Making It Up As I Go Along #360

SUNDAY...
— A surprisingly busy day shift on a Sunday. Lots of bursts of activity followed by an hour of down time here and there. And most of the things that come up are weird things, not routine. Gets tiring dealing with it.
— After work I meet a few of the guys from the ball team for supper/drinks. They lost without me. They lose with me too though... so it’s all the same.

MONDAY...
— Fairly ugly day. I get up to check on the update my GPS did with the computer while I slept... now the GPS is screwed up. I’m going to have to go to Future Shop and try to get things figured out... thank goodness for extended warranty.
— Work is insane. Very busy, especially in the afternoon after others had left. So I get swamped pretty much when I’m alone... and there’s too much work left for poor Cindy at the shift change.
— Supper with Wayne and Sylvia downtown. That’s nice enough... best part of the day.

TUESDAY...
— Up around 10. Go downtown to meet Wayne for noon. A walk around then lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. Home by 2:30. Nap until 3:45. Work is steady go right to 5:30 AM. I'm exhausted!

WESNESDAY...
— Up around 11:30 and still quite tired. Sit around the house watching some hockey trade deadline stuff.
— Nap time at 2:00. I’m tired enough that it goes past the one hour normal and I’m not up until just after 3:30.
— Work is crazy busy tonight. I have so much stuff coming in and phoning and all that I don’t stop until shift change, and even then there are things left undone.

THURSDAY...
— It’s past noon by the time I’m out of bed. Quite tired after a long week of work. Head to the office to meet the boys for the hockey game tonight. We drive out to Kanata, have supper there, and then go to the game. Edmonton loses to Ottawa... oh well, still fun.
— Home after that for some TV and a final collapse on the sofa... I sleep there for about an hour and a half before waking enough to crawl into bed for another seven and a half hours of sleep there. So yeah, I was tired.

FRIDAY...
— Catch up on sleep. Have a good eight and a half hours last night.
— Today is GPS fix day. It don’t come easy. I head to Future Shop near me... they decide it’s a replace the device kind of thing... but they have no devices. Send me to Future Shop about ten minute drive away... they have them, but in the truck... not to be off loaded for a few hours. The call comes an hour later and I’m back to get the switch.
— Few groceries at Farm Boy on the way home and an evening of movies on TV.


Don Cherry Must Go
Don Cherry must go. Yes, one of the five most important Canadians (as said in that CBC show of several years ago) needs to be sent away from the public eye.

Don used to be good at what he does. He used to share an insight into the game that no other could give. But as time has gone on, Don Cherry has gone from newsworthy thought provoker to train wreck. He may still be popular. Bars and sports restaurants may still come to a standstill to hear what Don has to say, but where it used to be a pause for something to think about and chuckle over, it’s now a pause to see the spectacle.

Grapes has become both overly sentimental and mean spirited, all at the same time. On the mean spirited side, his popularity has gone to his head. Don Cherry now feels he has free reign to intentionally mispronounce the names of European players. And if he talks about those people who disagree with his views, he’ll speak for them with a lispy, gay voice as he flourishes about... waving his hands about and speaking in a feminine tone “we can’t have fighting, oh my no.”

Yet just about every four minute segment of Coach’s Corner now leaves Don Cherry on the verge of tears. Constant is his tribute to fallen troops or cancer stricken twelve year olds. Not that these aren’t worthy causes to take on, but Cherry does it in the wrong forum.

Don’s time is limited. He always complains about how little time he has to discuss something. In fact he often wastes his valuable time complaining about how little time he has. It becomes a show about time... much like Jerry Seinfeld’s show about nothing.

But what Don takes time for is the troops and recently deceased children. Coach’s Corner used to be a segment of a hockey program that discussed hockey. It has now taken on more of a Don’s Causes tone. And again, it’s not that these things should not be discussed, it’s just that they’re being talked about by the wrong person, at the wrong time. It would be like watching Question Period on Parliament Hill, and rather than answering the questions asked of him, the Prime Minister starts talking about what great men these lost troops were. Wrong place, wrong time.

Don Cherry is consistent in his inconsistencies. Two players could play hockey in the exact same way... one from small town Ontario and one from Finland. They could be one who get’s under the skin of the opposition... who’d give a little poke with a stick or a bit of a face wash with his glove. The player from small town Ontario is a warrior and heart and soul player... the player from Finland, is a gutless honourless player.

And then comes the world of fighting. Don Cherry feels that fighting is fine in hockey. It’s mostly with this subject when he brings out the gay man voice as he imitates the anti-fighting group.

He’s given the same argument for years. Fighting is a part of the game. Players need to police themselves. Without fighting, there’d be too much stick work. Nobody gets hurt in a fight.

Don has said these same things for twenty years. Even though, twenty years ago, the average hockey fighter was three to five inches shorter and fifty to seventy pounds lighter than the tough guy of today. People do get hurt in fights now. One has even died. And Don was good enough to plaster his picture on the screen and talk about what a good Canadian boy he was... but still he can’t see any possibility that maybe fighting has run its course in hockey.

There are no fights in the playoffs, yet stick swinging doesn’t increase and this is the most intense time in a hockey season. So there’s another of Cherry’s arguments for fighting, proven wrong.

I enjoy a good hockey fight. I just no longer have time for the fighting “code” where a clean hit to a star player must mean a beating. Or where, if you take a cheap shot on my star player, I’ll drop my gloves with your team’s goon??? Where does that solve anything?

No, Don Cherry needs to step aside. He’s become a parody of himself... too happy to spit at the rules everybody else honours and too willing to waste all of our time getting mad at how little time he has for the process of the time wasting. To me, the first intermission on Hockey Night in Canada, is quickly becoming a time for bathroom breaks and the popping of popcorn. Pausing to see what Don has to say is sliding well below my bladder’s needs.