Or as the Romans said

Or as the Romans said it:

PANEM ET CIRCENSES (Bread and circuses)

To keep the suckers distracted.

Who the hell cares which of these bunches of overpaid entertainers beats the hell out of the others?

Ed Deak.

It's entertainment Ed, relax ...

Just because I enjoy watching hockey doesn't mean I'm distracted from the more important things in life. You probably do things to entertain yourself that I could care less about. Being called a sucker isn't appreciated.

Oh Ed

C'mon! The Canucks are the pulse of this town. People take pleasure in watching them. Sure they're well compensated, but they bring a skill, which people are willing to pay and watch.

I've been a huge Nucks fan since I can remember! Still have a set of seasons tickets with my Dad.

Hockey brings us all together - helps us remember our identity, and best of all it entertains us. What is wrong with have a little fun?!?!?

Sit back, relax, enjoy the good times. This has been one of my favourite seasons. We don't have a team full of stars and our highest paid skater is an over the hill has-been.

We weren't even supposed to make the playoffs. We've overachieved, primarily on the back of Mr. Luongo. Every series that goes by is just a treat. If they lose, we can simply chalk it up to one thing, less talent.

Isn't it beautiful?

I AM!

Why not get distracted. Forget about the important things! It's ok to go out there and enjoy yourself.

Go skiing, go camping! Take a holiday. Go hit the tables and shows in Vegas! Be aware of the important things in life, but surely, enjoy the trivial things.

Some of you people just need to have a little more fun!

Yammer:

I completely agree with the 12-year theory as long as it can be scientifically adjusted.

This will be explained in my new book, Theory Fudging: The REAL Secret.

Keep watching Oprah for more details.

Cappy, I have been actively

Cappy, I have been actively involved in a number of sports in 3 countries, for about 35 years, both as a competitor, scheduled for the '48 Olympics, but a refugee by then, in my 30s and 40s in sportscar rallies, semi pro team captain for Datsun/Nissan rally team in Canada, club president, organizer, writer,nominated for the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, etc., but never as a spectator.

Go to "Shell 4000 Car Rallies" on google and you'll find my name in 5 cross Canada rallies from 1964 to 68. Even drop a line to the web owner, Marcel Chichak of Edmonton and ask him about my contributions

It is one thing to take some kind of active part in sports, another to watch, scream, swoon and faint over the actions of others, who get millions of bucks to push pucks around and beat each other with sticks.

When plyers are bought and sold like bloody slaves, it is no longer sports, but showbiz, so what's the excitement? They're not representing Vancuover, or any other city, but the team owners, who can send and move them anywhere as I drive my cattle to different pastures. . The Williams Lake hockey team and franchise was just now sold to somewhere in Washington State.

So what? Who did they work for? Representing the town, or the owners? I enjoy movies, but don't give a sweet damn about who plays in them and what they do off screen.

This hero worship of anybody is sickening.

Ed Deak.

driving a car is not a sport

ed,
if you try, really try, maybe, just maybe, you can get over yourself and begin to appreciate REAL athleticism.
good luck with that.

Real athleticism at millions

Real athleticism at millions of bucks a year, bought and sold like animals?

The spirit of the Olympics was first killed by the Russians and satellites, who gave phoney military ranks and fancy jobs to their drugged up athletes, so the could train without financial worries.

I found out the payscale of the Hungarian Olympic team through one of my contacts and submitted it to the British Olympic Committee in 1952. Their, and most of the world's athletes, were still amateurs at the time, but their reply was that they knew all about it, but didn't want to ruin the games etc.

There was a time when I was dreaming day and night of and training to take part in the Olymics, and would have given anything to have the chance. Today it is nothing more than showbiz with paid performers and I wouldn't cross the street with a paid ticket in my hand to see any of the events.

Yes, I do admire the skills of the athletes, as I know how much effort goes into them, but despise the system behind them, just as I despise the present system of market economics, where people are nothing more than "commodities".

By the way, how much athletic experience have you had, apart from watching others?

Ed Deak.

its too bad....

It's too bad that the Tyee thinks the way to increase it's readership is to continually feature articles about mainstream sports and also, by the way, reviews about mainstream movies.

I guess soon it will be hard to tell the Tyee from The Vancouver Sun.
The Tyee byline-"A Fiesty One Online"..who are you kidding?

go canucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yes! get my mind off the KREEPS IN GOVERNMENT ,THE CORRUPT RCMPMTHE WAR WE DON'T WANT,OLD WOMEN BEING MUGGED,CHILDREN WORKING IN NIKE SWEATSHOPS...ETC

GO............CANUCKS....GO!!!!!!!!!!

Well we will make it to the

Well we will make it to the second round but no further.

I'm with you, Ed

Fiat Lux said:

I don't mind watching a good game, but we've gone too far with sports and celebrities. We squander far too many of the world's resources on worthless minutia like Nicole Smith's breasts, Kieth Richard's snorting habits, who will be the latest last "survivor".

Like Ed, I've always been active (in sports and healthy outdoor activities). We need fewer beer-guzzling, nacho-dipping, running to the bathroom at the end of each period spectators -- and more doers on the planet.

What's that about Anna's breasts?

I've been a fan since Barry Wilkins scored in the first game. Even had the program from that game for quite awhile afterward.

For the record I played sports all my life till my kids arrived. Can't say I was great unfortunately, although I did lead my hockey team in penalty minutes, fighting majors and suspensions for a few seasons. Hey its a contribution of sorts :-)

I've been a believer in the 12 year theory because we all know it makes sense. But I've got a new one now. The Canucks started their streak the game after my dad died. The timing is perfect. And he would have loved this. Its a sign from above I tell ya :-)

Why watch the NHL?

1. To irritate Southdeltawalker.

2. Because they are the best. I'm a bad hockey player myself, but able to appreciate NHL performances. The way these guys can skate, pass, and shoot is amazing.

3. Tribalism. Sports fandom is a harmless way to participate in arbitrary "us vs. them" groupthink. I disapprove of that ideologically, but it is fun once in a while, like potato chips.

Who was it that said,

Who was it that said, "Sports is the opiate of the people"? Don't we get enough of this in the Province sports rag.

He shoots, he scores....

A home run, Frank. ;-)

Oops....sorry.... wrong sport.

In the words of SNL's "Emily Litella"/Gilda Radner:

"Never mind"

Vancouver Millionaires eh?

Now, if the Canucks really represented Vancouver or even just B.C., there might be a point in getting excited.

As an occasional watcher (if nothing better is on the tube) I keep recognizing names of players only to learn that now they are playing for the opposing team.

So the guy you rooted for last season is now the bastard that scores against "us"?

In any event I change the channel the minute they start figthing!
They maybe good skaters but pretending to fight at any provocation is only eye candy, and it turns me OFF.

Hero Worship

It always cracks me up how people have their "favourite" players. Enlighten a non-sports guy what you find any more appealing about mook #1 vs mook #2, each from generic smalltown, with crooked nose, busted teeth and the same "insightful" comment like "We just have to concentrate on our game and give it 110%" Big Bobby Clobber lives.

Don't forget having to

Don't forget having to concentrate on "deefence".

The most pathetic case was how people were "deefending" and swearing allegiance to that cowardly bum, whatever his name, who sucker punched another from behind, and broke his neck.

In any case, sport is sport and business is business abd the two will never meet.

Ed Deak.

The Canucks and Global Warming

The carbon footprint that results in the Canucks making it into the playoffs is huge.
I can imagine how many people are selling off waterfront property as we speak.
I encourage all Canucks fans, not to drive to the game in your gas guzzling SUV.
In fact, don't even go to the pub to watch the game.
Maybe watch it at home on TV, but if possible , listen to the game on a transistor radio, or the Internet.
Or better yet, don't follow the game. Just go to bed, and ask someone in the morning, who won.
That sounds like fun, doesn't it!

IMAC...

"Or better yet, don't follow the game. Just go to bed and ask someone in the morning,who won."
NOW you're getting close, but you don't even need to ask it'll be on most radio,TV or print medias. Just try and not follow it...it's not as easy as you might think.

Tax-free ripoff

Any neo-con like Cappy or IAMC who posts on this thread in support of watching the Schmucks is two-faced. You spend all your time railing against the "tax-and-spend left" and ignore that your favourite hockey team sells more than $25 million worth of seasons tickets to corporations and businesses who are allowed to deduct 50% of the purchase price of these tickets without reason, and 80% of the remainder for any tickets used as an entertainment expense.

Never mind the single tickets or the beer sales. All tax shelters for antedeluvian gladiators with more testosterone than brains.

Ta avoidance due to professional sport is estimated to cost Canadian taxpayers more than $445 million a year. And numerous think-tanks - including the right-wing Brookings Institute - have said that the subsidy to professional sport, especially when publicly-financed stadiums were taken into account, were a net loss to the community, and were not a source of economic growth or employment.

http://www.mskousen.com/Books/Articles/0009private.html

I hope the Schmucks choke in the first round and take every penny from that scumbag slumlord Aquilini.

....not to put too fine a point on it....

zalm

those tickets are used for meeting, wooing customers or providing hard working employees with a "fringe benefit". Give it up - it adds value to the business. Therefore, is reasonably characterized as a business expense.

In fact, it should be 100% deductible.

Expense

Sure. And corporate welfare is a social investment.

Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness ... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him. ~ Blaise Pascal

It is a noteworthy fact that kicking and beating have played so considerable a part in the habits which necessity has imposed on mankind in past ages that the only way of preventing civilized men from beating and kicking their wives is to organize games in which they can kick and beat balls. ~ George Bernard Shaw

When it comes to sports I am not particularly interested. Generally speaking, I look upon them as dangerous and tiring activities performed by people with whom I share nothing except the right to trial by jury. ~ Fran Lebowitz

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting... there are quite enough real causes of trouble already, and we need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators. ~ George Orwell

I am always amazed when I hear people saying that sport creates goodwill between nations, and that if only the common peoples of the world could meet one another at football or cricket, they would have no inclination to meet on the battlefield. Even if they didn't know from concrete examples (the 1936 Olympics, for instance) that international sporting contests lead to orgies of hatred, one could deduce it from general principles ... At the international level sport is frankly mimic warfare. ~ George Orwell

I would say that

I would say that "competition" and "sports" are two, totally different concepts.

While real sports do entail competition, the comparison between the two concepts is about the same as making love and partaking in a partner swapping orgy.

I have competed in many sports to the semi pro level, but we always have been at the most friendly basis with and helped each other, then had a good time after.

Of course, there always are the jerks, even in the best of sporting events, but their behavour shouldn't be accepted as the norm.

Professional "sports" are business competition and should not be counted, or accepted as real sports, but a version of show business, like the theatre, or movies.

This now also includes the Olympics, a total, disgusting waste of monetary orgy.

Remember when one of the Arab oil states bought and gave citizenship to the Bulgarian wrestling, or weight lifting, team within the last 2 Olympics, so they could compete as their own?

Is this sport ?

Ed Deak.

Viking Power!

All hail the Copenhagen Canuck, the Great Dane--Hansen makes watching the game fun and he's obviously having a blast. An inspired choice by Nonis and Vigneault.
BTW, read The Secret on the recommendation of someone--10% pop psychology (make goals, visualize, think positively) and 90% New Age bullshit. As P.T. Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute.

stunned and stupid ..............

i brought that quote by MACHIAVELLI up to date...STUNNED AND STUPID...

it was one of his statements in the PRINCE about keeping the populace HAPPY...as i don't have the luxury of time to GOOGLE the statement,I thought i would bring it into todays language , with my own interpretation,cause it really expresses the feelings I have about the PLAYOFFS and being CANADIAN.

when you grow up playing these sports,you naturally have an affection for them and as you age ,that COUCH,THOSE TICKETS,THAT TIME ,is evert more precious...

EVEN THOUGH WE ALL KNOW IT TO BE BULLSHIT,WE PLAY ALONG...CAUSE WE NEED THE RELEIF FROM THE EVERYDAY BULLSH!T OF OUR LIVES..........

GO !!!!!!!!!!!!! CANUCKS!!!!!!!!!!GO!!!!!

and hey! get me a beer while yer up ...will ya ...............

watch the legislature instead!

Sounds to me like seeking the lowest common denominator, if one chooses the professional hockey players or so-called "athletes" as role models!

What exactly is it that makes them so fantastic that you want to emulate them (in your own beer-slopping fashion?)

This would be a much better society if people would watch the proceedings in the legislature with equal attention and then discuss the implications afterwards.

Did you by any chance see our Attorney General keep repeating a stupid excuse recently in the chambers?

He was offered clear evidence, but kept saying he needed evidence.

His action is equally as stupid as a player repeating that next time he needs to give 110%!

The difference is that few people bother to see what fools the NDP has to cope with!

Fiatlux, that snobbish

Fiatlux, that snobbish attitude of sports spectators is ridiculous. How can you assume that the millions of peope worldwide who watch sports don't participate in them? When you did your auto racing, were there any spectators? And didn't you feel liberal guilt over the fact that you contributed to global warming with the emissions off your race car?

The fact is, that sports, professional or otherwise, are entertaining, fun and enjoyable to watch. As a result, people will pay to watch them and pay elite athletes to perform.

And the values they teach ar wonderful: competitionto bring out the best, keeping your eyes on a goal, discipline, meritocracy, strategy that needs to be changed as circumstances change, playing through pain, etc.

Sorry "Fiatlux, that

Sorry "Fiatlux, that snobbish attitude of sports spectators is ridiculous." should read "Fiatlux, that snobbish attitude towards sports spectators is ridiculous."

Listening to Sports radio at the office while I type!

!00 % deductible?

"In fact, it should be 100% deductible.Cappy"

Imagine that. You don't even get that on a charitable donation to the poor and hungry but these guys actually think they need to be subsidized for being entertaining their business buddies. Then if it is part of the benefits of work, let them declare the benfit just like the rest of us declare our medical premiums. Talk about Corporate Welfare bums feeding at the public trough!

Your fault, Tyee posters

Now the series is 3-2 and the Stars are coming back. It's your fault, Tyee posters. All this negativity is interfering with the Oprah-fication process.

Go Stars!

Cappy you just keep right on posting. You're too valuable to lose!

With every word, you confirm for all to see how vapid and mindless you are, how two-faced and substandard your logic, and how greedy and selfish your spirit is.

Welcome to Tyee! Enjoy your stay! You're the perfect "bad example"....

...well, next to Ron "I AM Clueless", of course....

Kiss of Death....

Er, excuse me Mr. Burgess, but it's forbidden to look ahead when the present series is still being contested!

Blame us will you!!! Pratt and Taylor did the same thing too. Professional broadcasters! Humph...

ALMOST P!SSED MY PANTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOOOOOO !!! I WAS SO EXCITED...

PLUS...i drank a lot of BEER

good games ,all around last night and it will only get better the more DESPERATE the teams get...

I LOVE THIS TIME OF THE SEASON.

GO!!!!!!!!!!!CANUCKS !!!!!!!!!!!!! GO !!!!

and I hope they win,but whoever wins...I really HOPE it's a CANADIAN TEAM !!!!!!

WOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly!

How can you not support the Canucks? WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :)

Mea Culpa

I may indeed have jinxed the lads. And believe me, I thought about it when I wrote that "We'll finish off the Stars" line. Hockey gods forgive me.

Lets see if this works

OK folks. I won't get carried away or too distracted from other important things but...

GO CANUCKS GO!!

But the rest of you capitalists pay your taxes on money you spend on entertainment just like I do.

hope they loose!

Personally I do not care who wins that old trophy,since none of the teams represent any city or country anyway.

However as a taxpayer I would like for us to avoid paying the police millions for keeping the idiots from vandalizing downtown!

So:
Loose canucks loose!

Screwed by our own side

If we lose tomorrow I vote we hang Burgess and Pratt by their toes from lamposts. And their mistresses too!!! Sorry, got carried away... Third Reichy thingy.

Foresaken...

This is what hockey hell looks like, thanks to those negative nellies! The Canucks set to give back another 3 - 1 series lead. Who doth anger thy god before thee? We offer to you the Calgary Flames into thy volcano! Oh great and powerful all knowing God of hockey and beer, allow thy devoted servants, Canucks of Vancouver, to pass through thy gates of the first round! Forecheck, backcheck, paycheck and pass the puck, amen.

We've done all we can Frank... it's out of our hands...

Hey Frank!

Introduce me to my mistress and it's a deal.

trips to the beer store...

burgess should have to go to the beerstore for all the fans posting here...for the rest of the year...that will teach him to JINX our paid for thugs on ice....I MEAN OUR TEAM !!!

GO!!!!!!CANUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!GO!!!!!!!!!!

and i wuz only jokin guyz...HONEST !!!!!!!!

Loose morals!

He doesn't even know her name!

He doesn't even know her

He doesn't even know her name!

jinx my CANUCKS,you .....you....you....

I'm so mad i could piss my pantz and not care!

GO!!!!!!!!!!!CANUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GO!!!!!

and they lose tonight stevie,it's gonna be ...HIDE !!!!!!BURGESS!!!!!!!!!HIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

well,hell...gotta blame someone !

and it aint gonna be me...........

GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CANUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!GO!!!!

Hughson overrated

As much as I am enjoying the Canucks run, I long for the days of Jim Robson. Hughson is so overrated. He thinks he knows more about hockey than he really does, he relies on a few stupid catch phrases in his game calls. He calls an OK game, but no better than Whitman, and Bob Cole in his prime was way better, and is better even now.

Steve Burgess

You and Pratt are off the hook Steve.

But I'm disappointed to hear that all you jet-setting Tyee columnists don't drive Jags and have mistresses.

Hughson overrated

GRRRRR-EAAAAATTTT SAVE TERRERI!!!

I think if Tony the Tiger ever makes a comeback Jim Hughson has a lock on that job.

As for Bob Cole, love the guy's voice when he's calling the Leafs but he can't remember the names of any players in the western conference.

No Comparison

I like Hughson, and have ever since he was on Sportsnet. One catch phrase he can lose is "the fans call a penalty but the ref's don't." Other than that he's one of the best in the business. A business which Canada and the CBC in particular dominate. American broadcasts don't measure up. Even the personalities like Ray Ferarro hype their game up for American style TV, but the actual game coverage from camera work to play by play is no comparison to the Canadian brand. Don't forget all the local TV and Radio broadcasters like the late Ed Whalen from Calgary.... "Good evening hockey fans, and welcome to your Molson hockey telecast...."

Chris Cuthbert has come into his own too.

If there is a gap to be filled, it's the colour guy. We've got that covered in Vancouver with Tom Larsheid on the radio broadcasts. But they're hard to find, witness the buffoon Ryan Walter who some how continues to work in Alberta I believe. He was brutal doing Canucks games a few years ago.... and finally Kelly Hrudy is the heir to Don's throne!