Like many places, Saskatchewan has numerous towns with unique names - for example, Moose Jaw, Elbow, Eyebrow, Climax (which is just down the road from Conquest)! Even my own hometown of Indian Head has provided the occasional laugh for the less politically correct among us (although the true reason it has that name is no laughing matter.)
But there is one town that tops them all for "huhzawhat?" reactions in our province. In fact, I know a guy who dated a girl for six months before she admitted to being from this town and then, only because they were getting engaged and she realised she'd no longer be able to only arrange meetings with her family in Regina, in his hometown, at Moose Jaw and other neutral locations. The town? Big Beaver, Saskatchewan.
I was in a nearby town today and had a couple hours for my lunch break so decided to take a little tour to see the Big Muddy badlands and then Big Beaver.
It's a town of 21 people, most famous for an old-fashioned prairie general store named Aust's with the slogan "If We Don't Have It, You Don't Need It". They also sell cute t-shirts showing Canada's national animal with the words, "Big Beaver, SK" on it (which you can buy from the web site I linked to above.) I'm not saying whether I bought one for Pace or not but I do think he's going to be quite the hit at playtime in a couple years!
The vocal-only track of David Lee Roth singing "Running With The Devil" has been making the rounds of the Internets but this is the funniest mash-up I've seen - what if Diamond Dave took his act to the American Idol audition room?
(I have no problem using the "humour" tag on this post but am somewhat reluctant to use the "music" one! )
When I was in undergrad, I was a regular at the Bushwakker Brew Pub for Robbie Burns Night each January. Every year, they had a draw to go with the celebrations and on one particularly memorable occasion, I happened to win a free keg. Since the next major holiday after Robbie Burns Night (barring Groundhog Day of course) is Valentine's Day, I thought it would be a good idea to have a party, invite all my single male and female friends, tap the keg and voila - romance (or at least drunken foolishness) was sure to follow.
The party was a blast (although, in retrospect, probably not as charming for the women who were brave enough to show up as for the men) and ever since, I have always thought of Valentine's Day with the name we used for the party, "Valenkeg's Day".
Also since then, that slight turn of phrase has helped take the edge off an otherwise insufferable holiday. When you're single, you're made to feel like a leper for not being in a relationship. When you're in a relationship, there is Christmas Consumption level of pressure to buy crap - flowers, chocolates, expensive dinners, tickets to even more expensive shows, etc. to show/express/prove your love.
So have a pint on me and remember, own the holiday or it will own you!
(And in a tribute to grade school when everybody shared the love, I offer a copy of this card to each and everyone of you...)
I know this is "below the fold" in newspaper parlance but here is a list of... WORDS PEOPLE HAVE USED TO DESCRIBE THE TASTE OF BUSHWAKKER'S PALLISER PORTER BEER TO ME Banana Chocolate Cigarette Coffee Dirt Earth Oak Smoke
I posted an Obama video a few days ago which featured one of his speeches set to music by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas that was called "Yes, We Can".
Now, someone's done a parody featuring the very frightening words of John McCain...
I was going to link to a list of the symptoms of severe food poisoning and leave off at that. But after sleeping sixteen hours out of the last twenty-four (I won't get too graphic about how I spent the other eight hours but you can imagine...
...I'm feeling a bit better so I decided to do a regular Friday Fun Link, if one day late.)
During a public session a couple weeks ago, I got asked if there was a web site where a person could type in a song and have it play automatically. My best suggestion was MeeMix. But I forgot about a couple interfaces I'd seen which use Google's advanced search to find MP3's that people have uploaded to their web sites. Then a recent MetaFilter thread unveiled a couple more - Songza and Songerize. So here's a list of all of them that I know about ( should also mention QTrax that was launched recently but down for the time being due to overwhelming interest):
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