Suspended in Sport

I'm not naive enough to believe that cheating doesn't occur in sport, both amateur and professional. But I am idealistic enough to also believe that it doesn't have any place there, and should still be condemned and eradicated as much as possible. So on Monday, when several baseball players - including New York Yankees' star Alex Rodriguez - were suspended for the use of performance-enhancing drugs, I was very pleased to see it. 

Rodriguez, in fact, received a particularly harsh punishment because he had lied and attempted to obstruct the investigation. At over 200 games - through the end of next season - he may not return to the sport at all. (A dozen other players received fifty game suspensions.) Rodriguez will be forty by the time his suspension is lifted, and has already had several significant injuries. He just may not be up to major league level again. 

And I don't feel one bit sorry for him either. The only one I feel sorry for is his team. They will save something, but apparently will still owe him some sixty million dollars whether he ever plays again or not. I don't think that's right either. There should be some sort of standard clause in sport contracts stating that if an athlete is proven beyond doubt to have cheated (which science can do more effectively all the time), their contract is terminated immediately with no further monies forthcoming. That just might make a few people think twice!

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

I spent a good part of this past winter immersed in the warm and wonderful world of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency's Precious Ramotswe. It was a truly delightful series which I can't believe I was reluctant to read for so long!(I'm not really a big mystery fan, but as I came to realize - and appreciate - the books were far more about life than crimes.) I read all thirteen books and am eagerly awaiting the appearance of the fourteenth this fall.  

In the meantime, though, the beauty of Botswana and its people has come to life before my very eyes as I've been watching the BBC/HBO television series - seven delightful episodes (I still have two to go, plus some bonus features). It's incredibly unfortunate they only made one season's worth - thus far, anyway. Guess they're just too good quality for the average person to appreciate. 

I was somewhat surprised at first by Mma Ramotswe (Jill Smith). I'd expected her to be a little older ... and a little larger. But I soon realised she, and all the other characters, were absolutely perfect. Most of them are quite svelte, in fact, particularly the younger people and pretty much all the kids. That's refreshing, after being more accustomed to pudgy North Americans. And it's not that they're starving; Botswana is one of Africa's successes. There is poverty, but in general they have enough - just not too much. Clearly they also do a lot more exercise: plenty of walking and biking, and more physical labour. The show really makes the North American lifestyle seem so excessive and decadent. I find the agency's low-tech office with simple desks and rickety typewriters and general lack of gadgets and gizmos to be very refreshing also, the kind of simple place I'd enjoy working. (The only thing I still have issue with is the beloved "little white van" ... which is a little white pickup truck in the videos. But perhaps "van" and "pickup" don't mean the same things as they do in Canada.)

So all in all, watching this series has been pure delight. It's so good, in fact, that I may actually consider buying it at some point (it's on loan from the library, currently), which is incredibly high praise from an infrequent tv viewer. Certainly it's a well worthwhile escape from this reality, that I'll look forward to enjoying again come next winter. 

Good Bye July!

Even though the last week of July was about as perfect as summer in Quebec can be, and I have been supremely happy, I was still very glad to turn the calendar pages to August this morning. Overall it was not a good month, beginning and ending with tragedy. 

Of course the whole month has been marked by July 6th's rail disaster in Lac Mégantic which claimed the lives of at least 47 people (the Sureté du Québec only called off the official search for the final five bodies today) and destroyed the whole city core. It has been called the worst environmental disaster on land in North America in history, and estimates are it will cost between 500 million and a billion dollars to clean up. (There's also a good likelihood the small railway responsible for it all - Montreal, Maine and Atlantic - will just declare bankruptcy and walk away from everything. Despicable!)

Then the next weekend came the sad news of the death of Cory Monteith. That's entirely a self-made tragedy, but it did upset me because I liked his work.  And it certainly left a lot of family, friends, fans, and his co-star/girlfriend Lea Michele heartbroken. Such a waste of good potential. 

The 19th of course was our storm of the year with hundred kilometre per hour winds that brought down branches and trees all over the area - including two in our next two neighbours down. And one of them was far too close for comfort to where I was sitting reading by our huge living room window. I actually saw it fall! Ten or fifteen more feet and I would have been covered in glass - or squashed completely. We lost power for twenty-nine hours, and it seems like virtually every day since then I have been living to a background of chainsaws and sawdust. This week they've been working on the last of the three massive trees that caused the mayhem here. I know it was necessary; every single storm I've looked up at them and hoped they wouldn't land on our house - or anyone else's - but it's still sad. I love trees, and I don't like change. I'll miss their shade, miss seeing squirrels scurrying around them and racoons perched in them, and hearing the sound of the wind rustling their leaves. 

And yesterday, just shy of a year after my pit-bull attack, I heard the horrible news that a sweet little shih-tzu named Lucky was KILLED by a pit-bull.  Apparently people tried to help, even beating it with boards, but it wouldn't let go. I was heartbroken for the poor owner. He's an elderly gentleman whose wife died and that dog was his only companion. He used to hold him up and wave at us out his front window. I don't know how he'll ever get over the experience. I don't think I could. I would be utterly devastated. The people who witnessed it are going to be pretty traumatised too. I'm still nervous after last summer, and still very cautious where I walk. Now I have one more area to avoid. I really think concerned dog owners - and others - need to get together and see if anything can be done about banning the breed here. It's been done in many other cities and boroughs - not to mention whole provinces like Ontario and B.C. Much as I love dogs and know there can be wonderful examples of any breed, there's just too much potential for danger to fit comfortably into a tranquil residential neighbourhood. 

So I think I have plenty of good reasons to be grateful we're moving on into August. (And I've only listed relatively local concerns; there was also a horrific rail crash in Spain, a bus crash in Italy, an earthquake in China and all kinds of civil unrest in Syria and Egypt.)  Hopefully it will be a truly happy and peaceful and thoroughly enjoyable month.