A Truly Wretched Game - and a Wonderful Day

 A couple posts ago I shared the surprising math wherein I had, over the years, brought 19 different people to CFL games. The "research" was inspired by taking my friend Erik, a first-time CFL game participant, along with Cyndi and Kevin (veterans) to an Alouettes game on Saturday. The game was pretty dreadful. It was played in a steady cold rain, and the Alouettes were, due to injury, down to their backup backup backup quarterback, but the day itself was an amazing day spent with great friends.

I've attended some ugly CFL games, but this may have been the ugliest. Kevin and I freezing to death in Calgary this summer was unpleasant, but the bizarre weather conditions made it beautiful in its own way. I remember watching Johnny Manziel "play" a game for the Alouettes once, and that was train wreck, can't look away bad.

Having said all that, before the game we stopped by the Kouign Amann bakery before hand, for delicious and dangerous pastry. Then we drove on the Schwartz's Deli for smoked meat, and you can't ever complain about that.

The crew at Schwartz's, getting ready to tuck in. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, "Can't talk, eating."

Erik and Kevin enjoying the grandeur that is Schwartz's. After our mad dash to Kouign Amann we arrived at Schwartz's at 10:20 (they open at 10:00). Apparently you don't want to get there any later - within ten minutes the place was packed.

Cyndi, strangely, eating her smoked meat sandwich with a knife and fork, clumsily displaying her patrician roots.

Cyndi, rocking one of my Alouettes shirts and her Ali McGuirk hat.

A brief moment when it was raining on us. During the game I was pitching a Hamilton game to Cyndi and an Ottawa game to Kevin. They both, wisely, ignored me.

This was, inexplicably, again, Erik's first CFL game. Here he is trying to grasp the different dimensions of the field and the complexities of the rouge. Oh, and we didn't see a rouge, adding to our misery. On the hill, in the distance, is a building we discussed during the game.

Every time I go to an Alouettes game I look at that building and pick out my imagined new office, only partially because I could go into my office during games to "research and write" while watching the Alouettes play. Since Erik was at the game we discussed that this was also his decision since we always share an office. We settled on the office right below the clock. Now, of course, I don't even know if this is a faculty office building, but we've chosen our spot nonetheless.

After leaving Schwartz's Erik and Cyndi stumbled into Cafe Le Nigiriz in pursuit of a cup of coffee. We ended up watching an extraordinary science experiment. Erik joked that it was a pity that we ended up missing the game because of the elaborate preparation time, but that it was the greatest cup of coffee of all time. It was a cool place, and I suspect it will be added to our Alouette game routine.

And, of course, the day ended at a Tim Hortons in pursuit of TimBits. All was right with the world.

The Canadian Economy

 Yesterday I calculated that over the years I've taken 19 different people to CFL games, some multiple times, across six different cities. I'm afraid that when we move to Europe the Canadian economy may collapse. 

Skeletal Remains

 On the last day of the latest Canada adventure, as we finally made it back towards the border on a blistering day, we stopped at the last Tim Horton's (at least the one that you'd bump into if you took 15 South as you headed for my favorite place to cross the border). Anyway, we were standing in line when a guy pulled it in a beautiful vintage car, which had a skeleton sitting in the passenger's seat. Of course, I immediately began chatting the guy up - and, of course, Kevin wondered why he ever travelled with me. The guy, yet another very nice Canadian, took me outside to show me the car and how he had set up the skeleton. It was pretty amazing. I asked him if he ever took his wife out for a ride; he said he did, although she had to ride in the backseat.

And what topped it off, the guy had adapted the skeleton so that its head swiveled. If you pulled up next to him at a stoplight he would get the head to turn to look at the people in the other car. I love Canada.

More Mountains

 Like I said, eventually when I have more time - or when I've written enough that I can suppress my self-loathing sufficiently - I'll get into the recent trips more fully. In the meantime, we'll have to settle for dribs and drabs. Here's another picture of the Canadian Rockies up around Banff.

And I haven't even begun to look at the pictures on my camera yet.

Mr Noodles

 I know that sounds like a villain from Dick Tracy, but it was my lunch on two separate Porter Air flights. I had never flown on Porter Air before, but Kevin and I thought we'd try it for the flight to Edmonton. It was fine, although it was strange to be on a flight as long as Toronto to Edmonton without movies, but, happily, I had brought a novel to read, so I was sorted. It reminded me of international flight back in the day. We missed a connector in Toronto on the way back, but that was our fault for choosing a flight with a short connection (we thought the gates might be close to each other, but we had to get from one to the other via Yellowknife; I was pleased that my legs, although unhappy with me, did manage to carry me on a forced march from one end of the Toronto airport to the other). As with most budget airlines, we had to buy our own food.  I went for a Mr. Noodles, mainly for amusement's sake.

It reminded me of the cup of noodles that I paid for on Wow Air (now, I believe, sadly deceased) on my flight to Iceland with my son. I sent him this picture, and he immediately responded with the appropriate line from The Young Ones, as I knew he would.

Canmore

 I snapped this picture at the Canmore Brewing Company, as we stopped on our way back from the Continental Divide. As you head west from Calgary, Canmore is the last decent-sized town on the way to Banff. I liked Banff a lot, and it's certainly in an extraordinary location, but it also felt awfully Outlet Mally, whereas Canmore felt more like a legitimate city (with many of the same advantages of Banff).

Not a bad place to spend an afternoon.

Canadian Rockies

 OK, I'm busy working on my Shahnameh chapter this morning, so I don't have a lot of time to blog, but I'll steal a couple minutes. Expected a lot of pictures of mountains in the next few days. As much as I enjoyed going to the Elks and Stampeders games - and as much as I like both Edmonton and Calgary - the the memorable moments from the trip, not surprisingly, centered around driving up into the Canadian Rockies. It's like when you finally get to the Taj Mahal or the Hagia Sophia, and you know that it's going to be amazing, you just can't process how amazing it is. I knew we were going to slide up into the mountains, but that's a far cry from actually doing it. We had a free Sunday for exploring, mainly because we screwed up the scheduling when we reserved our plane flights (thank God for senior moments), so we had planned to drive up through Banff and on to the Continental Divide. However, we were barely outside of Calgary when we first saw the Rockies in the distance, and I just about had to pull over. Extraordinary and humbling, and, again, expect many more pictures.

I was driving, so, unfortunately, I don't think I enjoyed them as much as I would have if I could have just been a passenger (I was trying to check them out and not actually drive off the road). If I had been on my own I would have taken some of the little side roads to see where I would have ended up, and probably never made my flight.

Elks Game and a Failed Selfie

 Here's a picture that I snapped during the Edmonton Elks game last week. I was trying to recapture the amazing selfie that Andy took last year at the Hamilton game, but, tragically, it didn't work out. At the exact moment I was trying to take the picture one of the Elks staff jettisoned a t-shirt up and just about conked me on the head. That, of course, I didn't mind, but it did mess up my artistic plans (this was actually the best of the series of chaotic shots, made even more chaotic by people rushing over to grab our missed swag; which is fine, because doubtless it would never had fit me). We saw a rouge, so it was a success.

The game itself was fun, although the Elks are pretty bad. Sadly, there were only about 14,000 people at the game (in a stadium that seats 55,000 - the largest in the CFL) for the opening game of the season. Hopefully the Elks turn it around.

Still, that's a pretty sweet Elks jersey. As we were walking out a fan stopped me and told me how much we loved the jersey.

 

Stampeder

 As I said, I'll get caught up on these trips soon. I need to devote hours everyday to finishing the Epics book, so some of this is simply going to have to wait. However, I'll toss in a photo now and then so that I don't completely lose the thread. Here's a picture of me at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. I'll talk more about it later, but at this point I'll just throw in that we sat through a cold, torrential downpour. I found myself regretting my decision to not throw in a sweatshirt (which I was considering), which was not an packing decision that I figured I would be making for a mid-June game. Fortunately, I put my raincoat back in the suitcase, after it had foolishly been temporarily removed.

Sadly, my new, cool Stampeders jersey was buried under three layers of clothes.

Moonie

 I've been pestering my friends today with this odd trivia question: Who are the three individuals who are in the CFL and NFL Halls of Fame? The first answer is an easy one, and not simply because I had already sent around the picture below: Warren Moon. The other two are more of a challenge: Bud Grant and Marv Levy. The fact that Grant and Levy are a combined 0-8 in the Super Bowl probably signifies something important. It's also interesting that two of the three Double Hall of Famers have Vikings connections. Weird. Of course, as I've doubtless mentioned too many times on blog (I mean, come on, you don't close in on 3000 posts without repeating yourself) the fact that led me to the CFL in the first place was that I learned early on that Grant had coached (wildly successfully) in the CFL before he moved on to the NFL (where even his brilliance as coach couldn't overcome the Curse of the Vikings). Anyway, I guess I'm now one step closer to being fully prepared for June's CFL Doubleheader of Excellence. Oh, one final thought: I had to have this Warren Moon jersey made, as you might have figured out since he played for the Edmonton Eskimos and not the Edmonton Elks (same franchise, just a name change a couple years ago). For some reason you couldn't order player jerseys on the Elks webpage (which probably doesn't say much about how good they are at the moment). 

I think it was all worth it for the comped Elks lanyard and decals.

Elks

 Yesterday I bought our tickets for the Edmonton Elks game in June, so the trip is starting to come together. Now I just have to wait a couple weeks for the Calgary Stampeders tickets to go on sale so that we're set. The Elks tickets are great, right on the 55 yard line. After this trip I'll have visited six of the nine CFL stadiums, and the challenge will be getting to the last three. These two games will certainly not be my only CFL games of the season: #VermontsLeadingCFLFan

Stampeder

 The summer 2025 CFL Doubleheader of Excellence trip is coming together. The dates are chosen and the plane tickets are purchased: a Thursday Edmonton Elks game paired with a Saturday Calgary Stampeders game. We haven't purchased the tickets yet because individual tickets haven't gone on sale yet, or at least they weren't last week. That left the most important part of the process: purchasing appropriate CFL swag for the games. I mean, we don't want to look like visiting yokels (or proto-fascists) from south of the border. This was made more difficult was that the original plan was a Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders doubleheader, which meant that I had already purchased excellent Blue Bombers and Roughriders jerseys. Oh well, they won't go bad, and they'll just wait patiently for that trip down the road (after this summer I'll have seen games at six of the nine CFL stadiums, so obviously I'll have to eventually complete the circuit). My Stampeders jersey arrived yesterday. My friend Kevin accuses me, quite rightly, of being irrational in love of the CFL and my pursuit of associated swag, but I was somewhat logical with my Stampeders purchase because I chose the jersey of the player who had just signed a free agent contract elsewhere, so I got it for half-off. In the end, any money I saved went back into the CFL coffers (much better them than the NFL) because of the challenge of purchasing an Edmonton Elks jersey (more on that later). Soon I'll have enough jerseys that when we live overseas I'll be able to wear a different one every day (and twice on selected days) and either pass as Canadian or earn the reputation as that odd expat who lives down the lane.

I also chose  this James Vaughters jersey because he is originally from Georgia (and played college football at Stanford), and it reminded me of my time teaching at GPC in Atlanta. He recently signed a free agent contract with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (one of my four favorite CFL teams - truthfully, I should just say one of my nine favorite CFL teams). Over the years he's also had a cup of coffee with the New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers, Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, and Pittsburgh Steelers - which, to me, makes him a classic CFL story.

CFL Diva

 I suppose all of us have peculiarities that we throw money at, but how many of us can say that it's the CFL? Even my exes who ended up hating me said that at the very least I was very easy to shop for because I had so many things that I was passionate about. With that in mind, maybe the CFL is just the latest in a long line of odd fascinations on my part. That said, I've never really been interested in spending money on them. I've always been happy to spend money on the folks in my life, but more than hesitant to spend money on myself. Maybe I'm just getting old and hence more willing to give into my desires (the less happiness we have on a daily basis may make us more willing to madly chase short term adventures - and I guess I owe the blog a post on my recent trip to the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia).Having said all that, it's hard to not love the CFL. They're the absolute underdog on the North American football landscape, and I'd simply quite happy to throw money their way as compared to those assholes in the NFL. Plus, unlike the Minnesota Vikings, no CFL team has ever broken my heart.

My Christmas present from Janet. Inshallah, after visiting all of the Eastern Division teams (three of the four more than once) I'm hoping to head the the Western Division this summer. The goal is a Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders doubleheader. I'm just waiting for the CFL schedule to drop so that I can begin planning.

According to the esteem Mike Kelly, this is the sweetest jersey so far. Sadly, I suspect that my friends' love for the CFL and for me will not extend beyond the Eastern Division and that I'll be making these future trips on my own.

CFL Excellence on Steroids

 The last few months have been, obviously, more than a bit chaotic, which means that certain things ended up being pushed, unintentionally, to the back burner. One of them was a CFL trip. As is well-documented on this blog I've attended a lot of CFL games over the years (and dragged along family and friends, often kicking and screaming). I'm always happy to spend money on the CFL, in a way that I'm no longer interested in spending money on the NFL or even MLB. Usually, in the course of a season I'll attend two or three CFL games, however, I don't normally attend three in one week. I had proposed a Montreal and Ottawa doubleheader (as we've discussed, one of the beauties of the CFL is that although they only play four games a week they are sometimes spread over three or four days, which opens up the potential for bunching games). We couldn't make the schedule work, but happily our excellent friend Andy got into the CFL schedule and figured out a Hamilton and Toronto doubleheader. Happily, our friend Kevin (who clearly likes the CFL more than he will admit) could make it work. They were great travelling companions, and, despite buying the tickets, they took care of all of the other logistics. We found an AirBnb in between Hamilton and Toronto, and off we went, catching a Calgary Stampeders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats game on Friday night, and following it up with an Ottawa REDBLACKS and Toronto Argonauts game last Saturday afternoon. However, why would you stop at two CFL games when you can go to three? I dragooned Gary and his wife Ali, and yesterday we went up to catch a Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Montreal Alouettes game. The two teams met in last year's Grey Cup and are once again the two best teams in the league, which made the game a probable preview of this year's Grey Cup. It was a great game, and all the starters played the entire game, even though neither team had anything to play for (yet another reason why the CFL is better than the NFL, where most of the skill players would have taken the day off). The Blue Bombers won on the last play of the game, after a devil's wind, clearly blowing in from Winnipeg, knocked down an Alouettes punt and gave the visitors one last chance. Now, should I just go ahead and buy tickets for the Alouettes playoff game in two weeks?

It was a chilly night in Hamilton, but a solid win for the Tiger-Cats.

A great lunch in a cool bar about fifteen minutes away from the BMO stadium in Toronto. Yes, that's not the sweatshirt that I wore the night before. It was, like its cousin from the night before, heavily insulated, which was appreciated in Hamilton at night, but I cooked on a lovely sunny afternoon in Toronto (which required more CFL merchandise purchases).

Obviously, the trip required several stops at various and sundry Tim Horton's. Mike Kelly had set the number of TimBits consumed at 108, and we all bet over, which was a solid choice because we easily blew past it.

A wild game in Toronto, with the Argonauts (aka the Boatmen, aka the Double Blues) almost blowing a thirty point lead. Yes, that's a new Argonauts jersey. 

A picture snapped by Ali. The rainbow, correctly, predicted a wonderful day.

And, of course, a stop at the southern most Tim Horton's.

We had great seats, almost right on the 55 yard line. What started out as a beautiful, sunny day, eventually turned into the gusty affair mentioned above - and the requirement that I buy some more CFL merchandise, in this case a nice warm cotton Alouettes sweatshirts.

One of us in cool, and the other one is me. I'm so happy to have this amazing woman as my daughter-in-law.

CFL Diva

 In one short month Kevin and I will be heading west, and meeting Andy who will be driving in from Michigan, for our CFL Doubleheader Event of Excellence. Clearly, if you're going to show up at the game you have to support your team. And while I have t-shirts for every one of the nine CFL teams, I didn't have any sweatshirts. And, well, no doubt it will be a little chili in Hamilton and Toronto in mid-October. 

I also have the Tiger-Cats equivalent. Essentially, I'll be a diva who will be changing outfits several times.

CFL Doubleheader Excellence

 The plans have been made for some epic CFL Doubleheader Excellence in October. Kevin and I are driving west - and Andy and Heidi are driving east - and we're meeting in the middle. We're catching the Stampeders and Tiger-Cats game in Hamilton on Friday 18 October and then the REDBLACKS and Argonauts game in Toronto on Saturday 19 October. Noted betting expert Mike Kelly has set the Over/Under number of TimBits consumed over the weekend at 108. I'm betting Over for me alone.

A picture from our last trip to Hamilton, pre-COVID. Hopefully we can park in the same guy's front yard.

CFL Thanksgiving Excellence 2023

 As we all know, and which none of us need to be reminded, I am Vermont's leading CFL fan. Sadly, I had somehow manage3d to make it through the season without going to even one CFL game season, which says something very bad about me. Happily, I kept up a long-standing tradition of heading up to Montreal for their own long-standing tradition: the Thanksgiving (Canadian version) Montreal Alouettes game. Over the years I've dragged many of my friends up to the Thanksgiving game, and this year I brought my excellent friend Mike Kelly (who was there for his second Thanksgiving game extravaganza). Since it was the only game of the year I splurged: great seats right on the 55 yard line.

Mike and I spent a rainy, but wonderful, day analyzing the strategy.

Three things of note: 1) great Ali McGuirk hat swag; 2) my traditional Alouettes shirt; 3) damn, that dude is ancient.

As is also well-documented - as long as we see a rouge the trip is worth it. In fact, we saw two. My soon (although apparently not too soon) to be written book on the CFL will be entitled: As Long As We See A Rouge. My friends have heard me say this so many times.

Superb Owl Sund Ay

 And I guess I could have tagged this Pandemic (I keep threatening to create that label but never do). It's odd to have a Super Bowl Sunday (or, for fans of What We Do In the Shadows, a Superb Owl Sunday) without having any plans. Often I'm at my friend Cyndi's place or Kevin's apartment, but instead I'm just hunkered down in my little apartment. Still, I think we're closer to the end than the beginning of the pandemic so eventually we'll be back together for Super Bowl - or, more importantly, Grey Cup parties.

Chili and guac are prepared .. .

. . . but I think my game time attire may give away my true allegiance.

And, let's not fool ourselves, the Alouettes are going to win a Super Bowl before the Vikings do.

Dim Sum Carnage

When I have more time (Finals Week is upon us) I'll devote lengthy post to our trials and tribulations in making it to Jordan last week. Suffice it to say at this point that the normally reliable Student Universe was an unmitigated disaster this trip, with, seriously, five different screw-ups along the way. I'm still planning on using them this spring for the March trip to India, but they're definitely on a short leash. I don't have a lot of time - and should, truthfully, be grading right now - but the brief version of the story is that we ended up trapped in Montreal for an extra day on the flight out. Now, we could have sat in our hotel rooms and sulked, but instead we gathered our large crew and headed to China Town. Most of the students had never been there, and an even smaller number had ever tried Dim Sum. One Dim Sum Carnage later and they were quite content - and off we went for the Middle East.

One of the fundamental rules of student management is keep feeding them and they're usually happy.

Montreal Funday

I've often stated that I'm frustrated with my failure to make it up to Montreal more than I do. Yes, I do dragoon my friends into heading up to CFL games, but I don't make it into the city as much as I should. It's rare that one is fortunate enough to have a city so diverse and fascinating and, well, international, so close to you. Last year I actually bought the Lonely Planet Guide to Montreal as step one to getting up there more. Like many folks, I guess, I'm a little put off by the general confusion of driving in Montreal, especially since they're under road repair (to be fair, they're always under road repair). However, we all have smart phones with GPS and the nice phone lady will actually lead you around Montreal as well as Indianapolis, and she's proven to be spot on the last couple of trips up there. So, I'm going to get over my trepidation of heading into Montreal. Yesterday I headed up there with my most excellent friend Cyndi for a day of goofing. Our initial goal was to make it back to the Kouign Amann bakery to get their famous pastry specialty of the same name (which was apparently born in the French town of the same name). Our friend John Stroup had directed us there on our Alouettes game trip a few weeks ago (which I've still somehow not blogged about) and it did not disappoint. Yes, the thought of driving five hours round to another country for pastry might seem foolish to some people, but they are not people I'd want to hang with anyway. From this simple goal the trip began to take on a life of its own and further evolved (or devolved). Cyndi and I had actually called the bakery on Thursday to tell them that we were heading up on Saturday to buy three kouign amman butter cakes (why three? because we couldn't quite pull the trigger on four). After the bakery and carrying the thirty pounds of butter cake through the streets of Montreal (it was probably less, but it might have actually been heavier) we decided to grab some lunch. Through sheer happenstance we ended up at the Cafe ze Yeti, which turned out to be a treat. It's this lovely kid-friendly care down a side street (I think Saint Andre) off of Mount Royal (where the bakery is located). And then we headed off into the wilds of southern Quebec to find the Fromagerie Kaiser, a great cheese shop located in the middle of cornfield. It's right off of route 202, which runs parallel to the border. If you take the Augsburg-Noyen border crossing (which gets about thirty cars a day, so they appreciate the business) it can't be more than a couple miles from Noyen. You take a right into the cornfield, which means you're getting even closer to the border. It was so good, and a reminder of what cultural rubes we Americans are (we claim sophistication simply because we choose cheddar over American cheese). Crossing the border back into the US the border guard asked why we had gone to Canada and we told him about our adventures. He asked: "You didn't bring back fifty pounds of cheese, did you?" CB's response: "I think we tried' fifty pounds of cheese at the fromagerie." He laughed and sent us on our way. I think this is now going to be an annual fall event.

The inside of the Kouign Amann bakery on Mount Royal. It was packed, with a short queue snaking through the tiny bakery, but they were on top of things and it only took a couple minutes.

Sure, it looks like Cyndi is carrying three pizzas, but those are the three kouign amman butter cakes.

A slice of the legendary kouign amman. They had me at the descriptor "sugar laminate."

The Cafe ze Yeti, which we stumbled into because the place CB found on her phone was packed. It's a lovely, bright cafe with a children's play area in the back.

The brunch special, very European.

And, come on, any cafe with a cryptozoological theme is appreciated.

The Children of the Cheese. Seriously, it's in the middle of a huge cornfield, but it's famous and was packed.

After the crowd began to thin out. You had to take your ticket right inside the front door, in what's essentially a mud room, before you entered the main area. If you had to make you way up to the front counter to get a ticket you'd never make it.