Smorgasbord

A smorgasbord, to the best of my understanding, is a sort of buffet of food - all sorts of food. I don't have any food for you, but here's all sorts of thought and opinions.

-The revitalization of downtown and downtown-ish Brantford continues. The Price Chooper Plaza (I don't know of a real name for it) now contains a free-standing Blockbuster, which is a lot nicer inside than I'd have expected. (By the way - Ocean's Thirteen, good movie, better than Twelve, still not as good as Eleven.) Williams won't be opening in the plaza part for a few months yet, and last I'd heard, they haven't found tenants for the rest of it.

In the meantime, down at the other end of what I call 'greater downtown' - where Dalhousie ends and Colborne becomes two-way - has a new building going up next to the McDonald's. Anyone know what that's about?

-The Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a big trade this week, sending away Troy Glaus (four years removed from being one of the best third basemen in baseball) and receiving Scott Rolen (ditto). People who like to read into statistics have already come up with conclusions saying that the Jays got the better/worse end of the deal...I really don't think it matters much.

-Staying with sports, anyone remember my quest to find a new hockey team to root for? I was clairvoyantly convinced that the Leafs would be awful this year, so I was after a new team. I can't say I've picked one team that I would call 'mine', but if I had to pick a favourite, either Buffalo or Colorado. Not that I'll go out of my way to watch either of their games, but if I am watching their games, I'll cheer for them.

-Speaking of things I've meant to be following closer, American politics. I've decided that I'm hoping Obama wins the Democrat nomination. I haven't looked into it nearly enough to say that I'd even vote for him, but out of the major front-runners in both parties, he certainly *seems* like the most likely to bring about the major changes that need to be made in American policy.

-I've mentioned before that I love the concept of the All-Starr band - Ringo Starr and a bunch of other rockers getting together and doing a world tour. Here's another nice clip for you - did you know that the theme song to the Drew Carey Show ('Cleveland Rocks') was actually a cover version? It was originally sung by a 70s British band named Mott the Hoople. Here's a video of MTH lead singer Ian Hunter, Ringo, Howard Jones, Roger Hodgson (of Supertramp), Greg Lake (of King Crimson as well as Emerson, Lake and Palmer) and a couple people I don't recognize, performing what surely must be the only hit song about Cleveland. Maybe even all of Ohio.

-If you've never heard of the board game Diplomacy, do yourself a favour and look it up.

-Finally, if anyone knows of anything newsworthy happening in the K/W area this weekend, I'd love to hear about it. Have to take some pictures for a class, and the best idea I've had thus far is 'Ranger game'.

--Ryan