The Blog According To Buzz

Living in an Olympic city is a pretty special thing.

The legacy of the 1988 Olympic Games can be felt all over Calgary. From Olympic Plaza, to the Olympic Oval, to the lighting of the Calgary Tower for special events, to the ski jump tower and ice track at Canada Olympic Park, a piece of that spirit from nearly 25 years ago is all over the city.

My son learned to skate at the oval. It was like a religious experience every time we entered. I got that same sort of reverential chill that you can feel when you enter a holy place. As my son was learning to skate in the centre, teams from around the world were practicing on the outside.

If you closed your eyes and you could see Koss, Blair, Hughes, and Lemay Doan on the ice just as easily as the current generation.

6 blocks from my house is the top of Canada Olympic Park. I see that 90m ski jump tower everyday when I pull out of the subdivision. The waving of the huge Canadian flag tells me when a chinook is coming in to warm us up. The top of the luge, skeleton, and bobsleigh run is just on the other side of the tower.

It’s a pretty remarkable thing, that ice track.

Just months after watching Jon Montgomery win gold on tv, we were standing beside him in the starting hut as he was about to sail face first down the Calgary course.

You see, while there’s layers of security at an Olympic Games, the World Cup circuit is a little more lax.

To get to the viewing stands, you have to walk through the starting area. You can shake hands with Pierre Leuders, get up close with the sleds, and, if you take a wrong turn, walk right onto the top of the ice chute.

This weekend is a Bobsleigh World Cup event at COP and we patted Kaillie Humphries on the back and gave her a cheer as she did warm up jogs on the sidewalk outside the starting hut. We cheered and screamed as each pair pushed their huge sled down the top of the course.

The Olympics only come every 4 years, but the athletes are still training, and competing in between. To live in an Olympic city means supporting the athletes each year as they come through and hone their skills to peak when their moment arrives.

To live in an Olympic city is magical.

There are a variety of Wine Festivals in Calgary each year, one seems to happen every few months.

Liquor Depot sponsors the Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival in October, Co-Op sponsors The Grape Escape a couple of times a year, Calgary WineFest is in February, while Willow Park Wine and Spirits has events at their store year round.

My wife, @winejennifer, is a wine rep. She’s worked assorted Wine Festivals for years. So I picked her brain to get the tips and tricks as you head down to get your grape on.

1. Respect the person pouring. They’re not $10/hr hostesses, but actually knowledgeable sales reps, maybe the President of the company, or perhaps even the Winemaker

2. Respect your palate. Start with the light wines and finish heavy (ie save the Ports til last) If you’re going on 2 separate nights, do white one night, red the other.

3. Leave your big purse at home. It’s tough to balance all that and a glass, a wristlet with your id and keys should be enough. That said …

4. Bring a journal or notebook to take notes on what you’re trying. Trust me, 5 glasses in you’ll forget what you had first.

5. Try something different than what you always buy – here’s your chance to go on an adventure with minimal risk.

6. Don’t wear white. Even if you don’t spill, someone else might. Jen saw someone in a beautiful white suit one year, with a lovely streak of shiraz right down her back.

7. There are no dumb questions, you’re there to learn, and the pourers are there to help.

8. Have something to eat before you go. You’re going to be drinking a lot, and you don’t want to do it on an empty stomach. Which leads us to …

9. Spit spit spit spit! You’re going to be drinking a lot, so even if you’re looking to get your drunk on, spit.

10. Don’t rinse your glass with the water at the table, people think they’re spittoons (see #9). Instead, ask the pourer for a splash of the wine you’re about to sample to rinse out your glass.

11. The good stuff will be gone first. All the expensive bubbles etc are in limited quantities, so look for them Thursday and early in the night on Friday

That may sound grand, but not all is wonderful, there are some pet peeves of the staff working the event you should try to keep in mind to keep your experience the best.

1. This is their Christmas. Most pourers have been pulling 12+hour days pouring wine and entertaining VIPS all week, so be patient with them.

2. Sloppy drunk people may be fun at the bar, but they’re not fun at WineFest. Have a good time, but keep it under control.

3. Raising your glass and clinking it on the bottle isn’t necessary. Say “when”, when you mean “when” and they’ll stop pouring.

4. Perfume and smelly hairspray. One of the most powerful qualities of wine, is its bouquet. Dousing yourself in Curious by Britney Spears and emptying a bottle of Final Net on your head before you leave will not only kill all of your senses, but those of the people around you. You think we’re kidding, we’re not. Not even a quick spritz. Go au naturel to this event. PLEASE!

5. Going right for the decanter. It’s not necessarily the most expensive. Jen and her team have been known to take the cheapest bottle they’re pouring and drop it in a decanter just to fool the smart asses. ASK first, they might even reach under the table and pull out a secret bottle for you to sample

6. The know-it-all is almost as bad as the candy perfume girl. Yes, you’ve been to Napa. Maybe you’ve even golfed with Ernest and Julio, but remember tips 1 and 8 from above. You may be bragging to someone even more special than yourself, and, in the end, everyone is there to learn and have fun

So now that you’re well versed in the behind-the-scenes secrets of WineFest, you’re almost set. One final thing to remember: plan a way to get home. These open bar shenanigans can get out of hand very easily. Unless you’re spitting, you’ll be done in half a dozen booths or less. So get home safe.

Everyone loves wine. Nobody likes a dead drunk.

Abermale, North Carolina father Tommy Jordan didnt like the comments his daughter Hannah had to say about the family on Facebook. He had tried grounding her before and that didn’t work, so this time he took his gun to her laptop and pumped it 9 times.

The video has gone viral on Facebook, YouTube, and parenting blogs across the web.

Parents are split: while they like the stand he took, some are hesitant that guns are involved.

Now, Tommy has responded to the response with this comment on his Facebook page:

Attention Media Outlets:
While we appreciate the interest you’re all putting forth to get in touch with us regarding the video, we’re not going to go on your talk show, not going to call in to your radio show, and not going to be in your TV mini-series.

Some of you think I made an acceptable parenting decision and others think I didn’t. However, I can’t think of any way myself or my daughter can respond to a media outlet that won’t be twisted out of context. The Dallas news TV news already showed that in their brief 5 minute interview with the psychologist.

Additionally, there’s absolutely NO way I’m going to send my child the message that it’s OK to gain from something like this. It would send her a message that it’s OK to profit at the expense of someone else’s embarrassment or misfortune and that’s now how I was raised, nor how she has been raised.

So I say thank you from all of us. If we have anything to say, we’ll say it here on Facebook, and we’ll say it publicly, but we won’t say it to a microphone or a camera. There are too many other REAL issues out there that could use this attention you’re giving us. My daughter isn’t hurt, emotionally scarred, or otherwise damaged, but that kind of publicity has never seemed to be to have a positive effect on any child or family.

If you’re a news outlet that wants to ask us a question, feel free to so via email. I’m sure by now my email address is easy enough to find. It might take me awhile to get to a response because I’d have to sort through the “Die you bastard” emails to find it, but we will respond if its something that we feel merits it. Otherwise, sorry… no interviews, no talk shows, no call-ins.

If we respond to anything, it will be on here, and it will be in a way that our words can’t be misconstrued or edited for appeal to specific audience or shock value.

Now, I’m going to try to get to work for the day.
Best of luck to all of you out there… and PLEASE give my phone a break.

We are in the middle of an American Election Season that seems to have been going on for months. It’s February, there’s still 9 months until “the real election”, and yet debates, primaries, caucuses and stumping has been going on for what feels like a year.

Want to know why more Americans don’t vote? It’s too damn complicated.

Prior to a general election, there is a selection process to determine which candidate will appear on the ballot for a given political party in the nationwide general election. Political parties generally hold national conventions at which a group of delegates collectively decide upon which candidate they will run for the presidency. The process of choosing delegates to the national convention is undertaken at the state level, which means that there are significant differences from state to state and sometimes year to year. The two methods for choosing delegates to the national convention are the caucus and the primary.
[source]

Not only different by state, but different by year?

In Canada, we do it the same way, every time. We elect a local representative, an MP. The party with the most elected MP’s forms government, the leader of that party becomes Prime Minister.

When political parties in Canada choose their leaders, they do so at a convention, just like in the US. But in the States, any registered voter can vote in the lead up to these elections, in Canada only registered party members vote.

Caucuses were the original method for selecting candidates but have decreased in number since the primary was introduced in the early 1900’s. In states that hold caucuses a political party announces the date, time, and location of the meeting. Generally any voter registered with the party may attend. At the caucus, delegates are chosen to represent the state’s interests at the national party convention. Prospective delegates are identified as favorable to a specific candidate or uncommitted. After discussion and debate an informal vote is taken to determine which delegates should be chosen.

There are two main types of primaries, closed or open, that determine who is eligible to vote in the primary. In a closed primary a registered voter may vote only in the election for the party with which that voter is affiliated. For example a voter registered as Democratic can vote only in the Democratic primary and a Republican can vote only in the Republican primary. In an open primary, on the other hand, a registered voter can vote in either primary regardless of party membership. The voter cannot, however, participate in more than one primary. A third less common type of primary, the blanket primary, allows registered voters to participate in all primaries.
[source]

Confused yet?

The Canadian system works better because, frankly, it’s simpler. We have one election for our national assembly that also picks our PM.

In the States you have to vote in primaries, not all held concurrently, then you’re called back months later to vote again. When it comes to voting for local representatives in the national assembly, you do that at different times too. Not to mention the times you’re voting for judges, sherriffs, dog catchers, referenda and propositions.

The power may be in the hands of the American electorate, but it’s a little bit of overkill, don’t you think?

The Blog According to Buzz. Spread the word, ya heard?

Since 1976, February has been Black History Month in the US and Canada. This year, to mark the occasion, Canada Post unveiled stamps to honour some great Canadians of African descent.

With the centennial of the Calgary Stampede being celebrated this year, one of Alberta’s best known cowboys, John Ware, is being honoured.

Everything about John Ware seems larger than life – stuff that legends are made of.

He was born a slave in South Carolina and grew up picking cotton.

When he was freed at the end of the American Civil War, he headed west and learned skills and the life style of a cowboy in Texas. He took part in mass cattle drives and eventually joined one that arrived in what was to become Alberta in 1882.

He was a big man, and strong. Legend has it that he could stop a steer head-on and wrestle it to the ground. Other stories say that he could lift an 18-month-old steer and turn it on its side for branding or trip a horse by hand and hold it on its back to be shod.

He established a ranch and started competing as a steer wrestler, winning the event at the 1893 Calgary Fair. Ware helped pioneer rodeo techniques that would become staples of the Stampede.

When he died in 1905, Nigger John’s funeral was one of the biggest Calgary had ever seen.

The Ware family founded two ranches. The first was on the Sheep River, near Millarville. The second was north of Millicent, on the banks of the Red Deer River and Ware Creek, west of Dinosaur Provincial Park, where the original Ware cabin is preserved.

The Ice Magic Festival at Lake Louise is a great celebration of the season. The festival started in 1994 and is now a centerpiece to SnowDays, a new month-long celebration of winter in Banff National Park.

There is ice carving, ice castles, ice queens, ice skating even an ice bar.

You catch the drift? It’s cold, there’s snow and ice, so we might as well have fun with it.

Spread over 2 weekends at the end of January, The Ice Magic Festival at Lake Louise is a great day visit for a family. Just get there early in the day or you’ll be stuck without a parking spot by the lake and be forced to wait in long shuttle lines from the village to the party.

Today I am 42. I guess I have all the answers now, don’t I?

In The Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy, 42 is meant to be The Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.

Some other wiki things about 42:

The atomic number of molybdenum.

The angle in degrees for which a rainbow appears or the critical angle.

The character, corresponding to the number 42 in the ASCII character set, is *, the asterisk, commonly known as the wildcard character.

In Japanese culture, the number 42 is considered unlucky because the numerals when pronounced separately — “shi ni” (four two) — sound like the phrase, “unto death”.

42 is the number with which God creates the Universe in Kabbalistic tradition.

Level 42 was one of my favorite bands as a teen

I don’t think I look 42. I don’t think I act 42. I will, perpetually, be a young person trapped inside a body with a clock moving too fast. And I like it like that.

If you’re so moved to celebrate my achievement of Level 42 in The Game of Life, I’d like it if you would make a $42 donation to Team Diabetes.

Mandy Stobo is the best bad artist in Calgary. And she loves it that way.

The woman behind Bad Portraits is making a career of making people look horrible.

In the past six months, Stobo has created more than 800 Bad Portraits: stacks of splashy neon watercolour renderings of people, ranging from the famous to pretty much anyone who asks.

She spends about 45 minutes on each portrait, and then sells the original watercolour for $100.

So far, she has sold about 150, a few dozen of which have been purchased by the “Twitterati”—celebs and lesser-knowns who have large followings on Twitter.
[Macleans]

*cough* Twitterati *cough*, so I emailed Mandy and got the above of my boys and this one of me.

The one of the boys is deliciously bad. I love it. The one of me is actually almost a bang on portrait (does that mean I’m really bad in real life?)

“Bad Portraits is a project to say that you are rad,” writes Mandy on her website. “It is a test of social media. And it is a way for me to gain my 10000 hours in a relatively inexpensive, but super inspirational way.”

Want your own Bad Portrait? Send her an email with some pics, she’ll add you to the list and email you a copy when it’s done.

It will look terrible, and you’ll love it.

Papillon Helicopters
Grand Canyon Celebration Tour
$300 (ish) per person

For my wife’s 40th birthday we took one of those “once-in-a-lifetime” trips on a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon.

Depending on the package you choose, it can be an early morning wake up call. We chose the first flight in the morning, which meant a 6:05 pick up at our hotel before driving out to Papillon‘s Boulder City aeroplex.

It is getting more difficult to find a tour operator flying out of Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon because the airport authority is expanding and pushing the tours to smaller outlying airports. The coach ride to Boulder City is quick and painless.

The entire pick-up to drop-off experience runs about 4 hours. When you get to the Papillon Aeorplex be prepared to “weigh in”. No passenger can weigh more than 274 pounds and each helicopter needs to be properly balanced for weight.

After a quick safety video you’re introduced to your pilot and walked out to the waiting tarmac. Papillon‘s photographer will take pictures of each couple in front of the chopper (to resell later in the gift shop for $20), but your pilot will also offer to take a picture for you as well.

The 30 minute ride out goes over the Hoover Dam, Joshua Tree forests and dormant volcanoes before plunging into the canyon. You fly past the Hopi Indian skywalk with the pilot offering facts and trivia the whole way.

After landing in the canyon, small picnics are opened with a snack and a sip of champagne. You spend about 30 minutes in the Grand Canyon and it’s total free time. You can wander, take pictures and just take in the awe of the area. The flight back goes over deserted mines, ghost towns and the Colorado canyon.

TIPS:
Book in advance.
Despite all the deals you see on the strip offering “half price flights”, they all end up costing about the same. To make sure you get the flight time you want, do it ahead of time.

Bring your own champagne.
We picked up a couple of small bottles of Nicolas Feuillate at the ABC store. I packed them in ice in a freezer bag and tossed them in the backpack for the trip. While Papillon provides little snack baskets, the bubble is not all that, so BYOB.

Bring sunglasses.
The early morning flight goes due east, directly into the rising sun. The lighting makes it hard to take pictures or see what’s going

Get the front seat.
Each helicopter carries 6 people. For an extra $50 per person fee you can reserve the front seats on your ride. It’s not confirmed that it will happen until you check in, but it’s worth it to watch the entire canyon open up in front of you.

There’s something about the Bellagio’s Conservatory that makes me smile. 5 times a year a gorgeous display of flowers and models is created to reflect the season. From penguins and polar bears in winter, to huge pumpkins for fall, I love this greenhouse just off the lobby of the Bellagio.

Specially designed lighting spotlights every flower to accentuate its best features. To ensure the Conservatory & Botanical Gardens maintains magnificence 365 days a year, 140 expert horticulturists theatrically arrange gazebos, bridges, ponds, and water features uniquely for each season. Treat yourself to this unrivaled attraction’s ever changing personality for the Holidays, Chinese New Year, spring, summer, and fall.

Some of my other favorite places (the back steps of Versailles, the Douglas Fir trail in Calgary, and Ferguson Point in Vancouver) are loved because they’re quiet places to think.

The Conservatory at the Bellagio, however, has become a favorite because of the imagination and creativity and colour in the room. There was a time when it was a quiet place, not anymore – but in my nearly 2 dozen visits to Las Vegas, I always make time to visit the Conservatory and see the latest colors.