What a Father hopes for on Fathers' Day

Fathers are tricky business

Some of us love and revere them

Feel their presence in all we are as individuals, 

Or find ourselves bedamned by the weaknesses we see in them that have passed on to us;

That we must face within ourselves, to hopefully break the cycles that are hurtful

And to faithfully carry on those that support and boost us all higher

The choices we've made; how we've lived

Between self-sacrifice and selfishness

Did we disappoint our fathers or did we impress?

Push the family further?

Hold our own to maintain the legacy of the ages?

A legacy passed to us, unasked, and perhaps forwarded on to another generation,

As the legacy was so unasked of all generations past

Yes, tricky indeed

But may I say,

As a father, as a son and as a grandfather

What I want of my kin on Fathers' Day

What I hope for...

Is to know that my children, stepchildren and grandchildren feel safe and secure and confident

That they feel my love and strength

Buttressing them through every scary moment life forces them to endure

That whatever mistakes I've made,

They've understood there was no malice, no lack of belief in them as the fantastic indivuals they are

No moment of doubt of them in my heart

Ever

And that they can always know I am there for them

In my unbounded love for them

In any way I can be of help to them

With everything I have put forth into this world

It has all been for you

I hope it can be of use to you

You are all beautiful and important in the Universe

In ways you may never comprehend

And I am damn proud of you

Now don't worry about giving me any cards or shit

Just go on and keep kicking ass

(With love and respect for humanity, eh?)

PS: for those who, unlike me, have lost their fathers, Billy Bragg has you

Tank Park Salute

- 30 -

Smile, and Greet the Customer

That was the first line on the SOC (Station Observation Checklist) for the position of Cashier at McDonald's Corporation in the 1990s, when I was an Assistant Manager at the flagship Peel Street location in downtown Montreal.

Over a three-hour shift from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., a part-time crew member would be expected to perform this (and dozens of other high-energy and well-delineated tasks) around one to two hundred times (with expected vigor) for their minimum wage earnings, unquestionably.

There were pins to be awarded for high customer throughput, such as the 350 customers served (by the team) in a given hour. WOO-HOO!

We cherished those badges of honour - and we wore them proudly on our carefully ironed cotton/polyester lapels - like US Marines with their Purple Hearts.

Of course, we didn't have to shoot anyone or get maimed in the process, so weren't we the lucky ones!

After years of working my tail off (I was just bloody grateful to be working anywhere at all to pay the rent while slowly plying my way through an undergraduate degree at Concordia U.), I was eventually promoted to manager. With that came the responsibility of balancing the safe and all cash tills, as well as faithfully toeing the corporate line.

Why, I myself was scolded by senior management for failing to iron-in a proper crease in my shirt sleeves, ...once, but with God as my witness, never again!

The standard for presentation was high (even in polyester), and it applied to all employees.

If they arrived for work in an unclean uniform, or otherwise unkempt in any way, they could expect to be unceremoniously reviled by me, or any other manager, in front of their co-workers, and sent home without pay. No recompense for their transport or time spent; only shame.

For the majority, who considered themselves lucky enough to remain on the clock (that day, at least), they knew they'd dodged a bullet. And the other rules were automatic, starting with:

"Smile, and greet the customer."

* * *

Many years later (2013 if memory serves), over a dozen years after I'd resigned from McD's on the spot (more on that to come in future posts), my  step-daughter, at 15, would be hired as cashier at the Dorval, Quebec McDonald's franchise. The SOC, I noted at the time, was unchanged.

"They're telling me I have to smile but I don't want to smile at everyone," she protested. "Some of them are, well, ...creeps."

My step-daughter's smile lights up a room like a floodlight, just like her mother's. It doesn't just "show up" on demand a hundred-plus times a day; and especially not for minimum wage. I got that. She lasted there less than two weeks and when she told me she'd quit over it, I gained a new respect for her. It was a revelation to me, about our changing world. Bullshit is bullshit, and there's just no excuse for it - not anymore.

"No means no" meets fast food, essentially.

* * *

Sometimes I go to a McD's nowadays as a customer and I place my order on a massive touchscreen, or order through the Drive-Thru, and then someone very busily multi-tasking hands me my order.

They don't smile, generally, and I don't give a hoot one way or the other. But I wonder if the Cashier SOC has been updated, or if it still starts with:

"Smile, and greet the customer"

- 30 -

NOTE: No AI has been harmed in the creation of this post. It was just me. :-)

2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam only made it big because of the path forged by Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, the Pixies and Montreal bands like the Nils, the Asexuals and Three O'Clock Train.

(If you disagree, dear reader, I am happy to hear what you think in the comments.)

Strangely, I feel a real relevance of that to whatever I'm witnessing here with our Habs, even as they drop the second game of their third round series against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Regardless, the Canadiens' 25th Stanley Cup will not necessarily come to the most deserving Habs team; but the most opportune, when the stars align. It could be now (I really think it might), or it could necessarily be somewhere down the line. Essentially, school is still (and always) in session when you're coached by such a diligent student of The Game as Martin Saint-Louis.

20 years ago,...

Again in 2011...

2021...

Whatevs!

What my eyes see this year: our CH are playing toe to toe with the best.

And it's dawn, not dusk.

GoHabsGo !

Goin' South to North Carolina

(Sung to the tune of Hotel California. Apologies to the Eagles)

On a flight home from Buffalo

An eighth win in the bank

Rank smells from the equipment bags

To remind them of how Game 6 stank

Up ahead on the schedule

They saw an upcoming flight

Their play had steadied

Having fought hard to win

They had to brace for the next fight

There it lay 'midst the hog farms

And a million cowbells

And they were thinking to themselves,

This could be heaven or this could be hell

Then Marty lit up the torCH and he showed them the way

Those Forum ghosts have still got their backs

And you can hear them say:

"You're goin' south to North Carolina

Aaron Ward lives here

He might buy you a beer

Playing Round 3 down in North Carolina

Such a whale of a place

Such a tragic (coach's) face"

Their game is Brind-Amour twisted

Their fans make lots of noise

They got a lot of pretty flashy players

But none to match Suzuki's points

They got a pretty good goalkeep

But his team don't go deep

Canes can win a couple rounds every year

But they can never win three

Recall the Habs' '06 captain

Who'd beaten back cancer like a giant

Then Williams took out Saku's eye

Never fully regained his sight

And still those Forum ghosts calling from far away

Wake these Canes up in the middle of the night

Cuz this is the CH's day

Goin' south now to North Carolina

Justin Williams beware

An eye for an eye I swear

Xhekaj is comin' for you down in North Carolina

Such a whale of a place

Such a tragic (coach's) face

A kid named Sebastien Aho

Took Bergy's offer sheet

He wanted to become a Hab

But the Canes owner, he was piqued

So he matched the Habs' offer

Said: "Kid, you're my property"

"You can sign Bergy's offer sheet 

But you can never leave"

A kid named Kotkaniemi

Thought 6 mill sounded nice

And he found: "We are all just prisoners here

Upon our agents' advice"

And in Brind-Amour's chambers

They haven't played in two weeks

They shoot the puck from every corner of the ice

But they still can't win the East

#GoHabsGo

Love these Habs now

Love These Habs Now

(apologies to Mon Rovîa) 

Do you hear the Bell Centre roar?

Do you recall when you heard that before

Times ain't the same in the Atlantic

Got a bunch of teams juiced like hell

While the refs keep their whistles on the shelf 

 

Do you see the Habs compete

Fighting for every inch of that ice sheet

SFU can write them off as small and weak

But they battle hard cuz they ain't meek

Ain't gonna knock 'em off their feet

 

Love these Habs now

Show em' MSL 

Lindy's Sabres are playing on a heavy foot

And they're trying to keep the Habs down

But no they're never gonna push 'em around

 

They scored fast to start Game 3

But the pushback was more than they'd seen

Newhook and Dach and Slafkovsky

Outclassed the Sabres wicked clean

Showed 'em what it means to be a team

 

Did you see their captain Dahleen?

Norris hopeful, beautiful sheen

Cheap-shotting everyone he can find

Cuz he knows the refs know when to be blind

Man, that's a different kind of weak

Love these Habs now

Show em' MSL 

Lindy's Sabres are playing on a heavy foot

And they're trying to beat the Habs down

But no they're never gonna keep the Habs down

Did you see the scrum in Game 2?

Benson down prone all vulnerable

Mike Matheson protected him well

Union brothers, man, should be a tell

Love these Habs now

Show em' MSL 

Lindy's Sabres are playing on a heavy foot

And they're trying to beat the Habs down

But no they're never gonna push 'em around

 

Deep Playoff Run (apologies to CHappell Roan)

(Sung to the tune of "Pink Pony Club")

 

I know you wanted me to stay

Mired in the Atlantic division, out of Bettman’s way

And I heard Saint-Louis’s sage conseil

Where players on this Habs team are teammates all the way

 

I’m having wicked dreams

Of Habs supremacy

Oh, playoffs’ final round

I swear it’s calling me

Won’t make ol’ Bettman proud

It’s gonna cause a scene

He sees a Canadian team

I know he’s gonna scream

 

God, what have you done?

There are deep playoff rounds

Where Habs don’t belong

Yo mama, we’re having great fun

 

On the ice with FastLane

Where the CH belong all pushing for a

Deep playoff run

I’m gonnn keep on hoping for a

Deep playoff run

I’m gonna keep on cheering

Down at Brasserie CHerrier

I’m gonna keep on rooting for a

Deep playoff run, deep playoff run

 

Newhook scored, and jaws are on the floor

Tage Thompson in the bathroom spewing vomit at the door

Blackout zones; fans screwed throughout it all

Every night’s another reason why the Habs won’t fall

 

I thank my wicked dreams

Of Habs supremacy

Oh, playoffs’ final round

Are you that far from me?

Won’t make ol’ Bettman proud

It’s gonna cause a scene

He sees a Canadian team

I know he’s gonna scream

God, what have you done?

There are deep playoff rounds

Where the Habs don’t belong

Yo mama, we’re having great fun

 

On the ice with our hockey ghosts

It’s where we belong down in a

Deep playoff run

I’m gonna keep on hoping for a

Deep playoff run

I’m gonna keep on cheering

Down at Brasserie CHerrier

I’m gonna keep on rooting for a

Deep playoff run, deep playoff run

 

Don’t think of players left behind

Still love Price and Weber

You’re always on my mind 

And Gary, every Saturday

I can hear your lawyery drawl a thousand miles away, saying

God, what have you done?

There are deep playoff rounds

Where the Habs don’t belong

Yo mama, we’re having great fun

 

On the late Springtime ice

It’s where we belong down in a

Deep playoff run

I’m gonna keep on hoping for a

Deep playoff run

I’m gonna keep on cheering

Down at Brasserie CHerrier

I’m gonna keep on rooting for a

Deep playoff run, deep playoff run

I’m gonna keep on hopin’!

Notes on a World of Flux

So... 

     Pierre Poilievre doesn't like fast trains that reduce greenhouse gas emissions over jet travel (and free up existing rail infrastructure for freight). And he's against taxing gasoline. And he wants more pipelines for O&G.

You think this he's stumping for O&G? Where there's smoke, there's fire.

Poilievre calls for federal tax holiday on fuel as gas prices spike / CBC News 

 ... 

      You won't be missed, François Legault, you Duplessis wannabe who refused to accept Quebec is as guilty of systemic racism as any continental collonial society:

Un dernier tour de piste pour Legault 

Another (final) day, another law to curtail Quebecers' Charter rights. What a piece of shit.

Que le CAQastrophe s'arrêter toute de suite!

 ...

     Finally, I think it's time to put pressure on Montreal-based, Quebec-subsidized GardaWorld to divest itself of its US concentration camp construction subsidiary.

How Montreal-based GardaWorld stands to cash in on U.S. immigration crackdown / CBC News