University graduate finds work as human scarecrow

 

It sounds like the ideal job - the chance to sit down, read a book and perhaps idly strum a ukulele.

But Bangor University graduate Jamie Fox has to do it in all weathers, as a human scarecrow in a field in Norfolk.

Mr Fox, 22, has been employed to scare partridges from a field of oilseed rape at Aylsham because conventional birdscarers have not worked.As well as wearing a bright orange coat, Mr Fox uses an accordion and a cowbell to frighten the birds.

Mr Fox, who graduated in the summer with a degree in music and English, earns about £250 a week scaring the partridges from the 10-acre (four-hectare) field.


The only company Mr Fox gets during his eight-hour shifts is from the occasional passing dog-walker or farm worker.  Farmer William Youngs also drops in to check on him every day.  He said he decided to employ a human birdscarer after other methods failed to stop the birds eating the young rape shoots.  "Partridges love rape - it's like fillet steak to them," said Mr Youngs.

source

Dating is so difficult...

Why blacks shouldn't vote for Mitt Romney

 My favourite reason:  He's a Morman but he ain't got no hoes.

source

Drunk passes out, cause grass fire, steals bike and then is hit by train

A 51-year-old Kamloops man is in hospital with serious burns and a deep gash on his head after a bizarre sequence of events Wednesday.

Kamloops RCMP have added to the man's misery by saying he's a person of interest in an assault on a bus driver last week.

Police were called to the Gateway Estates Mobile Home Park on the 7500-block of Dallas Drive Wednesday at about 3 p.m. after someone saw a grass fire nearby, Staff Sgt. Grant Learned said in a press release.  As firefighters put out the flames, a witness reported seeing a man flee the area on a bike soon after the fire started.  While officers were on their way, CP Rail operations staff contacted police about a freight train crew reporting they had hit a pedestrian more than a kilometre from Peerless Way by the Trans-Canada Highway. They stopped the train and were walking back to find the man.

When police arrived, they found an intoxicated man with serious burns to his body and a cut to his head where he'd been hit by the train.  Police investigating pieced together a story that the man was lying in the field by the mobile home park and he fell asleep while smoking. When he woke up, his clothes and the surrounding grass were on fire. He ran from there to his home at the mobile home park, grabbed a bike and took off.  He was continuing along the CP tracks when he was hit by the train at an old level crossing that had been closed.

He was taken and admitted to RIH for treatment.

There are some people that can handle drinking and then there is this guy.  Every night out drinking could be his last night.  If a case could be made for having a designated driver, here it is.

source

Video of the week

Man turns and punches lawyer in the face after judge gives him a 15 year jail sentence for assault. He got a little more tacked on for slugging his lawyer.

Did they bring in replacement ump for the Cardinals-Braves game?

This has too be one of the worst calls in a playoff game in years.  Nothing about it makes any sense. Talk about a potential game changer.

Drunk man goes to sleep in Norway, wakes up in Sweden

An drunk Norwegian man, napping in the back of his car, was shocked to find himself dumped in Gothenburg, Sweden, by two female car thieves some hours later.

The man, who had had a few drinks too many on a night out in Oslo, decided to have a nap in the back of his car.

While he was asleep, two women in their thirties decided to steal the car and drive it over the border to Sweden.

A few hours later, the man was shocked to find himself unceremoniously dumped outside of a Gothenburg train station by the two women who seemingly had had enough of his presence in the vehicle.

The man, who didn’t know what to do, contacted the police and reported his car stolen. He was given a bed for the night by the police officers.


Waking up on Wednesday morning the man was eager to get home and was driven to the terminal by the police. However, on the way to the train station, he suddenly spotted his car on the road.
“I was bloody lucky,” said the 50-year-old, according to GP.

The police arrested the two women in the car and brought them in to the station for testing, suspecting they were driving under the influence.

Police are unable to comment on the man’s story until the women have been questioned but could confirm that the car was registered in Norway. In it, police also found what they suspect to be stolen goods.

Around 5pm on Wednesday, the man was handed the keys to his car and could start driving back to Oslo, according to GP.

The women are under suspicion of taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent.

Source

So maybe I'm delusional

Adele sings theme song for new Bond film - An instant classic!

Flashback Friday: Dusty Springfield

So you want to do criminal law?

A South Carolina defendant in an assault case punched his attorney in the face in a crowded courtroom after being sentenced to 15 years in prison.

A video of the incident recorded inside the court shows Lamarcus Williamson, 30, standing handcuffed before a judge after pleading guilty to robbery and assault charges when suddenly he wheels around and takes a swing at York County public defender Dan Hall.  The punch caught the lawyer in the mouth and drew blood.   

In the aftermath of the fracas, Judge William Nettles added six months to Williamson's 15-year sentence.

Maple Leaf scouting report: Joe Colborne

At the moment in his young career Joe Colborne is more of an enigma than Nazem Kadri.  At times he looks like the big centre with soft hand that Leafs so desperately need while other times he is almost invisible on the ice.  As part of the compensation from Boston for Tomas Kaberle the Leafs need him to develop into the former while fans are looking to partly make up for the Phil Kessel trade.

Colborne is a big boy at 6'6" but carrying only 215 lb which makes him pretty lanky.  The few games he played with the Leafs it was noticeable how easily NHL defensemen could knock him down.  He needs to put on weight and build up some upper body strength so that he can return to playing the dominant centre that served him well in college.

Colborne can also score but has been pretty streaky.   He started this past season with eight goals and eight assists in his first nine games, and he was named the American Hockey League’s player of the month in October. The following month, he was called up to the Leafs and scored his first NHL goal and recorded three assists in nine games.  Then his production dramatically fell off.  He finished the season with just eight goals and 15 assists in his final 56 games. During one miserable stretch at the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs, he went 30 games without a goal.  Part of the drop off was a hand injury but the other parts of his game faltered as well.

It's obvious Colborne is behind Kadri in his NHL development and needs more time in the AHL.  He has a reputation as a hard worker which suggests a NHL career is yet to come, most likely as a top 6 forward.  

Sarah Silverman's PSA on new Voter ID Laws

Bar Refaeli wants to make a sex tape but needs help

Bar Refaeli's Sex Tape Kickstarter from Bar Refaeli     

Mitt Romney to give Big Bird the pink slip

This baby won't eat unless dad plays ‘Gangnam Style’

Good bye Omar

Omar Vizquel is an amazing athlete.  He us 10 year older than the Jay's GM and still can make eye-popping catches as he did last night - his last major league game.  It all fell in place for Omar - he started his last game at shortstop; his last game was a win; he made a great catch in the 7th and his last at bat ended with a hit.  A perfect ending of a brilliant career.

Then, with two outs in the ninth inning, John Farrell took him out of the game. Adeiny Hechavarria, the future of the franchise, moved over from second base to shortstop, gave Vizquel a hug and took his place.  It provided the fans with an opportunity to give him a heart-felt farewell through a prolonged standing ovation.

2,709th start at shortstop, the most in baseball history, 24 seasons with three All-Star appearances, 11 Gold Gloves and 2,877 hits.

What a career!

Red Sox firing Bobby Valentine is good for the Jays

No  surprise to see Bobby Valentine fired today after one season in which he fix the team's clubhouse problems.  In fact they got worse.  As a result the Red Sox unloaded Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett to save $250 million in future salaries. It also meant Valentine finished with a record of 69-93.

 So as disappointed as Jay fans were with their season, Sox fans are apoplectic. Too bad the team over-reacted to last season's collapse by firing Terry Francona.

There seems to be a strong desire from Sox fans to bring John Farrell back as a manager.  Perhaps Sox management shares that sentiment. But Farrell still has one year left on his contract and I can't see Jays management letting him go to a divisional rival even if they were to get compensation.

After this season there may be fewer Farrell supporters around but he is continually learning and will have benefit with this season under his belt.  Makes no sense to train the guy and let him apply those skills elsewhere.  Let's see what he can do with a better roster.  He didn't have much to work with for much of this season.

Had the Sox brought back Valentine for one more season, who knows what might have happened if both Farrell's and Valentine's contracts expired at the same time.  Now we will never know.

Man charged with cocaine possession shows up in court with cocaine, arrested again

A man heading into the Kane County courthouse for allegedly violating his probation on a cocaine delivery charge was arrested again — for trying to take cocaine into the courthouse.

Alex Robinson, 37, of Aurora, Colorado, emptied his pockets at the courthouse metal detector and dropped a bag with three grams of cocaine into a bin, authorities said. “I don’t know how you forget,” Kane County Sheriff’s Lt. Pat Gengler said. “It’s not like you don’t know there’s a checkpoint coming up.”

Robinson was in the security line to get into the courthouse on a probation violation from a 2006 cocaine delivery charge when the metal detector sounded, Gengler said. Security guards asked him to step back and make sure there was nothing in his pockets that might be setting off the detector. Robinson emptied his pockets and dropped the cocaine into the tray to be scanned.

He tried to leave, but was arrested, Gengler said. Robinson was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance. He was originally charged with delivery of cocaine in 2006. He was sentenced to 180 days in the county jail and two years probation. In 2011, he was re-arrested for violating his probation in those cases.

 My theory is the criminals with the longest criminal records are the dumbest ones.  Criminals have a considerable advantage over law enforcement so if you get caught it's because of blind luck, an error or stupidity.  I'm guessing stupidity is the biggest factor.  Good example is our friend Alex who shows up in court with cocaine in his pocket.  That's luck or an error.  That's plain stupid.

Telephone etiquette week

Billy Beane is a genius

You think it's easy to win with a big payroll?  Just ask the GMs of the Phillies and Red Sox.   But it certainly is harder when you have little money to work with.  Then there is Billy Beane who has the lowest payroll in the AL.  Yes lower than the Royals, Jays and Rays. 

Yet Oakland finished first in the AL West with 94 wins.  More wins than the Angels with their $155 million payroll and the Rangers who have a $120 million payroll.  Both teams threw around money over the winter and the Angels still couldn't make the playoffs.  As for Oakland's payroll, it's just $55 million.  That wouldn't cover the salaries of the top 3 Anaheim players.  By the way the A's clinched first place by knocking off the Rangers today.  Just amazing.

The A's were picked to finish at the bottom of the standings.  The pitching staff included guys I never heard of before this season —Tommy Milone, Jarrod Parker, A.J. Griffin, Travis Blackley, and Dan Straily among them—with Brandon McCarthy and Bartolo Colon providing some maturity until both were bounced. A big chunk of the A's batters were failed Red Sox, like Brandon Moss, Josh Reddick, Coco Crisp, and George Kottaras.  The entire lineup is made up of kids or rejects.

But remember Billy Beane invented Moneyball and he is forced to use that game plan every season.  However, in 2012 he seems to have outdone himself.  

Critics gave Beane a lot of grief this winter when he traded away Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez. Once again, people thought Beane was chopping up a team for the hell of it. Little did we know the parts from those trades would play such an integral part to the A’s run, and only for a margin of the cost.

Did Beane get a little lucky with these guys this year? Certainly – but it doesn’t discredit the job he did. No one gets more bang for their bucks.

Liquor company pours booze over bare boobs of models, then bottles and sells the stuff

A liquor company has released a line of spirits said to have been poured down the chests of glamour models before being bottled.

The limited-edition bottles of vodka, rum and whisky are being sold by German company G-Spirits for around £100 a time.

Among the women hired to pour spirits down their chests is Hungary's current Playmate of the Year, Alexa Varga.  She is joined by Amina Malakona and Evelin Aubert who are all photographed topless, demonstrating the process, on the company's website.  Between them they will produce 2,500 litres of each spirit in small batches, and their images will appear on the bottles that go on sale.

G-Spirits insists that the products are in keeping with public health department requirements. "We pay high attention to a hygienic filling process, furthermore medical personnel is present to check it," it says.

source

Council hired contractors to mow fake grass

An Australian council contract crew have been forced to rethink how they clean artificial grass after they became the butt of jokes for using a lawnmower. The crew were photographed this week by motorists mowing the fake grass on the median strip outside Supercheap Autos in the City of Townsville, Queensland. Residents claim it was proof of the council wasting taxpayers' money.

 A council spokeswoman, however, said the contractors were not mowing the grass, rather they were cleaning it to remove cigarette butts. The crew were asked to do the job after Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill received a request for the artificial turf to be cleaned by a local.

"The actual contractors who have done that work, they didn't give us the heads-up they were going to be using a mower," the spokeswoman said. "The purpose of it on the Astro Turf, though, is there has been a major problem there with people littering and throwing their cigarette butts out, and it adheres to the Astro Turf. So they're not actually mowing grass, as much as people would have laughed and pointed it out, they were using it as a vacuum to suck up the butts."

A Supercheap Autos staff member, who did not want to be named, said the clean-up crew had supplied many belly laughs for colleagues and customers. "We've all been getting a great laugh out of it," she said. "They've been doing it a couple of times." The council spokeswoman said the clean-up crew had been asked to consider other options when it came to cleaning the artificial grass. "It does look ridiculous," she said.

source

Maple Leaf scouting report: Nazem Kadri

• 
  
• 
  

After Morgan Reilly, the Leafs next bests prospect is Nazem Kadri and the player mostly likely to make the jump to the Leafs when the season finally begins.

I was intending to keep this as a report strictly about Kadri as a prospect.  But how can you ignore all noise around this guy.  A lot of pressure is being put on this guy's head.  I won't address again the foolishness of the Leafs pointless pursuit of a playoff spot in 2009 which left them them out of the draft lottery and with the 7th overall pick which was used to draft Kadri.  At times the team has wisely let Kadri develop slowly and not rush him but on the other hand he has also been frustrated by his lack of progress while others get promoted.

He spent the summer with Gary Roberts to work on conditioning and then gets blasted by his coach publicly for his eating habit.  I rarely agree with Don Cherry but in this one I have to.  If you want to know why the Leafs don't get better - because they don't learn from their mistakes.  How many prospects have had so much pressure put on them that the fail to develop? How many draft picks have been driven out of town?  How many have gone on to play a valuable role elsewhere?

That being said Kadri is a highly skilled forward who can make plays at a whim in the offensive zone. He’s fearless on the ice which compensates for his small frame. While there are questions surrounding his game-to-game compete level and some of his decision making, his positives outweigh those negatives.

He played centre as a Junior but the team has found that with his size he may be better suited as a winger. In fact he may swing back and forth between wing and centre in his career.  There isn't much left for him to prove at the minor league level.  It's time to let him loose in the NHL and see what he can do. He is projected to be a top 9 forward for sure, perhaps top 6 but not likely a top line forward.  The Maple Leaf organization now has a lot of prospects but few blue chippers.

Sign of the day

Telephone etiquette week

Hump day hottie

Lucy Mecklenburgh

NHL CBA negotiations are a joke

There has yet to be any serious negotiations so far between the NHL and NHLPA.  Just a lot of posturing for the fans and media.  Except we aren't involved in the negotiations, we're just bystanders.

Did you know, that technically the NHL regular season is scheduled to begin next Thursday? Yep, no regular season games have been cancelled.  As if all the players will rushing back from Europe, the teams will re-hire all the staff they laid off.  The league is expected to begin canceling games soon, but only two weeks' worth at a time.

It was so nice to have Wayne "Pollyanna" Gretzky blow into town yesterday predicting the Winter Classic and season will be saved.  How can anyone be so sure when no one is willing to budge an inch? 

The two sides are meeting but only talking about the small stuff.  Labour negotiations typically work the opposite, deal with the small stuff at the end. In fact the parties have not even made progress on the small stuff - they can't agree teams paying for a second trainer and players staying in single rooms for road games. The NHL wants that stuff come out of hockey-related revenue.  So if there is no agreement on this stuff, then there is no light at the end of the tunnel at this point.

Those Filipino inmates are still dancing

In 2007, footage of Cebu Provincial prisoners dancing in unison to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" went viral on YouTube, becoming one of the most watched videos of all time with over 50,000,000 views to date.

If they lived in America, most likely instead of sitting in prison they would be aspiring gay dancers trying to scrape a living in New York City. So they are back on YouTube dancing to K-pop sensation Psy's global hit song "Gangnam Style."

Man able to fire fake gun at Czech president and walk away

Czech President Vaclav Klaus was attending a ceremony when a man put a plastic “airsoft” gun to the president’s side and pulled the trigger seven times. The president’s bodyguards didn’t immediately respond to the incident, letting the man walk away. He even was able to give several media interviews in which he claimed he pulled off the stunt to draw attention to the plight of the Czech Republic’s ordinary people before police eventually arrested him several blocks away in Chrastava Square.

Telephone etiquette week

Polish most wanted poster

Police in Poland have been slammed for releasing a photofit of the prime suspect in a bank robbery - complete with his ski mask disguise.

The image - released after a £10,000 bureau de change hold up in Gronowo - shows only the suspect's brown eyes.  Then to add insult to injury, detectives accidentally released the name of their sole witness, who had only agreed to speak to them if he could remain anonymous.

"We haven't excelled ourselves this time," admitted police spokesman Tomasz Stawarski.  "The robber kept his mask on all the time so our artist didn't have anything to go on apart from the colour of his eyes," he added.

Detectives have ordered local media not to publish the witness's name and to remove his identity from any computer databases.  "It was a mistake to name him. He is now under police protection," said the spokesman.

So you wonder where Polish jokes come from?  Well it turns out from Poland. Most wanted poster is basically a set of brown eyes. Oh yes and it spoke Polish.

source

Man devoured by pigs

Coos County authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was eaten by hogs.

According to Paul Frasier, district attorney for Coos County, 70-year-old Terry Vance Garner died last week when his body was mostly consumed by hogs that he was apparently attempting to feed.
Frasier said that Garner was last seen by family members about 7:30 a.m. last Wednesday at his residence when he went outside to feed his hogs, some of which weighed 700 pounds or more.

A few hours later, a family member went to check on Garner. When he entered the hog enclosure, he found Garner's dentures on the ground. On further examination, the family member then found pieces of Garner's body, but most of the body was gone, apparently eaten by the animals.

The Coos County Sheriff's Office is now investigating "how Mr. Garner ended up in  a position where the hogs were able to consume him."  Scenarios listed as possibilities by Frasier included a heart attack or that Garner was knocked down by the hogs and then killed. The Sheriff's Office is also investigating the possibility of foul play.

A forensic pathologist who examined Garner's remains was not able to determine cause of death and the remains will be further examined by a forensic anthropologist at the University of Oregon.

source

Maple Leaf scouting report: Morgan Reilly

I would have to say at this point in time, the Leafs number one prospect happens to be the 18-year old they drafted first in June, defenseman Morgan Reilly.  He would rate ahead of Nazem Kadri, Joe Colborne, Matt Fratin and Ben Scrivens - because it straight out has the most talent.

An injury riddled WHLseason limited Rielly to only 18 regular season games, but that did not affect scouts opinion of him.  Rielly is the highest selection the Maple Leafs have made in the draft since selecting Luke Schenn fifth overall in 2008. Unlike Schenn, Rielly's game is based around his ability to move the puck at both ends of the ice. He possesses elite offensive ability and top-end skating ability even after recovering from a torn ACL.  Think Jaek Gardner only better.

Leaf fans had a taste of what Rielly offers in early August when he suited up for Canada in the Canada/Russia Challenge. He was one of the clubs stronger defensemen in the tournament. He recorded one goal and three assists in four games. With a shortened 2011-12 WHL season, it's a strong bet that Rielly returns to the WHL. He projects as a top-pairing defenseman who excels in transition and has elite offensive ability from the blue line.  He'll need to work on his defensive game, but that isn't likely to keep him from making an arrival in the NHL sooner rather than later.

Chinese restaurant caught with deer roadkill

 A Chinese restaurant forced to shut its doors after getting caught with a dead deer in the kitchen.


"We were actually joking about the, you know, the whole Chinese restaurant. You know some rumors that you hear," says Katie Hopkins, a customer of the Red Flower restaurant.  But, Hopkins and her friends never imaged what would happen next, after finishing up a buffet lunch.

"Two of the workers came in wheeling a garbage can and they had a box sitting on top of it. And hanging out of the garbage can, they were trying to be real quick with it. So that nobody could see it. But there was like a tail, and a foot and leg. Sticking out of the garbage can and they wheeled it straight back into the kitchen," adds Hopkins.

Hopkins immediately called the health department to describe what she saw, "Many people eat there. A lot of locals eat there on lunch breaks and stuff. It was very disturbing. There was actually a blood trail that they were mopping up behind the garbage can."

Paul Lawson, the environmental health inspector in Whitley County says this is the craziest thing he's ever seen. After he arrived at the Chinese restaurant on south highway 25 West, he says the complaints proved to be true after finding roadkill in the restaurants kitchen. Lawson tells us that the owner's son admitted to picking up a dead deer off the side of I-75 north in Williamsburg.

This prompted the health department to immediately shut down business.

Does this confirm a stereotype or my worst fears? There isn't any roadkill in Toronto's Chinatown but there may be a high rate of missing dogs. 

source

Here is one I've never seen: skateboarder hits deer

Telephone etiquette week

Man shot girlfriend dead for interrupting his sleep

Eric Brian Pauley told a Putnam County Circuit Court judge on Friday that he shot and killed his girlfriend last year because she interrupted his sleep. "She woke me up. . . . It made me mad she woke me up like that in the middle of the night," Pauley, 50, of Winfield, West Virginia, told Circuit Judge Phillip Stowers before he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.

Stowers questioned Pauley's state of mind and asked if the couple had been arguing when he shot Debra Rosiek, 52, at their trailer in Winfield in September 2011. "She come in, flipped the light on and started hollering," said Pauley, who noted that the couple normally got along and hadn't been arguing earlier that night.

Pauley told the judge he grabbed his pistol that was beside the bed and underneath a stack of folded clean clothes and shot his girlfriend of four years. After waiving a pretrial sentence investigation, Stowers accepted the plea arrangement offered by prosecutors of life in prison with mercy. Pauley already has served 378 days and will be eligible for parole after 15 years.

Pauley knocked on the door of the Putnam County Sheriff's Department at about 10 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2011, and told a deputy that he'd shot his girlfriend and believed she was dead. At the time, Detective Shawn Johnson said Pauley gave police a key to his home, and a deputy was then dispatched to Pauley's residence in the Winfield Mobile Home Village where Rosiek was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest. Assistant Prosecutor Larry Frye told the judge his office offered Pauley mercy based on his confession and cooperation with police after the incident.

Yup some people get pretty grumpy when woken up from a deep sleep.  The good news is that he will get 15 years of great uninterrupted sleep.

Honeymoon with fans is over for Alex Anthopolous

As Blue Jays season comes to a painful end, for me the optimism that I felt at the start of the season has been replaced with classic Toronto pessimism.  Some may buy that this is a core of a contending team.  I've been burned too many times in the past.

The crowds have disappeared this fall.  Not too many people are interested in watching a string of passionless losses. This team looks like they have given up.  It's as if no one is playing for a job next season.  But will the fans come back in the spring?

I seriously think that many people will take a wait and see attitude.  Which means this is as important of an offseason for Alex Anthopolous as he had since he was forced to trade Roy Halladay.

I'm not putting the blame on AA.  It was a season where whatever could have gone wrong did go wrong.  His rebuilt bullpen hit the rocks immediately with Sergio Santos going on DL before we even got to know him.  His insurance policy, Francisco Cordeiro was just awful and eventually shipped out.  Then Luis Perez was also hurt and gone for the season. So AA was forced to rebuild the bullpen again in mid season.

I was pretty disappointed that AA did not sign or trade for some starting help last winter.  He was determined to use his starting pitching depth despite the fact that there was little major league experience.  So the rotation that began with Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow, Henderson Alvarez, Kyle Drabek and Dustin McGowan fell apart before the season actually started with McGowan going down again.  Then in June he was followed by Morrow, Drabek and Drew Hutchison (McGowan's replacement).  Romero lost his control and became less effective than the many AA pitchers brought up to fill in for the injured.  Anthopolous couldn't buy a break.  Even when he picked up a starter in a trade (J.A. Happ) he went on the DL too.  Still I think a more veteran lineup to start the season would have allowed some of the youngsters to stay in the minors longer.

Initially the Jays were able to keep winning because of the hitters.  Certainly the emergence of Edwin Encarnacion as a solid clean up hitter helped a lot.  But then the injury bug bit the hitters and the season was lost.

I still see a lot of problems that won't be fixed for next season.  We don't know if Romero will bounce back and many of the injured arms will not be ready to start 2013.  Alvarez did not have a good sophomore year and we just don't know what we will get next season.  Adam Lind should be bought out but the fiscally responsible (ie, cheap) will likely not do that.  Colby Rasmus at times looks like a multiple-tooled athlete and other times he looks like a deer in the headlights.  Kelly Johnson was awful and will definitely be gone.  Yunel Escobar was a disappointment at the plate and then last month exhibited the lack of maturity that had him shipped out of Atlanta.  Anthony Gose is a dream in the field and on the bases but not at the plate.  The Jays just have too many starter hitting around .250 or less.

No surprise the grumbling began at the end of the season.  Losing is frustrating and brings out all that built up negativity to the surface.

So how do you start to rebuild this mess.  Jose Bautista will be back in the spring and his leadership has been badly missed. You hope his wrist recovers. A lot of people have been disappointed with Brett Lawrie but he is one of the few players that I have no issues with.  His base running will get better.  But there are holes everywhere. And how many youngster can you carry without repeating another last place finish?

I'm finding it hard to be positive.  I need some Maple Leafs hockey to make me long for the baseball season to start up again.

In St. John, New Brunswick and not much happening here

Telephone etiquette week

Bikini Sunday

Katy Perry

Yup, time flies