JohnF

I came within a hair of teaching kids. I did become a teacher a few years ago, but with adult students. I have known some really dedicated teachers for whom I had bags of respect. On the other hand I've known some real twits who somehow became teachers. I guess teaching is just like any other profession. Not everyone hits a home run. JF

Reminds me of my son's grade 2 teacher who argued with me at student/teacher night when I pointed out that she had spelled "mountainious" and "Kamel" wrong in some nifty graphics she'd put up on the wall as a learning aid for the students. I was polite about it - at first. JF

Does it matter where a teacher tries to impose personal biases on their students? Presumably they still have a certain amount of influence, even out of school. As long as we're what-iffing - what if the teacher who criticized bullfighting was teaching in Seville? Often the location determines what's appropriate. I wonder how many teachers speak out against the seal hunt in NL? JF

Teachers are entrusted with our childrens' minds during the formative years, and what can be more important than that? Don't they have an obligation to use discretion in teaching contentious beliefs? If my kids weren't allowed to be exposed to Christianity during their public school years I sure wouldn't have wanted to hear that the teachers were preaching personal lifestyle beliefs that differed from what was taught in our home. Frankly I'd like to see more of them put a bit more effort into spelling and grammar and forget about preaching personal biases. But that's my own personal bias. JF

My thoughts: 1. I was embarrassed by the rockification of the national anthem. Not only was it a poor setting for it, she even had to come up with one of the worst abominations ever committed. It gets treated with more respect at HNIC games broadcast from American arenas. 2. The show for the most part did a decent job of showing our cultural diversity. The fact that Canada also has a bunch of just plain old folks who say thanks and sorry too much was kind of lost in the shuffle. BTW, the poet's piece was spot on, wasn't it? After I pondered on the areas of our diverse culture that were emphasized it occurred to me that us boring uncultured types (the majority of Canucks) would be admirably represented by our team of athletes. I was impressed that our team was exceeded in number by the Americans alone and then by only a handful. That's quite an accomplishment given our relative populations. 3. The snowboarder at the opening was great. 4. I kinda liked KD singing Cohen, a three Canadian birds with one stone thing. 5. The finale was pretty weak. Not bad up till the mechanical failure, but then it bogged down instead of building in intensity , and having to follow Wayne riding in the rain to do a lackluster outdoor lighting didn't exactly revitalize it. Lousy choreography at best. The flame lighting needs to be explosive and dramatic, not pedestrian and routine. Perhaps that was some choreographer's commentary on our Canadian persona. 6. I thought Furtado looked funny in the fancy duds. 7. The show effects weren't bad. I liked the killer whales. The Peter Pan thing was a tad obscure. The piratical fiddlers were a bunch over the top. I'd have preferred Natalie McMaster to MacIsaac if they wanted to get in the maritime celtic thang. I'm not a big fan of these productions so I won't even try to grade it. Now I'm looking forward to watching the events coverage and hopefully seeing some Canadian golds medals. JF

All living creatures have a fight or flight reaction. In most fish there isn't much to fight with so it's a more basic flight thing I guess. The stress we hear about in played fish is a physical trauma, not an emotional one. It's different to the stress usually experienced by higher life forms like us humans. I doubt fish have the brain capacity to experience much in the way of emotion. They basically only know to breed when it's time, guard the eggs in their time, eat, and run from a threat. Kids cartoons have given us a distorted sense of what emotions and awareness animals are capable of. It's doubtful in the real world Bambi would have really grieved over his mom much. In fact he probably would have sniffed around a bit and then got on with the business of trying to survive. He'd the food and warmth. JF

I've heard from several friends that since the recall notices went out they've taken advantage of the circumstances to buy new Toyotas. The dealers are very receptive to dealing. I guess Toyota's reputation is solid enuf to weather the storm. JF

Teachers are people, too. We all find it hard to resist whatever podium is available to us to express our own beliefs. Because teachers are entrusted with young impressionable minds we have to hold them to a higher standard of discretion. JF

I agree. I want my dominant hand controlling the rod and my weaker hand cranking. That's why I don't get the logic of righties cranking a baitcaster right handed. I realize there's an historical precedent for it but I still don't get it. Of course I still don't understand why more righties don't want their power hand at the top of the golf club either. JF

Don't drink or gamble. JF

Whoa!!! That just conjured up an image of a wrinkly nekkid Townshend shakin' and groovin' on his 6 string. EEEUUUWWW!!! That could end the half time show forever. JF

Somebody already said it. Better to fade away than to rust. I'm happy to hear their music on recordings and remember them (and me) as we were. Seeing them creaking away on stage is too much like looking in a mirror. JF

It's still kinda fun to see the old farts strut their stuff. Neil Young's voice is pretty creaky these days too. But the music still holds up pretty well. My satellite radio hardly ever gets past the 70's station. JF

Great light show. Great songs Great instrumentals. Too bad those old farts haven't been told they don't sound so good any more. Daltrey can't quite get to all the notes any more and Townshend looked silly trying to be a cool rocker - dude's just too old for that look. Oh well. Nothing's as inexorable as time. JF

The prime determinant is what you can offer as a special discount to members here. JF

In case you haven't already found it here's the official site with answers aqnd all the current forms. If you're gonna serve a notice or make an application make sure you use the current form. JF http://www.ltb.gov.on.ca/en/index.html

Only if you really want to, but personally, I think you'd be wasting yer time. JF

So will a lot of fans. JF

I think it's just a fat man's intestine - misspelled. JF

Again, I'm totally out of touch. Does anyone still make a 4 stroke single dirt bike? JF

Too often the media are less concerned about delivering the facts than getting readership to help sell their ad space. I can't help second guessing everything I read any more, even from the most respected newsfolks. If there's a recurring theme across the board then I start to lose the pessimism a bit. Local and political writers are the worst for biased or revisionist writing. JF

I'm pretty current on it, and what I don't know I can get from one of my workmates. PM me if you want. JF

I have one piece rods from 5'3 to 7'2 and use them for creek fishing all the time. Even if I'm using one of my few 2 piecers I always put it together at the car before I climb fences and walk the trails to the creek. Both my cars are SUV style so the open cabin makes it easy to carry the rods. I just don't find the one piece rods to be a real problem. So far the only one that's broken was a cheap 2 piece. I was demonstrating how flexy it was (wasn't). JF

I'm pretty sure they did. The Japanese were definitely starting to use reeds then. Reeds were just coming on the scene during my bike years. JF

[quote name='malcolm' date='Feb 7 2010, 01:48 PM' post='430664' two beagles that hunt and want to learn how to fish Isn't it tough for them to cast with their little paws, not to mention tieing on lures? JF