Stompin’ Tom Connors: The Hockey Song

stompin-tomYesterday, an iconic member of Canadian culture passed away at age 77.

One of Canada’s most prolific and well-known country and folk singers, Stompin’ Tom was credited with writing more than 300 songs. He had released four dozen albums, with total sales of nearly 4 million copies.

Yet among all his creations, it may be that the Hockey Song will go do as one forever woven into Canada’s fabric and knotted closely with the nation’s obsession with its sport of choice.

If you need an orientation OR just a reliving of past memories, here you go. In honour of Stompin’ Tom, I give you “The Hockey Game”…

Loaning Cash and Winning Rice

I just loaned out some money to a lady in Cameroon and some more to a guy in Cambodia.

Many of you are already aware of this site (www.kiva.org), but if you’re not, you’re officially overdue to get informed.  Their little standard invitation email that you can send to friends goes like this…

I wanted to let you know about Kiva (www.kiva.org), a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.

You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq – and as they repay their loan, you get your money back.  It�s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

So now you know.

A friend put me on to another site as well.

Two nights ago, with barely sleeping baby on my shoulder, I earned over 1000 grains of rice, 10 grains at a time, for people in developing nations by answering trivia questions about our world.  So go forth, be smart, and feed people… www.freerice.com.  And explore the site some too.  On it is some intriguing information.  For example, did you know that my very own Canadian government has thus far declined to follow the lead of several European nations to give at 0.7% of its annual wealth to the developing nations.  Trust the Scandinavian countries to leave us in their nordic dust.

If you care to send a “spurring” letter to our own government, they are waiting to be found and sent right from the site.

That’s it.  Over and out.

Canadian Spy Money

Oh yes, make no mistake…

We are a sneaky people.

My American friend Carl always said that this fact was proven for all time way back when we took possession of Niagra Falls’ good side.  We really pulled the wool over some eyes in that little scheme.

Well, now it’s being proven once again.  Poor American fellows that had these coins land in their laps…they thought they’d entered MI-4 or something!  Good thing that no one pulled off a rubber face, or minds would have blown apart!

Full story is HERE.