gtrvox1

Funny, I'm not a Christian but do enjoy Christmas. The "consumerism" that so many people complain about doesn't bother me one bit.

As for the majority of Canadians, my 1998 New York Times Almanac states: "45% Roman Catholic, 12% United Church, 8% Anglican" - that's a 65% majority. Could be off by a few points, of course, it's 7 years old

GTR

dozzzzy

Went into Tesco on the weekend and they already have the Christmas merchandise on display, that's just sick, we haven't even got rid of Halloween or Guy Falk's night yet. CONsumerism gone pot.

Dozzzzy

Posidrive

No worse that our local UK gardsen center that had the Christmas decorations on sale over the August bank holiday weekend.

dbd

Odder still when you think that I stood there shouting it wiv me mate, Amrit, and neither of us was ever binnies. This would have been in the late seventies. I started going to the games much before that but don't remember what was sung or chanted then except the standards "I'm forever throwing bottles", "You're gonna meet wiv a nasty accident" and a version of "My Ol' Man" which was wholely without redeeming artistic merit.

Souvenir

Ah, English soccer at its best. A game for the whole faaaaaaaahmly.

My step brat was not looking good when he got home from football practice last night. The policy appears to be: "OK, you're five-eight and 145lbs, so we're going to make you a quarter back. See that really, really big guy over there? We want to you run at him as fast as you can and try to knock him over. We want you to do this lots of times. Perhaps then you'll be a bit less lippy in class".

Poor little sod came home on several buses last night.

dbd

We went through all that with the girls in hockey. Lessons on poking people with the butt end, chopping them in the neck with the stick swung horizontally, flat hand to throat, fingers jabbed in the eyes .... there were prizes for putting specific girls from the other team out of coming matches. The problem was always to convince the kids that emulating Domi or Kordic on the ice is a "good thing" while emulating them in the street is a crime. Those early mornings and late evenings at Moss Park made me long for the gentility of a Millwall match.

Roll on the day when liability coverage for American football and hockey is just too expensive for the school boards.

Souvenir

We've been dead lucky on the hockey front. The boy is only interested in sports that take place during the hours of daylight. His interest in becoming a lifeguard seems to have waned a bit since he started lessons that run from 5pm to 10pm every Sunday.

Cowtown

We used to think like that until we got to Canada. Have a read of the last posting dates for Christmas delivery and you might start to understand why some people want Christmas things in October.

Our first year out here was a shock as we were unable to buy Christmas wrapping paper in time for the last posting dates. Now we make sure we get some in the Jan sales!