dewline | Entries tagged with cfl

Fair warning: I may be somewhat Distracted tonight, given that we have a Grey Cup game day with Saskatchewan vs. Montréal.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the Grey Cup Game tonight.

May the players all remain concussion-free, and may Rider Nation prevail. In that order of priority.

Current Mood: hyper

Got the Labour Day Classic - Canadian Football League match between Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers being played in Regina - on the TV for background noise. I've been a Riders fan almost since I started walking, because of my upbringing.

Meanwhile, there's a three-province police search underway for two suspects in a case of multiple-homicide - 10 dead, 15 injured - that started in a First Nation and a neighbouring settler-founded community a ways north of Saskatoon. The crimes and the search they've triggered have made the news as far away from Saskatchewan as the UK (The Guardian), Germany (DW News), and Australia (ABC News) by now.

There is a severe dissonance here when I look at these two things together in the same posting...

Current Mood: melancholy

I am a Saskatchewan-born kid, so regardless of where I live, I consider myself part of "Rider Nation".

While I am pleased at the results of last night's game against Ottawa - 23-10 for Saskatchewan's third win of a truncated-by-Pandemic season - I am worried by the things I've heard about that outbreak at Saskatchewan's home opener. Nine COVID infections, if memory serves? And it's not being acknowledged as an outbreak by the local health authorities.

I would really prefer that the CFL run this season the way the Japanese authorities ran the Tokyo Games this past July: no fans in the stands. At all. We have media companies with broadcast rights agreements in place, so we can make do with that arrangement. It may not earn as much money as the League and its teams want and need...but I prefer that public health and safety concerns be respected.

Current Mood: uncomfortable
Current Location: Home-for-now
Current Music: The Sunday Magazine on CBC Radio

Yeah, so the Roughriders are playing against the Redblacks in Ottawa tonight. Switching the TV on for background noise at the recommendation of one of my cousins out west, of course.

More on other topics later...

Current Mood: blah

Okay, I've downloaded an update for Gaia Sky to my "new"-ish MacBook (not-Pro), along with an expanded star catalogue (2 % downloaded so far as I type these words) because I'm still interested in playing the "mapping our Galaxy" game to whatever degree I can as a science-fiction nerd and non-astronomer. I read and watch too much space opera to be able to not give a damn or a blessing about this stuff at this point in life.

Getting some laundry done because it's Sunday, so why not?

Did some snack shopping too because it's Grey Cup weekend, and since Saskatchewan isn't playing, I get to cheer for Ottawa with as clean a conscience as I can given that chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a real problem for everyone who's going to be on the field. I hope everyone gets away with playing more safely than they used to today.

More later...

Current Mood: busy

First: I went to the ceremonies at the War Memorial today. Pix on my Flickr account: dwight_ew if you want to look it up.

You don't go to enjoy it, you don't go to be comfortable. The weather was blasphemously bright for the occasion, and if it weren't for my concern for the continuing health of our elder citizens (veterans and other alike)...

Anyway.

Second: I watched the Western Semi-Final CFL game today on TV. Seems near-blasphemous to have sports events on Remembrance at all, but there it was. Winnipeg vs. Saskatchewan. It did not go well for Saskatchewan. And some of the hits various players on both sides took make me feel even more hypocritical about wanting this sport and league to continue versus the concern for the players' health.

Third: I watched Doctor Who tonight. "Demons of the Punjab" addresses several issues dear to a lot of Whovian hearts, and a whole more non-Whovians' hearts as well. I'll leave it at that for the moment, except to note the setting: 1947, the Partition that sundered India/Bharat and Pakistan. The consequences of Empire for the lives of people on the street and/or the farm.

Current Mood: indescribable

Some things I shall note for the amusement of those outside Canada who give a hoot:

1) Being originally from Saskatchewan, I am a fan of their resident Canadian Football League team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

(Yes, I remember: what we call "soccer", the rest of the world calls "football", and as for what we call "football", either in Canada or the States? Well, we're not going there tonight.)

2) I currently live in Ottawa, which used to have its own CFL team. Twice. First, the original Rough Riders, then the Renegades. I will not dwell overmuch on how each of those teams suffered their falls from solvency, save to say that I think Ottawa's suffered an injustice. Twice.

3) The same applies to the rest of the League, as a direct consequence.

4) I'd like to see a CFL team in Ottawa again.

5) Owing to nativist sentimentality on my part, I want Saskatchewan to be the only team in the CFL to have the "Roughriders" name once Ottawa gets back into the League.

6) We'll save the debate over how Ottawa's getting back into the game for another posting.

(Glares 'round the room to warn off any fellow Ottawans looking to bring their argument to this posting.)

Current Mood: groggy

Okay. So I'm going downtown again this morning to honour the occasion. There's a parade organized by a coalition of various unions' locals set to start at noon at Ottawa City Hall and run from there to McNabb Park. It seems proper to be there for this. Also, I'd recommend reading John Doyle's latest for the Globe and Mail on TV drama and comedy and the lack of material covering certain aspects of modern working life. On either side of the US-Canada border.

Preparations for CAN-CON 2011 continue and I'm confirmed to participate in several panel discussions there. I do not have a dealers' room table this year, but may consider it for next year's edition depending on scheduling and other factors yet to be figured out.

About yesterday's CFL (Canadian-rules football) match between Saskatchewan and Winnipeg(nicknamed the "Labour Day Classic"): I'm glad to see Saskatchewan break their losing streak. It was long overdue. But I remain disturbed by the anger that got vented at several points in the game. One Winnipeg player was ejected from the game, and towards the end of the final quarter, I was shocked by hostilities that reminded me of the bench-clearing brawls that often marked NHL playoff games in the mid-1970's. Scary.

And over to you for the moment. I'll be back later today.

Current Mood: busy

Item One:

Okay, that itch that was bugging me about subways, Bank Street and Lansdowne that some of you have been arguing with me over at

octranspo about? Spacing Ottawa let me take the thought a little further today:

http://spacingottawa.ca/2010/07/02/the-meeting-of-the-mega-projects-a-tunnel-for-bank-street/

Item Two:

I just found out that Ghana got turfed from the World Cup. Not happy about that at all.

Item Three:

I thoroughly enjoyed the outcome of last night's game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Montréal Alouettes.

Back to you!

Current Mood: busy

I saw the Grey Cup Game with about a hundred other Saskatchewan fans in exile per the Facebook invite of the alumni association of my Dad's alma mater at the Prescott last night. I think Stuart Immonen speaks for me very effectively indeed over the "Charlie Brown moment" of the last five seconds of the game.

The Ottawa Small Press Book Fair was lively and busy. I hope to post photos to Flickr later in the week.

Good to see

duncanmac at the OSFS AGM before I went to the Grey Cup party mentioned above!

Back to you!

Current Mood: busy

...but wishing all my US friends well nonetheless. I'll be indulging in a similar ritual this afternoon by meeting up with a very local, very unofficial Saskatchewan Roughriders fan club branch down in the Glebe for the Western Division Final of the CFL playoffs. The Riders are one of two or three things I've regretting leaving behind when I moved to Ottawa with the rest of my family, so keeping an eye on what they're up to during the Canadian football season still matters to me.

Hoping to see the Calgary Stampeders properly rounded up at today's game!

Current Mood: busy

Longtime Saskatchewan Roughriders fan am I. And yet, for all I rack my brains, I cannot recall seeing even in 1960's archival footage and still photos a helmet with ye aulde "football, wheat stalks and ribbon" insignia on them such as we see at assorted Riders games this year. The not-so-old Spaulding-logo-derived "S" with laurel wreathing, yes. I remember that very well!

But not this design I've been seeing on TV on the Riders' "retro" suits this year.

How'd that happen? Anyone?

What's wrong with redeveloping Lansdowne Park to be used by both the Canadian Football League and Major League Soccer? Apparently, there's some sort of quibble at or near to City Hall on the subject.

Current Mood: curious

I lost another piece of my childhood today.

Ron Lancaster is dead.

When I was a kid, Lancaster and running back George Reed were the Saskatchewan Roughriders for me. Sure, there were about thirty or forty other players on the team, and one or two dozen support staff, all of whom did their parts to keep the team ticking over at Taylor Field every year. But those two players personified the 'Riders for me, defined them for me.

That they both moved on to others things in the decades since they wore the Green and White...well, it mattered. Somewhat. Not a whole lot, though.

If you're interested in additional info...

CBC Sports
Canadian Press via Google News
Background via Wikipedia
Background via Canadian Encyclopedia

Thanks for putting up with this.