HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-03-17, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2011. PAGE 5.
Here’s a radical prediction for you:
cigarettes will disappear by 2050.
Imagine. Your kids’ grandkids may
have to actually Google ‘cigarette’ to find out
what one looks like.
That’s not my prediction, by the way – it
comes out of a news report from Citigroup,
Inc., which happens to be one of the Big Four
American banks – and if you can’t trust an
American banker, who can you trust?
It’s not as if they’ve been spectacularly
wrong lately…
But whether oblivion awaits or not, there’s
no doubt that cancer sticks are on the run. The
city council in Cambridge, Massachusetts has
become the latest governing body to ban
smoking, not just in restaurants, bars and
public buildings but in all public places,
including parks.
Cambridge is Johnny-come-lately in the
gasper-banning game. Here in Canada public
smoking is already just below public urination
on the Social Taboo Totem Pole, but we’re not
just harassing nicotine addicts – we’re siccing
lawyers on the ghouls who manufacture the
things.
Last month, Newfoundland and Labrador
became the latest province to sue tobacco
companies. The province aims to reclaim “all
costs associated with health-care services
provided to individuals who have suffered
from tobacco-related diseases as well as all
future health-related costs.”
And how much might that add up to?
Nobody’s saying exactly, but my bet is there
aren’t enough zeroes on the tobacco industry
abacus to cover it. Other provincial lawsuits
against tobacco companies offer a glimpse:
British Columbia sued 14 tobacco firms for
$10 billion in 2004. Five years later, Ontario
and Quebec held out their hands for a
combined $80 billion. New Brunswick is
waving legal papers in Rothman’s face and the
provinces of Alberta, Nova Scotia and
Saskatchewan are drawing up legislation as I
type.
Even if tobacco companies manage to beat
most of the lawsuits, the bill from their
lawyers will put them in the poorhouse. I’m
pretty certain most Canadians will manage to
contain their grief over such an outcome.
What are the odds that we’ll see a reversal in
public opinion and smoking will become cool
again? Slim to none. This ashtray is full.
Cigarette’s day is all but done.
I say that with confidence because I just read
that New York City has extended its already
extensive smoking ban to include municipal
parks, all beaches … and even Times Square.
Times Square? Fuggedaboudit! The junction
of Broadway and Seventh Avenue has been
smoke-friendly since the chief of the
Manhattan Indian tribe sat down to swap pipes
with Henry Hudson and his crew 400 years
ago. Times Square is more than smoke-
friendly, it’s smoke-exultant. The air in the
square is blue-grey with bus and car exhaust,
odiferous carts selling roasted chestnuts,
steaming sewer grates and yes, thousands of
smokers.
I remember one classic New York moment
that I witnessed in Times Square many years
ago. My pal, Big John and I were in the middle
of a clump of pedestrians waiting for a break
in the traffic so we could cross the street. Big
John, as usual, had a cigar in his mouth. He’s
a mountain of a man with a bushy black beard
and a somewhat fearsome mien. He happens to
have the personality of a pussycat but you
wouldn’t guess that by looking at him. He
looks like an NFL linebacker with a stone in
his shoe. If Big John wants to smoke a cigar,
most people let him.
Except for this wizened little granny
standing beside us that day in Times Square.
Even though she topped out at about four foot
six and maybe 90 pounds soaking wet, she
squinted up at John’s face and waved a Macy’s
shopping bag to get his attention. “Get ridda
dat t’ing!” she shrilled. “You’re vialatin’ my
air space!”
What made the moment especially
memorable was the fact that we were all
standing under the famous Times Square
billboard advertising Winston cigarettes. You
remember the one? It featured a giant man’s
face puffing on a cigarette and blowing actual
smoke rings into the air. That billboard had
been blowing smoke rings (first for Camel
cigarettes, later for Winston) over Times
Square about 1,000 times ever day since 1941.
We thought Indignant Granny was pretty
hilarious back then.
We didn’t realize she was just a little ahead
of her time.
Arthur
Black
Other Views Smoke haters ahead of their time
The day is upon us again. The day where
everyone you know, including you, is
Irish. On March 17 each year everyone
embraces all things Emerald Isle. They drink
Irish beer (or whiskey), they partake in Irish
cuisine (using ‘cuisine’ very liberally), they
listen to Irish music (generally unacceptable on
most other days) and they dance Irish dances
(always unacceptable on every other day).
It’s truly an occasion like none other.
A few years ago while still a student at
Humber College in Etobicoke, members of my
journalism class travelled to New York City for
an awards ceremony where several of our
school’s publications had been nominated.
We took a bus and we travelled all night,
only to be dropped at the Roosevelt Hotel on
East 45th Street at 8 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day.
We all dispersed and ditched our bags and took
in one of the most spectacular things any of us
had ever seen. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in
New York City.
While every bone in my body wanted to have
an awful time (travelling by bus when you’re
6’3” and you have trouble sleeping in a car can
result in a lack of enthusiasm) it was
impossible. It was electric. The music was
great and the sights were eye-popping.
That was one of the more extravagant
celebrations that I’ve partaken in on March 17,
but the vigour with which everybody gets
behind this day has always fascinated me.
In the Windy City, the Chicago River is dyed
green every year to honour the patron saint of
Ireland. Everyone’s beloved Toronto Maple
Leafs have been known to wear their old
Toronto St. Patricks jerseys when they play on
March 17. And of course, the Boston Red Sox
have permanently incorporated St. Patrick’s
Day into their uniforms, wearing their greens
on several occasions throughout the season (as
they are still in spring training on March 17).
And lest we forget the good people at
Guinness, who, at one time, were working
tirelessly for the people of Canada, lobbying to
make St. Patrick’s Day a national holiday. So
far the only forward-thinking, genius
Canadians to take this step have been the
people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Like many things Irish, parts of the day’s
history are rooted in tough times and struggle.
What’s said to be the first St. Patrick’s Day
Parade happened in Boston on March 18, 1737
(surprisingly, to me anyway, Dublin, Ireland
didn’t host its first St. Patrick’s Day Parade
until 1931) was organized by Irish immigrant
workers who were unhappy about their low
social status and their inability to find work.
Another thing that has always fascinated me
about this day is how its religious beginnings
have been translated into today’s society.
The shamrock, a three-leaved plant was
believed to have been used by St. Patrick to
explain the Holy Trinity to people in Ireland.
Oh, so that’s why the bartender etches a
shamrock in the foam on top of my Guinness.
If only I had known.
And ‘kiss me, I’m Irish’ of course is a
tradition that is said to relate to the Blarney
Stone. If you can’t kiss it for luck, kiss an Irish
person instead, it’s the next best thing.
And so while my family’s only half-Irish, I’ll
accept half-kisses, pecks on the cheek.
And green, that’s a tricky one too. I didn’t
know this until I did a little research, but the
colour usually associated with St. Patrick is
blue. The green is said to come from Irish
soldiers who wore full green uniforms in the
rebellion of 1798 in hopes of getting the
public’s attention. Well these hundreds of years
later, I guess they did just that.
Kiss me, I’m Irish
This column is going to be split in twain,
as I need to address two very important
issues.
The first of which is Zdeno Chara.
For those of you unaware, Zdeno Chara,
Captain of the Boston Bruins, injured Max
Pacioretty of the Montreal Canadiens in a
questionable physical play during a game in
Montreal on March 8.
The intent of the hit, I can’t address because
I’m not in Chara’s head, and no one else is.
The act of the hit, I can address.
In my youth, I was about the same height as
I am now. Before everyone caught up with me,
I was one of the bigger kids on the ice.
Suffice to say, I know how the physical part
of ice hockey is played.
That hit was not legal, in my opinion, for
several reasons.
It was interference.
Interference is, by definition, impeding a
player on the ice, or impeding a player
entering the ice.
That hit was one heck of an impediment,
given the lack of a puck.
The hit was also illegal because it was
Chara’s forearm that pushed him over the
boards and into the “turnbuckle”. This arm
movement changes the hit from “finishing a
bodycheck” to a dangerous situation, which is
covered under unsportsmanlike conduct.
The last reason is the history.
Again, I can’t speak to intent, but I can say
that this happened to a player Chara had
history with, and I don’t believe in
coincidences.
Let’s break it down though.
Even ignoring all the evidence I just
proposed, what Chara did was put another
player in harm’s way through an illegal
maneouver. That is endangering another
player and is illegal, and I have some
experience with it.
When I was young, I was hit from behind,
slightly dazed, I rolled over, and had an
opposing player jump on top of me.
I tried to push him off with my hands, knees
and feet and received a five minute penalty for
causing a dangerous situation.
The referee, between periods, and under the
pressure of the opposing coach, decided to
instead award me a 10 game misconduct
(which was doubled to 20 games due to
playoffs) for the potential to injure because my
skates may have cut the kid who was
essentially trying to rip my helmet off while I
lay prone on the ice. Emphasis on the may
there.
I don’t talk about this often, because it’s
embarrassing, it essentially ended my time in
minor hockey and it's in the past. However,
what Chara did caused a situation in which,
not only could a player get hurt, but he did.
Now either I was wrongfully penalized or
Chara was under-penalized.
The National Hockey League (NHL) has
recently prided itself on removing some of the
violence from the game.
This knee-jerk reaction to former violence
has, in my opinion, taken a lot of what made
the game exciting out – that, however, is a
topic for another day.
If they are truly concerned with violence,
they need to punish people who create poten-
tially damaging situations, like Chara did here.
Anyway, I felt that I would be remiss to not
put my two cents in there, as a former referee
and a player, to my eyes the NHL has made a
mistake.
On to Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts.
As I said in my last column, this was really
the only low point during my trip.
I had been dreading the visit because, as I
anticipated, photography wasn’t allowed.
Anyone who knows me knows my camera
isn’t far from me at any time, so not being
allowed to photograph a part of the trip irked
me.
However, Ashleigh, my girlfriend, wanted to
see China’s Terracotta Army.
It was unique. Everything was incredible to
look at, and, had it been just the two of us, it
may have been a great visit.
The place wasn’t that empty though, it was
crowded by people who acted like they were
on cell phones.
Crowded, I don’t mind. What I do mind is
the little audio tour guides that three out of
every five people had pressed against their
ears.
These people were the epitome of rudeness.
They pushed, they talked loudly, they
personified the stereotypical cell-phone-in-a-
crowded-restaurant jerk.
This normally wouldn’t bother me so much,
but I’m a social learner.
I like hearing things, I like discussing things
and I like listening to other people discuss
things.
Call me a voyeur if you must, but when I go
to a museum or a gallery, I like hearing people
talk about their interpretations.
I couldn’t do that at the Montreal Museum
of Fine Arts, and now, instead of remembering
the Terracotta Army, I’ll remember
inconsiderate people pushing me out of the
way so they could activate their tour guide.
Those devices changed active learning to
passive learning, and for that, people might as
well watch television.
If you go to Montreal, I would suggest
skipping the Museum of Fine Arts. Make your
way to the churches, basilicas and other
historical buildings.
Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
Intent doesn’t factor in NHL hit
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den