Writing 3 - Sunday, November 10, 13 And so begins week three in our renewed attempt to find the writer within. It hasn’t been particularly enlightening or gratifying, but it is, nevertheless, a start. So we will take that as a positive. What I’ve written so far is dreck – pure and simple. I’m hoping that the muse will visit me like it did when I was teaching at St. Pat’s and put out a lovely, I thought, missive every week for the Monday Memo. I thoroughly enjoyed that and I think the people I worked with enjoyed it too. Alas, I no longer work full time anywhere and I therefore do not know the staff at the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University well enough to make a little fun with them. But I do need to find a niche I can feel comfortable in and produce some solid, useful work that will have a broad appeal. Then, and only then, I can watch the big money roll in. But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself. I have to produce something of exquisite beauty in order to build upon my early works and produce a body of work that is worthy of publishing and some sort of remuneration. Ah, remuneration, how will that happen: many blogs right now, at least the larger ones, are asking for their writers to write for nothing – can you imagine that? Working your butt off for no pay – hello Arianna Huffington. Is this what 40 years of ultra conservative policy has wrought? Apparently so, I’m afraid. It is a struggle for everyone just starting out especially in a world that is becoming progressively more hostile to the working person. The execrable 1% rules everyone’s world it would seem. Ah, the 1%, who are they in Canada? Are they as obnoxious and greedy as the greedheads in the U.S. of A.? My blog mates would suggest that the American billionaire is about as greedy and heartless as they come, whether it be to pay scientists to say that there is no such thing as global warming, or to do their damndest to insure that the Affordable Care Act under President Obama will not work. Some states, in fact, have refused to take money from the federal government thereby making sure their most vulnerable citizens will continue to go without health care and/or insurance – how awful is that? Ah, again, but I could go on forever talking about the absolute mess the American political scene is in at this moment in history. And, it can all be attributed to the absolutely crazy, unconscionable behaviour of the Republican Party of the United States. They are beyond the pale in every metric you might choose to use in trying to explain, to understand what makes these truly sick, demented people function. I could write an 800-word commentary every day of the year for decades that would show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Republican Party is beyond redemption and yet it remains viable as a political party because of the immense amount of wealth that is behind them in their never ending quest to destroy everything in their path to ensure that only the wealthiest Americans will benefit from the largesse of the American people. What other political party sees the Democratic Party as the enemy of America. They are ably supported in this rush to disaster by Fox News and right wing hate radio that fills the minds and hearts of millions and millions of low-information Americans. And what has this wrought – right wing Supreme Court justices who are ensuring that all of the above will always be in play for many years to come. Well done, America. Today Obama walked back his Affordable Care Act by telling the American people that they can now have another year to keep their present insurance-backed health care. He even had the unmitigated stupidity to mention how he hoped to work with Republicans in making this move smoothly. Perhaps someone should remind the President that it has been the Republicans since day one of his presidency that have fought him every step of the way in every way imaginable to ensure that he is successful at nothing. The Republicans have no interest in the American people; they would rather see America go to hell in a hand basket as long as they are able to state it is entirely Obama’s fault. What part of any of this does Obama not understand? He should call out the insane party for every time they make it impossible for him to get anything done to help the American people. The nut jobs that are now the Republican Party would rather see America sink into the sea than allow Obama do accomplish anything, anything at all.

Writing 2 - Sunday, November 3, 13 And so begins week two in our renewed adventure in writing, today’s topic will be a personal favourite: the Toronto Maple Leafs and their legions and legions of long suffering, deservedly so I might add, fans. I watched most of last night’s game between the Leafs, leaders in the Eastern Conference and the Vancouver Canucks, near the top in the Western Conference. It was a game that clearly demonstrated, I think, that showed the problem that the Leafs continue to not address – a decided disinterest in playing defensive hockey of any kind. I really thought that their new coach, Randy Carlyle, was really going to turn this team around, a team that has a long and painful history of thinking that hockey, Leaf style, involves offence only. There was beaucoup evidence last night that some habits die hard. Did anyone even notice Nazem Kadri out there? What an absolute waste of talent. Obviously this young man thinks, as do too many Leafs, that the game is played only when your team has the puck. Are you listening, Phil Kessel? Toronto was so inept last night that there were times, especially during the latter stages, that the Leafs were a man short all the time; actually they were a man short 11 times; three of those penalties were for boarding – how butch is that? That the Leafs actually quit halfway through the third period was painfully obvious. Carlyle will have to address that attitude too. Alas when the Leafs return home all will be forgiven because, you know, they’re the Leafs. And thus will continue that special relationship this team has with its many fiercely faithful and blindly loyal fan base. Beating the hapless New Jersey Devils this Friday will make all thing bright and shiny again for all leaflets everywhere. To be a Leaf fan means having a very short and faulty memory. I can count on one hand the number of Leaf fans of my personal acquaintance who actually note this rather important chink in the Maple Leaf armour – their complete indifference to the other side of the puck; the side where you don’t have the puck and you have to try your damndest to get it back. Until Carlyle instills this basic tenet into the minds and hearts of his charges there will be another early exit from the playoffs in the spring. Ah, the spring, when the NHL second season, the one that counts, begins. Perhaps by this time, Toronto’s latest heart throb – David Clarkson – will, can prove that he is worth all that money showered on a third line centre who to date has done next to nothing except for his 10-game suspension for leaving the bench during a brawl in the pre-season. Mind you he is quite the chirping and posturing yahoo during scrums after the whistle – every team needs one of these guys, amirite? Let’s look at a Leaf positive thus far – goaltending. I’m especially impressed by James Reimer who tended to get lit up quite often last year, especially by long shots that could/should be stopped. He was actually brilliant in Vancouver. Apparently the new goalie has also been excellent and this, yet again, brings us back to a certain reliance that virtually all Leaf teams since the Doug Gilmour days have been wholly dependent on – superb, fantastic really, goaltending. Felix Potvin, Curtis Joseph, especially Curtis Joseph, and finally Ed Balfour did nothing but yeoman service for the hapless and hopeless Leaf attempts at defensive play. It could be said, I think, that if the Leafs did not have these three stellar goaltenders, they never would have made the playoffs in any of the years they did in the nineties. How many years did the Leafs have the magnificent Mats Sundin and stellar goaltending and absolutely nothing else? I’m certain that Randy Carlyle was well aware of what he was inheriting from the execrable Ron Wilson, perhaps the worst coach the Leafs ever had. And there has been some very important improvements in the Leafs play since Carlyle took over, but the game against Vancouver on Saturday really showed how thin the veneer the Leafs’ commitment to defensive play really is. When the Leafs collapse they do so in spectacular fashion – see last year’s debacle in the playoffs against the Bruins for further evidence of how the complete and utter breakdown of your defensive posture invites disaster. In conclusion, for the Leafs to really buy into the Randy Carlyle regime, Phil Kessel, Nazem Kadri, and a few other offensive wonders have to demonstrate now that they can be counted on to make themselves useful in their own end. They can begin by learning how to fore check with enthusiasm and panache. There, I’ve completed my Leaf column for the first part of the year. Perhaps I’ll write a column on their first meeting with Detroit sometime in December.