At Home in Hespeler

While the inhabitants of the Hespeler Towers were waking to cutlery that had been mysteriously moved over night, and the wrong cereal in boxes, Canadians were waking to a couple of April Fools jokes themselves.

National Newswatch seems to have been particularly caught out, as they have two at the top of their page that must be April Fools Jokes.

CTV seems to have caught a few people on their Ken Dryden to the Leafs story. The Leafs are, for the record, looking for an experienced GM, not a spendthrift Liberal. While the story seems to make some sense on the surface, it goes against everything the Leafs have been selling the last few months. The tip off? “Dryden is expected to assume his new duties as general manager in late July, when Fletcher’s six-month term ends.” There is no reason Dryden not to join the team immediately as he is not under contract to another team. Resign his seat, and he can start tomorrow, which would be the smart thing to do. The sooner the real GM is in the seat, the sooner his vision for the team starts to be built.

Oh and by the way, back in January Cliff Fletcher signed a 19 month contract which would expire at the end of August 2009, not July 2008. While he will is expected pass on the GM duties this summer, he is interim GM until the job is filled, then he takes an adviser role. There is no mention of a change of contract status in July 2008. The only significance in July 2008 is that is when any candidate for the job who is presently employed by another NHL team would be free to move to a new job. As mentioned before, Ken Dryden has no such barrier.

The second April Fools joke is the best one: Flying Penguins Found by the BBC:

The BBC will today screen remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution.

Camera crews discovered a colony of Adélie penguins while filming on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands.

The programme is being presented by ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones, who said: “We’d been watching the penguins and filming them for days, without a hint of what was to come.

ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones? Dear God! how did anybody miss this one? In case you have any doubts about the authenticity of this one, watch the video. It looks like one of those web based video games.

On April 1st an ex-Pythoner tells us he found Penguins who fly to “South America where they spend the winter basking in the tropical sun.”

Happy April Fools everyone.

April Fools, opus

What’s funnier?

(click for full sized image)

or

(click for full sized image)

Because according to the Sun, they ran with the alternate, unoffensive to Nutjobastinaians cartoon last week, because:

Sometimes a cartoon can be funny and even useful. Sometimes it isn’t. We made the switch and ran the funnier strip.

The two cartoons you see above are this weeks Opus, presumably the safe one was used for the same reason. (which maybe explains why the Sun’s weekday comic page has become pathetic this summer).

When I wrote that piece on Wednesday, I noted the Sun once was edgy, gutsy paper, and now they’re a bunch of cowards. Out of a sense of fairness, not being sure why they didn’t post the original cartoon, I didn’t post that.

New events lead me to change that decision.

Humour, opus

I was going to take until Monday to come back, bring things back to life with a bit of a bang. However, when it comes to messin’ with Opus, my outrage knows no bounds. I was content to let others run this story, but nobody seemed to notice the local angle. First off, the controversy. Many papers, citing Islamo-whackisim did not run this cartoon last Sunday.

(Click on image for full size)

Our local Opus carrying rag, the Tardy Toronto Sun, managed to sneak under the radar but also did not run the cartoon. Instead it ran this one. If you look in the bottom left corner of frame #2, you will see the date 8/26/07. Presumably, Mr. Breathed issued two different cartoons this week, and we Canadians got the second rate one. Too bad, but I can’t help but wonder if the Sun would have ran the first one if they had it.

(once again, click on image for full size).

Note: This post has been altered from it’s original.

Humour, opus

At Home in Hespeler wishes Berke Breathed, creator of Bloom County and Opus, a very special 50th THPFT!
And noting it’s also William, the Prince of Whales’ 25th, I was reminded of a series of Bloom County’s that appeared back in the day (click on image to see a bigger sized).

What was that phrase? Oh yea, “off with ‘is ead!!”

I bet his grandma used that about his brother recently.

Note: Updated and modified to add the 2 cartoon pages @ 5:33pm.

Birthday Wishes, opus

Those who read regularly will recognize Opus, the little penguin of comic fame who sometimes dots these pages. While sometimes overtly left wing and political, other times Opus is positively libertarian. Example, this week:

click on image for full size

On second thought, never mind all that philosophizing – it was just funny.

Food, Funny., Hotties, opus, pus

If your in Ottawa, find Lincoln Heights Galleria (it’s a mall), and order a white chocolate mocha cappuccino. It’s the worlds best coffee, and the place is owned by a relation of mine. I mention this because the people at Parliament Hill, instead of bringing in Canadian PAMS, is going with American Starbucks at a new on site location.

Which by a great coincidence, reminded me of this:

click on the picture to read it, and pay attention to the last frame – laptop, paper, all the Starbucks ambiance.

opus, Ottawa