Stories for a winter's night

It's like something out of the old Saturday Night Live sketch. You know the one ... with the two cheerleaders who are at totally inappropriate events? Like tennis and golf and chess?

Well, now cricket has decided that they need to boost their image and have hired Washington Redskins Cheerleaders to cheer on the teams and give a new look to the sport.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't get cricket. It's a sport that involves guarding three pegs that some other guy is trying to knock down with a ball, and if you hit the ball, you get to run back and forth across a 22 meter long pitch until ... uhm, I'm not sure why you stop running, but eventually you do. I don't get how the game is scored, and I certainly do not understand why it lasts as long as it does! I mean, what kind of a game lasts for FIVE DAYS!

I seriously doubt that cheerleaders are going to bring new blood to the sport. Something tells me that even scantily clad, athletic women are not going to win over the general public, if watching them means having to sit through cricket. Besides, I've met cricket fans. They're almost as rabid as soccer fans, and I doubt they need additional motivation to sit through a match. ... but maybe I'm missing the power these girls actually have. Maybe they can make cricket cool ... who knows ...

Yeah, I'm just full of useless information. Now that I'm starting work later in the day I have time to read the newspaper over breakfast and I'm running across some bizarre Ottawa news. Like on Saturday and today, the paper carried a story of how the city's anti-graffiti squad cleaned up a game of hopscotch (the original story and the backlash).

The long and the short of it is that the kids made a game of hopscotch that ran for 4 city blocks. Someone complained about it being graffiti and the city promptly sent in truck to clean up the mess. City officials admit that maybe they should have looked into the complaint before they sent in trucks to clean up the chalk with a power hose. Everything seemed fine and dandy until yesterday morning when the city woke up to find that someone had taken chalk to City Hall, covering the area with pro-play slogans.


The whole thing is a giant farce, it really is. I mean, how sad and pathetic is the complaintant's life that they feel the need to bitch about sidewalk chalk? Seriously, one good rain will wash it away, and it's not like we don't get a lot of rain in Ottawa. For this person's sake, I hope no one finds out who they are, otherwise I see a future of TP, eggs, and public humiliation. Not by me, of course, but I can't say that I won't feel a certain amount of schadenfreude when, and if, it happens.

And what was out esteemed city bureaucrats thinking when they wasted taxpayers' dollars on a single complaint without looking into it? I admit that it's not a lot of money, but it's the principle of the thing. The downtown core is covered with the most hideous tags and the city spends its time cleaning up sidewalk chalk. Yeah, there are priorities for you.

A piece of news came to my attention this morning as I was driving to the bus station. Apparently, in reaction to the Jennifer Teague murder, the city is planning on reinstating and updated an old law that would hold employers responsible for the well-being of their employees.

Basically, the law, as I understnd it, is this: Employers must ensure that their employees are able to get home safely is their shifts end after midnight. The law used to be that this only applied to female employees, and it was struck after a group of men complained that this law was sexist.

I would just like to know one thing. Where does this law end? Does it only apply to employees who are walking home or does it apply to the bussers too? what about those who drive? Are the employers responsible until the employee is in their house?

I do wonder though (and I know that I am cruel and heartless), what she was doing walking home along that stretch at that hour. I live in that area, and not only is it a long stretch of road (not a five minute walk, like the press is saying), but it is also unlit and the houses are far back from the road. Rather than put the onus on the employers, shouldn't the employees show some common sense? I realize that Barrhaven is viewed as this safe area of white picket fences, but it is mostly country, mostly unlit, anda perfect spot for an attack. I'm honestly surprised that something like this didn't happen earlier.

A recent study showed that more and more traffic accidents are happening because of animals at night. Maybe the city could put its eforts into better lighting on the country roads in Barrhaven, rather than passing the buck, as they seem to be doing.