Joyeaux Jour du Canada!

The First of July and that means it's Canada Day, Eh! Time to show off my Mountie, who bobbles upon his trusty steed whenever an earthquake occurs.

I didn't do much celebrating though I did educate my students on how old Canada is. I waved a flag and wrote 2020-1867=? on the board and then had my Grade 3, 5 and 6 students answer it. I also needed to show America's age so they also subtracted 2020-1776=? as well. All of them needed to show their work to accomplish the subtraction except for two kids in one Grade 3 class who did the calculation in their heads! I then mimed Canada's age as an infant, America as a gibbering toddler and Japan as an old man. Most of the kids got it but once or twice the teacher had to help out. One kid asked how old China is and I said she's a great-great-grandmother.

I shared this video on my Canadians in Japan Facebook page and it garnered a few likes. It's a classic that we'd see as a short before movies decades ago.



I'd also like to express my sorrow and admiration for those who are struggling to remain distanced yet connected in Canada these days. An old pal from the University of Guelph composed and sang this song to combat the woe.



Lovely!

Since it is July 1st, time for a Calendar round up. Let's hope that Hulk can smash puny virus!

And that Darth likes his tie.

Finally, I'd like to express my sorrow for the passing of 98-year old Carl Reiner on June 29th.

Carl Reineroceros and his pal, Melephant Brooks both had cameos in Toy Story 4 last year.



Neither of them show up in that clip though they do put Jerry Seinfeld to shame when they guested on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

I suppose my first memory of Carl would be as Alan Brady on his creation, The Dick Van Dyke Show. Later I caught as many reruns as I could of Your Show of Shows when he played the straight man to Sid Caesar's yukster. The only movie of his that I own is one he directed, The Man with Two Brains. I won't have time to watch it tonight, so I'll view it tomorrow.

I dug through his filmography and noticed that he played Shazam's Wizard on a show called Justice League Action.

I caught his episode and notice this shoddy editing error.

Oh well, it isn't Carl's fault that they can't spell.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Reiner.

And Happy Canada Day!

A Fistful of Fests.

Last weekend, there was a mini-fest, gathering together a few Canadians for a belated Sesquicentennial celebration! Lots of good food and Woohoo! Canadian beer!

A fellow Canucklehead. He's also Canadian (what gave him away?)

On the street corner, there was a warning for two-headed pandas.

Later on the street, we brought out the big guns, Fireworks! (I love the smell of gunpowder in the evening, it smells like victory!)

Oooh!

The video quality is less than pristine though the dialogue makes up for it.

The following day was Marine Day and returning from a wedding, I espied a gathering at Kotodai Koen. Because I was driving, I couldn't imbibe any of the dozens of booths selling wine samples, but I did get to eat some yummy French cuisine.

Speaking of French, the lass above warbled a pretty good French ditty.

 I wonder if this Tea(t) stand offers café au lait?

Yesterday, en route to a Sayonara party for a couple of staff at Carl School, I encountered a Shrine in the middle of Ichibancho.

While snapping a photograph, I was accosted by one of the dudes in blue, who turned out to be one of the dads of one of the students at one of my schools. He convinced me to stick around and enjoy a free shot of sake that the guys below distributed after cracking the lid on the barrel.

I now assumed I was behind schedule, but this guy told me the time and assured me I was still early.

The other Festival I had fun attending was today's event at the aforementioned Carl School in Shiogama. I didn't get a chance to photograph some of the games going on, such as, Takoyaki Bingo or Shuffleboard though. I manned the lucky draw and gave the kiddies a chance at winning a prize. I just happened to contribute 80 prizes to the gala and all but a half dozen got snapped up. Here are the goodies in question.

Since I depleted some of my vast wealth of crap, I headed over to Mandai in Tagajo and won myself a new Darth figure! Woohoo!

Now that I'm ensconced in summer vacation, I'm sure I'll attend a few more festivities.

It's Ash Wednesday!

I love this painting of Ash drawn by Arthur Suydam that I acquired a few years back (click those links for details). I plan to post it on every Ash Wednesday.

As for yesterday (Shrove or Pancake Tuesday), I had a couple of waffles instead of hotcakes.

The school year is winding down now and I'm beginning to bid farewell to my Grade Fivers and Sixers.  I've been giving away some SW stickers as a Sayanora present.

I was rather touched today when my genkiest class ever treated me to a chorus of PPAP, substituting Eigo/Fun and Michael/ Dai-suki for Pen/Pineapple/Apple/Pen.

Speaking of Star Wars, I snagged a Gatcha-capsule of Darth. This one is a memo-holder.

I had a beer with Lego Batman today.

We caught a viewing of Nice Guys, it was quite fun. Ryan does a great Lou Costello impression.

The Meaning of Life.

I met up with buddy Alex yesterday to discuss our Halloween party on the 26th (at Ernie's Bar) and because he just turned 42. (See this post's title.)

No cake, but a few Halloweenish suckers for him though I'm sure they'll end up in others mouths.

The first present he received is a bit of a gag (well, a lot of a gag), I found this in the back of my closet and I had no desire to keep it, so he became the lucky recipient. The batteries don't work and apparently it's a little musty, so I suspect it'll make it's way to the gomi bin.

The present was this invertible sweatshirt with Heroes on the outside and Villains on the inside! I want one for myself now (but couldn't afford two.) Also a copy of Harvest Breed, a rather spooky Batman tale.

But the best present of all was more of a present for me! The game was on and we got to see the Rakuten Eagles win the Climax series (that sounds rude). Thus they'll be meeting the Giants next week for the final showdown. I hate it when the Giants win (not a fan is an understatement) so I REALLY want the Eagles to conquer them!

To celebrate, Alex got to haul his loot home in an Eagles/Darth bag!!

Today's Kaibutsu-Kun entry is the climax page of a Christmas story. A tad early for the Yuletide but it does have Presents!

Here's to a further 30 years of friendship, Alex!