Ho friggin'ho! Up in the Great White North we've recently had the deep freeze that so paralyzed the western provinces last week. I heard a statisitic on the news indicating that, one day last week, Edmonton, Alberta was the coldest place IN THE WORLD. Last Thursday was one of those deep freeze days here in Ontario, and we had some difficulty getting in and out of our long driveway. Though we are regularly plowed out, temperature fluctuations left our drive icy. Because I was testing out our new snowblower, I think our plow guy thought we didn't need him that day, and consequently, we have a driveway which is, at present, icy and unevenly plowed. Two wheel drive vehicles will get stuck, and even my four wheel drive was having some trouble. I finally bit the bullet and bought a set of Blizzak radial snows for my vehicle. All season radials are fine for the city, but they don't really cut the ketchup in the Great White North. As a friend pointed out from personal exoerience, one wants all the traction insurance one can get up here. I'm impressed with the new Blizzaks; they seem to grab even on ice.
Someone told me this was going to be a milder winter than the past two were, but so far, other than starting a little later (is today the official winter soltice ... I know it's soon?), the bad weather seems to be about the same. I read that Minden, Ontario, not so far from us, received about 140 centimeters of snow in one 48 hour period. Yowza, that's a lot of snow! Now the East Coast is getting hammered. Perfect timing for Obama's recent trip to Copenhagen to attend the climate change conference. Amidst violent protests in the streets, leaders came away with some kind of (likely unrealistic) agreement to lower greenhouse gases, measured I think by a goal to lower the global temperature by 2 degrees C. And it will only cost $800 Billion and bankrupt most Third World nations. This all sounds great on paper, but so far, nobody seems to have figured out how we go green AND grow our voracious economies. Does anybody in their right mind believe that the U.S. and China will comply? I wonder how much jet fuel is sucked up flying all these world leaders to their respective summits in order to decide how to save the world. Ever hear of video conferencing? As I was waiting for my new snow tires to be installed, I picked up a recent issue of Road and Track. Clearly GM is not completely on board with the concept of reducing our carbon footprint. Take Chevy for instance ... they're putting out a new Corvette that delivers over 700 hp, and the stock Camaro V-8 puts out over 400hp. Our bailout dollars at work.
And speaking of conspicuous consumption, director James Cameron's latest mega-movie "Avatar" was released last weekend. His last big flick, "Titanic" was certainly a box office success, but this latest big budget monster opened to mixed revues. I understand the movie, a 3-D sci-fi epic (2hrs and 40 min.), was 15 years in the making and cost around $250Million to produce (chicken feed for the U.S. Treasury) ... not including the ADDITIONAL $150 Million for MARKETING. Doesn't almost half a billion dollars seem a bit costly for one movie? I wonder how much it cost to make "The Big Chill" or "Little Miss Sunshine"... and were there even marketing budgets for those movies?? Hel-lo ... less special effects, better writing!
Final Christmas tip: if you still haven't bought your loved one something for Christmas, may I suggest one of Tiger Woods' Gatorade drinks ... very collectible amd soon to be rare. By the way, Merry Christmas to the PGA! Seriously though, may you all experience peace and contentment this holiday season, and may that peace and contentlment spread like wildfire through the hearts and souls of those who need it most. Hug your child, share some humor, shovel your neighbor's walk, or, as in my case, just try not to be as miserable and ornery as you usuually are. And Santa, remember, no booze on Christmas Eve.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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