what i'm watching: canadian comedy, baseball

The Sox were rained out last night, so, feeling lazy and tired, we ended up watching a bunch of shows on the Comedy Network, including Air Farce and Kids In The Hall. We saw our second or third episode of The New Red Green Show, which is surprisingly funny.

I've been trying to figure out how to describe this show to non-Canadians. It's a spoof on a home-improvement show, hosted by a redneck whose answer to every challenge is duct tape. It makes sport of country folks, and men in general, but in (what seems to me, anyway) a warm and self-knowing way, as in, this is us, ain't we funny. The host, played by Steve Smith, has a deadpan delivery a la the great Bob Newhart. The show he hosts from "Possum Lodge" is "a fishing show, a fix-it show, and a men's advice program all rolled into about 3/4".

What do you guys think? Hate it? Love it? Ignore it?

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I haven't been blogging about baseball, but it's basically all I think about right now. The Red Sox are driving us insane, in a dead-heat tie with the Yankees for the division, and a half-game behind Cleveland for the wild card. The Yankees won last night, which technically puts them a half-game up, but only because the Sox were rained out. Boston plays a double-header today.

I feel like playoffs have already started, and in a way they have: at the end of this week, two of those teams will be alive, and one will go home for the winter.

I will be crushed if the Red Sox don't win the division. I say that about ten times a day; just wanted to go on record here.

I want to be excited that hockey season is about to start, but I can't focus on that until after the World Series. I do like seeing all the hockey news on Sports Centre (not to mention how that is spelled!). The national focus on hockey must be how baseball once was in the US. I like it.

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"Missed It By That Much." As I'm sure you heard, Don Adams, a/k/a Maxwell Smart, died yesterday at the age of 82. There was an actor forever identified with one role. No matter what he did later in his career, Adams would always be Agent 86. Get Smart is one of my all-time favorite shows.

don_adams

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