Assorted ramblings

I actually have more I want to write about today, so you might see another post this evening and tomorrow morning.

1. And so it is adieu to Norm Doyle, who announced today he wasn't running in the next federal election, whenever that may be. Not a great shock to those in Newfoundland political circles. It'll be interesting to see if Loyola Hearn follows suit. You get the feeling he'd like to go. The next election will be, what, his fifth or sixth since 2000? That's a heck of a lot of election to go through in a short period of time, especially for a man in his 60s.

I could never really get around to hating Norm Doyle. I certainly never cared for his social conservatism. He was anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion among other things. But he was so...dull, that it was really hard to work up the momentum to hate him enough to try and get rid of him. Although hopefully my home riding finally gets a truly interesting MP after the next election. And no, that doesn't mean Loyola Sullivan, as the rumour mill is speculating.

2. Others have certainly noted the decrease in Newfoundland's population and will go into it in more detail than I think I will at this time. The one thing I will note is that Mount Pearl's population shrank while St. John's population grew. In a very smug way, I find that amuses me.

3. Tired of having friends call you when they're hammered? Especially if it's on St. Patrick's Day? Or perhaps you're the one who is getting hammered with the bad habit of drunk dialing, even though you've been told that if you do it one more time someone will be performing surgery on you using a broken pint glass as a scalpel.

Good news, then. I have the perfect place for your drunk dialing urges, or a place to direct friends who have them. Plus, there are prizes!

Dups is running is annual "St. Patrick's Day Drunk Dialing" competition. Merely call the phone number on his blog, on St. Patrick's Day, and leave your best drunken, blathering, borderline incoherent ramblings and you might get a flask of Screech. The downside is that he will put a recording of your call up on his blog so the whole world (or least the people who visit his blog) will get to hear you.

It was entertaining last year and hopefully it will be even more so this year.

4. Also in time for St. Paddy's Day, "How to Pour the Perfect Pint" by Guinness Brewmaster Fergal Murray, who you would figure knows how to do such a thing.

I actually knew all of this because a friend of mine was an expert on how pints were poured and she would lecture me on how it should be done, just on the off-chance I had to pour one for her in an emergency situation. She only drank them at the Duke of Duckworth because no one else in town knew how to pour them worth a damn, as far as she was concerned. She told me, with clear horror in her voice, the time she went to the Ship Inn and asked for a pint and they filled it part way up and then stuck a spoon in and began to spoon out the foam!

"Dear Christ, I had to leave. Are they fucking morons or something?" she said to me, shuddering at the memory while nursing one of her perfect Duke pints.

I can only hope the Ship has improved their pint pouring since then.