Admittedly, I’m under-educated on the Coronavirus. I can’t figure what all the hysteria is about nor do I understand why hand sanitizer is selling for $85 a bottle on Amazon nor do I get why toilet paper is in high demand. I don’t know why we need to cancel sporting events or play in empty stadiums. It all seems like such an overreaction to me. One thing I’ve noticed that seems to be gathering momentum is the removal of shaking hands from society. The Coronavirus will be used as the reason, but once the craziness subsides, we will still just opt against the shaking of hands because of the fear of germs being passed.
The National Hockey League is closing dressing rooms as a precautionary measure to guard against Coronavirus. I’m betting media is never let back in even after all this madness subsides and other than the people affected directly by such a decision, nobody will notice nor should they care. I’ve long said the dressing room or club house is no place for any person outside the actual team organization. It should be a refuge of sorts for the athletes and coaches. I said this back when women were fighting for their right to get into men’s locker rooms and I have the same stance today. Men and women both should wait outside and interviews should be conducted in a separate area upon request of the person to a communications official.
If you didn’t attend one of the two Yorkton Terrier playoff games over the weekend, you missed a great start to the series with La Ronge. I’m told by people who have lived in this city for generations that Yorkton is a tough crowd and fans like to wait and see what’s going to happen before they jump on the bandwagon. That appeared to be the case over the weekend when 991 came through the gate for game one, when we really should have had 1200+. Because the Terriers lost 6-1, the crowd was about 100 fewer on Saturday night and those who were afraid to come and see their home team lose missed out on a thriller as the Terriers got two goals in the final five minutes to win 4-3. Let’s be out in full force for game five regardless of where the series is at. The boys are working very hard and they deserve our support.
Tickets are going, going, gone for Ballroom Blitz this weekend at the Flexi-Hall. You can check with Jason Trost to see if there are any left, but this is a first of its kind for Yorkton as it is a Dance Innovations Troupe spin on Dancing With The Stars, local style. I am not dancing and I don’t know the first thing about dance. But you can bet I will fake it very well as a judge. The real winners here will be a shopping list of special causes that each of the dance couples are competing for.
A BC band found itself unwelcome in Kindersley over the weekend after online backlash towards the group for their anti-energy industry views. The band, called Small Town Artillery, voiced support for anti-oil and gas demonstrations in BC that spawned blockades around the country. I am all for free speech on both sides of the political centre. I would much preferred Kindersley to keep the date and let that band show up to an empty community centre. That’s much more impactful than telling them not to come.
The Globe And Mail published a story this past week about Alberta and the need for that province to charge a sales tax like the other eleven provinces and then it would have a huge budget surplus. Premier Jason Kenney says no thanks to that and says during a time when Alberta people are struggling to make ends meet, the last thing they need is a government with a hand in their pocket taking thousands more a year from them. I would add to that sentiment and say that the other 11 provinces need to be more financially responsible with taxpayer money and those 11 should actually be charging a lot less than they do.
NBC news anchor Brian Williams really made a fool of himself this past week when he discussed the amount of advertising promotion Michael Bloomberg spent on becoming the Presidential nominee for the Democrat Party. Williams and his guest pointed out that Bloomberg spent $500-million on his campaign and then went to a Tweet that someone wrote up that said with 327-million people living in the United States, Bloomberg could have just given everyone a million dollars instead. Of course, that math is not even close to correct. It works out to just over a dollar per person, not a million dollars per person. But, Williams and his guest spent several minutes on this topic and not Williams, not his guest, not any of the camera people, not the producer, not the director, not anybody within screaming distance noticed it. I guess Trump Derangement Syndrome is that bad. Williams, who is supposed to tell the news and not make it, was also caught about five years ago lying about his involvement with a military helicopter that came under fire and required an emergency landing.
Nice person mentions this week: Amanda Tarr, Dennis Dyck, Ed Zawatsky, Kelly McClintock, and Shannon Leson.
