“if only he would finally just lay down, take one last breathe and fall asleep like the normal configured people”

Toronto Star;

EDMONTON – The Terminator came calling and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein was up for the challenge.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger phoned Klein yesterday to place a wager on the Calgary-San Jose National Hockey League playoff series and the duo agreed to put up $1,000 each on the outcome of the best-of-seven semi-final.
“Each person will decide what charity to support once the winner is decided,” said Klein’s press secretary, Marisa Etmanski.
Klein is leaning toward helping the Special Olympics, she said.
Etmanski added that the two leaders did not clarify during their five-minute telephone chat if the loser will have to pay in American greenbacks or Canadian loonies.
“I imagine if it’s Arnold giving it to us, it’d be in American,” she said.
Etmanski said Klein thought talking to Schwarzenegger, an actor best known for his roles in the Terminator movies before he became governor, was “cool.”
The leaders also discussed other things such as Alberta’s energy role in California, the Edmonton Sun reported in a story today.
“(Schwarzenegger) was quite receptive and hoped that they could meet face to face some day,” Etmanski said.
As to whether the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger is a hockey fan, Etmanski said he “indicated he definitely wanted San Jose to win.”
Calgary won the first game 4-3 in overtime Sunday. The second game will be played tonight.

*cough*
Except it wasn’t “Ahnold” calling. It was an Edmonton radio station, pulling a prank.
Don’t anybody tell the Star. It looks good on them.

Hypertasking?

BIGresearch claims 70 percent of media users consume more than one medium at a time. Of those who listen to radio, 53.7 percent are online, 46.9 percent are reading a newspaper and 17.7 percent are watching TV. Of those watching TV, 66.2 percent are online and 74.2 percent are reading a newspaper.

And I just assumed I had Attention Deficit Disorder.
(Hypertasking this post at the Beltway Traffic Jam )

To my bank manager this morning during a review of my meagre investment portfolio;

“If I was interested in ‘high-risk, high-return’, Betty – I’d be selling crack.”

In 1861, 21 year old Jim Creighton died from a ruptured inguinal hernia, after swinging at a pitch. In 1888, John Glenn was accidentally shot by a policeman while being protected by a lynch mob. Len Koenecke was battered to death in a plane in 1931, by a member of the crew, who used a fire extinguisher to do the deed.
Dedicated to dead major league baseball players, Frank Russo’s The Deadball Era has this and much more!

Following on the heels of the highly successful and universally praised Canadian Firearms Registry, a new Canadian Breast Implant Registry has been announced.

The registry would address concerns of Health Canada that illegally sold and unregulated breast implants are making their way across the border from the US and Asian countries. It is estimated that the illegal breast trade has swelled to nearly $300 million since most breast implants were banned in Canada in the early 1990’s in a wake of device failures and court settlements.
The Breast Implant Registry would be backed by new legislation that would allow police to enter any hospital or commercial place of business without a warrant. In special circumstances, searches can be extended to allow physical examinations if illegal implants are suspected. Negotiations are underway with the provinces to hammer out who pays for removal of illegal implants, as these devices are a known threat to health, and many victims are unaware they have them.
The legislation also further restricts the use of approved breast implants, including limits on minimum age and maximum size. As of Jan 1, 2005, no implant in excess of a B cup will be legal in Canada, unless approved by a hospital committee.
Health Canada reports that about 4,500 Canadian women per year, as well as a handful of men, require surgery for breast implant related injuries or illness, and that many others go unreported. It is unknown how many illegal breasts are in Canada, but estimates go as high as 40,000.
“We are seeing just the tit of a breast implant iceberg”, says New Democrat MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis. Wasylycia-Leis is part of an all party committee looking at the problem.

Heterosexuals Demand Right To Be Gay
“Equality for Gay Heterosexuals” met yesterday to organize their first ever Gay Pride Parade. George MacRae, 47 and his wife, Janice spoke for their organization. Pushing back his baseball cap to reveal a tanlined forehead, George explained,

“All we’re asking is for society to allow us to stand up and say “We’re gay!”. Not all the time, of course, but most of the time. We have a heck of a lot of fun at poker rallies and fishing derbies, but we can never be gay. For years we’ve been forced to say we were ‘delirious’ or ‘ecstatic'”.
“They say only homosexuals can be gay. We can be ‘happy’ if we like, with all the same protections of happiness that homosexual people have. But ‘happy’ isn’t the same thing as ‘gay’, you know? It’s close, but it’s not the real thing. We just want to be equal and to live our lives as gay people in peace. Being a heterosexual and gay does nothing to dimish homosexual gayness. We think it strengthens it.”

MacRae’s wife has opened a dance club where members have a place to meet and socialize with other gays. Friday was the ribbon cutting, followed by a whist tournament and barn dance.

“Homosexuals don’t have to give up anything up to allow heterosexuals the right to be ‘gay’. Homosexual culture and traditions aren’t going to come crashing down because a man and woman want to be recognized fully as a gay couple.”

Shameless self promotion at the Beltway Traffic Jam