Chemistry on Ice

When skating their 4-minute “Ice Dancing” program, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir had not watched the rendition of the French pair who were strong contenders for the Gold Medal at Pyeong Chang's Winter Olympics.

“That's the beautiful thing about skating,” stated Scott.

He recalled a long-ago conversation with Canada's best figure skater that stuck with him.

“Kurt Browning told us once, You compete against other skaters ~ but everyone gets their own 4 minutes. So just control that!”

Of interest: The top two 'Ice Dancing' teams in the world, both share the same coaches in Montreal: former Canadian 'ice dancers' (Patrice Lauzon and Marie-France Dubreuil). During workouts, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir watched the highly skilled French skaters, hundreds of times.

So many contributing skills mold the persona of our Tessa and Scott ~ from the Arts, the selected Music, the Athleticism ~ and today they have become entrepreneurs in this world of 'ice dancing'.

Consider the arts of Tom Thomson and Canada's Group of Seven.

Mix in the athleticism of Wayne Gretzky.

Add the musical combos of Daniel Lanois, folk-song Lauriate of Gordon Lighfoot and Leonard Cohen whose immense music contribution over several decades...is so memorable.

In most musical compositions, there is emotion and sexuality in the lyrics.

All Tessa's and Scott's presentations 'tell a story' and this story complements the foregoing attributes.

With music from Roxanne, they created a legend which won them GOLD!

We still enjoy skating together over these 20 years, states Scott, and I believe that's why we still are. It's more than a friendship...it's romantic as we develop the story as we work with our skilled personnel behind the scenes. Our working relationship is so strong in realizing the essence of the story to be told through choreography and the practised movements on ice. The audience hopefully watches as our story unfolds before their eyes. The presentation captures their attention which in turn captivates us to dance to the music and its lyrics.

Their future is unknown to us ~ but be assured, they will continue to skate and perform in a new capacity and venue. We love you both: TESSA and SCOTT! And wish you much success and enjoyment in your development of 'of dance' and whatever is your next project!

Everybody's youth is a dream ~ a form of chemical madness.
(F. Scott Fitzgerald)

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances.
If there is any sensation, both are transformed.
(Carl Yung)

Everybody is a genius!
But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,
it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.
(Albert Einstein)

Other News from the Canadian Front

'Best Buds' Stand Side by Side on the Podium: “When Canadian Brittany Phelan moved to the skicross discipline from alpine a few years ago, she quickly struck up a friendship with Kelsey Serwa, also Canadian. They describe themselves as 'best buds' now and are often inseparable...training together, hanging out regularly and sometimes even racing against each other. Skicross entered the Olympian lexicon in 2010. On Friday, they stood side-by-side on an Olympic podium. Serwa won Gold and Phelan took the Silver in the women's skicross competition at the Pyeong Chang Winter Games, giving Canada a repeat 1-2 Olympic finish from four years ago in Sochi.

Serwa said, “We didn't come out here to participate. We came out here to win!

To do it together is unbelievable. I'm so pumped!”

Canada's Flag Bearer? Canada has a long list of worthy candidates to receive the closing honour. Tomorrow, Sunday, is the Closing Ceremony for the current Winter Olympics Two possible flag bearers are Kim Boutin and Michael Kingsbury. Personally, I believe Canada should have two...in that when Canada's Team entered the stadium for the Opening Ceremony, it was our long-time ice-dancers, and medal winners over the years, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir who carried the flag.

Pup Rescue: Meagen Duhamel and Eric Radford not only won a Bronze Medal, they made news by rescuing a pup from South Korea's 'dog-meat-trade' and planned to whisk home another one.

Written by MBK...February 24, 2018
Comments appreciated

Hamilton LRT

 

So Hamilton is being offered 3.4 billion dollars to build an LRT? Is this not just a single line LRT from University Plaza to Eastgate? How does that cost so much?

If we're talking LRT lines snaking all over the city and up the Mountain to the Lime Ridge Transit Center, well, I'm listening.

Previously, businesses along King St objected to the LRT. While it is obviously good for business once running, it is challenging on business during construction.

I will admit that the streetcar lines added to Spadina Chinatown in Toronto are definitely a big improvement. And you can very conveniently take a streetcar from Union Station to Chinatown. And it looks nice too.

What I find ironically funny is that Hamilton had an LRT long before it had buses. Back then, the Mountain was mostly farmland, and there were no roads up the Mountain as there are now. A funicular operated at the south end of James St. There was even a small hotel at the top of the funicular.

Hamilton’s public transit system today, albeit all buses, is called HSR, which stands for Hamilton Street Railway.

Long ago, the rails were pulled up, but electric buses known as "trolley buses" continued to run with a busy network of overhead power lines in the downtown area into the early 1970's.

Later, those wires were removed. Most recently, a new downtown bus terminal was opened on MacNab St, and moved from Gore Park.

Now they want to spend $3.4 billion to build a Hamilton Street Railway? I may look stupid, but I'm not really stupid.

But $3.4 billion? Who is paying for it? With what money? Oh, they're just printing money to pay for it? Who pays for the printed money? Printed money steals from everybody's savings, forces everybody to pay more for basic commodities, and forces everybody into higher tax brackets as they have to earn more, cheaper money, to pay for basic living expenses.

That's if the general public continues to trust the federal government, and continues to accept their funny money. Once no one accepts it, it will become worthless, and will hyperinflate.

To come back on a positive note, I have used the LRT's in Calgary (C-Train) and Silicon Valley (VTA), and they both work very well. Calgary Transit reports that it costs $1.00 per passenger mile to move someone on a bus and only 10 cents per passenger mile to move someone on the C-Train. So there is a huge cost saving in operation: the notion being that an LRT tends to pay for its up-front investment in long-term operation.

And it has its share of accidents. Buses have accidents too. Calgary had a two year old boy fall off a downtown platform in front of an arriving C-Train. The operator tried, but could not physically stop his train in time.

That accident could easily be attributed to careless supervision, as the child's uncle had allowed the child to run aimlessly around the platform without training the child in basic rail safety.

(But if they allow a four-year-old kid to choose his gender identity, why not let him choose his own train platform safety. Let him choose what food he wants to eat. Let him choose if he wants to go to school. Let him choose when to come in at night.)

Composed by ABK, May 2021

Childhood Imagination

If your six-year old-son likes to pretend he is Batman, and likes you to call him Batman, you do not send him to school in a Batman costume, except on Oct 31. 

And you do not insist that all of his school teachers call him Batman.

And you do not threaten legal action against a teacher who refuses to call him Batman, but insists on using his given name.

Likewise, if your six-year-old daughter likes to pretend she's a mermaid, then let her enjoy her imagination and make-believe at home, or give her a mermaid themed birthday party.

You do not demand that her elementary school accommodate her wearing a fish tail to school every day. And if she wants to do that, you tell her no.

It is your responsibility as a parent to train your child in the difference between imaginary make-believe and reality.

On the same note, if your little girl likes being tomboyish at home, and likes playing in the dirt, well that's fine at home, but when she's going to school or out with Mom and Dad, she is expected to be neat and clean, and (preferably) feminine looking.

It is a parent's job to lead by example, and to train their children in proper standards.

In a related story, and just showing a right way to interpret such interests;

A certain little boy, we will say about six, was particularly fond of the movie Frozen. They had the usual collection of Disney cartoons, but this little boy couldn't get enough of Frozen.

He would sing the songs, and dance in the living room while it played. His mother worried a little bit that he seemed overly obsessed with the female characters.

Shopping for school needs, she offered him a Batman lunch box, but he had instantly gravitated over to the girls' section, and was looking over the Princess themed items. And he proudly pulled out a light blue Frozen-themed lunch box depicting Anna and Elsa with a huge smile on his face.

"I want this one."

His mother worried that things were going too far, and he shouldn't be using such girlish things in public.

"Those are meant for girls," she tried to explain. Boys at school will tease you.

"But I love it!" he pleaded.

After a while she found there was no changing his mind, and she bought it for him. And he happily used it every day without any complaints.

It didn't take this wise mother long to figure out that her son had a crush on Princess Anna. He loved watching Frozen because that was the only way he could see his beloved Anna.

He was singing and dancing in the living room because he was imagining that he was dancing with Anna.

He had no effeminate tendencies at all, and she felt so ashamed of herself for even worrying about anything so silly. She thought back to her own childhood, when she used to dress up in a princess costume and dream of marrying a prince.

Her son's behaviour was less common for a boy his age, but hardly anything to worry about.

She saw his interest for what it truly was: a perfectly healthy and appropriate male desire for feminine beauty.

So she went down to the Disney Store, and they showed her some high end, ornamental princess dolls, and she ordered an Anna doll and gave it to him for his birthday.