Glenn Kubish

I am thinking more about pylons these days. I knew the word first as slang, a demeaning term applied to someone without natural athletic ability on skates. Used this way on the typical hockey bench: "Did you see him blow past the defenceman? What a $%&# pylon that guy is! Hahhahaha, moron. Throw me the water." Like that. If someone calls you a pylon, they are not complimenting you on your strength or solidity or reliability of character. They are not likening you to a bridge pylon or to an electricity line pylon or to any other huge piece of technology that can be counted on to just stand there and mutely do its work of support. No, if you're called a pylon, it's because someone has decided that you exhibit the dumb part of the pylon's being. Like the way Lemieux reduced Chambers to a piece of material in 1991. Nobody wants to be the pylon. Except, as John Milton said in a different context, those who only stand and wait also serve. Mil...

Things are pretty ugly out there. The Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, has just severed diplomatic relations with Iran, the timing of the move leading many to wonder if Canada has inside information about an imminent US-backed Israeli attack on Tehran. The United Nation's nuclear agency has overwhelmingly rebuked Iran for failing to act to diminish fears it is developing a military nuclear option. Greece is an economic basket case, Spain is in trouble and the European Union is considering a banking union to solve its monetary woes. For 23 years, police in the U.K. lied to the world and its own citizens about what happened at the Hillsborough Stadium disaster. The U.S. ambassador to Libya was assassinated. Anti-American protests are sweeping across the Arab and Muslim world. The interest rate is, like, nothing, and manufacturing productivity has returned, but the U.S. economy is not adding jobs. It looks like the NHL season will be shortened or scrubbed ...