LFL puts Valkyries in a bad light
Over the course of the last week, an interesting topic has circulated in the city of Saskatoon. Saskatoon has had a history of upstart sporting leagues dropping franchises into the city, and some have been successful (for a time) while others have been complete failures. The list is quite long and starts way back in the 1970s when Bill Hunter, hockey aficionado and promoter, bought the St. Louis Blues and tried moving them to Saskatoon. At the time the NHL board of governors voted against the move.
Since then there’s been the Continental Hockey League that never got off the ground. Basketball has come into the city in the form of the Saskatoon Slam, Saskatchewan Storm and the Saskatchewan Hawks. Baseball even made an appearance here, as several semi pro leagues tried starting up, all the while the Saskatoon Yellowjackets kept plugging away.
Now, the city, along with management of the Credit Union Centre which is home to the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades, are trying to attract another league into the city. But this league is different than the others. While the others have all been male dominated sports, this is a female “sport”. Though many don’t want it, and others say why do we need it when we already have a proper women’s football team.
This “sport” is the Lingerie Football League. Women’s football where the players wear revealing uniforms and pads along with hockey helmets (not football helmets) with full face shields. Members of the Affiinity Credit Union, which has naming rights of the arena where the LFL team would play, are not happy.
There’s out cry that it’s nothing more than the sexualization and objectification of women. And I tend to agree with that side of things. Canadian University Press has already stated that this is the sexualization of violence, because football is, as Chris Schultz from TSN says, controlled and violent chaos.
Meanwhile, Saskatoon already has a women’s football team, and are champions of the 2011 Women’s Western Canadian Football League. The league consists of 7 teams, and other cities across the west are interested in starting teams. There has even been interest in Eastern Canada for an eastern league, and winners of east and west would play in a national championship game. To date, the teams include the afforementioned Valkyries, the Regina Riot, the Manitoba Fearless, the Winnipeg Wolf Pack, the Calgary Rage, the Lethbridge Steel, and the Edmonton Storm.
The Saskatoon Valkyries are a legitimate football team. They play full contact, observe the rules of the Canadian game (110 yard long fields, 65 yards wide, 12 players per side, three downs) and have a lot of fun doing it too. Maybe in the future development of women’s football programs can be looked at like the development of women’s hockey. Who knows, maybe in a few years there might be a women’s version of Canadian Inter-university Sport’s Vanier Cup.
But right now, any steps forward in progression thanks to groups like the Women’s Western Football League will only get set back thanks to groups like the Lingerie Football League.
Related articles
- LFL comes to Credit Union Centre (cucsk.wordpress.com)
Let’s get something straight…
An interesting video came up on my tumblr dash. It’s from Jian Ghomeshi of QTV, and he’s making an appeal to Canadians about bagged milk. Here’s the video.
For those that can’t see the video, if it is not available outside of Canada, here is a transcript.
Well hi there, happy Friday.
Imagine a country where people drink milk, not out of a bottle or a carton, or a jug, but out of a bag.
A bag.
Milk bags.
Well, that country as you may well know is our own.
Canada, home of the milk bag.
In many parts of our fair land, including where I sit right now people are used to drinking their moo juice out of a 1.3 litre plastic sac.
Held by a special holder, with a little snip out of the top corner for pouring.
Actually, we’re not totally alone…
Also into the milk bags; Israel, Nicaragua, Columbia, Poland, Wisconsin;
But go ahead, go ahead and Google “Canadian milk bags” and it, it is a source of great recreation.
It seems our pouches of cow juice, are a bit of a web sensation.
Maybe not quite as big as the prorogation, but there is an authentic threat of non-Canadians who think it odd that our milk comes in bags.
And there’s some good old Canuck pride on display too.
Bagged milk, a true north strong and free way to consume.
There’s even a nice homemade video out there for the un-milk bag initiated. Now that is citizenship;
But reading through some of those postings, a worrisome subtext comes to light, the milk in bags issue is not merely an international curiosity, underneath there is deep internal debate, pitting our region against region.
To paraphrase, it must an Ontario/[slash] Eastern Canada thing; or “I live in Saskatchewan and have never seen anything like this.”; or “Milk out of a bag, looks stupid. Not all Canadians do that.”; or “My boyfriend refuses to drink anything BUT milk in the bag.”
Really, it’s enough to send cold, nutritious, creamy shivers down your spine. Come on people, keep the milk however you need to in the fridge, I’ve got bags of milk in mine.
Let people of other nations sneer and jeer, but don’t let them tear us apart you hear. If the west wants into the bag, then fine. If not, that’s okay too. Maybe these bags of milk can be like health care or the CBC. Consider them Canadian unity glue,
I’m Jian Ghomeshi and this is Q.
I’m down with Canadian nationalism based on oddities and such. But I’ve often had reservations about stuff like bagged milk. It’s like a joke waiting to happen. So, in the spirit of national unity, I concede to bagged milk.
On one condition.
That is all.
The change in seasons
This blog post is two pronged, as it will deal with two topics, both related to the same idea. That idea is weather, and it especially revolves around how much warmer it has been lately.
Image by ddkkpp via Flickr
As most people who have read this blog have come to see, I come from Saskatchewan. That rectangular shaped province in the middle of the prairies, sandwiched neatly between Alberta and Manitoba. While we have a great number of attractions, tourist sites, resources, industry and more, this province is known for two stereotypical things; it is incredibly flat, and the weather is incredibly harsh. Alright, we also have weird terms for common objects like Vico for chocolate milk, Bunny Hug for a hoodie and ‘flip a shit hook’ for pulling a U-turn.
Image via Wikipedia
Focusing on weather. Normally in this neck of the woods (or, rather, grasslands) normals for the period of early January are highs of -10 Celsius and overnight lows of -21 Celsius. Occasionally, we get socked hard with overnight lows of -30 Celsius. I’ve even lived through nights as cold as -40 (once you hit -40, it doesn’t matter about converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit). 21 days straight as a matter of fact. Presently, however, we are seeing daytime highs of +6 Celsius and overnight lows of -1 Celsius. Essentially, we just finished having a brown Christmas (still true as this weekend is Ukrainian Christmas). Parts of the province are even setting records, as Maple Creek, in the south western corner of the province, had a daytime high of +15 yesterday.
While this warmer weather is great, I am still wary of it. This time of year is the cold and flu season, and the colder weather actually makes it harder for viral infection to survive (though, I do not recommend standing outside naked in a snow storm to test any theories of destroying viral bacteria in the body because you’ll end up with another problem; hypothermia). Warmer weather means that the chance of getting sick is higher. We’re caught off guard, in a way, because the warmer weather fills us with this feeling of euphoria. Shuck off the parkas, bring out the fall denim jackets, it’s warm out. One thing I’ve learned in this province, the weather can change at any time.
I am also left wary, because we still have 75 days left until the first official day of spring. March 21 isn’t that far away, but there’s still enough time for us to get hit hard with normal temperatures and even below normal temperatures. February, as I have come to learn over the years, can be a vicious mistress. ‘Tis the month of St. Valentine’s Day, a day of love and companionship, but here in Saskatchewan February has a cold, cold heart. Maybe this time she’ll warm up a bit.
That was the first point on this topic about the weather. Now onto the second topic, which is actually much more serious.
This portion, which is actually much shorter because I do not claim to be a scientist, deals with climate change. I’d really like to invite any climate change deniers to study the weather patterns for Saskatchewan over the past 25 years. There has been drastic changes, ones that do not come with natural flow of weather. Winters have been much more tolerable, while summers have often been much more damp. Rain fall has increased, we’ve even experienced cooler temperatures during the summer (with the exception of last summer). When it does grow warmer outside, above 30 Celsius, we often take note of the increase in humidity. You can tell the difference in this province. We joke that ‘it’s a dry heat’ but that’s because we’re used to it. Breathing becomes harder with higher humidity. There is climate change happening. We just need to open our eyes and view the world around us. Things are different.
We have to change our own habits in order to help the Earth survive.
Related articles
- It’s raining, it’s pouring (taholtorf.wordpress.com)
- Winter, how I hate thee (taholtorf.wordpress.com)
- Mild weather setting records across Sask. (cbc.ca)
- 2012 Will be Hottest Year (socyberty.com)
Let it snow, let it snow
Image via Wikipedia
For a while, it was looking like a brown Christmas. We had snow a while back, but thanks to the constant up and down temperatures, that went away quite fast. This past Sunday, however, that changed.
I woke up, went to get my coffee started and have an orange (because I spent Saturday feeling deathly ill and couldn’t stomach anything) and stopped to look out the window. It was hard not to. The sight of white covering everything was really quite odd. Not in the “what the hell is that” kind of way (I save that for May if it snows), but more like the “wow, is it ever bright out” kind of way.
Having the snow before Christmas is sort of the thing to have. I grew up always seeing snow, always having snow on the ground in December. But going away in March (as it should, because by then most of us are sick of it, except for those crazy snow mobile enthusiasts). It just wouldn’t be Christmas if the ground was bare. Which I’ve seen in the past.
Rosetown, looking down main street. In summer, not winter. Prairie Centre Credit Union building in the foreground. Image via Wikipedia
I think one of the strangest times was a little over ten years ago, when I lived in Rosetown. We had a good deal of snow and some odd weather patterns. We already had a white out early December, which made for an exciting time at work and a little harrowing. Christmas came and went, and then along came New Year with some incredibly warm weather. So warm, in fact, that the city of Swift Current and the town of Leader had a New Year’s Eve Golf tournament. I never heard about the results, but I did hear a lot of people went, mostly to say they went golfing in Saskatchewan on January 1st. The lead up to the New Year had been really warm, so the organization was fast, and grounds cleaning took a couple of days so things were ready. And, naturally, most everyone hoping that the temperature wouldn’t just plummet by the time of the tee off.
I’m not holding out much hope that this snow we have now will stick around. According to Environment Canada, we’re supposed to have a high of 5 Degrees Celsius (41 F). A temperature that warm, snow will melt. Won’t completely go away, but the rest of the week looks to be in the same range. Which is kind of odd for December.
Just hope January and February is kind.
The Highway – YouTube
A look at the highway between the Junction of Highway 15 and Highway 45 to Delisle and a couple of points between Delisle and Vanscoy. Set to music, because my car is not conducive to proper sound recording equipment and everything just sounds like it’s being dragged over gravel.
I had to drive to the city yesterday to pick up the bundles of newspapers that usually get delivered to us by bus from Saskatoon. They hadn’t made it to the STC Terminal in Saskatoon from Battleford at the time they were supposed to, so I had to drive to the city (actually, I didn’t, I just said I would).
As it turned out, the papers weren’t there until 9:00 pm. 9:05 pm to be exact. And the parcel package depot closed at 9:00 pm. So, I had to stay overnight, pick up the papers at 7:00 am (actually did it at 6:45 am), head back to Outlook, and insert fliers and label them and deliver them to the post office.
One awesome thing: a trip to the city means Tim Horton’s coffee and donuts!
Just a note, the tune is Tom Cochrane’s Life is a Highway. I claim no rights to it, and thought it matched the video nicely. Plus I like the song.
Winter, how I hate thee
Yes, it has some wonderful, picturesque images of crisp snow and beautiful sunsets and sunrises, but it’s the temperature about winter that makes me hate it so. I went to the Environment Canada website to check the weather, and was greeted with a very dismal forecast.
It’s that weekend that I’m not looking forward to very much. And I had plans on heading into the city. Now I’ll have to make sure I keep my car plugged in. To anyone who finds the phrase “plugging the car in” completely foreign, cars up here in Saskatchewan have block heaters (most of Canada has them, really). Keep the car plugged in, keeps the car warm and helps it to start on cold winter mornings. Granted, if the temperature falls below -30 Degrees Celsius, it becomes a crap shoot whether or not your car starts at all.
For those unfamiliar with Celsius, or who don’t know the conversion method, here is the same forecast in Fahrenheit.
Before anyone says “but it’s officially not winter yet”. I understand this. The temperature doesn’t help, though
The Moon
Here are a couple of photos of the moon as it’s looked this autumn.
Taken November 12, 2011, Outlook, Saskatchewan.
Taken October 11, 2011, Outlook, Saskatchewan.
Image via Wikipedia
From The Rime of the Acient Mariner
The moving Moon went up the sky.
And nowhere did abide;
Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside-
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan 3
For your Halloween Hauntings and good ghost stories, I have found this link just for you.
Jo-Anne Christensen has also put together and wrote Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan and More Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan. This is the third volume and I believe she is working on a fourth one.
There is also an ebook version that can be read through Google. Click here!
Related articles
- Alfred Hitchcock presents Ghost Stories for Young People (itsnicethat.com)
- Hollywood Ghost Stories For A Haunted Halloween (huffingtonpost.com)
- Galley Gossip: Flight attendant haunted layover hotel ghost stories (and a haunted plane!) (gadling.com)
- A True Ghost Story Part B: The Ghost In the Hall [Greg Laden's Blog] (scienceblogs.com)
- Collected Ghost Stories by M R James: review (telegraph.co.uk)
- MR James’s ghost stories: celebrate Halloween the old-fashioned way (guardian.co.uk)
The Way I See It: Political Landscape of Saskatchewan
Last night was the leaders debate for the upcoming Saskatchewan provincial election. It was quite lackluster. So much so, that I found myself longing for the old days with the political landscape in this province.
At present, we have two large political factions. On the right, there is the Sask Party, made up of old members of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Saskatchewan Liberal Party. Center Left is the New Democratic Party. Then, there are several smaller factions, which include The Saskatchewan Liberal Party, who I understand this election are focusing all of their efforts in winning just one seat in the Battlefords. The other smaller party of note is the Saskatchewan Green Party, which is currently on the same road as the old CCF was at one time. They’re hoping to gain five seats in this election, but we’ll have to see. Current predictions show that there most likely won’t be any change in the status quo.
But last night, I got thinking how the political landscape in this province would be markedly different had one event not happened. More than twenty years ago, things started that made this province very interesting. Linda Haverstock was elected as leader of the provincial Liberal party, Roy Romanow had taken over as leader of the NDP, and the PC Party looked to be on it’s last legs.
The provincial election of 1991 set the stage for what was to come over the next ten years. Many of the members of the Grant Devine Government of the 1980′s were indicted on charges of fraud and embezzlement. Romanow became what was jokingly known as the best Liberal premier Saskatchewan had in a long time. And Haverstock and her Liberals were gaining major steam, mostly due to the charismatic and intelligent nature of Haverstock herself.
Then something happened. The Saskatchewan Liberal Party called for a vote of confidence in Haverstock. In a slim vote, Haverstock took the confidence 51% to 49, but she still stepped down as leader. To make matters worse, the party stripped her of her membership. All of this is still mind boggling, considering the fact that many in the province saw Haverstock as a natural leader. There were predictions that she was on track to become the next premier of the province, and the first woman to do so.
After she was stripped of her membership, a few Liberal MLAs and the remaining PC MLAs joined forces to form the Sask Party. Just think, if that had never happened, if Haverstock never had a vote of confidence forced on her, what would have happened. There’s all kinds of speculation, and it’s my own right to speculate all I want, so here goes.
Haverstock and her Liberals would have won the provincial election of the late 1990s in Saskatchewan, which would have ushered in the first Liberal government since the 1960s, and the first woman to sit as premier of Saskatchewan. Haverstock would have been compared to Romanow quite a bit, because while she acted as a continuous measure of conscious for the ruling NDP while she was opposition leader, she also had some of the same values. She knew of the importance of the province’s crown corporations, knew of the importance of the unions, but was also not willing to give in to what might be considered frivolous demands. Had Haverstock not been stripped of membership, the Sask Party never would have existed, and instead the PC Party would be struggling to rebuild with the Liberal Party holding three straight governments. That’s right, Haverstock would have lead the Saskatchewan Liberal Party to three straight provincial governments, with the last two being slim majorities. Romanow still would have retired, Calvert still would have become leader of the NDP, but I think it would have been doubtful if Dwain Lingenfelter would have taken another swing at politics like he has currently.
One event. Just one, small event, would have completely changed things in this province. Instead, we are now forced to sit through two leaders who have done an amazing job of name calling, and kept a 2011 election campaign completely under the radar with lackluster promises and less than stellar rhetoric.
Related articles
OccupySaskatoon, OccupyRegina
Image via Wikipedia
For anyone who lives in Saskatchewan, there will be Occupy Saskatoon and Occupy Regina rallies. Saskatoon’s is on October 15th, there’s a facebook page (facebook event here). Also found there is a twitter hash tag for the event, #OccupySaskatoon (found here) and there’s one for #OccupyRegina as well (found here). These are going hand in hand with other Occupy events around North America.
Here’s a bit of information from localyolk‘s tumblr:
So basically you can come to the university at 9:15 AM and support the issue that these students are trying to get the senate to discuss, which is corporations influencing the university(one of the head people of the senate has a bunch of shares of Cameco?). Apparently this issue is always pushed to the back of the meeting, and meetings usually run long so they never get to it. The students say if we have people in support of this issue needing to be discussed at the meeting they may choose to do it first, and even if they don’t they will feel an affect.
But if you cannot make that because of other commitments(or you were out too late last night ;] ) you can meet us in front of the Law building(which is beside the Arts building) at Noon. Then we march!
So, anyone who wishes to OccupySaskatoon or OccupyRegina, make sure to keep October 15th open.
SAY ‘NO’ TO NUCLEAR WASTE IN SASKATCHEWAN!
Image via Wikipedia
On July 27th, the Walk Against Nuclear Waste set out from Pinehouse, SK, to bring attention to the underhanded attempts by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization to coerce First Nations communities in northern Saskatchewan into agreeing to storing nuclear waste on their territories.
Organized by the Committee for Future Generations, the walkers are currently on track to cover a total of 820 km over the course of three weeks. They will arrive in Regina on August 15th to deliver petitions to the Saskatchewan Legislature demanding a province-wide ban on nuclear waste storage and transportation.
Please join Mother Earth Justice Advocates and other supporters at Victoria Park on the evening of Monday, August 15 to greet the walkerswith a warm welcome and to show your support for a ban on nuclear waste storage in Saskatchewan. You are invited to join the walkers on the final leg of their journey - down the Green Mile to the Legislative Building on Tuesday, August 16, beginning at 11th Ave. and Albert St. at 11am.
For more information, please email: motherearthjusticeadvocates@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/158222590888992/
Please consider supporting the Walk Against Nuclear Waste by donating toward the expenses of food and lodging. Cheques can be made payable to “The Solidarity Committee for the Peruvian Amazon”.
Related articles
- Nuclear Waste (reason.com)
- Nuclear waste discussed in northern Sask. (cbc.ca)
It’s the end of the world as we know it
Heavy rains! Strong winds! Tornadoes! The world is coming to an end!
No, it’s actually just another typical summer in Saskatchewan.
After a few years of less than ideal conditions in the province, we’ve gone from cold and crappy summer months to hot, muggy, rainy, windy and every other adjective, adverb or other descriptive word that one could use to describe this summer so far. Some people like the latter, some like the former. I’m sort of in the middle. I can do without the humidity.
Last night with heavy rain and wind, and pitch black clouds, it was the second event and third event of the realization that we definitely are dependent on a lot of things.
A few weeks ago we had a telecommunications outage. No internet, no cellphone (or rather limited might be better) and no long distance or local calling, which also meant no faxing. We just had no phone service at all. It wasn’t just this building, where I work, it was the entire region. Bank ATM’s were down, which meant money withdrawls had to be done the old fashioned way. No business could accept credit cards or debit cards at all. Everything had to be cash. It was like there was suddenly no communication whatsoever. No, it was exactly like that. Like we were stuck in the 80′s. For real! I was waiting for a John Hughs movie to start up, something starring Molly Ringwald.
Last night, the other two things happened. The first was being informed that the apartment building’s water was being shut off for emergency due to a backed up sewer line. I didn’t have much choice, but instead I prepared for it. I hopped into my car, drove to work and filled two small pails of water. For washing, cleaning dishes and morning coffee. Yes, the pails were clean, I made certain of that. Needless to say, there wasn’t a whole lot of water for washing. At least I had enough to brush my teeth.
So there again was the amazing aspect of living without something we take for granted; running water. I am old enough that I do remember the days driving down to the municipal water station and for 25 cents filling a water tank on the back of our ’49 Chev half ton. I’m also old enough to remember 35 cents per litre for gas, and how shocked we were when it rose to 70 cents. Now it’s $1.23 per litre. But water, running water from the tap. That’s another thing that amazes me how much we depend on it. No water for washing dishes, none for taking a bath or a shower, no water for cooking, and no water for going to the bathroom and flushing the toilet.
The irony of all of that, came when the third event happened late last night. Around the time the sky turned black and the first thunder clap roared.
It was one of those storms where you just know the power is going to go down. You expect it, and if it doesn’t happen it’s a complete fluke. Last night stayed true to form, as I was working on my computer (fortunately I had saved along the way, because I had a strange feeling) and saw the lights, monitor and other appliances visibly or audibly flicker. For a brief second it was as though the power struggled to stay on, but it was only for a second.
And then darkness.
Power is that one thing that all the previous things are dependent on, and in turn, that we are dependent on. When the power goes down, the darkness can be quite unsettling, and the quiet can be deafening. Without power, there is no telecommunication of any kind. Nor is there any water, because power is needed to help water move through the water lines. But even more, power operates our entertainment centres, our street lights, our phone and laptop chargers, our refrigerators and freezers.
If the power goes down, then one can still read a book, or play card games (with real cards). But as it happened last night, it was black outside. I needed candles (of which all I had were the scented kind, really need to buy emergency candles) and I needed my flashlight. Once I had those, I could move through the apartment quite easily.
This morning I woke up, with power because it wasn’t out for too long last night, but without water. And the news telling me on the radio that there were several tornado warnings last night issued for Delisle and area, not far from me. We’re a month into summer. This is gonna be a wild season.
Until next time…
…keep ‘em flyin’!
Been a long couple of days
Didn’t post anything yesterday, but hopefully plan on posting something later today. Two somethings, really.
Image via Wikipedia
Thing number one: yesterday, I went on the second road trip thanks to the Canada Postal strike, driving papers around the Lake Diefenbaker area. My travels included stops in Milden, Dinsmore, Beechy, Lucky Lake, Birsay, Elbow, Loreburn, Strongfield, Hawarden, Kenaston, Glenside, and Broderick. Along the way, I took pictures. Tomorrow, I’ll share those with everyone.
Thing number two: I have downloaded the application form for the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild and hope to fill it out and send it off to the main office. It’ll be a great opportunity to get a little exposure and converse with other Saskatchewan writers and professionals.
All that coming up tomorrow!
Until then…
…keep ‘em flyin’!
Word of the day: Vi-Co
Ask anyone from Saskatchewan (anyone over the age of 30) what chocolate milk is and they might respond with one word.
Vi-Co.
Vi-Co was actually an American chocolate milk product that in the late 50′s Co-op Dairies in Saskatchewan bought the rights to. It appeared in a small, brown can and later became familiar in the wax-cardboard container. There in bold letters was the word on the side of the carton. Vi-Co. It was an easy word to say. Instead of saying “I’m getting a chocolate milk” people would say “I’m getting a Vi-co” or, as it became known, just simply vico.
When you went into a store and asked for some, the cashier new exactly what you were asking for. The word was so utterly Saskatchewan by the time the 1970′s rolled around that it wasn’t even funny. It was as common as bunny hug, or ski-doo, or toque. Everyone knew what you meant.
When I grew older and began my first stint in broadcasting, I moved to Manitoba. I was over joyed when I went into a store and saw the familiar Vi-Co staring back at me through the dairy isle cases.
Ever since Dairy Producers was bought out by Dairy World, the brand name has been phased out, which is quite sad. I often wonder if during this day and age of retro, if Dairy World started selling Vi-Co again, would there be a resurgence of chocolate milk sales? Maybe, because for many people in Saskatchewan, Vi-Co means a lot. It’s like a familiar spot, or an old friend. It brings back so many memories.
Until next time…
…keep ‘em flyin’!
Zodi Hijack
Chocolate milk. How hard is it to say that? I don’t think I’ve ever come across anyone in my life who has called it Vi-co, then again I’m American. I’ve never heard anyone call it Ovaltine, or Nesquick. I have heard it called a variety of other things. Brown moo-moo, choco-moos and my personal favorite. Bunny milk. I also have a three year old, he adores chocolate milk. So these titles are actually common around my house.
In my years of growing up, chocolate milk was only something we got a resturant when the family went out to supper. There was many times, that we got milk with chocolate flavoring. For some reason parents seem to think that we’d get hyped up on the sugar. Often this wasn’t case and if it was, we’d often get so sugar high’d that we crash out way before bed time.
Now that my kid is growing up and we do the family dinner things, I allow him little luxuries I never had. For example, blowing bubbles in his chocolate milk when we go out to dinner. My theory on this is, let him do it now, and he won’t do it later in life. It’s like giving a kid candy, eventually they’ll just grow out of it. My father doesn’t the like fact that I let Rhys blow bubbles in his milk, but since it’s the only drink he’s allowed to do it in, I see no problem.
Chocolate milk bubble blowing is healthy. All kids do it, most aren’t allowed to do it. Mine is, so long as the cup has a lid.
Keep it real and rockin’
<3
Word of the day: Bunny Hug
There’s a very large movement happening. And it’s whipping a word from the face of the planet. Okay, maybe not the planet, but at least Saskatchewan. It’s been a part of Saskatchewan lingo for decades. People from Alberta and Manitoba can identify someone from Saskatchewan easily when this word is used, and they think we’re weird. I’ve mentioned this word to a few people in the States, who have either given me the odd look, or said “Are you weird?” without hesitation.
The word is bunny hug.
The roots of the word are lost in time. Most everyone has forgotten when or where it originated. Some say it’s most common usage began in the small city of Melfort and spread from there. Others say it started around Swift Current. But as time went on, the word became synonymous with an article of clothing. To the rest of the world that particular article was known as a hoodie or a hooded sweatshirt.
To most everyone in Saskatchewan we called them bunny hugs.
Why? Even that explanation is lost to time. It’s one of those things that always was. It was always called a bunny hug. I grew up ordering high school bunny hugs. Even on the order form that we took home to check off what apparel we wanted, there in bold letters was bunny hug, sitting right along side leather jacket, bomber jacket, sweat shirt and cap. Others say there was a popular brand of hooded sweatshirts that were called Bunny Hug. So the name stuck. It was kind of like Vico. Everyone in Saskatchewan at one time knew Vico meant chocolate milk.
It is with some dismay that I’ll flip through the Star Phoenix and see that ads for clothing shops are giving in to the rest of the world. Gone is the familiar word that describes the warm, fleece article of clothing. In comparison, the word hoodie is cold and sterile. Bunny hug promotes a warm feeling, a feeling that when you put on the clothing, you’re stepping into a warm hug. It’s comforting. It’s familiar. It’s love in an everyday item.
There are those that I’ve met that are not familiar with the Saskatchewan term that have begun using it in everyday language. They find the term quaint, and that’s what it’s really all about. In Saskatchewan, we should take pride in the word.
The Bunny Hug has another usage. Those familiar with early 20th century dance moves would know the term to refer to the dance that began in San Francisco. Popular at the time, it was one of many dance steps that had an interesting term attached to it.
Here, it means a hoodie. And it’s time to bring that term back into full swing, because we can’t lose that part of our history. Each region has some term to describe something. If we lose it, we lose a part of ourselves. We become sterile, bland. Not unique. One University of Saskatchewan English student even went so far to dedicate a thesis to the term, in digging up the origins of the term bunny hug.
For me, bunny hug will be there until the day I die. Right along with stubble jumper, double double, and back 40.
Until next time…
…keep ‘em flyin’!
Zodi hijack
Through out the day today I have been messaging Tim through G-chat and MSN.
Little does he know I’m hijacking the post right now.
Because it’s a damn HOODIE.
Keep it real and rockin’
<3
