Checkered Lounge Pants

Darn it all anyhow.... I got back from Montreal last night and never made my ritual culinary rendezvous with a smoked meat sandwich at Reuben's Deli and a Greek salad from the lunch menu at Katz. I found myself dreamily reflecting on all the little things taken for granted, that, now surfaced on my junket to Montreal. *End dream sequence and snap out of it with smoked meat dangling from mouth". ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoked_meat ) I was, however, finally presented my retirement clock from my *tongue in cheek* employer. I retired last June and had relegated the gift as summarily confiscated in their usual pettiness, for costing the employer upwards of $30 million when I lead the bargaining unit to a strike in 2004. Voila, sitting on the boardroom table was the engraved mantle clock. It was, due to a longstanding dispute that I was summonsed to Montreal to act as a witness and attend a hearing at the employers headquarters. Nevertheless, the employer didn't disappoi

Setanta Sports......ever hear of it? I first heard of it sometime back from a British colleague that piqued my interest in European football (soccer). Colin and I exchanged emails after he bellowed his fight song at our breakfast meeting early in February. He took exception, when I belittled the theme song for his die-hard team, West Ham United FC ( West Ham fans comprise the most notorious fan club in England tagged the Inter City Firm and are primarily from London's working class East End), when he started singing "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eHq0BTeUqY ) at our breakfast table in Montreal. My beloved Val announced, last week, that our satellite provider was comping a month of Setanta Sport channel for March. Sure enough, the English channel was now available and allowed me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of a sport that, if for no other reason, has to be respected for the pure endurance required by the players to susta

"The Treasury Department and the Fed on Monday threw a new $30-billion (U.S.) lifeline to the ailing insurance giant, which marked the government's fourth effort to stabilize AIG since September. Both Democrats and Republicans expressed skepticism over whether the action would work, said they were worried that more taxpayer money will be needed to rescue the company and demanded more accountability and openness. Mr. Bernanke defended the government's repeated rescue attempts on AIG, saying “the failure of major financial firms in a financial crisis can be disastrous for the economy.” The U.S. will be better off “moving aggressively” to solve economic problems because the alternative “could be a prolonged episode of economic stagnation,” Mr. Bernanke said." -Globe and Mail. This follows Citi Corp last week, and whose next before Citi and AIG are back. I was watching Charlie Rose the other day and his guest (the creator of Netscape) proposed that the US governments let