Ol' Spaghetti Legs

I never saw him play (or coach for that matter), but I thought I'd pause to acknowledge the passing of a legend. By many accounts, the greatest player to ever play Canadian football: Jackie Parker. I really hope that the Esks have some sort of tribute at the beginning of the season next year.

The World In Union

The final is just under a year away. I'm excited.

Running For The Cure

As the title indicates, I shall be running for the cure on October 1. I'd encourage charitable readers to donate in my name.

Well, I didn't do the picks last week (apart from my pick from the week before in the B.C. Montreal game), and we saw what happened. I'll not let that happen again (I'm aware that my making or not making picks on the internet does not cause Ricky Ray to fumble in the last minute, but as I'm sure many of you have guessed by now, I'm a very superstitious person).

Hamilton and Edmonton: I'm not sure what to say about what happened last week, apart from the fact that they seem to be finding new ways to lose games that they should win. I'm a little concerned that Jesse Lumsden will be starting on Friday. At the same time, while A.J. Gass was fined for his actions in the altercation at the end, he should still play. As well, if this season has shown anything it's that Edmonton is a different team at home.

Toronto and Calgary: This is an interesting one. Calgary bounced back well after looking rather bad in Edmonton the previous week. Toronto is coming off a game against Hamilton that was much closer than it should have been. Something just tells me that Calgary is probably going to win this one.

Winnipeg and Montreal: Montreal is probably the team that's the hardest to make sense of, apart from maybe Edmonton. The much vaunted offensive line leaked 12 sacks last week. Winnipeg seems to have come down to earth a bit after a strong start to the season. They should bounce back this week. If I keep picking Montreal every week, eventually I should be right. That being said, I think the addition of Derick Armstrong, as another solid receiving threat, should put Winnipeg over the top in this game.

B.C. and Saskatchewan: I admittedly have a rather large vested interest in the outcome of this game. Saskatchewan tends to do well against B.C. However, the Lions are on a real roll right now. I'm saying that B.C. gives Edmonton a big hand, and knocks off Saskatchewan.

See Trump Jump...

The Shark, that is. Seriously. I was quite excited about this season's Apprentice, until I read this. One could make a pretty convincing argument for Carolyn being the best part of the show. Regardless of what was going on in her other positions, Trump should have at least kept her on for the purpose of doing the show. To top it all off, it looks like Donald Jr. and Ivanka are going to be the first team "advisors". Ivanka's ok, but I didn't find Donald Jr. to be particularly compelling in his appearances last year. Bill would be much better (though, I do occasionally wonder why Bill seems to be the only past contestant to get recycled. Admittedly, Kelly would be pretty boring, but the rest of them may be worth a shot). At any rate, if The Apprentice sucks this year, we'll all know why.

Partook in a BBQ at Gary's on the weekend. Excellent ribs. I also watched Jungle Book for the first time in well over 15 years. There's a lot of parts which I'd forgotten.

On the sporting front, clearly I'm paying only passing attention to what's going on these days, since last week I forgot how many games Montreal had lost in a row.

Anyways, here are my thoughts for this week.

Montreal and B.C. Well, I keep picking Montreal, and they keep losing. Not sure what the solution is, but B.C. seems to be rolling right now. Additionally, with the news that Casey Printer won't be back, the Lions are avoiding a potential distraction. Not sure what the latest on Dickenson's injury is, but Buck Pierce seems to be filling in well. Perhaps the QB factory for the league has moved westwards. As for the game, I'll go with B.C..

Calgary and Edmonton. See above. I toyed with actually picking Calgary to change up the karma a bit, but then I decided that I wouldn't be able to live with myself. If they can't win with a playoff berth basically on the line and 50,000 screaming fans in the stands, then they don't deserve to make the playoffs anyways. Edmonton, coming back with their shields or on them.

Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. I suppose either way this one goes, one of the teams we have to catch (either for 3rd place or the crossover) winds up winning. I didn't get a chance to catch this game at all last week, but Saskatchewan seems to be doing quite well as of late. I'm guessing that the Riders will maintain their momentum for at least another week.

The Coke Side Of Life

GTA and Coke. What more could you want?

Scrum One, Scrum All

I would encourage all of my readers in the Edmonton area with free time on their hands to attend the Women's Rugby World Cup. This is the first time that the competition has been held outside Europe, and I'm hopeful that Edmonton can continue its strong tradition of hosting world class events. This should also be a great opportunity to catch some world-class women's rugby.

In other sporting news, here are my thoughts for the Labour Day match-ups.

Montreal and BC: It's occured to me that I'll be pulling for the underdogs in pretty much every game this week. As bad as they looked last week, I can't see Montreal losing three in a row (though, I think last week I may have said that I couldn't see two in a row. At any event, Montreal is still the pick).

Saskatchewan and Winnipeg: Saskatchewan has looked pretty dominant the past couple of weeks, though that hasn't been hard given their opponent. Winnipeg choked pretty badly last week against the Argos as well. Rocky Butler has quite the record against Winnipeg in Labour Day games. I'll be pulling for Winnipeg, but it just seems to me like Saskatchewan is looking better right now.

Toronto and Hamilton: Hamilton's last game is as bad as I think I've seen a team play, and I remember the Shreveport Pirates and the Las Vegas Posse. John Avery is apparently hurt, so the Argo run game will be a bit less potent. I'm starting to get reckless with these picks, but it can only go up for Hamilton, and Terry Vauhgn doesn't lose on Labour Day. Hamilton shocks the world.

Edmonton and Calgary: I'm a tad annoyed that this is the early game (though, I suppose this guarantees that I get to see the whole game, instead of having them cut to it after kickoff). Given that I'm not volunteering for Orientation this year, I have a pretty good idea how this is going to turn out, however, I'm going to pick Edmonton anyways; in part because I think the return of A.J. Gass should provide a spark. The offence should be better as well.

Ride The Bull

Apparently not even Cook County is immune to those guys that hang out in the bathroom and put soap on your hands and then ask for money. I know others have complained about this practice elsewhere, but it's really starting to get onerous. Usually I'm pretty good at timing it so I'm washing my hands while the attendant is busy with someone else, however, this time there were two of them so I couldn't escape. I'll say this to the local bar establishments: 1. I can wash my own damned hands, 2. It's much harder to over-tip your bartenders and waitresses when I'm being charged every time I go to the bathroom.

Apart from that, I found the Cook County experience rather strange. I would think that people that go there regularly are looking for a certain type of atmosphere, a certain type of music. That environment is typified by the mechanical bull (which I did in fact ride). I'm guessing that people don't go to Cook County so that they can dance to "Baby Got Back". Cultivate your base people.

On the topic of sports, I'll likely do much better in my picks this week as I won't be showing unde faith in a team which clearly doesn't deserve as much as I've shown thus far. Given that I shan't be volunteering for Orientation this year, I'm also a tad concerned as to their prospects for Labour Day. However, that is still a little while away. As for the coming games:

Calgary and Montreal: Speaking of undue faith being shown... I'm going to say that Montreal isn't going to play badly three weeks in a row, and that they aren't going to lose to Calgary at home. Montreal should take it.

Winnipeg and Toronto: Damon's back, now the shoe is on the other foot for Winnipeg. The Bombers were looking good, but injuries seem to have caught up with them. I'm going with Toronto.

Saskatchewan and Hamilton: I honestly didn't see the dismissal of Roy Shivers coming, and while I didn't much care for him I'm not entirely sure it was warranted. That being said, I've never much cared for Eric Tillman either. I think that the media outlets that keep giving him credit for being GM of the Grey Cup winning Argonauts in 97 need to keep in mind that in 1997 they already had Doug Flutie, Don Matthews, Paul Masotti, Pinball Clemons and pretty much everyone else. Tillman would have brought in a then-rookie Derrell Mitchell, but apart from that I don't think he deserves that much credit for their Cup (94 with the Lions may be another matter). Anyways, Saskatchewan's front office aside, the Riders took it to the Ti-Cats last week, and I don't see that changing this week.