The local franco media has been buzzing about the 'lack of Quebec players on the Montreal Canadiens" hockey team.  I decided to do some number crunching, and came up with the following:

1 team from each division:

Chicago:  No players from Illinois
Rangers:  3 players from the state of NY
Oilers:  6 players from Alberta (I think they grow them there..)
Canadiens:  3 players from Quebec
Stars:  No players from Texas
Tampa:  No players from Florida.

Now, before you say "Oh sure, no players from Texas or Florida, no surprise, it's hot and hockey's not big", take these numbers from other northern teams where hockey is a food group:

Flyers:  No players from Pennsylvania (actually, 80% of their current team is made up of Canadians)
Devils:  No players from NJ
Bruins:  With a thousand players, there's only one from MA.  One. 

Settle down, QC.  There are probably more players in the NHL from Quebec than anywhere else, anyway (too lazy to calculate), so it's not like we don't represent.  It's not like 50 years ago where it was more of a 'city versus city', it's a 'team versus team', now, and like it or not, the highest bidder tends to get the better players, regardless of their roots.

Now, on with the season!

But don't impose it on others, or expect schools to bow to your demands.

I had a 'meet the teachers' night at the kidlets' school last night, and there was this one 'guy in a suit' who kept monopolizing all discussions to steer them toward a very self-centered talk.  A board member was explaining how kids, parents, and teachers can now use this portal to find homework, contact teachers, etc...and Mr. Guy In A Suit stands up demanding to know what safety precautions the board is taking so his children's emails aren't "public domain".  The board guy should have left it at his first line "It's your responsibility as a parent to monitor what your kids are doing online", but he rambled on for a few minutes.  Fine.

The Mr Guy In A Suit stands up again, saying that's not good enough, and went into a diatribe about pedophiles...ugh.  So this 15 minutes of allotted time for the web info was now clocked in at 40 mins, and people were beginning to leave.  Far be it for the principal to actually take control of the situation, though, so the Baron stood up and said "Please take your personal issues to the board member after the meeting, you are holding up 150 people who need to see their kids' teachers".  That brought a rousing round of applause, that I had hoped would shut Mr GIAS (guy in a suit, getting long to type out) up. 

But no.

He made the rounds of the school, handing out his business card to anyone who would take it.  He's apparently a local minister by night, crime fighter by day.  Oh, sorry, courier delivery guy by day.

He then went over to the gym teacher to rip her about the yoga she taught last year because (get this):  "It has very strong religious overtones that I do NOT appreciate, and you made my child VERY uncomfortable with the religious thread throughout.....blah blah BLAH.........".  The teacher was baffled, basically told him to shove it and that there was nothing religious about it.

Of course, he had to then bitch out all the other teachers about their lack of 'protection' of his kid and anyone talking religions other than the one he follows.

Scary.

His older kid is in the Baron's film class, where he's currently doing the 'horror' genre, and touched on "The Omen" yesterday.  He's bound to hear about it.

So anyway, his kids aren't allowed to watch TV (too evil), were homeschooled until a year or two ago (to keep them away from the possibility of them hearing about Darwin?), and he's terrified that they will be molested over the internet by someone who somehow gains access to a portal for registered students and teachers only, yet his kids are on Facebook.

Good luck, kids, you're going to need it.

*  When I'm standing in line at the bank, I really don't want to talk to you.  I just want to get to the ATM, and get some cash.  If I wanted to make new friends, I'd have-- wait, I don't want to make new friends.  Well, not with you, anyway.

*  Oh good GRIEF, are you kidding me?!?!  It's lunch time, first day after a long weekend, and you feel NOW is the right time to update your bankbook at the ATM??  What is wrong with you?  To make it worse, you clearly haven't updated it in months, given the amount of time you're spending there.  UGH.

*  If you carry around new/blank bankbooks, you need to go to the teller.  Please don't choke up technology with your analogue ways.

Other than that, the day's been peachy.  Had lunch with a local journalist who's writing up an article on that award I've started up (check June entries).  Fun times, fun times.