Angus Phillips - A Newfoundland Adventure to Remember - washingtonpost.com
Seriously. Newfoundland is an awesome spot for a unique vacation. Next summer, go exploring. Every person I’ve sent or brought to Newfoundland has come back happy. Be among them.
An avid reddit reader, I was happy to see this headline making its way to the front page:
Canada’s Gay Politicians are getting married - Not getting caught in dirty Men’s rooms.
This is an issue I have an unflappable stance on. Once upon a time in this country, this same debate was being held over interracial marriages. The same rhetoric is pulled out every election cycle to scare the base into voting for more conservative nutballs, because apparently if same sex marriages are recognized, apparently it means we’ll all have to go marry someone of the same sex.
So, yay Canada! My home and native land! Now come on, USA, get with the program and stop being afraid of that which you have absolutely no reason to fear.
These two items appearing next to each other on Slate’s home page made me happy.
See also: Another serendipitous placement.
I get defensive about the homeland. Newfoundlanders get a bad rap, and there was even a time when I believed the stereotypes. But I after some digging, what I found was not a group of people so dependent on the welfare state that they couldn’t succeed, but instead a people who had so much sucked dry by the Canadian government, with nothing but broken promises in return.
I don’t think I could put it better than Gil Dalton’s letter from 2005 in response to a horribly uninformed opinion piece on the Globe and Mail.
Now, with a potentially contentious battle on the horizon over the Hebron oil field, I expect to hear more of this uninformed stereotyping. So, I encourage anyone and everyone to read the stories linked here, including this piece, which inspired me to write this.
Michael Vick and his co-defendants are scum. Plain and simple. I’m glad the NFL suspended him indefinitely, and it’s appropriate that he’s going to go to jail.
But let’s get something straight — this isn’t a race thing. If it’s some sort of culture thing, that doesn’t make it right. Regardless of what Jamie Foxx says, it doesn’t take someone sitting you down and telling you that dogfighting is wrong for you to know it’s wrong. (And while we’re at it, here’s a side note — cockfighting is wrong as well. Pass it on. If you don’t understand why, you should seek help. Seriously.)
The color of Michael Vick’s skin doesn’t matter one iota. I don’t care if you’re African-American, Caucasian, Asian, Native American, or Xenu of the Galactic Confederacy. You don’t run dogfighting rings, plain and simple. It’s a horrible thing to be engaged in. The NAACP in Atlanta has urged the NFL to let Vick back in once he’s served his time. In theory, I’d tend to agree with this stand, assuming he doesn’t get some slap on the wrist sentence. But what the NAACP fails to realize is that the NFL is a business, and the players are their most visible spokesmen. The reason they command such high dollar endorsement deals is because the athlete is idolized in this country, and it’s always good to have someone’s hero promoting your product. Whether that product is the NFL itself, NFL jerseys, sports drinks, shoes, toothpaste for sensitive teeth, or any other of the myriad products that use these players as spokesmen, what is evident is that the person promoting them has to be in some way a role model.
And the day this news broke, Vick stopped being a role model to a lot of people. I’m sure he’s still a great role model for the upstanding folks who enjoy a good dogfight, but I imagine that to be something of a niche market. So while he may be allowed back into the NFL, my hope is that no team would take him. That’s why I used the “in theory” qualifier up there — I fully suspect he would end up playing for the Cowboys or Raiders as soon as he was able to re-enter the league. (As a side note, that’s pretty sad. It’s not like Vick is as good as he was supposed to be. If anything, he’s a running back or a receiver with a decent arm. But the shrines have been built, and Vick shall be held up as the Second Coming of The Quarterback. Oh, and as for his fragility, I suspect he’ll probably blow out an ACL or MCL on his way to the courtroom on Monday.)
So I’ll reserve my ever-so-important judgment on whether Vick should be allowed back in the NFL after we see what his actual punishment for torturing dogs is. It’s important to note that Vick will plead guilty to every aspect of this crime except the actual gambling bit, since a conviction for gambling would solidify a lifetime ban from the NFL. “Oh, yeah, I killed those dogs, your honor, but I really need to put the kibosh on all these gambling rumors!”
But why are we so up in arms about this? The Atlanta head of the NAACP, R. L. White, summed it up pretty well:
“Michael Vick has received more negative press than if he had killed a human being. [...] His crime is, it was a dog.”
This would seem to be true. I bet if this was a cockfighting ring, it wouldn’t be getting near this amount of press. Roosters aren’t as cute as dogs. I’m the type of person who gets very bent out of shape about animal issues. I’m not a PETA person, and I’m not a vegetarian, so I know I’m something of a hypocrite in this regard. But I don’t view it as an all or nothing thing — I can be opposed to blatant cruelty and animal testing without becoming a vegan. I don’t know where I draw the line, to be honest, but this is a digression from the point. That point is that, as a society, we can get awfully up in arms about a specific events that somehow touch the right strings, yet be completely blasé about something horrible and ongoing, as long as those horrible things are happening a lot farther away.
I recently came across this comic which illustrates it pretty well. In the reddit comments for that story, was a link to this gem.
Now let’s all sit back and think about how Michael Vick’s going to jail for dogfighting, but Ray Lewis gets to be Super Bowl MVP after obstructing justice on a murder investigation.
Got in last night around 8PM.  A short summary on the various elements of the trip is below, I’ll expound later.
More later.
God, I keep forgetting how much fun I have when I come home. I guess it’s why I keep coming back.
The rest of the journey was moderately uneventful — just driving through what felt like a tropical storm for the last leg, but otherwise splendid.
We’ve done all the things I do when I bring someone home to this fine province — we’ve been downtown, to Signal Hill and Cape Spear, we’ve watched whales on O’Briens and Screeched in the newbie Newfies. We’ve spent a Saturday night with the family at the cabin for a fine feed of ribs and a good and hearty singalong around a fire. We’ve swam across Three Island Pond and ate fresh fried cod (courtesy of Mom).
Tomorrow we’ll enjoy some five pin bowling, visit the Quidi Vidi Brewery, and take in the open mic night at O’Reilly’s.
A good week home, without doubt. I just need more time here — but I guess that’ll wait until next year.
Next update will be after we’re back in the states. Until then, hoist a cold one and toast good times — that’s what I’m doing!
Abbreviated post because I’m tired.
Day 4 was a rain day. A day full of trying (and generally not being successful at) staying ahead of a rain front.
We stopped in Cabano, but since the weather was so bad, we just picked up some yummy cheese (mmmm) and some Unibroue I’d yet to try (a red ale, and a honey lager).
We’re in Fredericton, NB for the night. Tomorrow night we’ll be in North Sydney, and then in the homeland. I’m quite excited. Updates will be sporadic at best, because from this point forward there’s no Wi-Fi until we’re on the way home.
And, because Rob asked, some pics (though not many, since I haven’t taken many). Including photographic evidence of David’s Couche-tardedness.
Day 2 started with a bang. And by “bang”, I mean “lost tooth”. And by “tooth”, I mean a crown on a tooth I’d previously had a root canal on came off while I was eating breakfast. This is the second time I’ve lost that crown. I’ll be having words with my dentist upon my return.
Luckily, it’s just a minor annoyance and nothing that’s going to ruin the vacation.
We spent Saturday making the drive from Toronto to Québec City. Thanks to it being a long weekend in Toronto, and lots of construction on the 401, we were in Oshawa before we actually hit open highway instead of bumper to bumper traffic. Still, we made great time. We got into Lévis (LAY-VEE, not like the jeans) around 9:00. We’re staying at the awesome 51 Fraser in Lévis, a short jaunt to the ferry that takes us right into old Québec City, aka Vieux-Québec.
This weekend happens to be Les Fêtes de Nouvelle-France, so the old city was quite crowded with tourists and people in garb from the 1600s. It was great to get back here — I love this area so much.
We ate at the stellar Le Cochon Dingue, a great café right by the river. We then spent the afternoon wandering the streets, checking out the shops, the street performers, and the most excellent Pub St-Alexandre. L’Ephemere on tap… Yum!
After relaxing at the pub, we wandered the city some more, admiring the architecture, the views, and the history. It’s such a great little chunk of Europe smack-dab in the middle of Québec.
When the sun and the walking got the better of us, we made our way back to the ferry, and eventually back to the apartment to rest up.
Tonight we dine in Lévis, and tomorrow we bid farewell to this excellent area. If you’re in the area, you must stay at Le 51 Fraser. It’s just wonderful.
Next entry comes tomorrow night from Fredericton.
