Mary Beth Corcoran appreciates what the Myles Miracle Mission Cancer Wellness Centre has done for her family and she wants to give something back.
The local journalist is using her photography skills to capture images of cancer survivors for a book, titled Finding Strength: A Photographic Essay of Cancer Survivors in Chatham-Kent.
“I love photography and I am so grateful to (wellness centre founder) Susan (McLellan) for all the help we received when my dad was sick,” Corcoran said.
Having recently lost her father, George Marlatt, to cancer, she said the centre provided excellent support while he was ill and after his passing.
“I want to do something for them, because they were so incredible with us,” said Corcoran, adding the wellness centre also provided support to her siblings Tom and Jane.
Corcoran is looking forward to working on this project.
“We want to do an inspirtional and hopeful look at cancer survivors,” she said.
“What we’re doing is letting them write their own story,” she added. “We’re hoping with their words . . . they can let people know how they coped . . . how they were able to deal with a cancer diagnosis.”
Corcoran will take black and white photographs of the participants in their journey in whatever way the want to be portrayed, she said. The photographs will accompany their story of those in the book.
The first 50 cancer survivors interested in participating will be featured , with the goal of selling it to raise money for the Myles Miracle Mission. Those interested in telling their story are asked to keep it to a minimum of 500 words.
Seven people have come forward, so far, to be a part of the book, Corcoran said.
“We’re asking for people who are 20-year survivors (or) people who are just dealing with a cancer diagnosis,” she said. “(People) any age, any circumstance, who are willing to share their story.”
Corcoran said the photos of those featured in the book will be framed and displayed at the wellness centre. Organizers also hope to take the book and photos on a tour, she added.
“Just as so many people are dealing with either themselves or a family member that has had cancer . . . we’re just hoping that we can help and inspire and give people some encouragement and some hope that are dealing with cancer.”
Submissions can be sent by e-mail to myles@mylesmiraclemission.ca or or by regular mail to 150 Victoria Ave., Chatham, Ont., N7L 3A6.

Congratulations to Susan Watson, nursing supervisor with VHA Home HealthCare in Chatham.
The 54-year-old Chatham woman recently received the Barbara Blackstock Cody Employee of the Year Award from among more than 1,100 employees with the company.
“I was shocked and happy,” Watson said of receiving the honour. “It is a real big honour to be nominated.”
She joined VHA Home HealthCare nearly four years ago after her former employer, Para-Med, where she worked for 13 years, lost its contract to service the area.
However, she hasn’t been working among strangers, noting most of her nurses came with her to VHA Home HealthCare.
Watson, who has been a nurse since 1974, used to work in obstetrics at different hospitals. She decided to work in community nursing as a visiting nurse and became a supervisor about 10 years ago.
She has the best of both worlds in her current job.
“I still get to work with the clients and I like working with the nurses and being able to educate them,” Watson said.

Some things never cease to amaze me. Take, for example, the creators of reality television.
I’ve discovered they sank to a new low when I recently channel surfed my way to Celebrity Rehab.
Ugh. You watch celebrity drunks, drug addicts and sex addicts come to some guy named Dr. Drew for a very public cure.
In the very recent past, certain celebrities boosted their popularity by going into rehab. It got them headlines, and sometimes sympathy.
Now, celebs can get face time as they grapple with their addiction demons.
I lasted perhaps five minutes checking this stinker out. From the likes of Hollywood has-beens Bridgette Neilsen and Daniel Baldwin to porn actress Mary Carey (yes, I had to look up who she was) and a former professional wrestler named Chyna, this show has it all – or nothing, really.
How anyone can watch week after week as this troupe of sludge tried to get clean is beyond me.
It would be less tortuous to brush your teeth with steel wool.
If you like watching silicone and collagen stagger around, perhaps this show is for you.
Specialty channels are no longer so special.
Remember when MTV and Much Music played nothing but music videos? To cater to the 25-40 crowd, the CHUM group added Much More Music to the channel spectrum.
Tune one of these in sometime. Good luck finding music videos. Sure, they still play them here and there, but chances are you’ll see crappy television shows, not videos, if you bother to tune in.
Hogan Knows Best. Reruns of The OC. The Surreal Life. And now Celebrity Rehab. Yowsa, what bung.
Documentaries such as Behind the Music or Classic Albums were cool. Video spotlights on various artists were decent. What generally runs nowadays is pure crap.
But the stations with “music” in their name but not on the air aren’t the only places to stumble around after losing their identities. Look no further than Lonestar to see a station that convinced the government communication overlords it would pump out shows and flicks focused on the Old West, only to now run action flicks, regardless of genre, every night.
There’s nothing wrong with a good action movie. But this is a channel called “Lonestar.” It should be running old “Dusters” on a regular basis, not the Die Hard flicks.
Just because Bruce Willis says “Yippie ki-yay, (expletive deleted),” doesn’t make it a Western.
Speaking of movies, I must say HBO forgot its roots. Its initials are for “Home Box Office.” Box offices are usually in theatres. And in theatres, they show movies, not TV series.
As decent as shows such as The Sopranos, The Wire and all those other HBO hits may be, they aren’t movies.
I’m Canadian, so I shouldn’t care about HBO, but HBO programming starts cramming up TMN.
And TMN is short for “The Movie Network.” Like HBO, anytime TMN shows something other than a movie, they are doing their name an injustice.
Bruce Springsteen once sang, “57 channels and nothing on.” He was prophetic, but wrong. Two hundred channels and nothing on.

The North Bay Skyhawks’ three-year lease agreement with the City of North Bay, which is about to expire, is public information.
Here are some of the financial highlights:

— The team pays the city $372 per game at Memorial Gardens (2007-08 season).
— The team pays the city for up to 145 hours of practice time per season.
— The team pays the city 10 per cent of the total value of each season ticket package, less the Capital Reserve Fund charge.
— The team pays the city 10 per cent of all walk-up and promotional/discounted ticket sales, less the Capital Reserve Fund charge.
— The team pays a Capital Reserve Fund fee to the city of $5 per season ticket, and $0.35 for each single-game or promotional/discounted ticket.
— The team shall receive net revenue from the sale of alcohol. The city shall retain all revenue from other food/refreshment concessions.
— A maximum of 150 complimentary tickets can be provided for each game and will be excluded from the 10 per cent and capital reserve fund charges.

Do the math.
The Skyhawks pay the city around $29,000 for icetime ($11,160 for 30 games and $17,500 to $18,000 for 145 hours of practice).
The city collects an estimated $16,000 from the sale of season tickets (an estimated 800 at roughly $200 each) and anywhere from $13,000 to $18,000 from single-game ticket sales. (This figure can vary, because of different prices for adult/senior/student tickets, as well as unknown quantities of promotional/discount tickets and complimentary tickets which are included in each game’s attendance)

So a statement that the Skyhawks pay the city $65,000 a season is not inaccurate.

A statement from Coun. Dave Mendicino that the city “loses” $50,000 per year on the Skyhawks should be qualified.
Each year, the city loses more than $650,000 operating Memorial Gardens, which includes staff costs, utilities, maintenance etc.
So the city “losing” $50,000 on the Skyhawks is a function of operating Memorial Gardens for the 220 hours the Skyhawks are on the ice during a season.

The city is responsible for providing Zamboni and rink attendants, security staff, ticket-takers, parking attendants, timekeepers etc., as well as utility costs etc. associated with operating the arena during games.
If the city wants to “make” money on the Skyhawks or any other tenant, they would have to charge the Skyhawks $300 an hour for icetime.

But no, the Skyhawks pay the same for ice as anyone else. It’s the arenas that are money-losers, not the Skyhawks.
Without the Skyhawks, Memorial Gardens would be “losing” an additional $65,000.

Funny things said while in job interviews:

When asked why the job was well suited to my talents and career path, I nodded toward the hallway of desks straight out of a Dilbert comic strip, I said: “I’ve always dreamed of having my very own cubicle.”

Dumb things said while in job interviews:

“I’ve always dreamed of having my very own cubicle.”

Most depressing greetings in the morning:

1) Six or seven email spams advertising “erectile difficulty” cures.

2) Wishing that was the problem.

Weird moments:

1) Halloween night, 1983: Sitting in an old Chrysler at a stop sign in the Cherry Street district of Canton, Ohio. My buddy and I were dressed up as mummies with toilet paper wrapped head to toe, the car stalling, and several black guys walking by . . .

2) Capreol High School, 1980: Passing a joint around outside the school yard smoke shack and not realizing a teacher had crept up beside me.

3) Hooking up with the mom of a college buddy . . . briefly.

Things that make me glad I don’t have a temper and pack a pistol:

1) Tail-gaters, especially people in smaller, older cars . . . with grey hair — smoking cigarettes and talking on a cell phone . . . with a baby in the back!

2) Donut shop workers who can’t tell the difference between milk and cream . . . and then argue that they marked the lid properly (when they didn’t)

3) People who bring two year olds to the Galaxy Theatre to watch Iron Man even though the show ends at 8:30 p.m., eroding my appreciation for fine art after investing $50 on tickets and snacks.

4) Managers who expect me to stop writing my blog during the afternoon just because a breaking news story requires immediate attention . . .

. . . to be continued.

-30-

Two Grade 6 Monsignor Uyen Catholic School kids have been deputized as honourary Junior Constables with the Chatham-Kent OPP after a local police officer spotted their science project while channel surfing.
OPP Const. Aaron McPhail wanted to recognize Andrew Mason and Troy Pollard after watching them being interviewed on Cogeco Channel 11 about a science project on distracted driving they entered in the Chatham-Kent Regional Science Fair last month.
The 11-year-olds won a silver medal in the Life Sciences category of the junior division for their project.
“It’s always good to recognize good work and this was good work,” McPhail said.
The officer was impressed with how these two boys, who aren’t old enough to drive, were able to pinpoint so many causes of driving distractions and how dangerous they can be.
These included eating, drinking and smoking while driving, along with using cell phones, navigational systems and computer devices. The project also highlighted the dangers of reading books and maps while driving.
“The OPP gets numerous calls about distracted drivers,” McPhail said, noting the driver of a tractor-trailer unit was recently caught with a DVD players suctioned to the dashboard while driving.
The Monsignor Uyen students used a Sony Playstation2 simulated driving game to illustrate the dangers of being distracted while driving. They had McPhail try playing the game in front of their fellow students while drinking bottled water and simulating using a cell phone.
“You should never drive while distracted,” Mason said, adding it could lead to a crash that kills you or injures you or someone else.
He said other distractions include driving if your dominant eye is covered or if their are noisy passengers in the vehicle.
Pollard was not expecting to receive this kind of recognition.
“I was completely surprised,” he said.
Pollard gave McPhail a passing grade for how he handled himself while distracted.
“He did pretty good for this first time on this game,” he said.

Congratulations to Douglas and Michelle Wright who have accepted the position of chief executive officer for not-for-profit side of the Divine Family Training Counselling and Support Centre.
They local couple will be attending an open house May 21, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the centre’s new home in the former Victoria Residence on Stanley Avenue in Chatham.
The keynote speaker will be Eleanor Josaitis, co-founder of Focus Hope in Detroit, which is the inspiration for the local centre.

Twenty-eight area residents will be among the 250 people from the region who are being honoured for giving the gift of life, during the Canadian Blood Services 10th Annual Awards Ceremony at the Giovanni Caboto Club in Windsor on Tuesday evening.
The Canadian Blood Services said the local donors, who are being recognized for donating blood 50 or more times, have collectively given more than 1,675 units of blood.

Let me begin by saying that if the North Bay Skyhawks either take a leave of absence or eventually fold that I doubt it will spell the end of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League.

The NOJHL was operational before the Skyhawks took to the ice five years ago and there is no reason why it couldn’t remain afloat without a franchise in North Bay.

But having said that, the NOJHL is a better place with a franchise in North Bay.

Not only does North Bay outdraw the well-supported Abitibi Eskimos by about a 2-1 margin, the Skyhawks are a model Jr. A franchise in terms of fan attendance. The Port Hope Predators are the top draw in the 36-team Ontario Provincial Jr. Hockey League and their average attendance is about the same as Abitibi’s — which is about half of North Bay’s.

Which makes me wonder why the Skyhawks seem to be getting the cold shoulder from the City of North Bay. Unless I’m missing something by reading the numerous articles in the North Bay paper, it sure as hecks seems as though the Skyhawks are being treated as second-class citizens.

At any rate, let’s assume that Nipissing University will ice a hockey team within Ontario Universities Athletics come the ‘09-10 season. Can the NOJHL and OUA not co-exist in North Bay?

I’ve read about the problems of the two outfits potentially sharing rink board advertising at North Bay Memorial Gardens and that it wouldn’t be enough to support both. And perhaps that is indeed so.

But I live in Sault Ste. Marie where the NOJHL Thunderbirds live in the long shadow of the Ontario Hockey League Greyhounds. The Thunderbirds average about 250 fans per game and the Greyhounds about 4,500. But you know what? The NOJHL team has been around since 1999.

Now let me add that the Thunderbirds aren’t a money maker. But let me also add that one of the Thunderbird owners told me that if the team drew 400 fans per game the franchise would be “just fine.”

Point is, how many fans do the Skyhawks have to draw to be “just fine”? Are the Skyhawk owners content to be part of the NOJHL landscape “for the love of the game” as long as they break even?

Whatever the case, it appears to me that the Skyhawks are being dealt a rather dirty hand by those who oversee North Bay Memorial Gardens.

MICHIGAN SOO UPDATE

The prospective owner of a proposed new NOJHL franchise for the Michigan Soo has paid a non-refundable deposit to the Northern Ontario Hockey Association as a means of applyng to be part of the NOJHL for the ‘08-09 season.

And from what I’ve been told, the NOJHL would like to welcome the Michigan Soo back into the league when it gets together for its annual general meeting in June.

But NOHA and NOJHL approval will mean nothing if he proposed Michigan Soo team doesn’t get the go-ahead from USA Hockey to become a registered franchise.

To that end, Paul Theriault, the would-be coach of the Michigan Soo Eagles, told me that either he or prospective owner Greg Eagle will be heading to USA Hockey headquarters in Colorado Springs shortly to seek approval to enter the NOJHL as an expansion franchise.

“We’re cautiously optimistic…we’re hopeful,” said Theriault of getting approval from USA Hockey to join the NOJHL.

by Randy Russon, Osprey Media

Well if you haven’t been busy lately playing the new Grand Theft Auto IV (for PS3 and 360 owners), or been rounding the corners on the Wii with the new Mario Kart then there is even more coming out this week to grab your attention. What’s interesting me most personally is Boom Blox - a new video game that comes out of the collaboration of  Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg. EA has been the biggest publisher of video games for years and Spielberg has certainly helmed some of the largest movies in his career so it’s interesting to see what these two power houses would come up with. Perhaps your initial reaction will be the same as mine - a puzzle game? I love puzzle games, but it’s not what I would expect from the likes of Spielberg. I’m willing to give it a chance though. Perhaps it’s good that he’s not delivering a cinematic “game like a movie” since that genre is a little over crowded at the moment. Bring it on, Steven and while you are at it - how about a next generation remake of E.T.? Throw in some more M&M product placement and you’re sure not to lose money like the first E.T. game did. Oh, the horrors.

The North Bay hockey landscape, as well as the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey league, could be about to change.

The North Bay Skyhawks have called a news conference for noon Sunday, at which they are expected to discuss the organization’s status and future.

The Skyhawks and the City of North Bay have been negotiating terms for a lease extension for Memorial Gardens, but it appears a different brand of hockey could be on the horizon in North Bay.

Nipissing University has long considered launching an Ontario University Athletics (OUA) hockey program and, with the novelty of the Skyhawks wearing off after six seasons at Memorial Gardens, that could be the topic of discussion Sunday.

A background column appeared in Saturday’s Nugget:

http://nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1013158&auth=Ken+Pagan

It’s believed the Skyhawks would have at least one more season as the primary tenant at Memorial Gardens. If Nipissing submits an application to launch an OUA men’s hockey program, it likely wouldn’t take the ice until at least the 2009-10 season.

LAJOIE DE VIVRE
Kevin Lajoie

The Cornwall Colts will win the 2008 RBC Cup.
Before you read on, let me assure you I haven’t been drinking on the job and I’m not having a medical reaction to any drug.
I admit it’s a bit of a crazy prediction. Just look at the opposition. The Camrose Kodiaks and Humboldt Broncos are the cream of the crop of Junior A hockey in Canada, and the Oakville Blades and Weeks Crushers are anything but pushovers.
Based on the season records alone, it would be easy to believe the host Colts don’t stand much of a chance.
But my confidence in the Colts extends beyond league standings and playoff success to a simple, time-honoured fact: Cornwall has a way of winning national hockey championships.
Look at the Royals. They played in three Memorial Cups and won each time. In the first two, 1972 and 1980, the Royals were considered the underdogs and weren’t given much chance to win a game, let alone the cup.
“Most press coverage labelled them underdogs, or ‘Royals Who?’ One reporter even asked, ‘Where is Cornwall?’,” wrote the late Bill Gallant in his Royals’ history, The Frozen Stage, of Cornwall’s odds of winning the 1972 national championship.
In both cases, the Royals managed to dig deep and find a way to beat the favoured Peterborough Petes for the Memorial Cup.
The third cup in 1981 was a bit different in that the Royals had a great returning cast of players that included Dale Hawerchuk, Doug Gilmour, Marc Crawford and Scott Arniel. Still, it was far from a sure thing as the Royals had to win the Memorial Cup over a Kitchener Rangers club that featured its own list of stars including Al MacInnis and Brian Bellows.
One exception to the winning trend was the 2000 Royal Bank Cup in which the Colts visited Fort McMurray, Alta., in search of a national crown. True, the underdog Colts didn’t win the championship - actually they didn’t even win a game - but they weren’t pushovers. With the exception of one game against the host Oil Barons (the eventual champions), the Colts lost every contest by a single goal. A few lucky bounces could have resulted in a completely different outcome.
One can go back even further in time to the 1938 Cornwall Flyers. The club captured the town’s imagination by making it all the way to the finals of the Allan Cup, the national championship of senior hockey. In those days of regional playdowns, it was a huge feat just to make it to the finals. In the end, the Flyers lost in the finals to the Trail Smoke Eaters, but they could take pride in finishing second. As champions, the Smoke Eaters represented Canada the next year at the world hockey championships. Trail went on to win all eight games in the tournament, outscoring their opposition 42 to 1.
If the past tells us anything, it’s that Cornwall hockey teams always show up to play at national championships.
So what can we expect this time around?
In order to win it, the Colts will have to be at the top of their game, something we haven’t seen on a consistent basis this season. Cornwall made a first-round exit in the CJHL playoffs and they haven’t played a meaningful game in several weeks. They’ll also face the pressure to perform well in front of the hometown crowd.
On the flipside, playing in their own building could provide an advantage to the Colts, and the downtime has given the players a further chance to bond and come together. On paper, the Colts have a well-rounded roster with enough experience, depth and talent that they should be able to sneak out some wins. Given the short, win-or-die type format of the RBC Cup, all it takes is a few strong games to end up in the finals.
Most important of all, the players seem to be ready for the challenge.
“We’re going to do Cornwall proud in this tournament,” Colts goaltender Justin Roethlingshoefer said at a city council meeting earlier this week.
That confidence, and the experiences of the past, is good enough for me.

klajoie@standard-freeholder.com

As fun as blogging can be - and I do like lobbing onto our web page the random thoughts as they wander through my cranium - our online video offerings are just plain cool.
Whether you want to read our blogs or check out our video, head to www.chathamdailynews.ca. The blogs are on the lower left portion of the page, while the video can be accessed by hovering your mouse icon over “Video” on the blue menu bar, and then click on “Online videos.”
We are still in the fledgling stages of posting video to the Internet, but it’s an excellent leap in terms of multimedia.
The Chatham Daily News is rapidly evolving into more than just a newspaper, as I’ve stated before. We’re striving to provide breaking news online as it happens, local web logging (the blogs), a very useful community portal in the URChatham-Kent.com side of our website, and now the video of certain news stories.
Photographer Diana Martin and reporter Ellwood Shreve have been particularly strong out of the gates with video coverage. It’s “outside the box” in terms of what they went to school for, but they are learning on the fly and doing a very fine job in the process.
Our other staffers are naturally involved as well and will be contributing more in the coming weeks.
We’ve come a long way from putting up basically raw footage of an African children’s choir visiting in Dresden back in March. Photographer Sarah Fraleigh was the first to dip her feet into the video waters with that offering, and one of the Br. 28 Legion pipe band preparing to its European trip. By the way, the band left Sunday and is playing at Vimy Ridge today.
***
A quick update for regular readers of this column. I think I’ve done it - outsmarted and out-stubborned (that may not be a real term) my avian adversary.
That’s right, Bruce 1, innocent Mother Robin 0.
She tried for days to make her nest on my motion-sensor floodlight. And I ripped it down day after day. Two near-complete nests and countless bits of straw later, I believe she finally moved on.
Good thing, too. A kind reader on Tweedsmuir Avenue called me up after my initial piece on the robin war ran (April 23, “Bird is ‘robin’ us of more than just sleep”) to tell me to keep that bird the heck off the light. It seems a robin built a nest above her light last year and the consequences were dire.
Motion-sensor floodlights, for those of you who don’t own them, will stay on if you suffer a very brief power interruption - say five seconds or less. So, if you aren’t home to reset the light by flicking off the switch for perhaps 10 seconds and then turning it back on, those floodlights will stay on, day or night.
Combine a hot floodlight with straw and the wet mud of a nest and you have a recipe for disaster.
According to the caller, the mud shorted out the light, blowing the unit off the outside wall and nearly setting the house on fire. The scorch marks are still evident, she says.
Yikes.
Robins are cute birds, don’t get me wrong. Just keep them off your light fixtures.

Cassie Vojvodin has traded in her long locks for a short and sassy hairdo.
And she will help some cancer patients feel better.
The 10-year-old Grade 5 Monsignor Catholic School student had about 10 inches of hair cut off on Wednesday in front of several classmates and teachers. Her hair is being donated to Locks for Love, which will use it to make wigs for cancer patients who have lost their hair because of chemotherapy treatments.
She was joined by her dad, Greg, who had his head shaved at the same time, so she wouldn’t have to get her haircut by herself.
“I’ve been willing to do this,” said Cassie, who has grown her hair for the past two-and-a-half years with the purpose of donating it.
She and her sister Stephanie, 14, donated their hair before.
“I know that I can help people,” Cassie said. “I just feel really good when I do it.”
Greg called his daughter’s efforts “admirable. We’re really proud of her.”
Greg, who works at Mahle in Tilbury, and his wife Liz, a Union Gas employee, raised about $375 through donations from their workplaces.
Monsignor Uyen students also made a donation to watch Alyssa Myers and Jeannette Urquhart from Angles Hair Care Inc. cut Cassie and her dad’s hair in the school gymnasium.
Check out the video of Cassie and her dad getting their hair cut online at www.chathamdailynews.ca.

The John McGregor Secondary School cheerleading team are going to be putting their skills to the test May 10, during the Wonderland 2008 Power Cheerleading Competition.
Team coach Amanda Wyatt said this if the first time the 11-member team will be attending the event, which takes place at Canada’s Wonderland.
“I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to go and see what it was like,” Wyatt said.
She believes the team will do well, noting they have been practicing after school Monday to Thursday.
Team member Michael Lapp, 17, said they are pretty excited about going to the competition.
“We’ve really improved over the last few weeks,” said the Grade 12 student. “We’ve just become more like a team.”
Lapp said it doesn’t matter where the team finishes in the competition, because their preparation has shown “we can be a team and come together and work for a single cause . . . That’s important to us.”
The other team members include: Kari Nash, Mercedie Hornick, Laura Vince, Sammy Taylor, Megan Wonnacott, Elisha McKinlay, Jon Howes, Martha Reddekop, Courtney Herfst and Sara Caron.

The folks at St. Joseph’s Health Care are looking for some interesting and heart warming tales about people who either gave birth or were born at the London hospital.
They want to know if anything was particularly special or meaningful about the experience. The hospital is planning to use the stories to publish a book or create a video.
Since the St. Joseph’s perinatal program, including the neonatal intensive care unit, serves the southwest region, there are sure to be some stories from the Chatham-Kent area.
I know I have one.
Both my sons, Ethan, 10, and Evan, 8, were born at the hospital.
I’ll never forget my wife Brenda swearing up and down she wasn’t going to have Ethan on his due date. The night before Ethan was due, we were at my brother Kevin’s house having a little pre-Christmas cheer when Brenda announced her water had just broke.
It was go time!
We ran home, grabbed her bag and headed down Highway 401 to London.
Having spent the previous day doing all kinds of work around the house and topping it off with a few “pops” at Kevin’s, when Brenda still hadn’t given birth by 9 a.m., I had some idea of the pain she was feeling.
Brenda had planned to experience “natural child birth” and try not to take an epidural shot.
With her labour becoming more difficult as I was practically chewing on coffee grinds to try to stay awake, I decided to try some calm, reasoned begging to get her to take the epidural.
I don’t know who was more relieved — me or her — when she got the shot.
Well, I do know. It was me, because I was asleep on a cot set up beside her hospital bed before the needle was removed from her spine.
The staff were great and both Brenda and our boys received excellent care at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Stories can be e-mailed to comdept@sjhc.london.on.ca or by regular mail to Communications and Public Affairs, St. Joseph’s Hospital, 268 Grosvenor St., London, Ont., N6A 4V2.
Remember to include your contact information.

In the last blog entry, we discussed, your choices for a mid-range every-day carry around lens. Once you have decided on your mid-range lens for your digital single lens reflex camera, your next choice is two-fold: Do you want to see wider? or do you want to pull in distant subjects. You may, of course, want to do both and get two more lenses.

As most digital single lens reflex cameras are not ful frame, your mid-range zoom is unlikely to be wider than 18 mm (with the exception of the new 16-85 mm Nikon lens). On a digital camera, a 18 mm lens translates into an effective 27 mm lens. For dramatic landscapes and wide angle perspectives, 27 mm is not wide enough. Nikon makes a wide angle zoom, the AF-S DX Zoom NIKKOR 12-24mm f4G (an effective 18-36 mm lens). As well, Sigma and Tamron also make similiar type zooms lenss. Sigma, in fact, has one that is even wider at 10-20 mm (an effective 15-30 mm).

Beyond the mid-range, you may also choose a telephoto zoom to extend the range of your lens to capture people, sports, birds, etc. You may also want a telephoto zoom to help you selectively focus on distant subjects and create interesting landscapes. Unless you have a super-zoom such as the 18-200 Nikon (an effective 27-300mm lens), most of your mid-range zooms will not provide much of a telephoto range.

To help extend your range, there are numerous alternatives with varying budget implications. In the Nikon range of lenses, your choices include:

• the AF-S Zoom NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4-5.6. This is a film/full frame lens that also works on digital cameras. The lens features a broad zoom range extending to 450 mm on a digital camera and has VR (vibration reduction) and S (silent wave motor) for fast focusing. At the long end of the zoom range, the lens has an aperture of 5.6.
• AF Zoom VR NIKKOR 80-400mm f4.5-5.6. This is also a film/full frame lens that works on digital cameras and extens the range to an effective 600 mm on a digital camera. The lens has VR but does not have a built in motor so its focusing may not be as fast as the 70-300 mm lens. This is an excellent lens to capture distant subjects or experiment with bird photography.
• AF-S Zoom NIKKOR VR 70-200mm f/2.8. This is a film/full frame lens. On a digital camera, the long end of the telphoto is an effective 300 mm. However, compared to the other choices, this lens has a fixed aperture of f2.8 and is built to professional standards and provides optimum image quality. The price, though, is also higher.

For other camera manufacturers, the choices are also quite similiar (except for Olympus/Panasonic where the cameras have a 2x crop factor).

As you plan your summer holidays, you may want to consider adding one more lens to your camera kit. I expect that a telephoto zoom will see more use than a wide angle zoom. A telephoto zoom enables you to focus in and selectively focus on your subject, thereby creating an interesting composition. A wide angle zoom, on the other hand, you will capture a wide field of view and requires careful composition and positioning, otherwise your composition can become cluttered. In the end, both a wide angle and telephoto zoom can provide real interesting new photographic opportunities for you.

It’s a Cinderella story that will thrill both aspiring authors and the growing self-publishing industry: Terrry Fallis is the winner of the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

Fallis’s self-published book, The Best Laid Plans, beat some remarkable competition. Douglas Coupland (The Gum Thief), Will Ferguson (Spanish Fly), Scott Gardiner (King John of Canada) and Ron Wood (And God Created Manyberries) were all in the running against Fallis.

But the communications consultant who described himself as a weekend writer in his acceptance speech, beat them all in the running for the most prestigious literary humour award in Canada http://www.leacock.ca/. He also took home $10,000 in cash.

Chances are, he’ll have a few more phone calls from potential publishers. His only real problem will be selecting the right offer.

Fallis used iUniverse to publish his novel http://www.iuniverse.com/. That should be heartening to Orillia writer John Weber. Weber recently used the very cool self-publishing website Lulu to publish his novel The Point lulu.com. The Terry Fallis story will be an inspiration to him as he watches his website for hits.

Now, if you like humour, you’ve got your reading list.

Skating in the rather remote rinks of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League couldn’t stop Brett Perlini from being found by the National Hockey League scouts.

Perlini, a 6-foot-3, 180 lb. centre with the NOJHL’s Soo Thunderbirds, has made Central Scouting’s final list of rated players for the June 21-22 NHL Draft.

Perlini, who turns 18 in June, is rated 170th among North American skaters. And Angelo Bumbacco, who scouts for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, likes what he has seen of Perlini, who scored 54 goals in 64 games over parts of two NOJHL seasons in the Soo.

“He’s a highly-skilled player…and excellent skater with good hands,” praised Bumbacco, who added: “I think he’s got an excellent chance to be drafted this year. My take is that he’ll be a fifth or sixth round pick.”

The NHL Draft is only seven rounds in length and with so many players to choose from in so many leagues from so many countries, being picked is more of a challenge to players than ever.

Dave Kolb, who scouts for the Detroit Red Wings, saw Perlini play three times during the ‘07-08 season. In fact, Kolb even ventured to the Soo to take in a Thunderbirds’ practice and speak with Perlini afterwards.

“His skill is very obvious,” Kolb told me. “He also seems to be of very good character.”

Perlini is slated to attend Michigan State University in the fall for the start of a four-year full-ride scholarship to play with the Spartans of the Division 1 Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

CROSING JORDAN

As the NHL scouts were following Perlini during the ‘07-08 NOJHL season, Soo Greyhounds’ general manager Dave Torrie was keeping a close eye on centre Jordan Carroll of the North Bay Skyhawks.

The Greyhounds took the 5-foot-9 Carroll in the seventh round of the ‘07 OHL Draft from the AAA midget Valley East Cobras and then watched him develop in the NOJHL with North Bay this season.

“We like him a lot,” Torrie said of Carroll. “He was in the Soo to watch us play a few games this season. We’re looking forward to seeing him at our mini camp at the end of May.”

Torrie said that if Carroll shows strong at the Hounds’ May mini camp, “chances are we’ll offer to sign him before our main camp in the fall.”

The Soo GM added that he was very impressed with Carroll’s conditioning level during the ‘07-08 season and with the way he competed in a “tough league like the NOJHL” as a 16-year old.

Carroll scored 14 goals during the regular season for North Bay and then aded five more in the playoffs.

“He’s on the small side but he plays bigger than he is,” said Torrie, in further praise of Carroll.

by Randy Russon, Osprey Media

I’ve met a fair number of famous and nearly famous people in my time as a journalist, but the encounter that stands out from all the others was pretty uneventful. I was covering some fishing event down at the Port of Orillia one summer Saturday, when the organizer of the derby asked me if I wanted to talk to Bobby Orr, who was the celebrity draw for the tournament.

I jumped at the chance. I was of the Orr generation – a kid raised in a rabid Maple Leaf family who begged for a hockey helmet in the colours of the Boston Bruins. My father granted my wish, but drew the line at gloves, which were the beloved blue and white.

It was the first blush of the expanded NHL, and Bobby Orr was a hockey god. Perhaps the hockey god. Even now his name alone conjures up that era of Tim Horton the player, not the donut franchise, the stale smell of cigarettes and coffee in the kitchen, and the first grown-out brushcut.

Orr is a cultural icon.

It’s not always good to meet a symbol, I’ve discovered. On the dock in Orillia, Orr was polite and cheerful. But once I had the obligatory quotes for my story, the conversation died awkwardly. I made some effort to tell him how much I admired him as a boy. He kindly pretended he had not heard that before, and then we parted.

That experience resonated with the story Stephen Brunt http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinions/columnists/Stephen+BruntBio.html created in Searching for Bobby Orr. Understanding the symbolic role Orr has played for a generation, Brunt delves into both the public and private side of the man many consider to be the greatest hockey player of all time. He mines the archetypal nature of the hero’s tragic flaw: his knees. Brunt also contrasts the public persona with the ultra-private one, providing tantalizing hints of scars left by professional hockey and stardom. See an interview with Brunt at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwSxV_fB68I

“It’s a pretty sad story,” a friend told me when he gave me the book.

Bobby Orr, the finest skater and puck handler of his generation, never taught his children how to skate.

Searching for Bobby Orr is a fine, layered book that is has much to say about the human condition. I’m not usually a fan of sports books, but this one was tough to put down.

LAJOIE DE VIVRE
Kevin Lajoie

I took a swing by the civic complex today to check out the new low-level seating. Gotta say, it looks pretty good. After 30-plus years, the arena finally looks like an arena.
That being said, I’m still not sure what to think of the project.
Yes, the project will help to fill a long-time shortcoming with the civic complex, but why do it now?
Attendance-wise, the Colts do a pretty good job. According to the CJHL website, the Colts drew an average crowd of 777 for their home games this season, second only to an average attendance of 1,120 in Pembroke, home of the league champs (no surprise there).
Still, at 777 per game, that leaves a lot of empty seats in the civic complex.
The reality is the civic complex was built to house major junior or minor-pro hockey and it needs a team at that level in order to live up to its full potential. And if the past is any indication, there probably isn’t enough support in Cornwall for that level of hockey. Yes, switching to the OHL didn’t help the Royals, and the Aces deal was a debacle, but the bottom line is all too often, the seats weren’t filled.
If the upcoming RBC Cup was the only driving force behind putting in the new seats (at a cost of $481,000 by the way), then that vehicle should have been put in park long ago. The national Junior A championship will be great for Cornwall, but it will only last eight days, and the chances of filling the bowl for the event are pretty slim regardless of who’s playing in the tournament. (I hope I’m wrong there).
There’s talk of Quebec senior hockey returning to Cornwall, and that could give the new seats a workout. The short-lived Comets regularly drew crowds over the 2,000 mark with their brand of rock’em, sock’em hockey, but they never sold out the place.
What it all boils down to is we’re installing extra seats in a town where there isn’t a huge demand to pay and sit to watch a hockey game. Why put in new seats if the existing ones are hardly being used?
It also raises the question of whether Cornwall can even still call itself a hockey town. The upcoming RBC Cup should help to answer that question.

* * * *

As a kid growing up in the Cornwall area, some of my fondest memories involve camping at Charlottenburgh and Lancaster parks and fishing for perch on the St. Lawrence with my grandfather.
I’m definitely not alone. Thousands of other local residents have deep-rooted ties to the mighty St. Lawrence, and it’s been that way for generations.
River lovers can learn all about the St. Lawrence and its impact on the area through a popular new book, “The Rivermen.” The book, written by river aficionados Norm Seymour and Roy Lefebvre, tells the story of the Lake St. Francis section of the river east of Cornwall.
For local history lovers, the book is a must-read. Unlike most history books, Seymour and Lefebvre have managed to tell the story in a unique and engaging fashion. They tell the story from the perspective of the people who lived and worked on the river. The book touches on everything from old Stanley Island to the origins of the Lancaster perch roll and then some.
The two authors will be speaking at the Cornwall Public Library on Monday at 7 p.m., and those who are interested in the river should make a point of attending. For more info, contact the library at 613-932-4796.

* * * *

He may not be as flashy as Alex Ovechkin or as dynamic as Sidney Crosby, but Jarome Iginla has to be the best player pound-for-pound in the NHL.
The guy does it all: hits, scores, wins face-offs, fights, talks trash with other players, you name it.
I wonder what it would take to get Iginla in a Leafs jersey . . . . a Leafs fan can dream, can’t he?

klajoie@standard-freeholder.com

Digital single lens reflex cameras provide the photographer with a choice of lenses. Compared to a point and shoot camera, this provides opportunities to try wide-angle to extra telephoto photography and to employ faster lenses to selectively focus on your subject. However, for a new photographer, the array of choices may be overwhelming. How and what do you choose?

My comments will focus on Nikon lens choices, with some reference to Sigma and Tamron choices. Many of my comments will apply equally as well to Canon, Pentax, Sony etc. In some instances, one brand may have a slightly better or less cost alternative. But, generally, the manufacturers all focus on the same general choices.

Before we look at lens choices, let’s review the primary characteristics of lenses, their focal length and lens aperture. Lenses have a focal length ranging from wide angle to telephoto, from a super-wide 10mm lens for dynamic landscapes to a super long 500 mm for bird photography. Some lenses have a fixed focal length (such as a 50 mm or a 500 mm telephoto lens) and some have a variable focal length ( a 18-55 or 18-200 zoom lens).

The aperture of lenses also vary from f 1.4 (or less) for prime lens with a fixed focal length to f2.8 to f5.6 for zoom lens. Historically, you needed wide apertures for low light as high speed film was grainy. Now, that so many digital cameras can work effectively at 800 (or higher) ISO, this is of lesser concern. A faster (i.e. smaller aperture), though, still provides the ability to selectively focus on your subject and blur the background. The faster lenses still remain the choices of pros and do cost more and weigh more.

Modern lenses are almost always auto-focus lenses (though manual focus lenses are still available) and as such they also may have built in motors to assist with faster focusing (called S lenses by Nikon) and image stabilization (called vibration reduction or VR lenses by Nikon) to assist with hand held shooting. Finally, lenses may be custom designed for the smaller size of sensor in a digital camera compared to a film camera (such lenses are called DX lenses by Nikon). Note, for all the DX lenses, the effective focal lenght is calculated by multiplying the focal length by 1.5 (so an 18 mm lens becomes a 27 mm lens).

Your first decision is what lens to use as your primary walk around lens. Initally, you may think that the kit lens that is packaged with your camera is a good choice. At present, Nikon offers the AF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED II lens as one of its kit lenses. While this lens does receive good reviews for its image quality, its focal length is not wide enough or long enough as an effective all purpose lens. Other choices provided by Nikon include:

• AF-S 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II DX Nikkor Zoom Lens - This lens provides a wider angle of view and a moderate telephoto. The lens does have VR for improved hand holding at low shutter speeds. Suitable for landscapes, portraits, an all round lens. You may want a second lens for telephoto.
• AF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 G IF-ED DX Zoom Lens - This lens provides a slightly wider angle but a short telephoto range with a fast fixed aperature. Suitable for portraits and low light. Definitely need a telephoto option. Sigma and Tamron provide alternative f2.8 lens in this focal range at lower cost which are worth a look.
• AF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 G IF ED DX Zoom Lens . This lens starts at 18mm but goes to 135 mm for a good telephoto range. The lens does not have VR.
• AF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G DX VR Zoom Lens. This lens goes beyond 135 mm to 200 mm (remember 200 mm is 300 mm on a digital DX camera). And, this lens adds VR. to provide improved hand holding at lower shutter speeds. With this upper focal length, you will find this to be a useful all purpose lens for home and travel.

In considering these choices, you need to consider how important a fast lens is to your style of photography. At present, fast zooms are limited to a narrow focal length (such as 17-55mm) and require you to carry other lenses. As well, you need to decide how valuable VR is to you or whether you are comfortable using a tripod or higher ISO settings in low light. Finally, you need to decide how long a telephoto range you want. If you are traveling, a 200 mm focal lenght can help you focus in how details without having to get close up to do so.

The next blog entry will consider wide angle zooms and long range zoom choices and the pros and cons.

If you remember the 3-D movies of the1980s — gems such as Treasure of the Four Crowns, Friday the 13th Part 3 and Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn — then you’re probably not psyched for a resurgence of the format.
Hollywood studios recently announced plans to release a huge slate of 3-D movies, claiming digital technology has transformed the once nauseating 3-D experience into a smooth and enveloping feeling.
The new era of 3-D sounds like it has potential, specifically for those big blockbusters that are more eye candy than anything else. But I wonder if it can work in a serious film.
I think it’s possible for greater visual depth to improve the overall movie experience, similar to what surround sound has done in terms of audio. But the problem, at least with the old 3-D movies, was gimmicky camera shots. Angles were used to emphasize the 3-D effects, rather than illustrate the story. And if that’s the case, 3-Dness will likely be more a distraction than an enhancement.
Speaking of distractions . . . lets not forget about those annoying cardboard glasses with the blue and red lenses?
The glasses are apparently better designed, but are still required to experience the latest 3-D technology.

I’m at war with a robin. And it’s providing my lovely wife with no shortage of entertainment.
Like most locals, we were certainly glad to see the robins return to our neighbourhood — a sure sign of spring. The trouble is this one robin decided our motion-sensor light above our side door is the perfect spot for a nest.
You can’t really blame her. It’s nicely sheltered under the roof overhang and the neighbour’s house across the driveway shields it from the worst of the west winds.
But this robin hasn’t really seen the big picture. First, she’s trying to build right beside the busiest door to the house.
Second, she’s putting very dry straw atop two floodlights that can get quite warm.
Third, I just don’t want the nest there.
So we are at war. College graduate versus a bird with a brain the size of a pea.
And it’s pretty much a stalemate so far. Hence, my wife’s state of smirk and laughter.
My opponent, this dedicated little nest maker, diligently brings straw from dawn to dusk, working on her nest.
And every time I use the side door, I rip down her handiwork, tossing it in the trash.
Her best effort resulted in a nearly completed nest about a week ago. Since then, I haven’t let her get past the halfway point.
Mostly, I’m ripping down a handful of dry grass.
At times, I’ve been lulled into a false sense of victory. On several occasions, there has been no sign of activity on the light for several hours. I think the bird has flown the coop and moved on. After all, we have four mature trees in our yard, and our neighbourhood has no shortage of available foliage. Plenty of other nesting options.
And then the robin comes back.
Our landing in front of the door has a smattering of grass strewn across it; debris from this bitter battle.
So far, this is the only fallout from our struggle. We have been respectful combatants. I have yet to chase the robin with a broom and she has yet to poop on my cranium.
At the beginning of this fight, I was sure of my victory. But now, I’m starting to wonder. This war of attrition waged by my feathered foe is effective.
But I have not given up. I will plead my case to a higher authority, our readers. Does anyone know of a scent or spray that will ultimately send the robin heading for another location? Should I duct tape a plastic owl to the light until the robin gives up?
HELP!!!!
That noise you hear in the background is the ongoing laughter of my better half.
But the birds truly have the last laugh. Mary giggles at me during the day, but she isn’t so filled with humour at 4 a.m. when my winged nemesis and all her friends begin their pre-dawn songs, seemingly right outside our bedroom windows, which are thrown wide to enjoy the spring weather.

Bruce Corcoran is the managing editor of The Chatham Daily News.

As much as they need rookie goalie Joey Delwo to reprise his playoff performance at this week’s Dudley Hewitt Cup Central Canada Jr. Hockey Championships, the Sudbury Jr. Wolves need 20-year old forwards J.F. Houle and Scott Restoule to lead the way for the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League champions.

As 19-year olds, Houle and Restoule both left the Ontario Hockey League on their own terms. As skilled performers who had been good enough to play in the OHL as 16-year olds, both Houle and Restoule returned home to Sudbury last season after a combined 225 games of major junior experience.

Enough has been written about the Bad News Jr. Wolves who have been labelled everything from arrogant to uncoachable. And often with good reason.

But after losing to the Soo Indians in the NOJHL finals in ‘06-07 and finishing in fourth place during the ‘07-08 regular season, the Jr. Wolves found their game in this year’s playoffs. Somehow, coach Dave Clancy got his free-wheeling, free-spirited, undisciplined pack of Wolves to play to the high-performance level that most NOJHL observers knew they were capable of.

Give Clancy credit. But give Houle, Restoule et al credit for deciding the time was right to end their junior hockey careers in style.

Two players don’t make a team. But two players like Houle and Restoule can start the ignition.

And with fellow former OHLers like forwards Brenden Biedermann, Jordan Cheechoo, Chris Kangas, Jeff Verreault and ace defenceman Chris Pontes part of the Jr. Wolves’ juggernaut, it’s not surprising that Sudbury is where its at.

The Dudley Hewitt Cup in Newmarket.

by Randy Russon, Osprey Media