Just in time for the playoffs, a song from CBC’s The Irrelevant Show for all the Canadian hockey fans out there – or indeed anyone whose team, in any sport, has lost any final game in any competition.
Awesome.
Cath
Representin' Vancouver, BC
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Bragging Rights Central
VWXYNot? Comment(s) of the week:
Nina and Grant for the following exchange: Nina: "Life should be a conference, everyone wearing nametags all the time, with their first name, last name, nickname, country of origin and country of residence. Birthdate optional."
Grant: Nina, I’m sure tech types will suggest we’ll all be bumping cell phones to exchange names in a few years. (Eurgh.)
One more: you know that thing where the person can’t quite read your name tag and leans in close over your chest to read it…
Nina: "ok, how about tattooing your name onto your forehead?"
Grant: "How about a sub-dermal name implant invisible when not active that glows when triggered by trained neural signals beaming your name to the people opposite you?
Failing that we could all wear electrode scalp caps that carry a flip up sign… (Taking as my cue the brain-computer interfaces emotiv and others are marketing.)"
[NB as a chronic tartler, I approve of all the above methods]
Alyssa for "It’s cloudy again
We see it’s cold and dreary
But – we have windows!!!"Ricardipus for "Bugger me, the grant’s
Finally done. Thank goodness.
Now back to fun stuff."Bean-mom for "I just clicked on the article on circular RNAs–I’d seen the headline earlier but hadn’t yet read it–and just as I expected, I’m all WTF?! MicroRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, now we’ve got circular RNAs. . . I feel like someone should just write a review titled, “RNA: WTF?”"
Nina again for "edit: my advisor has improved his standing desk further by standing on a wooden board that balances on a small (but sturdy) plastic tube, to make him wobble while standing, so to keep working those balancing muscles, or something like that. The tube comes from one of my experiments. I will miss that “wtf I’ll create my own standing desk – pilates work-out” attitude, I must admit."
Bob O'H for "Reminds me of my youth playing boardgames. There was one called Civilisation, which a friend described as “almost as long as the real thing”."
Chall "it surely looks like the Leafs MIGHT go to play offs for the first time in 7 years…. if I didn’t jinx it by saying it here of course. That said, I find myself wondering how bad it will be to end 5th place if Boston stays 4th. It sort of feels better to play the 3rd (Capitals right now) than Bruins but right now I’ll settle for PLAYOFFS and miracle :)"
[the Leafs making the playoffs is a miracle indeed]
KJHaxton for "Good question! I’d put:
– occasional baker of cakes for meetings
– fair to moderate tolerance for bullshit
– low tolerance for unfairness and willing to get very cross about it (folds arms and glowers at the screen)
– best selection of tea bags in desk drawer (8 kinds at last count)
– prone to wearing scarves and shirts that don’t matchAh well, I’m not sure I’d find a new job on the basis of those :)"
Ricardipus again for "Pros:
- rarely swears in public
- has few friends, so unlikely to have loud, belly-laughing conversations on phone or in person
- capable of speaking at length about (a) race cars, (b) cameras, or (c) bad scienceCons:
- occasionally swears in public
- has few friends, so likely to have poor social interactions with co-workers
- capable of speaking at length about (a) race cars, (b) cameras, or (c) bad scienceI’d also probably include “easily suckered into serving on irrelevant committees” into each category, too."
Bean-mom again for "–Friendly.
–Doesn’t bake, but if you have a potluck I’ll bring killer spring rolls (both crispy fried pork ones, and the vegetarian fresh rice-paper ones).
–Doesn’t bake, but husband bakes. Occasionally, you may be a recipient of his talent.
–Will cheerfully listen to other people’s dramas, but won’t cause any of my own. Not at work, anyway."
and Nina yet again for "As I may have mentioned before, I’m pretty sure my cv point “Love baking (chocolate) cakes” earned me my PhD position, and it definitely often raised questions in interviews (“so, how often do you bake cake? What kind of chocolate do you use?”)"
Post(s) of the Week: Beth Snow for "Modern conveniences" (how on earth did we survive, let alone study and write theses, before Skype and cloud computing?!)
Steve Caplan for "Science education: the generalist vs the specialist" (are 3 year or 4 year degrees better for students?)
Bean-mom for "Leaving scientific research... again" (science SUCKS sometimes)
Eva Amsen, writing at the Occam's Typewriter Irregulars for "The two ideas to fix the gender balance that do not make me cringe" (the panel pledge and the Finkbeiner test)
Bob O'Hara for "Making reviewing boring stuff less boring" (would a stripped-down manuscript format work better for the, um, less exciting papers out there?)
Alyssa for "Just the pants, thanks" (absolutely hilarious take on the modern clothes shopping experience)
Eva Amsen again for "My self-updating address book" (how LinkedIn can be useful)
CromerCrox for "Plagues" (how's God been cursing you lately?)
Prof-like Substance for "If you don't talk to your kids about it someone else will" (anticipating school-yard talk about religion and other big issues)
and CromerCrox again for "Conferences" (the problem of sexism at conferences)
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1992-1993 season. Overtime. Game 6. Gretzky high sticks Leafs captain Doug Gilmour, drawing blood. Should be a major, but not even a minor penalty is called. 99 scores the OT winner, extending the series to game 7. LA goes on to win the series and loses in the finals to the Habs.
Non-call on Gretzky denies Habs-Leafs final. Put that on a T-shirt and send it to a village somewhere.
I don’t think anything will ever come close to what Newcastle United did to me in the 90s. They’ve always had a history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in the last few minutes of a game, but they really, really outdid themselves for a few years there: coming second to Man U (spits) in the Premier League despite being an unprecedented 12 points ahead at one point was the worst, but losing the FA Cup final two years in a row and then the semi-final the year after that came close.
So yes, the Canucks losing to Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals last year was painful. Very painful. Very very painful. But it was NUFC who scarred me for life.
Somewhere there’s a village… where Kevin Keegan is worshipped as a God…
Well, as a big United fan (that is Dundee, as distinct from the wee Uniteds down south), the mid to later 80s were a time of constant disappointment for me. A string of Scottish and one UEFA cup final(s) have instilled a near permanent sense of impending doom in me. I’m still not completely sure we’ve really won the Scottish cup twice since then. Ya dancer!
“a near permanent sense of impending doom”
That describes life as a Toon fan perfectly, and is the reason I can never relax during any game ever, even if my team is 12 goals/tries clear with five minutes to go.
The problem is, you’ve set your sights too high. If you were a Torquay United fan (and I use that word advisedly) like me, you’d never expect to win anything. Less disappointment that way.
I agree – I was much happier when we were consistently dreadful. It’s the hope that kills ya.
If you have a chance, go see the Irrelevant Show live — they are a riot. They came to Edmonton this Winter to record one of their shows (I understand it aired in March) at UofA, and we really enjoyed it.
I’d love to, but I haven’t seen any Vancouver shows. I listen to the podcast, and they have some really funny sketches. The overall quality has also improved since the first season, when it was decidedly patchy! My favourites so far have been the Stuart Maclean impressions where he gives whimsical but useless directions, or reads ransom notes. Hilarious!
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