July 12, 2008 by ignatiof.

My latest hobby is making fun of vocm.com. I like to count the number of mistakes in their news articles. My record so far is 9 in one article. Here’s one I found today, copied verbatim, without permission, with mistakes listed below. I’m not going to get into the HTML problems or style concerns.

Collision On The Grand Banks
July 12, 2008

There was an usual incident about 160 miles off the coast last night. Maritime Search and Rescue Coordinator, Andy Caines, says it involved a minor collision between a French catamaran-style sail boat, the Traid Union and a Newfoundland crab fishing boat, the August Gale. The Wilfred Grenfell was dispatched to the scene and picked up the eight crew members. They are headed to St. John’s from the Banks but near-zero visibility is keeping speeds low.Caines says the condistions in the area were probably a contributing factor in the collision. No injuries are being reported but marine traffic is advised to be on the look-out for the abandoned and drifting boat.
Also, Friday saw Coast Guard activity off the South Labrador. The Coast Guard auxillary vessel, the Elizabeth Ann, towed a fishing boat, the Robert Bradford, into Cartwright today. The Bradford was disabled by engine failure off Grady Run. They should arrive in port today.

1. The article title should not have the words ‘On The’ capitalized. 
2. The boats’ names are not italicized (5 times)
3. There is no space before the sentence that starts ‘Caines says’
4. ‘Conditions’ is spelled ‘condistions’
5. There is an unrelated news item in an article called ‘Collision On the Grand Banks’
6. In the sentence starting ‘No injuries are being reported’, the two clauses are unrelated.

Posted in Stuff I Hate, The Newfie Times | Print | No Comments »

April 5, 2008 by ignatiof.

Last night…

The missus: Hey, what are you up to?
Me: Just blogging about my endorsement in the upcoming U.S. election.
The missus: You know the Pillsbury Doughboy isn’t running this year, right?

Posted in General, The Newfie Times | Print | No Comments »

April 4, 2008 by ignatiof.

I, Ignatio Fairfax, editor of EarlWoodman.com, am announcing today that I am endorsing Senator Barack Obama in the upcoming US election. (Note that my opinion is not necessarily that of EarlWoodman.com).

In reaching this decision, I would like to direct your attention to Obama’s recent race speech, and in particular, the following excerpt:

The fact is that the comments [of Geraldine Ferraro and Reverend Wright] that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges…

Obama is not a perfect candidate, and he was not my pick at the beginning of the primaries. However, his ability to directly address the issue of racism without actually playing the race card is mature and commendable.

His platform of ‘change’ was not something that I understood at first. I had assumed that by change, he was intending to fix the problems created by his predecessor. But it appears that Obama is not even referring to Bush. He is focused on continued perfection of the constitution, an exercise in nation building that he feels, rightly so, is dangerously incomplete. Hillary Clinton and John McCain are wholly uninspiring in their myopic visions and pedestrian intents.

Posted in General, The Newfie Times | Print | No Comments »

January 19, 2008 by ignatiof.

Is it just me, or does Stephen Harper have a tremendous boner for Danny Williams?

Posted in Silly Signs, The Newfie Times | Print | No Comments »

November 8, 2007 by ignatiof.

Ever notice how people in some countries, provinces and states tend to very proud of their regions, but people in others are not quite as proud? No? Well, read on anyway.

If someone were to do a study, I’d be willing to bet a handful of dirt that the shape of that region is positively correlated to the amount of pride. Look at Newfoundland for instance. It’s a very rugged, forward looking, attractively shaped province with a large phallic peninsula. Who wouldn’t love that? On the other end of the scale is Saskatchewan, a province indistinguishable from a soggy cereal box. Pride in Saskatchewan must be worse than Britney Spears’ mothering skills.

Posted in Stuff Like Other Stuff, General, The Newfie Times | Print | 1 Comment »

October 2, 2006 by ignatiof.

Yesterday I was driving around Clarenville for my long-put-off trip to the Trinity Bay town in the fall of the year to see the leaves turning colour and stuff. Incidentally it was also the weekend of the classic car show at the Clarenville Stadium, which as far as I know, hasn’t yet been renamed to the Clarenville Centre. All a matter of time I guess. Sorry, did I say renamed? I meant ‘re-branded‘.

Anyway, there were some pretty neat cars there. The classics are all very well looked after - flawless, and spotless. I only noticed one or two minor things among the 40 or so cars.

But the thing that scared me the most is how much character these cars have. Is it just me, or do they make today’s cars look bland? I mean, I’m sure there are nice cars being made today, and the ugly cars of years gone by aren’t generally the ones that are being preserved. Still, it gives me an uneasy feeling. It’s like my whole perception of the car world is crumbling down around me. I can even see the beauty in my father’s favourite, the 57 Chev.

At the car show, I had to pick the best car for the people’s choice award. It was a toss-up between an early 70’s Dodge Challenger and an early 70’s Oldsmobile Cutlass. For my girlfriend it was a toss up between an old-school Citroen and a 50’s Mercury pick-up. I don’t even know which one I picked as I forgot which number corresponded to which vehicle. But there were many other more flashy, perhaps more deserving models. This is going to require some soul-searching.

Posted in Neat Stuff, General, The Newfie Times | Print | No Comments »