Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Amanda asked that I help her point out to Sobeys that if they overpack their groceries while competing companies like Westfair Foods start handing out incentives for customers to reduce disposable bag use, then they will lose business. Customers groan about over-packaging. There are some ninnies concerned that their frozen peas don’t touch their powdered gravy box, I suppose. It’s time to stop pandering to those sorts, because they are covering us in a sea of garbage.

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Speaking of over packaging, check out this Pronto Condom. It probably isn’t over packaged, it’s just packaged differently.
Video

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I was in Swift Current today. The weather was very hot, and it didn’t rain. I stopped at Moose Jaw for A&W, with a traveler who was injured at Calgary airport lugging boxes for his job. Mike said he learned a lot about Saskatchewan while talking with me, and I checked that I hadn’t talked his ear off, and he said I hadn’t. I don’t think he was just being polite, so that was a nice compliment.

On the way I listened to Gormley talking about an effort in Ontario to get the provincial government to override any bylaws that prohibit clotheslines. He couldn’t get a single caller to say they were anti-clotheslines. Saskatchewan people are smart, because clotheslines are awesome.

Are you wondering how MMP will work in Ontario when people vote to change to that system of representative election? Billy will tell you.

Monday night I watched “American Beauty” [8/10] because Ashley recommended it. She did a good job — it’s a very interesting movie with a bittersweet ending.

I also forgot my speedometer for my bike this morning, so my odometer is missing several kilometers off its already high count of over 666km. I noticed that when I got to work last week one morning. Not bad for a year old bike.

I’m headed to Swift Current tomorrow, so I have a long day on the road ahead of me. No movies on the road, but maybe I’ll tune in to John Gormley Live, since I miss it many mornings now that AM radio doesn’t work in my office.

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It’s no coincidence that the study suggesting that caffeine reduces skin cancer IF coupled with exercise, used mice as the subjects. If you get on the caffeine bandwagon, you may as well be a rat in a maze. Each morning you’ll stumble around searching for your next fix, kind of dozy and vapid like a mouse in the daylight, until you down your first nibbles, and dart off to your tasks.

I’ll stick to my many hours of sleep, and water in the morning, thank you very much Nabob and Mr. Horton. I’ll just double double my bank account, instead of yours. Plus, I don’t have to worry about fair trade water, like I would with coffee. Or will I one day…

The building scandal over bottled water isn’t a surprise to me. I’ve known for some time that bottled water from big distributors is nothing special. You can tell either from the disclosure on the label that it’s from a city water source, or from a lack of any clear disclosure. The good water makes sure to tell you their desirable source.

I only buy bottled water when there’s no fountain in sight, or I can’t ask a staff member at the food source to give me a cup of tap water. I don’t like to buy soda pop, because it’s gross and unhealthy, and doesn’t quench a thirst at all (it makes me more thirsty because of the sugar in it, I suspect). So I try to carry Regina (filtered) tap water with me when I go out for more than a few hours.

The thought of the waste that goes into not only producing the container for the water, but also the gasoline spent getting it to the site where you buy it from, makes me pretty uncomfortable. I spent a few years working part time for a water bottling plant in my hometown, and I’d certainly buy water from them if my home didn’t have safe water. However, I think the number of businesses set up to sell people bottled water, are acting unethically if they don’t offer a tap water source to their customers (assuming the business has a tap). I’d understand if they want to charge for the container to cover expenses, but the $3 water you find at events and in movie theaters are offensive.

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RT has more.

- The Saskatchewan Legislature across Wascana Lake

This story is rather shocking to people who expect that it’s a crime to give a government employee favours or gifts in order to obtain a government permit. The claim by Mr. Lee laid out on his web page, is that a Minister in the Calvert government suggested that if Lee hadn’t done something to sour his personal relationship with a particular RM Administrator, then Lee’s zoning problem would have had a better chance of being resolved.

[The Minister] ruled that my only option, as the [developers'] agent, was to “carry more flowers, chocolates and perfume” to [Rural Municipality Administrator] Strudwick so as to be “more successful with the zoning issue”.

[All] small developers are placed in a impossible situation. I repeat, the Minister Responsible and all three levels of Court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, have ruled that the only option the Developers have to obtain zoning for their subdivision is to “carry flowers, chocolates and perfume” to the Rural Administrators and Councils but it is a contravention of Section 123(1) MUNICIPAL CORRUPTION of the Criminal Code to carry “a benefit of any kind” to a Municipal official, and the Premier of Saskatchewan has refused to deal with the problem [...]

I’d encourage you to read Lee’s web page, even though it’s a bit long. It’s not a difficult read. It explains the background to the story, and what has been tried to resolve it through the politicians, courts of Saskatchewan, and Canada.

Are Administrators and other government officials now entitled to token gifts before they rubber stamp our building permits? It appears to me that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that this is the case, even though it’s still on the books as being illegal.

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I came to know of this story because one of the government entities involved in the land development was where I grew up, and still have family who live there.

The Garden progresses:

- I’m going to eat the lettuce this week. I’ve already started digging into the field peas which make about 2 pods each, with 3 peas to a pod. The radishes are a few weeks away yet.

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I was in Wood Mountain today, and stopped at Briercrest too.

I noticed this “news” story the other day. It turns out that Lorne Calvert bites. Most of the province has known this for years, but the media just discovered it last week.

How bad does the capability of the media have to be, that they go to a press event for a hybrid car, and instead report on the dental work of our political leader? Because false teeth are so much more important than promoting more efficient automobile travel.

And if we were in the States, we’d even hear about his heart, like we do for Cheney when he gets one put in.

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Hat tip to John Murney

“The Simpsons – The Movie” [9/10]

The only thing that bugged me at The Simpsons’ movie were the people who got up and started to leave as the credits started. How much of a Simpsons fan can you be to not realize that there are going to be jokes in a major Simpsons showing, embedded into the credits? Do people everywhere leave early in movies, or is it just a Saskatchewan thing?

As for the scenes where they made fun of American consumer pollution, and nudity prudishness, they were excellent. I don’t know if other movies have had cartoon child penises in them before, but Fox sure walked the line there. I’m surprised it wasn’t rated NC-17. From the quick flash of Bart’s nudity, it would appear that he isn’t circumcised. I don’t know if this has any significance, but I would guess not.