Neil Crone - Enter Laughing

A banner day.

When I was first diagnosed with colon cancer, I asked my Surgeon, because you just do when you're suddenly faced with the proposition of dieing, 'What my chances were?'  He told me 35% over 5 years.  Yikes. I remember trying very hard, for a very long time, to forget those words.  And I could, for a time.  Sometimes for long periods of time.  But not for ever.  I could never fully forget. Until, I think, today.  Today marks the end of my 5 years.  Which means, I suppose that I am no longer a statistic.  I'm not on their actuarial tables any longer.  I'm free.  It's nonsense, I know.  I have no idea who ever pulled the magical number 5 out of a hat and decided that that was when cancer survivors had really survived.  But, for better or worse, it's there and it's accepted and it's something that we cling to.  It's hope, I suppose.  And I must tell you, in spite of feeling marvelously, perfectly healthy for at least the last two years, I do feel even better today.  We marked the occasion with dinner out and champagne at home.  I sent my Oncologist and the Oncological nursing staff a dozen red roses. A banner day indeed.

Un-loved seat...

Is it just me or are there suddenly thousands of dead and dying sofas, chairs and loveseats at the end of driveways?  I can't seem to drive five minutes without coming upon display after display of some of the saddest looking furniture I've ever laid eyes on.  Apparently a lot of people had a huge thing for velour about ten years ago. It seems they don't any longer.  I take great hope from that. A velour-less future is a step in the right direction. At any rate, be careful while driving.  Along roadways everywhere, all manner of worn, thread-bare furniture are hurling themselves over curbs to their deaths.  It's not pretty.

Another failing grade.

Well, I just finished my 'Earth Hour' walk about town.  I'm disappointed to say that, by the looks of things, my little town gets a terribly failing grade again this year. Only a small fraction of the homes were dark or had the flicker of candle power in their windows.  Most homes were still blazing with incandescents.  There were even a few mildy amusing and obviously confused individuals who had candles dutifully burning beside huge big-screen television sets showing the hockey game. How was it where you live?  Better, I hope.  I don't quite know what to attribute this massive lack of participation to.  Apathy? Ignorance? Even spite, perhaps? I've heard all the loudmouthed arguments about Earth Hour being a crock and why bother, and it's just the government trying to save money yadda, yadda ,yadda.  And I don't buy a second of it. I realize that one hour on one day is not going to save the planet, but what it is is a very valuable snapshot of who gives a shit. And I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that the same people who can't be bothered to turn off their lights for an hour  are sure as hell not going to bust their hump to recycle or think twice about pouring old paint down a sewer grate. Action, or in this case, inaction speaks very loudly. As parents, taking meaningful part in this night also speaks volumes to our children who will be inheriting the sins of their energy profligate fathers.  It's a small thing but it can pack a lot of punch for the future in terms of what we teach our kids, what we value.  Anyway, hats off and thank you to those of you who did your part. Nice to know you're thinking about your kids and the future.
Cheers.

Spring has sprung...

The first real sign of Spring arrived today. Suzanne and I were able to sit out on the deck after dinner and enjoy a cigar and a couple of fingers of single malt.  It was still a tad nippy towards the end of that smoke.  These were some nice Cuban, hand-rolled jobs a friend gave me and they were a good size.  Normally you'd want to take a good hour or more but we had to do a bit of an early Spring rush on these as when that sun started getting serious about going down, so did the temperature. Scotch is a wonderful way to keep the chill at bay though.  God bless the Scots and the Cubans. If they never contribute anything else to this earth, they've already done enough.

Pretty darn cool...

My good pal Mike and I enjoyed our annual dinner and a Leaf game ritual last night.  I pick up the tab for dinner and Mike slides me one of his season tix.  Pretty good deal from my end.  Even in the 'Greens' the price of a ticket is still more than a couple of good steaks and some cold beer.  The hockey was great.  All the way to the shoot-out finish with Cujo stoning Ovechkin for the win.  The crowd went nuts. Toronto hockey fans get a pretty bad rap as fickle and unemotional but I have to tell you they sure loved Curtis Joseph last night, even though he only came into the game for the last two minutes of regular play (once netminder Martin Gerber was ejected for pushing a ref...that was interesting) and then the game saving shoot-out.  Ovechkin too, was a genuine pleasure to watch.  He's a remarkable athlete and, much to my delight, showed only class and enthusiasm in his post goal celebrations.
But the highlight of the night, for my money, was when the crowd spontaneously got to its feet, everyone of us, and gave a Canadian serviceman in the crowd a huge standing ovation.  That was pretty darn cool.  I don't think that young soldier, freshly back from Afghanistan, will forget that night too soon.  And he deserved every minute of it.

'Nervous' AIG execs live in fear over payout'

Why does this headline give me a certain amount of pleasure?  Perhaps because of the karmic beauty of the whole mess.  And yet, do you think these execs are experiencing any kind of real fear?  I once heard pitching ace and incidentally multi-millionaire Roger Clemens reply to the question 'How do you handle the pressure of the World Series?'  He laughed and replied that pitching in the World Series wasn't pressure.  Pressure was losing your job and your house when you had a family to feed.  Wise words indeed.  Which is why, in spite of headlines, I am disinclined to believe these fat cats and their nervous, wallet grabbing twitching are approaching anything at all like real fear.  Real fear, like real pressure is something they in their greed and avarice have inflicted upon the thousands who took the full financial hit of their colossal mismanagement.  Those now left without jobs and homes and pensions. 

I agree with Grapes.

I've never said these words in the past and they're not likely to be uttered again in the future but, I agree with Don Cherry.  Alex Ovechkins 'too hot to pick up' hockey stick schtick goal celebration was something that needs to go away soon if not yesterday.  I used to be a huge football fan.  Loved to play the game, loved to watch it.  But then we started seeing more and more post-touchdown buffoonery performed by overpriced idiots who seemed to think they were the only people of the eleven or twelve on their side who had anything whatsoever to do with them crossing the goal line. What about the Guard or Tackle who moved hell and highwater to open up that huge hole you ran through?  What about the Tight End whose picture perfect block put you all alone to make that catch? What about the Quarterback who threw the ball so perfectly to you a seven year old could've caught it? I'm all for excitement. I'm all for celebration but check your huge ego at the turnstiles guys.  In a team sport it's very seldom, if ever, all about just you.  And even when it is, even when you've done something remarkably, individually stellar, have the class not to rub it in to your opponent. Hockey has always, up until this last bit of garbage, been one of the few sports left where that kind of class was like an unwritten rule.  You don't showboat. I always felt kind of proud of that.  It is, after all, a very Canadian trait.  And, I think, an admirable one.  Certainly when you compare it to the annoying chest-beating of our neighbors to the south.  Ovechkin is a mega-talent, no question about it, but all the same, I'd love to see him roundly and soundly boo-ed off the ice next time he pulls a stunt like that.

Nortel execs to share $45M bonuses

That headline really kind of sums up, to my thinking, the reason the economy is in the dumper.  When a company, fighting for survival in bankruptcy protection, still feels 'bonuses' are a priority, you have to wonder if the foxes aren't guarding the henhouse at that particular farm.  It is, in the words of noted economist John Maynard Keynes, 'freaking goofy'.  And, I don't want to go all communist manifesto here, but I will guarantee you that this corporation...this same corporation who has somehow found 45 million in bonuses for a whack of people who are already pulling in serious coin...has laid off a lot of regular Joe's further down on the food chain as a result of the current economic situation. No bonuses there.  Just a lot of KD on the table. What reason does Nortel give for this largesse?  They argue that the bonuses are needed as "the commitment and retention of key employees will be essential to the execution of a restructuring of Nortel".  I don't know what planet these guys are living on but as far as jobs go, it's kind of a buyers market out there right now.  You've got MBA's selling street dogs.  I hardly think anyone lucky enough to have a job is about to quit and look for another at this point.  But you never know, executives, apparently, make all kinds of stupid decisions.

What is important?

I don't know much about Natasha Richardson's career.  I don't think I would've recognized her name, frankly, until the news of her death got me reading about some of her film and theatre credits.  But that's just me.  The guy who doesn't watch television. And it's not important.  What is important, and what always strikes me right between the eyes when I read of sudden deaths like hers is that life is SHORT.  The thread we hang by is the finest gossamer.  People may think it odd that I always spend a good portion of my Saturday morning paper ritual reading the Obituaries.  I do so because inevitably I come away from the experience feeling intensely and gratefully alive.  That's how I feel today when I see the face of this beautiful, dead actress staring back at me from the computer screen.  I feel the need to go and really live today. To not waste a nanosecond of it in negativity or fear or regret.  Hope you feel the same way.  As Ian Holm's wonderful character in the movie 'Big Night' says...'Take a bite out of the ass of life!'

The Pope is a Dope.

At what point, exactly, are we able to say that the Pope is unequivocably, completely and dangerously out to lunch?  What part of '22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV' does he not understand?  How does a man who says something as head-shakingly stupid as “You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms...On the contrary, it increases the problem", get to be the head of anything, let alone the Catholic Church?  Abstinence?  Abstinence is the best he can do?   What's his plan for peace in the middle east?  Slaughtering a goat?  Stephen Lewis must be spinning in his office.  Papal Infallibility?  This man is a relic. Any wonder why church attendance is in the dumper?  Harsh words? Yes. A little offensive to the Catholic sensibility?  Probably.  But these are human beings we're talking about people, not weeds.