It’s been a long Easter break for Burning Ears, but I’m back with a basket of clippings. No surprise that big snowstorm got plenty of attention, as did a Haligonian death in Afghanistan. And of course in Maine they’re on about about kicking Moosehead ass. Full links to these stories and lots more below.
CANADIAN CASUALTIES
from Winnipeg, Woodstock (NB) and beyond
The latest shitty news from Afghanistan hits Halifax particularly hard. Here’s the condensed version from Canadian Press, reported by CJOB radio in Winnipeg among others.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) – Six Canadian soldiers who were killed in their light armoured vehicle had triggered a “large” roadside bomb that was probably set by the Taliban only days or even hours before it exploded, their commanding officer says.
The blast killed Sgt. Donald Lucas, Cpl. Aaron E. Williams, Pte. Kevin Vincent Kennedy and Pte. David Robert Greenslade, all of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment. Also killed were Cpl. Christopher Paul Stannix, a reservist from the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers, and Cpl. Brent Poland of Sarnia, Ont. (full story here)
Obviously you can read more all over the web, like here. I won’t belabour it.
I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE EASTER
from Edmonton and Orillia
One little April snow dump, and suddenly our weather’s so bad that it’s news to readers of the Sun in chilly Edmonton or O-friggin-rillia:
The storm, which began Saturday evening, had delivered as much as 31 cm of unwelcome snow and wind to many areas of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick by yesterday morning. (full story here and here)
Luckily that’s definitely the last snow of the season. Right?
MOOSE ON THE ROPES
from Lewiston, Maine
Halifax’s Mooseheads may have lost the first two games of their Quebec League playoff series against the Lewiston Maineiacs, but they still have a way better name. And some stalwart fans. According to Lewiston’s Sun Journalnewspaper:
The Mooseheads had a small group of faithful joining them on the road.
A half dozen Halifax fans, dressed in Moosehead sweaters and armed with cowbells, provided constant noise in support of their team. Maineiacs fans, however, with their own bells and horns and scores of 8-4 and 4-1 helped drown them out. (full story here)
The Mooseheads are doubtless hoping to turn things around in game three, tonight in Halifax, while the Sun Journal has another story about how the trip to Halifax will be a “homecoming” for a couple Maineiacs. Oh, and, ummm, go Moose.
BOOMING BOX STORES
from Toronto
The Globe and Mail claims “Halifax ripe for retail breakthrough,” a strangely positive headline from Toronto’s national newspaper. The story itself isn’t so great, since it points to Dartmouth Crossing as the main evidence our port city “sparkles with the beauty and the promise of a good investment.” Here’s a hint at the charm businesses see:
“It’s a sound, steady place to do business,” says Bob Mussett, senior vice-president, Atlantic region with the CB Richard Ellis commercial real-estate services firm.
He attributes part of the lure to the strong local economy: “The base is so broad and it’s really getting broader.” Halifax serves as the regional capital and the financial centre of the east. It has a large military infrastructure that generates $1.5-billion for the economy each year. A half-dozen universities attract research funds and help produce a highly educated population. Unemployment has been running at less than five per cent. (full story here)
But if more big-box developments are what Halifax is ripe for, I’d rather be rotten.
WESTERN VIEWS
from Regina
Halifax pops up in a perfectly odd piece by Bob Hughes in the Leader-Post about a guy screwing around on someone else’s computer:
An e-mail arrives. It is from her sister, who is holed up in the far eastern burg of Halifax, which is in Nova Scotia, on the sea. She is digging herself out from a snowstorm. But she loves Halifax, and the laid-back lifestyle of the people. She loves the sea. She should. She is pretty well surrounded by it, and I am not sure if she can even swim. I am not sure how I wound up with this. I don’t like making decisions like this. (full story here)
Apparently the sister needs help choosing a wedding dress, and Hughes obliges, emailing back as if he’s not some trespassing stranger. He can lay some snide on Halifax all he wants, but I’m not sure the sister’s the weird one here.
BOOZE CLUES
from the Blogosphere
It’s always a proud moment when your city gets mentioned at Alcohol Self-Help News, the site of “News and commentary for mutual-help/self-help in the addictions.” Dal researcher Mark Asbridge was involved in a study of drinking and violence that hints that a community’s murder rate drops as the membership in Alcoholics Anonymous goes up:
The findings applied to men only. “Males drink more often, more heavily and consume more beer and spirits than females,” said Asbridge, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “Moreover, the nature of the link between alcohol consumption and violence is more readily a male experience, for example, drinking heavily in bar settings leads to aggression and violence.” (full story here)
The study is from last fall, but just made it to ASHNews today, along with such cheery stories as “Suicide & Alcohol,” “Sons of alcoholics: The early school years” and “AA Conversations Can’t Be Used as Evidence.“
RISKY BUSINESS
from Toronto
Speaking of fun times, Canadian Underwriter magazine reports that the Risk and Insurance Management Society is going to have a conference in Halifax in September. The story, “Safe Harbour,” is a disconcerting mix of walk down a worst-case-scenrio Memory Lane, and plug for the kitchen party spirit:
Nova Scotia is no stranger to tragedy. The city was rocked in 1917 by the largest artificial explosion in history, second only to the 1945 atom bomb. The Springhill mining disasters of 1891, 1956 and 1958 collectively killed more than 230 miners. SwissAir Flight 111 plummeted into the sea near Halifax in 1998, killing all 229 people on board. And Hurricane Juan hit the Halifax area in 2003 as a Category 2 hurricane with sustained windspeeds of 105 mp-h, becoming the first major hurricane to hit the area since 1893.
So the province has endured – and most importantly, learned from – each of the tragedies imposed on it, making it the perfect backdrop for the 2007 RIMS Canada Conference. The risk management conference will be held Sept. 16-19 at the World Trade and Conference Centre in Halifax.
Conference co-chairs Bruce Langille and Charles Parker say the theme of the conference this year is: “Lessons of the past, beacons of the future.”
On the evening of the gala, the Cunard Centre on Pier 23 will be transformed to recreate the atmosphere of a community get-together. Fiddles, singers, fresh seafood, will all lend the flavour to “replicate that rural entertainment that provided the community with a cohesiveness that they wouldn’t have had otherwise, due to the remoteness,” Langille says.
Parker sums it up by saying: “The people of the Maritimes and the Atlantic people work hard, but when they get together, they have fun.” (full story here)
Make a plan to avoid the scene. Then make a back-up plan to be sure.
BUILDING BLOCKS
from Toronto
Big anniversary coming up for the local architecture community, says Canadian Architect magazine:
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nova Scotia Association of Architects (NSAA). To celebrate this milestone, during the month of May the NSAA will be hosting an exceptional group of public speakers, including Ray Anderson, the “Greenest CEO in America,” and Thomas Homer-Dixon, author of the bestseller The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization. (full story here)
This is an event that could actually be interesting, especially if there are fights about the Twisted Towers.
Where are you finding Halifax online? Send links here.
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2007.
