Saturday, May 8, 2010

“Habs philosophy: All together now - Canada.com” plus 2 more

“Habs philosophy: All together now - Canada.com” plus 2 more

Habs philosophy: All together now - Canada.com

Posted: 07 May 2010 10:26 PM PDT

PITTSBURGH — Togetherness has been a major theme as the Canadiens prepare for Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"There were a lot of (negative) things said about us early on in the year, but it never affected us," centre Scott Gomez said. "We knew once we got healthy we'd be good. We just stuck together and we've had a good time doing it. It's a great room."

That sense of unity may seem a bit surprising when you consider the turnover in the Canadiens' roster. There are a dozen players on the team who weren't with the Canadiens last season.

"I think everyone's making it sound like we got to the playoffs and became a really close team, but all year we've been tight," Gomez said. "It was easy because there were so many guys who thought we're all on a new team here. From Day 1, it was a good vibe. We're all able to joke around with each other and that helped, especially with all the injuries we had."

The togetherness factor grew a bit Friday when Andrei Markov joined the team on its charter flight to Pittsburgh. The defenceman had not been seen in public since suffering an apparent knee injury in Game 1 of the Pittsburgh series, but he was with his teammates when they arrived at their Pittsburgh hotel.

Earlier in the day, coach Jacques Martin said there was no news on Markov's condition, but it's believed that he's not ready to play.

Gomez said the closeness of the players was an advantage in Game 4 Thursday, when the Canadiens played two of their worst periods of the playoffs and found themselves trailing 2-1.

"It was a bad time to play like that, but everyone was pretty honest with each other (between periods)," Gomez said. "It was as bad as it could get, but the good thing is that we were right there, only down by a goal. We got a little lucky with bounces and some breaks, but that's playoff hockey.

"In the playoffs, your next game always has to be better," Gomez said when asked whether the win gave the Canadiens momentum going into Game 5. "Both teams feel that way and we know there's a challenge ahead of us."

In the opening round of the playoffs, the Canadiens trailed Washington 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, but the Capitals seemed to sag after dropping Game 5.

Gomez said not to expect the same reaction from the Penguins, who find the series tied 2-2 after losing a game they dominated Thursday. He noted that the Penguins are the defending Stanley Cup champions and were in the final the previous year.

"It's two different teams," Gomez said. "When you win a Stanley Cup, it's an education and you learn things. Pittsburgh is a well-balanced team and they know how to win. As young as they are, they're the champs, and they're not going to get rattled."

In Game 4, the Canadiens received strong performances from their role players, and veteran Roman Hamrlik continued to fill some of the minutes usually allotted to Markov.

"I think everybody's stepped up," Hamrlik said. "The first two periods we didn't play very good, but the third period we showed we can play against any team. We have to get more pucks to the net and compete every shift. We haven't tested their goalie as much as we did in other games."

Marc-Andre Fleury shut out the Canadiens in Game 3, but he gave up three goals on 25 shots Thursday and his .896 save percentage is the worst among the eight goalies still competing in the playoffs.

The Canadiens' Jaroslav Halak has the best save percentage at .934, and he has also seen the most shots — an average of 37.2 a game.

In addition to raising the level of his own play, Hamrlik has also been tutoring rookie defenceman P.K. Subban, whose youthful enthusiasm can be dangerous.

"We talked after the first period," Hamrlik said. "I told him to keep things simple in the beginning of the game, You have to make that first pass and get your confidence. He wants to be aggressive and play with the puck, but we have to keep things simple."

Jaroslav Spacek, who has been sidelined with a mysterious ailment, continues to skate and was on the charter flight Friday, but there's no word on when he might play. Sergei Kostitsyn, who has been labelled as a distraction by Martin, did not travel with the team to Pittsburgh.

Montreal Gazette

thegazette.canwest.com

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Match’s philosophy is to teach youngsters power of ... - WalesOnline

Posted: 07 May 2010 09:57 PM PDT

May 8 2010 by Robin Turner, Western Mail

THE philosophers' football match in which Socrates scores with a diving header from a cross by Archimedes has become part of comedy history.

Now the 1972 Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch part written by Welsh funnyman Terry Jones has inspired a real-life football game.

Colwyn Bay-born Jones, 68, and Cardiff-born broadcaster John Humphrys, 66, will be on the substitutes' bench for tomorrow's game between Socrates Wanderers and Nietzsche Albion in North London.

The 49-year-old ex-soccer star turned TV presenter Gary Lineker and his wife Danielle, 30, from Cardiff will also be at the match.

The contest, being backed by former England manager Graham Taylor, has been set up to promote the Philosophy Shop.

The specialist education provider wants the match to highlight its campaign for philosophy to be taught to primary school children so reasoning becomes "the fourth R" in education.

Speaking yesterday, Gary Lineker said: "A great footballer achieves that status as much through his ability to think on his feet and read a game as from innate ability or training."

He said he thought most people would agree "teaching children to think about everything in their lives" would be "just as useful".

The famous sketch was originally recorded in Germany in 1972 for a German TV special Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus.

It depicted a football match in the Olympiastadion at the 1972 Munich Olympics between philosophers representing Greece and Germany.

Starring in the sketch were Archimedes (John Cleese), Socrates (Eric Idle), Hegel (Graham Chapman), Nietzsche (Michael Palin), Marx (Terry Jones) and Kant (Terry Gilliam).

During the heated encounter refereed by Confucius, Nietzsche receives a yellow card after claiming "Confucius has no free will".

The referee tells him: "Confucius say, 'Name go in book'."

In the 89th minute in a match dominated by theorising rather than any ball-kicking, Archimedes cries out "Eureka!" and instructs the Greeks to use the football.

Socrates then scores the only goal of the match.

The only action inspires a commentator with a cut-glass English accent (Michael Palin) to enthuse: "Socrates has scored! The Greeks are going mad!

"Socrates scores, got a beautiful cross from Archimedes. The Germans are disputing it. Hegel is arguing the reality is merely a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant, via the categorical imperative, is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside."

Franz Beckenbauer, the sole genuine footballer on the pitch, looks confused throughout.

Speaking about the sketch, Terry Jones said: "The clash of two opposites is the whole point...you can't think about football too much, you just have to do it."

"John (Cleese) and Eric (Idle), as the two keenest football players, had a great time setting up the goal-scoring."

He added: "Running out onto the pitch as Karl Marx was a great feeling of empowerment."

He said of the ethos of this weekend's game: "It seems reasonable to teach children to reason and unreasonable not to."

John Humphrys, taking his cue from the original sketch added: "The football match is a brilliant idea...but will it really be happening if one is not there?"

Tomorrow's match will involve a mix of intellectuals, sportsmen and women, broadcasters, writers and journalists.

Among them will be barrister and broadcaster Clive Anderson, historian and TV presenter Bettany Hughes, comedians Arthur Smith, Tony Hawks and Mark Steel and Julian Baggini, editor of Philosophy Magazine.

The Welsh contingent will be boosted by Carmarthenshire-raised Leighton Evans, a philosophy graduate student at Swansea University.

Bettany Hughes, sister of ex-England cricketer turned journalist Simon Hughes, said: "Wouldn't it be amazing if our age was remembered not for its greed or aggression or foolishness but for its belief in expanding minds?

"Who could deny it's a good thing to help make our kids lovers of wisdom?"

The match is at Wingate & Finchley's Harry Abrahams Stadium in North London tomorrow.

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Possum Philosophy: Lessons from Hortonstine - Southwest Virginia Today

Posted: 07 May 2010 03:45 PM PDT

By ROBERT "ROCKY" CAHILL/Columnist

There is a series of TV commercials being broadcast lately, promoting the adoption of dogs and cats from animal shelters. They point out that these dogs are not rogues, not violent offenders, not "broken" as they say nor are they damaged goods. Whoever produced this ad campaign has real talent. Each time I see it, it nearly breaks my heart.
There are things in this world I will never understand. One of these is people who abuse dogs, cats or other pets. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not some tender-hearted fanatic who thinks no animal should ever be killed. I like chicken, steak, ribs and other such culinary delights too much. I used to hunt, and may still again though not likely, the old arthritic hips and knees being what they are. I realize some dogs and cats must be put down for various problems of temperament or health. But I would never, ever beat a dog, cat or other pet to death (unless I were defending myself), and I for sure would not chain or cage an animal of any type and simply walk off and let them starve to death. To me that is sub-human.
If you cannot afford to feed a pet, try to find it a new home. If that proves impossible at least contact your local animal control people and ask them to take control of the animal. It is not a good solution, but it is absolutely far more humane than letting them starve or die of wounds created by chains wearing their way through the poor animal's flesh. This very thing took place recently when an area person left a poor dog chained until she very nearly died. The chain around her neck had ground its way into the flesh, which had become infected. Yet she showed a remarkable will to live. She also was still kind and gentle to humans. Too bad she had not been accorded the same civility from the owner.
Frankly, I have always believed that anyone who abuses a pet would do the same to a human if they had the nerve. And in the really bad cases they deserve severe penalties, perhaps the old Biblical "eye for an eye" equal to the treatment they gave their pet. If no one else were willing to administer it, I could be persuaded to lend a hand.
If you are looking for a good dog, don't pull a Paris Hilton and spend a fortune on a dog just because you think it is a fashion statement. Some of the world's best dogs are mixed breeds. It was 1970 and my Mom was working at the Washington County News. The owners at that time had a beautiful border collie who delivered them a litter of pups. All of them but one was the spitting image of their Momma. They were quickly adopted by friends of the family.
But there was one tiny pup that apparently resembled his dad as he surely looked nothing like the mother. To protect his sense of propriety, we always told anyone who asked that his father was a "sporting man," as folks used to say. He was built more like a hound, short coarse reddish-brown hair, white belly, ears already showing signs they would be kind of floppy. And his nose, what can I say, his nose was pink. He was kind of awkward as most pups are and kind of homely. His eventual fate did not look all that bright. The owners didn't need or want another dog. Seemed like nobody wanted him. But my brothers, sister and I begged and pleaded with Mom and Dad to let us take him.
It took a lot of begging and pleading, a ton of promises about grades, behavior, help around the home and other things (most of which were vows quickly forgotten, at least by us), but eventually they gave in. Thus Hortonstine Hounddog Bowman (the name given the poor little fellow by the owner's kids) became part of the Cahill family. We quickly shortened his name to Hortonstine or usually Horton or Hortie. For the next 17 years or so, he was the best friend a boy or girl could ever hope to have. He was pretty bright. He grew to be a medium size with the heart of a tiger. He could run like the wind and had a great sense of humor. Only you true dog-lovers reading this will understand what I mean by him having a sense of humor; he did I swear he did.
He was loyal, faithful, protective of his family and in general a heck of a good dog. I have no doubt that Hortie would have laid down his life trying to defend me or any of "his" family. He was courageous. I wish I were half the good person this dog was. Over the years, my family has had several dogs, a couple of them true purebreds, and all great dogs, but none outdid Hortie for loyalty, personality or intelligence.
Fast forward a few years. Terry and I had not been dating long. She had recently lost a beloved pet, her cat Klesko (yeah named after the baseball player who at the time played for her beloved Atlanta Braves). She missed him badly but just could not accept another cat at the time. She and I talked about it, and she finally decided she would stop by the animal shelter and see what they had for adoption.
When she and her mom walked into the area where the dogs were kept, they saw several fairly nice looking dogs, but then they spotted this pitiful looking pup. She was smallish with long, scraggly, matted hair, somewhat filthy looking. Not much on first appearances. But this little dog had heart. She immediately sat up, whined, danced on her hind legs, walked around that way and in general put on a show. Pitiful as she looked, she still won Terry's heart. Terry decided to adopt her, and it was a good thing as she was scheduled to be killed the next day.
Brandy, as Terry named her, is a wonderful dog. She is sweet natured and housebroken. She likes to spend warm days outside but prefers to sleep in at night. She can sit up straight as any human for long periods and is very gentle to humans, especially with small children. The only bad thing about her is we must keep her on a leash when she is outside. She tends to want to run along the roadways when not on a leash, and we are always afraid she might be hit by a vehicle, a fairly frequent occurrence out here in the country. Although she loves all of us, she is Terry's dog. She shows it. I guess it was a case of love at first sight. It saved Brandy's life.
The point of all this is simply to remind readers that there are absolutely wonderful dogs and cats out there whose only crime is being homeless, yet if they do not get adopted within a very short period they will receive the death penalty. If you want a good pet, please consider giving one of these wonderful but abused animals a chance. You will be more than rewarded in the long run, believe me.

A freelance journalist, Robert "Rocky" Cahill writes regularly for the News & Messenger. His Possum Philosophy column appears in each Saturday edition.

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