Because It’s The Cup…

The 1899 Montreal Shamrocks With the Stanley Cup

The 1899 Montreal Shamrocks With the Stanley Cup

The second team to make it to the Stanley Cup Final was decided tonight as the Los Angeles Kings beat the Chicago Blackhawks in overtime of Game 7 of the Western semi-final. The Kings will meet the New York Rangers, starting later this week.

To celebrate another Stanley Cup, here’s an amazing video featuring a montage of every Stanley Cup winning celebration since 1949:

Some highlights…

– In 1984, Gretzky is the first person to hoist the Cup from end to end in the way we now normally picture players holding the Cup

– That 1989 Cup celebration should’ve had a sequel ten years ago

– Am I the only one who finds it hilarious that the last Leafs’ celebration was way back in 1967?

– Some people love that the first person Joe Sakic hands the Cup to in 2001 is Ray Bourque but I’ve never liked players leaving their long-term teams to teams they think will give them a better chance to win and whom they have no history with <cough>Iginla</cough>

– What this video doesn’t capture is that it’s become an annual ritual for the fans, whether the Cup is won in a home or away city, to boo the hell out of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.  There have been a few ideas about a better way to do this – one way I like is the idea of having a well-known team alumni present the Cup to the winning team’s Captain.  So in the last five years, you might’ve had…
2013 – Stan Mikita presenting to Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks
2012 – Wayne Gretzky presenting to Dustin Brown of the Los Angeles Kings
2011 – Bobby Orr presenting to Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins
2010 – Bobby Hull presenting to Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks
2009 –  Mario Lemieux (if you’re okay with an owner filling this dual role) presenting to Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Anyhow, here’s the clip…

Saturday Snap – Nice Weather’s Here…

 

…so we’re in the backyard as much as possible!

Kids in the Backyard

 

Friday Fun Link – Porktrack

A vital addition to the resources of the world wide web, Porktrack takes your birth date and tries to calculate back to make a best guess about which song was playing on the night you were conceived.

For example…

 

Solar Panels Could Replace Pavement on Highways and Roads

Yes, please!

2014 Forbes Billionaire Facts & Figures

I Work At A Public Library…

…which is why I find this Tumblr so funny!

Music Monday – “You know when people change/They gain a piece but they lose one too.”

Jimmy Fallon is getting all the viral love for his Tonight Show clips while David Letterman (who would’ve likely been a viral star if YouTube had been around in his early days) is doing things in a more traditional way and not aiming for online buzz like his younger counterparts – Jimmys Fallon and Kimmel.

But Letterman isn’t immune to viral hits.  In fact, he recently had a musical act’s performance go viral as well.  It’s all about the dancing…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ee4bfu_t3c

Seasons (Waiting on You)” – Future Islands

 

My Book Themed Interview

I saw an interview with author, Joshua Ferris, in a recent Entertainment Weekly and thought the series of book-themed questions they asked would be fun to answer for myself…

Your Favourite Book As a Child
“Child” usually means someone quite young  but honestly, the first book to come to mind when I read this question was one I read as a pre-teen.  So I’ll say that one – “Space Station 7th Grade” by Jerry Spinelli.

Your Favourite Book in High School
Probably “The Secret Annex” aka The Diary of Anne Frank.

An Illicit Book I Read in Secret As a Kid
I don’t know the title but there was some paperback my mom had that was about a female Russian spy who somehow gets plastic surgery and training so she can take the place of the US First Lady.  I think I opened it up to read based on the spy-thriller blurb on the back cover but my memory is it had some pretty raunchy sex scenes too! 😉

The Book I’ve Read Over and Over
Either “The Secret Annex” or “Slaughterhouse Five”.

My Favourite Movie Adaptation
It’s rare to find a movie that exceeds the book its based on but I’d say “Fight Club” comes close.

The Classics I’m Embarrassed To Say I’ve Never Read
As an English major, my answer is…most of them!  This is partly because there are just so many classics you’re “supposed” to read and although I appreciate most of the Classics that I have read, I’ve always been more drawn to popular material, non-fiction and the like (no surprise I turned out to be a librarian instead of an English prof I guess) so I haven’t read the “good” books that I’m supposed to. 😉

A Book I Consider Grossly Over-Rated
The Bible.  Seriously, when you think about how much of our world is defined by and tries to live by, what I recently called “the campfire stories of a bunch of desert nomads”, that’s the definition of over-rated as far as I’m concerned.  A well-meaning Christian friend recently posted an infographic on Facebook that claimed to list the Top 10 Most Read Books of All-Time with sales figures showing The Bible at #1 by a wide margin followed by the Quotations of Chairman Mao then the Harry Potter books.  Someone else left a comment pointing out exactly what I was thinking: “The list shows the Bestselling Books but the infographic’s title claims to show the Most Read books – these are two vastly different things when you consider how many people own a Bible but have never read it in any depth, let alone cover-to-cover.”

The Recent Book I Wish I’d Written
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy.  So damn good.

The Book People Might Be Surprised To Learn I Love
As a librarian, I’m a pretty big believer in not judging people for their reading choices.  On top of that, I’ve already copped to loving pop culture biographies, pro wrestling (so any books about wrasslin’ are on my “To Read” list) and all kinds of other embarrassing stuff on this blog.  So I’m not sure what book would surprise people that I love?  Well, I wouldn’t say I love it but I enjoyed John Gormley’s first book which was basically a 200-page take down of the Sask NDP.  I always think it’s valuable to try to understand the mindset and arguments of people who don’t agree with and this is a prime example of that.

The Last Book To Make You Laugh
Maybe “The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas” which was a series of essays relating to various secular aspects of Christmas, many of which were quite funny.

The Last Book To Make You Cry
Not sure if I cried but “Wonder” by RJ Palacio was pretty powerful.  Same with “Fault in Our Stars” which I read around the same time.  

What You’re Reading Now
Reading the autobiography of one of my favourite wrestlers from the 1980s and re-reading “Evolution” by Stephen Baxter.

Saturday Snap – As A Handyman, I Make A Pretty Good Librarian!

Luckily, my one neighbour has spent many years as a carpenter for the City of Regina (and also does numerous side projects for his own clients as well) while my other neighbour said “I’ve lived in five houses and built five fences!”

Add in two son-in-laws of the carpenter helping out (including one who is also a carpenter!) and you’ve got the perfect combination for a pretty damn good fence – even though I kept trying to screw it up by digging crooked holes and tipping over wheelbarrows of crusher dust and rounding off screws left and right! 😉

New Fence

Friday Fun Link – Tell Me About Your Favourite Book (Without Telling Me The Title or Author)q

A fun question/game in Reddit’s r/books sub-reddit.