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Good Friday is a holiday for everyone but I am not sure where Easter Monday fits. It may be a holiday for a lot of places because Easter is on a sunday and was a holiday anyway. Oddly Quebec is different. Good Friday is not a holiday but Easter Monday is. discovered that when I lived in Montreal while at McGill. It all got confusing when the federal Lord's Day Act got struck down by the courts.
The schools do take time off in the spring (2 weeks now) but that is a set time in the year. Easter being a movable feast if doesn't fall on the same dates. Thus sometimes it is during Spring Break but other years it isn't.

The Mirror's Football England newsletter was not fun reading today, It was full of articles on how bad parenst of young footballers behave. Here are a couple of examples

Apparently the powner of one of England's Football teams has a bit of a feud going with the owner of another team and thus when the two play he usually sits in the stands with the fans.

Cute opening from this morning's Morning Brew, which I have finally gotten to.

"Good morning. Both the NBA and the NHL begin their first round of playoffs today, which means the basketball players will start trying and the hockey players will stop shaving.

Hope your team doesn’t give you too much stress."

And here is what yu have all been waiting for, the link to today's Mirror Pub Quiz.

My two daughters, ages 16 and 14, will quite happily watch Criminal Minds. However I cannot get them to watch Midsomer Murders. Sheesh.

It appears that Caitlin Clark will have a Canadian teammate in the coming season. Yvonne Ejim was drafted by the Indiana Fever.

C. John wrote: "My two daughters, ages 16 and 14, will quite happily watch Criminal Minds. However I cannot get them to watch Midsomer Murders. Sheesh."

Wonder if they would watch my favorite crime drama, Law And Order: Special Victims Unit. I love that show because of the star Mariska Hagarity. She is SUCH a good actress and I love her character Capt. Olivia Benson.

C. John wrote: "Cute opening from this morning's Morning Brew, which I have finally gotten to.

"Good morning. Both the NBA and the NHL begin their first round of playoffs today, which means the basketball players..."

Well, my NBA team put a beat down on the Lakers last night and I love it. One, all the “experts� picked the Lakers - some even a sweep. Guess they are shocked to learn that the Timberwolves are a good team too. Two, I can’t stand the Lakers and always love to see them get beat.

C. John wrote: "And here is what yu have all been waiting for, the link to today's Mirror Pub Quiz.
..."

Scored 11 of 19 - I’ll take that as a win.

I got 8 out of 19 and presumed that I had missed one. After seeing your score I will presume they forgot one question.

I trust that anyone celebrating has had a pleasent Easter dinner. We are having ours with my mother-in-law tomorrow.

Look at my news feed to discover that Francis has passed away.

Some more on the Pope's death. Apparently tradition holds that his funeral will be four to six days after his death, so that means the end of the week. Trump has already indicated he will attend. I also know that it will be the Australian Governor-General in attendance, mainly because they, like us, are in the middle of a federal election. I am not sure who is going from Canada though I suspect the Governor-General as well (same reason as Australia). I believe the Prime Minister of Britain, Sir Keir Starmer, wil attend. Not sure on the King and Queen. Not even sure where they are. They had been doing a Royal Tour. In fact they were in Italy.

Just read the funeral is this coming Saturday.

Lest I forget, Happy Earth Day everyone.

Prince William will be standing in for His Majesty at the funeral. I do not know if Kate is going or not. The article didna say.

There was an article I was going to read as it was about the Cheating Capital of the UK. I presumed it was about academic cheating. Turns out it was the other type. Didn't bother.

There was an indie rock band out of Vancouver in the 90s named The New Pornographers. I had heard of them but not really familiar with them. It seems the drummer has been arrested on child pornograpy charges. Needless to say the rest of the band is really shocked and has cut off all contact with him. I was tempted to make some sort of comment about the group's name and the charges but for once good taste manage to triumph over my sense (or lack thereof) of humour.

NFL legend and former member of wrestling's Four Horsemen Steve
"Mongo" McMichael has passed away. Cause of death was ALS.

Vancouver will have a franxhise in the PWHL next season. The league hopes to add one more franchise but we don't know where it will be yet.

Somewhat late in the day I suppose but Happy St. George's Day everyone. Go out and slay a dragon to celebrate. This is not a holiday in Canada unless you live in Newfoundland, which actually makes sense.

Somehow I can't see this becoming an Olympic sport.

The trial that was takin place up here that involved five members of the Canadian Junior Worlds hockey team from a couple o years ago has taken a strange twist. The hydge presiding over the trial declared a mistrial yesterday and I am not sure much evidence has been given. Unfortunately the reasons for the decision are sealed so we have no idea what prompted this. The jury was dismissed and a new jury has been empanneled. We are starting all over again.

Looking at the protocols for who sits where at the Papal funeral and I learned something interesting. The various heads of state, who occupy the third tier of guests, are seated according to their country's name in French. The reason for the use of French is that it was the language of diplomacy when the protocols were written. The first tier of guests is for Catholic royalty while the second is for non-Catholic royalty.

Besides the parties you have likely heard of (of which there are, I believe, six) there are several other parties running at least two candidates. Some have been around for awhile while others are newer. Here's a list.

Animal Protection Party of Canada
Canadian Future Party
Centrist Party of Canada
Christian Heritage Party of Canada
Communist Party of Canada
Libertarian Party of Canada
Marijuana Party
Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
Parti Rhinocéros Party

The Rhinoceros party has been around since the sixties and started off as a satirical party in Quebec. None of them have candidates in my riding.

Lack of sleep for me last night - was flipping between the c twins and Timberwolves games. When the Twins were done, stuck with the Wolves and it was so good, lost track of time. SOOOOOO happy they are up on the Lakers. Jaden McDaniels and Julius Randle were the main stories last night. And while I don’t care for his team, gotta give props to LeBron last night - he was deadly from 3 point range and kept the Lakers in the game when the rest of his team was floundering

C. John wrote: "The trial that was takin place up here that involved five members of the Canadian Junior Worlds hockey team from a couple o years ago has taken a strange twist. The hydge presiding over the trial d..."

Hmmmm…that doesn’t sound good at all…sounds like there’s something going on one side doesn’t want leaked out�

Actually from what I can figure out when the judge said why she was declaring a mistrial the jury wasn't present. Thus the judge's remarks can't be reported.

Wrexham was able to make it three end of year promotions in a row. The will play next year in The Championship, which is the tier below the Premier League.

I have been reading all about how Shadeur Sanders slipped alll the way to the fifth round in the draft. I even read how Trump posted that the NFL must be stupid as he didn't go in the first round. To my mind ususally when someone slips like that there are goor reasons, but nothing I have read has suggested any. So in this case what gives.

Today was Canadian Independent Bookstore Day. Unfortunately we don't have any independent bookstores in Nanaimo, save for maybe a few second-hand bookstores, and even those are getting few and far between.

The Montreal Transit system now has permission from the Quebec government to use the phrase "Go, Habs, Go" on its buses. There had been a complaint over the use of the word 'go' which is English not French.

A player for League Two team Tranmere Rovers picked up two yellow cards in quick succession. His offense was making a homophobic comment about a member of the opposing team, Walsall. What I did find amusing was the FA's description of his offense as being "discrimatory abuse regarding sexual orientation". Sounds like a really polite way of saying he made a homophobic slur. Oh yes, he recived a 13 game suspension.

Here is the link for the pub quiz.

C. John wrote: "I have been reading all about how Shadeur Sanders slipped alll the way to the fifth round in the draft. I even read how Trump posted that the NFL must be stupid as he didn't go in the first round. ..."

The biggest reason, from several sources, was his pre-draft interviews with GMs. Many felt he came across as arrogant, me-first and would demand everything be done his way. Let’s not forget throughout college, both at Jackson State and Colorado, his father was his head coach. Some didn’t want Deion to be an unpaid assistant “coach.�

Although Tomlin wouldn’t give into that and I’m surprised Steelers didn’t pick him earlier. I’d rather have Deion than Rogers the primadonna.

I can see why he dropped down then. Not paying a lot of attention to gridiron football I miss out on some of these nuances.

This is the final weekend for the women's Six Nations Cup. England and France meet at Twickenham and whichever team wins will be the champion and will have completed the Grand Slam. it appears Wales will take home the Wooden Spoon. I'd have provided more updates but I the coverage for this tournament was sorely lacking.

Okay. England defeated France by a score of 43 - 42

Meanwhile, Crystal Palace is through to the FA Cup Final after defeating Aston Villa in one of the two semi-finals. Just have to wait to see who they face.

That would be Manchester City, the team I can’t stand. Meanwhile Liverpool officially clinched Premier League title.

Brina wrote: "That would be Manchester City, the team I can’t stand. Meanwhile Liverpool officially clinched Premier League title."

Damn. I don't hate Manchester City but their opponent in the semi-final, Nottingham Forest, happens to be my favourite British Football team.

An interesting tibit from ysterday's Papal funeral. Volodymyr Zelensky was given a front row seat for the funeral. This was a breach of protocol by those organizing the funeral. I am wondering if this was something that Francis had requested. By the way, this put him in the same row as Trump and Macron, the French president.

Liverpool are the Premier League Champions after defeating Tottenham yesterday 5-1.

Basketball HOFer Dick Barnett has passed away at age 88.

Never saw him play but friends who are Knicks fans and old enough to remember him rave about how good he was

Gotta ask you John…with 5 of the 7 Canadian teams in the playoffs, got a feeling one will prevail? My Stanley Cup bracket had the Jets winning it all (I’ll never pick my Wild until they can ever get out of the first round), but man, Hellebuyck has looked awful the last two games.

Twins win, Timberwolves win, and the driver who I picked for the win on my NASCAR fantasy team this week, Austin Cindric, wins at Talledega. So it’s been a good sports Sunday.

Lance wrote: "Twins win, Timberwolves win, and the driver who I picked for the win on my NASCAR fantasy team this week, Austin Cindric, wins at Talledega. So it’s been a good sports Sunday."

Congrats!

Lance wrote: "Gotta ask you John…with 5 of the 7 Canadian teams in the playoffs, got a feeling one will prevail? My Stanley Cup bracket had the Jets winning it all (I’ll never pick my Wild until they can ever ge..."

I am like the rest of Canada I sure hope a Canadian team wins it this year. It has been awhile since a Canadian team has hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup. Given that both the East and West are represented this time around it would even be nice if both finalists were from Canada. It would certainly annoy a certain politician who keeps making noises about a 51st State. Actually I would be quite happy to see the U.S. add a 51st state, as long as it's name is Washington D.C.

Link to the Economist's Sunday newsletter. I think if you read the first senetence you will know why I posted it. Wasn't sure if the article itself might be too long to copy and paste.