The week’s good news and bad news
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, January 2, 2013 - 0 Comments
From Don Cherry mastery of Twitter, to the U.S. no longer being able to pay its bills
Tom Hanson/CP
GOOD NEWS
Change is coming
Syria is on the brink of change, as the head of President Bashar al-Assad’s military police defected to what he describes as the “People’s Revolution,” while Assad’s last ally of influence, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, says that “a change in leadership” is imminent. Questions remain about Islamist groups jockeying to replace Assad. But the short-term goal is to end the bloodshed, and for that to happen, Assad must go. Mercifully, it’s no longer a question of if, but when.
No free lunches
Is sanity creeping into the executive suite? Last week, Apple revealed that CEO Tim Cook’s compensation has been cut by nearly 99 per cent in 2012, to a comfortable $4.17 million, as the company’s stock price continued to slide. Goldman Sachs—oft criticized for lavish executive pay—has cut the salaries of senior staff in London by 50 per cent, while the National Australia Bank agreed to tie executive pay to company performance. The world’s corporate elite have not yet restored the trust they broke by taking massive payouts during the recession. Now, at least, they have examples to follow.
Choked Cherry
The longer the NHL lockout drags on, the better Don Cherry gets at Twitter. The irascible former coach used the social medium to give Russian hockey star Nail Yakupov a well-deserved tongue lashing for saying, on the eve of the world junior championship, that Canada “plays dirty.” Canadians, Cherry noted acidly, allowed Yakupov to hone his game in its junior system, adding: “We treat him royally, give him great coaching so he can go number one overall [in the NHL draft] and he calls us dirty.” We couldn’t have tweeted it better.
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Anticipation, not denial, is the first step of winter
By Scott Feschuk - Friday, November 16, 2012 at 10:26 AM - 0 Comments
Photo Illustration By Taylor Shute
It’s that difficult time of year again, but come on people, we can get through this together. To better navigate our ordeal, it’s important that we take the time to review the challenge ahead. Here are the seven stages of Canadian winter:
1. Anticipation. As the long, hot summer surrenders to the first hint of an autumn breeze, many of us experience a small thrill: winter is on its way, bringing relief from the heat and promising the many splendours that accompany the most Canadian of seasons. We envision snow-flecked landscapes, ice-covered ponds and joyful Christmas choirs. Digging deep into the closet, we gaze fondly upon our parkas and mitts. We dream of frosty adventures ahead.
2. Despair. The first cruel winds of November cut through us and we pretty much want to fall down and die right there. Three days of hostile muttering ensue.
3. Sarcasm. A huge December snowfall—awesome! And maybe a little freezing rain in there because THAT WOULD BE PLEASANT. Wake up and there’s a metre of snow in the driveway—and hey, great, it’s the wet, slushy kind that weighs about a squillion pounds per shovelful and lays those of weak heart in their graves. Yay winter! Just when we finally get it cleared—literally, just as we finish clearing it away—the plow pushes a huge drift back in front of the driveway. Thanks for that, buddy! And for the record, that could have been anyone’s snow shovel that flew through the air and struck the window of the plow’s cab. We only ran away because we were in the mood for some exercise. Continue…
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After enduring the 1998 ice storm, an Iranian immigrant warms up to Canada
By Gabriela Perdomo - Monday, July 2, 2012 at 8:30 PM - 0 Comments
Not to mention, his family, who, despite a little bickering, created fond memories in their close quarters
CP; Photograph by Blair Gable
When Matin Fazelpour was seven, he and his mother moved from Berlin to Ottawa. They joined an extended family that had splintered in flight from the 1979 Iranian revolution. A few months later, Fazelpour experienced his first real winter and, as it happened, his first ice storm.
In January 1998, the freezing rain began. Soon power lines tumbled, millions of homes from eastern Ontario to Nova Scotia went dark, and more than 15,000 members of the Canadian Forces fanned out in the largest deployment since the Korean War.
“Everything was ice,” Fazelpour says. “It didn’t look real. Icicles hung off the telephone wires. The trees looked painted.”
The young boy was not pleased. “When the ice storm hit, I thought, ‘Why did we move to this horribly frozen country?’ I wondered why we had left the mild-weathered comfort of Germany for this godforsaken land.” He thought every winter would have more ice than snow.
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Dear Earth: You suck. (A poem)
By Scott Feschuk - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 6:37 AM - 12 Comments
In the annals of what prompts despair
Ranked just above losing one’s hair
(Though below enduring Hudson Hawk)
Is the sun going down at 4 o’clock.
The roads with streetlight are festooned
But dude, it’s still the afternoon!
Our skin so pale, our moods defective
Disorders seasonally affective.
Across a fractured hemisphere
There comes a unifying cheer:
Hey Earth – get off your lazy axis!
Autumn’s no time Continue…
