Watching Hockey Tonight

(This is the second in, what I hope to be,  a series of posts on the Winter Olympics leading up to Sochi 2014.)


I’m looking forward to tonight’s women’s hockey game between Canada and the United States.
 

Photo by Doug Murray

It is being played at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

 Saturday’s game, the first hockey I’ve watched in a while, was truly exciting. 

 To my eyes, Canada really appeared overmatched in the first two periods but roared back to tie the score in the third period.  The Americans eventually won in a shootout.

Tonight’s contest is the last of six exhibition games between the world’s two best women’s hockey nations. Their next match will take place at the Winter Olympics in Sochi on February 12^th.  That game will count.

 In the Olympics, the sport is called “ice hockey.”
 
When I hear the term “ice hockey”, I flash back to a book I read a few years ago. That would be David Adams Richards’s non-fiction hockey book - Memories of a Man Who Couldn’t Play (Doubleday, 1996.) 
 
Richards won a Governor General’s award for fiction (Nights Below Station Street) and non-fiction (Lines on the Water:  A Fisherman’s Life on the Miramachi). Only two other writers have accomplished this, I believe.

Richards is passionate about the game. And that game is “hockey” not “ice hockey.”  Hockey, according to Richards is greater than ice hockey - the latter being a European invention. 

To Richards’ hockey is “more than a game.”  It can be played with a puck and skates on ice; with a ball and galoshes on the road; or with any combination of the aforementioned equipment.
 
A story illustrates the difference in these two games:

Richards, as an adult, recalls hearing a song by an old black man from Mississippi. The song had been a hit when covered by a white rockabilly singer in the winter of the year much of the action in this book takes place - 1961.  This was the year Richards (and your blogger) turned eleven.

 
But the record company wanted a cleaned up “not so troubling” version of the song.

"But yes, they could profit from it.  They wanted the song.  They did not feel they had to tell you where this song came from.  They did not feel a need to tell you that it came out of a person’s love of a country and gift of life and tragedy when both have been taken away.”

Think of the original version of the song as hockey; the rockabilly version is ice hockey.  Ice hockey was created by those who invent the world for us as they often do.  “They legitimize by deligitimizing.”  

 
For my part, I’m looking forward to watching tonight’s hockey, not ice hockey, game.  It is on TSN at 7:00. 

Watching hockey live /in person is probably the best spectator experience.  So, if you want to be there you can find ticket info at http://www.theaircanadacentre.com/events/event.asp?event_id=1112#sthash.s2kKkiC0.dpbs

   

Winter Olympics - 67 Days and Counting

I’m pleased to be doing some work on the Winter Olympics for FYI (http://foreveryoungnews.com/).

I haven’t written on the Olympics in a while.

In fact, it is almost six years since I wrote this piece prior to the Beijing 2008 Games. (http://foreveryoungnews.com/posts/1231-the-spirit-lives-on)

And at that point, there seemed a good chance that the Games weren’t going to happen at all. But they came off without any significant hitches, as I recall.

This weekend found me getting a bit more into the Winter Games spirit.  Snow on the ground here in Port Rowan certainly helps.  Good results from our bobsleigh athletes and alpine skiers serve as a reminder that the opening of Sochi is only 67 days off.

The Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games follow about a month later.

These games will feature competition in five events.  They are Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Cross-Country Skiing, Ice Sledge Hockey and Wheelchair Curling.

 

 

 

Worrying about Backyard Birds

I realized this morning that I had forgotten to sign up for the Great Backyard Bird count. (http://www.bsceoc.org/volunteer/gbbc/index.jsp?lang=EN&targetpg=index)  I just forgot.  Next year, for sure.
 

I wish my excuse for forgetting was that I was busy but for the days in question but mostly what I was doing was sitting at my keyboard, co-supervising my dog’s rehab from surgery and looking out my windows at my bird feeders.  (I’ve got seven feeders up right now. One family member says seven is too many.  A Port Rowan neighbour has fourteen, I point out, so you can’t really object to seven, right?)

But back to my point here which is that I’ve been thinking about backyard birds a fair bit; the context being that we are sliding into retirement and opening up a bed and breakfast.

This contemplation is causing me considerable anxiety.

Our new home is located in a great birding area of Long Point/Port Rowan so our bed and breakfast will cater to birders.  It has been suggested that we ought to keep a list of all birds seen in our backyard. There are, however, a number of vexing issues that developing a list presents.

Vexing Issues

For example, to be counted does a bird actually have to touch down in my yard? That would be a fairly clear-cut definition to use.

But what if, for example, one observes a “good” bird flying over one’s yard? We had an immature bald eagle fly past sometime back when it wasn’t winter.   Now, to be frank,  it is probably more accurate to say it was over the neighbour’s yard. But let’s face it,  my list would be a better one if I could add that bald eagle. So I’m leaning to the backyard list inclusion criteria being “seen from my backyard.” That’s should make for a better quality list.

But here’s another worry. From my front yard I have a distant view of Lake Erie and this will surely produce many shorebirds and an enhanced list. It will probably be more gratifying for my guests, then, if that backyard list captures anything that can be seen from the front yard as well.

I’m certain the guests will be keen to contribute to the list. In fact, repeat visitors (should anyone actually return) could be encouraged to have their own personalized list. Perhaps this will be an incentive to return.

Do I anticipate problems? Well, I’m told that some birders can be competitive and argumentative

I’ll put forward my family as Exhibit A. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObbfMqN3kDo).

So, if there are disputes on sightings will it fall to the reluctant but affable host to resolve?

And will guests be trampling all over my yet-to-be  landscaped front yard in an effort to maximize their viewing range?

And what about the neighbours?

Lots to think about....

(An earlier  version of this story appeared on Bob’s Blog at http://foreveryoungnews.com/ Canada’s Adult Lifestyle Publication.)