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Canada party on dude

23rd March 202523rd March 2025 funtime65

Yes way, new prime minister Mark Carney is pulling out all the stops with Mike Myers as they assert independence and say… Canada party on dude.

Myers didn’t so much wrap himself in the flag in the promo vid than pad up in ice hockey top with a message for America.

And so Carney cheekily tested the great comedian’s authenticity as an American because he’s Hollywood’s based.

And set him a number of quick fire questions.

Which we presume are easy for Canadians.

You a Canadian, eh?

International man of mystery: Austin Powers

And so there was no stuttering when the PM asked him to name the puppets on kids’ TV show Mr Dressup… Casey and Finnegan.

Some other popular cultural references are posed.

And a geographical gimme, the capital of Saskstchewan… Regina obviously.

Puck stops here

Before the premier sets Mike the big money question, an ice hockey tactical riddle.

Which having covered hockey among my range of sports I and Mike know.

That when you’re a defenceman defending a two on one you take away the pass obviously.

And that the two seasons in Toronto are winter and construction.

Always be a Canada

What the Doctor ordered: In Austin’s world

After which PM Carney gives a mock approval and tells Mike… ‘Wow, you really are a Canadian.’

And Mike asks the politician.. ‘will there always be a Canada?’

And Carney assures them there will and they greet each other in hockey style with ‘Elbows up’.

It’s good to see a newly-peroxised Mike who has been under the radar, back, and with a new Shrek to promote.

Yes, way

Whatever Mike’s views on Donald Trump, and they share Scottish ancestry, his Shrek is a better Caledonian ccent than mine.

While he famously channeled his English roots for Austin Powers.

It was, of course, as Wayne Campbell thar we were first introduced to the comic genius.

And it is a scene where Wayne and pal Garth make fun with signs behind their sponsor’s back on their home TV show that we recall.

And wonder at the fun they could have if ever they were invited to the White House.

Canada Aer

And Mike could tell him that in his country they say Canada party on dude.

The best way, of course, to support Canada is to visit.

And we always advise to go through Ireland with Aer Lingus and pre-clearance at £566.52 as part of a return fare.

America, Canada, Countries

Pillow talk

2nd April 20242nd April 2024 funtime65

And haven’t we all done it as kids, and big kids, so let’s indulge in a bit of pillow talk?

No, not that, you mucky divils but pillow fighting, because this Saturday is International Pillow Fight Day.

We owe the flash mob, global participation day, to Kevin Bracken.

Kiddie Kev co-founded Newmindspace, an interactive public art group based in New York and Toronto.

With his pal Lori Kufner while they were students at the University of Toronto.

Lie back and laid-back

Imagine: Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal

Now it’s pertinent that the bedroom shenanigans should have been sprung in laid-back Canada.

With the most famous lie-in of them all happening just down the road in Montreal.

When John and Yoko had their lie-in for peace in the Sixties.

Now our pals Kev and Lori are clearly students who have never grown up, a bit like ourselves.

And have also championed bubble battles, capture-the-flag games and even a massive civil war with marshmallow bullets, held in Brooklyn.

More than 150 cities participated in the big pillow fight.

Which, I think we’ll all agree is better than bombing each other… if you’re listening Vladimir and Volodomir.

Celeb central

We remember you well: In the Chelsea Hotel

Now Kev’s pals, the Torontonians and New Yorkers have their share of high-end hotels.

From the Fairmont Royal Hotel where the celebs stay when in Canada’s biggest city…

To the Chelsea Hotel of Canadian poet laureate Leonard Cohen fame and anyone who was anyone really.

Where the feathers would have flown and much else besides.

And, oh, to have been a fly on the walk to hear the pillow talk.

Of course, on all things trans-Atlantic we advise through our own transport experiences.

To fly Aer Lingus with that crucial pre-clearance.

Canada, Countries, Deals

Toronto Rapture as Aer Lingus returns

19th September 202119th September 2021 funtime65

I was there at the birth and the wobbles of the last year so I share the Toronto Rapture as Aer Lingus returns.

The announcement of Ireland’s national airline new Transatlantic route would always be a matter of fevered excitement among the Travel circle.

And Toronto came very much from out of left field when it was revealed in 2018.

Toronto, oh brother!

It shouldn’t have. Toronto is Canada’s biggest city and closest to America, both geographically and culturally.

And it has done much to disprove the putdown of raconteur Peter Ustinov who described it as ‘New York run by the Swiss’.

True it is cleaner than NY and my brother who lived there for eight years explained it to me.

It was because of the first generation immigrants who took such pride in their city.

There was also the occasion when I heard the subway train coming and I made to rush for it.

Only for my brother to tell me that there would always be another along in a couple of minutes.

Another good reason for leaving the homeland.

Eh Lingus

And another is the renewed Aer Lingus fight, back on the tarmac from the end of last week.

With fares from €149 each way.

So what’ll you do when you’re out in Tronno (as the locals call it).

Eh? As the Canadians will always say at the end of everything

Well, there’s the CN Tower, once the world’s tallest building.

And the Niagara Falls just down the road.

As well as the natural playground which is Lake Ontario.

But it’s also a food hub with Chinatown, Koreatown, Greektown, Little Italy and Little Portugal marking it out as very mych the match of New York.

City of sports

On another (and some say best) grade it, it is a great sports city.

The Toronto Raptors were on the drawing board when I checked in on my brother.

Despite being out of the NBA loop, Toronto was there at the start of the hoop dream.

And in fact played the first game against the New Yoek Knickerbockers (Knicks) 50 years before.

Like all dinosaurs the Raptors took some time to get going.

But 24 years after Toronto’s renewal as a basketball team they were ready to stand tallest again.

As they swept all before them, winning the 2019 NBA Championship.

Wrapped it all up

The Raptors though have a ling way to go to match the winningest (as they like yo say in North American circles) team.

The Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey team have won 13 Stanley Cups, the last in 1967.

While the Toronto Blue Jays, a nascent franchise when I visited, have won two World Series, back to back in 1992 and 1993.

And so you see Toronto knocks it out of the park.

And so does Aer Lingus… a winning team.

Which is why I’m in Toronto Rapture as Aer Lingus returns.

America, Europe, Ireland, Sport, UK

Babe Ruth and his curse

2nd June 20212nd June 2021 funtime65

Even those who have never played baseball or watched a game will likely have heard of Babe Ruth and his curse.

George, for that was his Sunday name, is mostly associated with two teams.

The Boston Red Sox, where he made his name, and the New York Yankees to where he was traded and became a superstar.

But he actually hailed for Baltimore and started out with the Baltimore Oriioles.

And it is the Maryland city where you will find the Babe Ruth birthplace and museum.

On this day back in 1935 the Babe retired at the age of 40 with all manner of records to his name.

His records were to last long after his death alas too early at the age of 53.

And his reputation would grow with the years.

Not least because the Red Sox did not win a World Series after he left only breaking that 86-year run in 2004.

As is the way with these sporting sensations, and readers will know about the curse around the Philadelphia teams, there is a Bostonian superstition too.

A ‘reverse curve’ road sign on Longfellow Bridge over the busy Storrow Drive was graffittied.

And it came to read the ‘Reverse the Curse’ and it was left in place until the hoodoo was broken.

After which the sign was edited to read ‘Reversed Curse.’

You want to hear about some other curses from across sport? Thought you did.

Ghoulish Gaels

Mayo: But avoid the funeral cortege on the way home

Mayo Gaelic Football team: And in superstitious Ireland it comes as little surprise that there is a curse hanging over Mayo.

The story goes that following their last All-Ireland victory in 1951 the returning heroes failed to wait quietly for a funeral cortege to pass.

And that the presiding priest pledged that they would never win another Sam Maguire Cup until all that team had died.

Mayo have played in the final ten times since without success.

And while Pat Prendergast and Mick Loftus defy the Grim Reaper we doubt they will.

Romani revenge

Birmingham City FC: And you can take your pick of gipsy curses on football teams but it might be because we’re fans of Peaky Blinders that we’re going for this one.

Birmingham lived to regret building their new ground back in 1906 on gipsy land .

When they were cursed not to win a major trophy for 100 years.

High-profile managers Ron Saunders and Barry Fry tried to break the curse.

Saunders putting crucifixes on the floodlights and painting the soles of the players’ boots red.

While Fry urinated in the four corners of the pitch, supposedly because a clairvoyant told him so.

In 2011 Alex McLeish who had no need to empty his bladder there led the Blues to the 2011 League Cup.

Talladega tremors

Talladega Superspeedway: And, of course, it’s never good to build on an Indian Reservation.

Drivers have been known to hear voices as they steered their cars around the Alabama track.

Although petrolhead fans just say it adds to the appeal of the races.

Duck, it’s Drake

You selfie so and so: Drake with sports stars

Drake and sport: And this is more a sports-mad rapper being a Jonah rather than a curse but the Torontonian is in because he’s showbiz.

The musician brings bad luck on whoever he supports.

Whether it’s Paris Saint-Germain, UFC champ Conor McGregor, boxing king Anthony Joshua, Manchester City footballer Sergio Aguero or basketball great Kevin Durant.

These strange turns of luck might just all be in God’s Plan.

But Drake wasn’t taking any chances when he used the curse against him.

And he wore a pair of Philadelphia 76ers shorts when watching the Pennsylvanians against his home Toronto Raptors.

The oft-times cursed Philly sports fans really needed that and lost!

So we’ve given you Babe Ruth and his curse and a few others.

But what’s your fave and let’s hope your sports team has lifted it?