan, should deal with it before the memory of it goes away. I saw the hit once, and have intentionally not seen it again, because I don’t want to see that kind of crap. I know that the sports shows will be showing it for a couple more weeks, but I’m not going to watch it - I will change the channel at the first sight of it. There are lots of sports “hilights” that I treat this way - guys breaking their legs, or whatever.

So, with that out of the way - I’d like to direct your attention to the following article by ESPN’s Jim Kelly about the root cause of the problem. He Canadian hockey, as if it were some specialty of Canadian kids. Certainly, all of his stats point in that direction, but what he misses is the reason that Canadians are the goons in the NHL. It’s not because only Canadians have violent hockey tendancies, it’s because it doesn’t take as much skill to “make it” in the NHL as a goon.

The major feeding pools for NHL talent are the CHL (WHL, QMJHL and OHL) and increasingly US College hockey. I don’t know about the other parts of the CHL, but I know that the WHL has a limit on the number of European kids that can be on each team - and it’s quite low. Why on earth would a WHL team waste their European roster spot on a goon? It doesn’t make any sense at all. Goons are a dime a dozen, it’s skill that’s hard to come by - so the European roster spots are taken up by skill players. Don’t try to tell me that there is no goonery in Europe, or the US collegiate hockey. Yes, I know, there’s no fighting in College hockey. That’s why you don’t see a bunch of American goons either.

So, yes, it’s fixable at the CHL level, so Canadian hockey (as in the CHL) is responsible, not Canadian hockey players.

The problem is that the in-game penalties for over-agressive, overly violent behaviour are too small. You’d certainly see a lot more after the whistle crap in football if the penalties were reduced to 2 yards from 20 yards. With penalties being 2 minutes, and the refs usually “evening it up” so that neither team gets an advantage. You get the same 2 minutes for getting in a guy’s way (interference) as you do for whacking him across the wrist with your stick (slashing) It takes a pretty bad play for a five minute major to be assessed (other than two at a time with fighting.) The penalties for bad behaviour are far too small to be effective. It’s pretty clear, that it is possible to eliminate that kind of crap by making the penalties a lot more stiff - there’s no fighting in Canadian College hockey, because it’s an automatic suspension. At the same time, checking from behind is an automatic suspension too, and all that’s done is cause the refs to call it “roughing” instead, so as to not be handing out suspensions all the time.

If Moore’s initial hit had been called a penalty (it was clearly a dirty hit, even if it was strictly legal) and a suspension had resulted, Bertuzzi wouldn’t have gone headhunting.

The reason that frontier justice prevails is because the “real” justice doesn’t have any power. Look at any “old west” movie - the bands of outlaws, and lynch mobs existed because of a lack of respect for the law. All it took was having John Wayne come in and take the badge, and the bad guys started behaving, and the lynch mobs disappeared.

I know, I made a big deal about being alone last week, and how much I was looking forward to having Erin and William back home, and then, nothing. I didn’t even mention that they were back in town.

I know, that makes me a horrible horrible person.

Well, they did get back into town on Monday night, all safe and sound. It sounds like they had a good time, though I think they both would have been better off with a slightly shorter trip.

William was very glad to see me, which is great - he had a big goofy grin, as soon as he saw me. He followed me into the bedroom, I don’t remember what I went in there to get. Anyway, he followed me in, and started grabbing for things off of my end table. I cleared off all of the things that he shouldn’t be getting into, and “dusted off my hands” - William was watching intently, and did the exact same thing. Apparently, during his week away, he developed mimicry as a talent. He winks (with both eyes, but it’s quite clear he’s trying to wink) and he claps, and he likes to use the couple of words that he has (”Ball” and “Dog”) - he’s turning into a little boy. It’s quite a fun ride, watching him grow up.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “So, it was pretty okay, huh?” - Homer