It's Only Chinatown

As some of you may know I work in one of the most interesting neighborhoods in all of Toronto. Spadina and College.

To the Northwest: We have the Scott Mission, the Silver Dollar Room a legendary Blues bar, the Comfort Zone a now notorious youth hangout that was in the news when a kid od'd last year on GHB and several arrests of employees dealing rave drugs. You have the Waverly hotel where they write the room numbers on the doors home to prostitutes and the destitute.

To the Norththeast: We have the UofT campus and the Centre for Addiction and Mental health.

To the Southwest we have Kensington market a great place to buy cheap groceries, grab some lunch or do some shopping for used CDs, clothing, furniture or military surplus items. Actually one of my favourite stores right now is a sort of local merchant collective called the Blue Banana market, I haven't actually bought anything but I love the wide mix of stuff you get in there. My favourite booths are the beanbag furniture store and the 'kitschy' knockoff Soviet Surplus store. Lots of great Soviet leader nesting dolls on sale.

To the Immediate South: Everyones favourite place Chinatown. Once you get down near Dundas on a warm spring-fall day you can really smell it. Empty produce boxes on the curb stacked about 6 feet high, merchants selling mangos and dvds. The sidewalk has a pemanent black grease stain and mountains of coconut beverages line the street. Up and down the Spadina and along Dundas there are probably over a hundred different Chinese resturants. So many you wonder how they all manage to exist. I won't say favourites but the Chinese restaurants I will sometimes frequent include: Kom Jug Yuen (BBQ Pork), Swawtow (I once saw Woody Harrelson there drunk etc. out of his mind late one Saturday night also have this unique 'strangers' table), a place I don't even know the name of on the south side of Dundas a bit east of Spadina I don't even know the name of but I'll call it the Welsh Dragon, King's Noodle (I'm told a HK style restaurant with terrible service which is what defines it as HK style, you literally have to scream at the server to get service). Besides the huge number of Chinese restaurants there are a few Thai and Vietnamese restaurants. Today looking to try something different I tried a relatively new place called Laksa on Spadina just south of Dundas on the West side pretty close to Goldstone. They have a mix of Thai and Malaysian foods and I ordered the Spicy noodles, not a lunch special very good, perhaps not as filling as I'd like for $12 but really great flavouring. OK not really sure where this entry is going but I observed quite a few funny things in the half hour or so I wandered around Chinatown.

• Dairy Queen: There's a Dairy Queen in the Dragon City shopping mall at Spadina and Dundas. The reason I find this strange is that Asians generally are not too much into Dairy products. As I mentioned not quite full I decided to have a skor blizzard a rare treat. My first real job was working Brazier at a Dairy Queen. This Dairy Queen did not have a Brazier but it did have one of those rotating hot dog things they have at snackbars at small town arenas and drive in movie theatres. The only reason I noticed this is I saw three white people who I'm guessing were Americans eating this thing. I just have this image of these Americans out to absorb all this culture wandering out of their hotel and ending up in Chinatown starved, they decide to go get a hot dog at Dairy Queen. I suppose not much worse than the meat you'd get elsewhere in Chinatown but still weird. Waiting to order a Chinese woman starts speaking Chinese, the DQ employee looks obviously Asian just kind of looks at her with bewilderment and then says "I don't understand Chinese". I was thinking about that and laughing man that must really suck for him, because few people in Chinatown actually speak English, I'm sure many understand at least a bit but almost no one speaks English, luckily for him he mostly just gets Americans ordering hotdogs.
• Bank Machines: Maybe it's a small sample size but going to use the bank machine at CIBC in Chinatown I noticed a large lineup inside for the 2 machines but nobody lining up outside to use that machine except us white people. Maybe we are just dumb and that machine is some kind of card skimming operation or maybe the Chinese are afraid to get robbed, I thought that wasn't completely irrational but weird.
• Buskers: Walking up Spadina back towards work I notice guy playing an Irish jig on a fiddle. I'm like weird location weird music to be playing, generally I've found the Chinese to not be too sympathetic to panhandlers, the Spadina Business Asssociation even went so far as to hire security guards this summer to keep panhandlers out of the area. OK busking is different from panhandling but people weren't stopping and his hat was pretty much empty.
• Confrontations: I've seen this a few times before with merchants, but the people in Chinatown aren't afraid to stand up for themselves. I've seen little old ladies follow shoplifters for blocks tugging on the stolen item, yelling and screaming it may only be worth a few dollars and you may very well be exposing yourself to a beating but the business owners don't care. Today I saw a man say something rude to a woman in the middle of the intesection she turned around and went right at him screaming. He kept walking and didn't look back, I saw him giggle and smile about it after, whatever he said it certainly wasn't nice but no fear whatsoever.

It's a fascinating dirty smelly little place.

Raider Nation invades the Ralph

I spent most of Sunday hooting it up with a bunch of grown men who think every Sunday from September-December is Halloween.

6:30 am A party of 7 brave men and women gathered got up at an ungodly hour to catch a Tour bus destined for Orchard Park NY. Approaching the bus I had no idea what the composition of fans on the bus so I was a little worried I'd be harassed for wearing the colours. I knew that the Raider Nation travelled in large numbers, but I was truly and pleasantly surprised by the composition of our bus, overwhelmingly Raiders fans.

7:45 am The bus loads up and begins rolling towards the "Hammer" to pick up Hamilton fans also headed to the game.

8:00 am The parking lots at Orchard Park, NY open up for tailgaters.

8:15 am Somewhere past Mississauga I crack my first beer of the day. I figured I didn't want the beer to get warm.
8:45 am
The bus stopped in Hamilton and I got off the bus to use the facilities at the Golden Griddle. I took a brief whiff of the smog filled air and thought hmmm, I better get used to this smell if I'm going to spend a day in Buffalo. I got back on the bus and noticed more Raiders fans get on the bus. Also getting on in Hamilton is a guy we'll call "Frosted Tips" that we had our first taste of the kind of beratement we might get as Raiders fans. Immediately upon getting on the bus, "Frosted Tips" began to question the sexuality of the Raiders fans and made frequent trips to the back of the bus to engage in some trash talking with the guys in the back.

9:15 am The bus makes it's 3rd stop at a strip mall in St.Catherine's. I finish my first beer and get off to use the Starbucks bathroom. I grab a quad americano, which I've pretty much become addicted to since earlier this spring. Frosted Tips has a buddy get on who happens to sit in the only remaining empty seat next to my buddy the other Raiders fan Hardy. This kind of sucks for Hardy as FT spends much of the trip out of his seat talking to his buddy Brucey sitting in the window seat. FT was already slurring his words and he was just starting to get on our nerves.

10:00 amI crack open my 2nd and last in drive beer. I didn't want it to get warm.

10:30 am We finally got to the Fort Erie bridge we saw a pretty long line of cars and buses waiting to cross. Leighann decided she needed to "break the seal". Apparently, there was a toll to pay to get to the back of the bus, one had to do a shot of "Captain Morgan's" rum before one could pass. This was not an issue for Leighann, she would have scored high on her pirate aptitude test taking alcohol from strangers, maye not the smartest idea but none of the guys in the back were named Janikowski so she was ok.

The lineup of cars moved slowly and we realized there were a ton of cars headed to the game, mostly Raiders fans. The realization we'd be stuck on the bridge for at least half an hour everybody who had been drinking since the bus hit Hamilton at 9 am had to use the bathroom: About 5 minutes in line we noticed a couple guys got out of their car and started running up the bridge with a case of beer in their hand not sure whatever happened to these guys.

11:00 am
When we got to the border of course the American border patrol man came aboard and pulled off all the non-Canadian or American born people and we sat and waited for 30 minutes while our Swedish and English Enemy combatants were grilled and anally probed. After giving a boost to the 2nd tour bus which had apparently broken down at the border we were finally across the border but our window of tailgating was rapidly disappearing.

11:30 am we drive through a long strip of abandoned buildings and so many above ground pools I thought we were in Quebec. As we get closer to Orchard park everything slowed right down. We approach the stadium and see residential homes and bars near the stadium packed with tailgaters.

12:00 pm
We finally arrive at our parking lot to the finger from angry Buffalo fans. Not quite sure whether that was because we were Canadian or because there were a lot of Raiders fans. Frosted tips has put in his matching Bills Helmet earrings. We notice some dude dressed up like the Ultimate Warrior in Bills colours, a tailgater runs up to the Warrior and requests a picture with him in a headlock. Looking around the lots near the Stadium were about 50/50 Raiders/Bills fans. My friend Hardy and I decide we need to seek out some bathrooms. There were porto-lets but the lineups were huge. In the distance we notice a wooded area so we figure avoid the line ups. While Hardy is doing his thing some Bills fan walks up and screams in his ear that the Raiders suck.

We find our way back to the Toursport tailgate and get some sausages an some more beers enjoy some cover band which really made me just think of Guitar Hero especially dude walking around with the wireless guitar encouraging people to play with his whammy bar.

12:45 pm We finish up our beers and decide to make our way towards the stadium. Now walking towards the stadium it's really kind of a dump. Garbage everywhere, beer bottles, coffee cups, vomit (one of the reasons they call it the "Ralph"), tons of really mean looking locals. Hardy got burned by the oldest trick in the book, the high five/ no I don't think so psyche. A lot of really angry people. We hear the National anthem play and the roar of the crowd.We move slowly but steadily through security who are pleasant enough no major hassles.

1:10 pm We finally get to our seats as we are walking up Hardy and I get berated by Bills fans and cheered by members of the Raider Nation. By the time we get to our seats it's already 3-0 Raiders. The crowd is probably about 20% Raiders fans mixed in with Bills fans, generally fairly pleasant, I think mostly because our section was mostly a Canadian tour group it wasn't so bad.

1:30 pm I get up to use the bathroom. The bathrooms are of course the old Maple Leaf Gardens style troughs. I was warned on the way up not to wash my hands because guys urinate in the sink, but it's one of those ones I had in my public school where you step on the pedal and water comes out so I don't actually need to touch the sink with my hands. On my way back to my seat I am told by a Bills fan at the end of my row he doesn't want to let me back in but he will his girlfriend pipes in with a yeah kind of like a "take that", I just kind of laugh it off.

1:45 pm At the end of the quarter we go down to grab some beers. Scrawny Bills fan purposely turns his shoulder into Hardy and says oops, he pretends to do the same to me and I inform him he's too small to be trying that kind of move it seems effective as he doesn't give me a hard time on the way back.

2:30 pm Half time with the score 9-7 for the Raiders as Ralph Wilson stumbles through an intro and the Bills unveil Bruce Smith's place in the ring of honour we grab our last beers of the day, the "Ralph" ends beer sales at the end of halftime. Unlike the ACC or the Rogers Centre there are just these tiny little 14 inch mounted colour tvs so can't really see what's going on when standing in line for beer.

3:15 pm Close game with the Raiders leading 16-7 at the start of the 4th quarter Hardy decides that little Andy is getting in his way and thinks it's funny to pour water on his head from his seat one row above. Andy flips out and knocks the bottle off to the side splashing water onto people 4 rows in front of us. The people in front of us think the asshole Raiders fans have purposely thrown water on them and glare at us for a long time. Eventually they sit down and focus on the game

3:45 pm The Raiders complete an 84 yard pass to make the score 23-14 with about six minutes remaining. Bills Fans begin leaving in droves trying to get a jump on traffic. I know better, the game is definitely not over and realize there's plenty of time for Buffalo to get 2 posessions unless the Raiders can grind out some first downs. The Bills score a touchdown and then the Raiders go 3 and out on some conservative play calling. The Bills get the ball back and drive and kick a field goal with no time remaining. I thoughy Lane Kiffin may have called a timeout to ice the kicker, but he did not. The Bills win and the Hill"Bill"ies are satisfied. The Raider Nation collectively sighs, "not again" and questions will Al Davis fire Lane Kiffin this week?

4:15pm we make our way through the parking lot where we get some comments, some middle aged jerkoff laughed at me and tried to walk right into me I kept my ground and just bounced off of him. All in all some really weak attempts at harassment and intimidation.

4:30 pm We gather outside the bus and have a few beers as people go to purchase merchandise from vendors. Small Andy decides he's now a Bills fan.

???? Sometime after dark we arrived back in Toronto and I arrive back in Toronto. The trip was a blast the Raider nation is pretty crazy. Bills fans, well I guess you can say they love their team, but these guys are very bitter about a lot of things so If you travel there beware if you don't have a small army with you things could get ugly.

Flying Festival Forearm!

Well, I've had a few days to recover from my sleep deficit and I've been getting questions all week like how were the films, did you see any good movies did you see any stars. Well 28 films in 10 days, (really 8 days I took Sunday off to watch the NFL and the last Friday to go to the Zoo with my Niece and Nephew) things get a little confused and it's tough to remember what directors or stars you saw. I saw many good films but only one that really stands out in my mind as outstanding.

My favourite film of the Festival had to be Darren Arnofsky's soon to be released "The Wrestler". The film stars Mickey Rourke as the 'Passion of the Christ' christ-like figure, 50 something wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson and Marisa Tomei plays the "Mary Magdalene" like stripper pseudo-girlfriend. There is an explicit allusion to the Rourke character taking a 2 hr beating for mankinds sins, but the film is not high art, the film is as Aronofsky described it a "small gentle film". Rourke's performance is outstanding, the film won the top prize at the Venice film festival and all week, along with JCVD, kept coming up in weekly publications, in conversations in line or in theaters, as the two films everybody was talking about.

Rourke's character "The Ram" is a former top wrestling star, in ring a high flying off the top rope wrestler, a charismatic "face", but like so many wrestlers outside of the ring his life is a mess, struggles with drugs, alcohol, struggling with chronic pain, struggling to pay the rent on his trailer, to keep up with younger stronger wrestlers, trying to reconnect his estranged college student daughter. The Randy character through all his turmoils is extremely likable, encouraging to the boys in the locker room and hamming it up with the neighborhood kids who adore him even though they are too young to remember him in his prime. The character's likableness makes his struggles all that more compelling a man who has given his entire life to entertaining the masses and has nothing to show for it, he just keeps screwing things up. The in ring and behind the scenes wrestling footage seems really authentic mostly because it is filmed in real high school gyms and small house shows in the New Jersey area, put on by real independent promotions. The most disturbing footage is the death match Rourke has with "Hellbilly", (really CZW's Necro Butcher, a Mick Foley Cactus Jack style extreme wrestler). The match features staple guns, glass windows, garbage cans, barb wire, prosthetic leg shots and an exploding ring. If you are a wrestling fan the action is authentic and if you aren't a fan it's a compelling look into this world. The film features cameo appearances by former TNA wrestler Ron "The Truth" Killings and WCW Wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller as the Iron Sheik like former top '80s heel "The Ayatollah. The film failed to win the People's Choice Award, that went to Danny Boyle's "Slum Dog Millionaire", but this film is without a doubt my favourite it really is a "small gentle film", a small gentle chairshot to the head that is.

Tre Fringe

I PVR'd the premiere of the new JJ Abrams series the Fringe and I very much enjoyed the style and subject matter. Reminiscent of the X-Files and of course more recently LOST, the show features some HBO veterans Lance Reddick (OZ, the Wire and a small role on LOST, I'm sure he's had some roles on Dick Wolf Law and Order shows too) and Kirk Acevedo (Alvarez on OZ and a major role in Band of Brothers). Watching it at first I did not notice, but by the end I recognized many of the locales as areas in and around the University of Toronto Campus. The show deals with lots of themes that were featured on the X-Files and the TMN show ReGenesis nothing really all that original. The show again hints at the importance of numerology that Abrams is reportedly obsessed with(passenger 108 is responsible for unleashing a flesh eating virus on an International flight of course a very important number on LOST, the sum of the sequence hatch members must input every 108 minutes, also the sum of Hurley's Lotto numbers). There was one thing which freaked me out. The final scene of the episode featured an orderly in the basement of an Evil Genetics/Biotechnology military contractor wheeling a body into a mysterious lab, I can only guess for some kind of re-animation procedure. What shocked me was not the fact that the character was about to undergo something pretty much physically impossible, it was the actor portraying gurney man. Having just determined the show which was supposed to take place in Boston actually being filmed at University College, I realized the actor portraying gurney man was Toronto Humane Society Animal Cruelty Investigator and frequent guest of Ann Rohmer on Cp24/ City News Tre Smith. I was stunned, I didn't realize this guy was an actor. He made the news in the summer of 2007 for handcuffing a man to his car while he rescued a Rotweiller the owner had left in blazing heat. Is this just a bit part or is Tre Smith pursuing a career in acting? Just bizarre.
The Fringe airs on FOX and A-TV on Tuesday nights.

Midnight Chocolate

The Toronto International Film Festival closed on Saturday night with the 'kick ass' Muay Thai film 'Chocolate' the final film of the tremendously popular Midnight Madness programme. In 2003, Prachya Pinkaew's Ong Bak blew audiences away introducing the world to Tony Jaa. Pinkaew's stunning action film went against the prevailing high wire trend. Chocolate introduces the world to 'Jeeja' . Her lightning fast kicks and knees and incredibly choreographed fights are truly amazing. In the film Jeeja plays an autistic girl who becomes obsessed with the film Ongbak. When her Mom is stricken with cancer her and her chubby brother decide it is their duty to collect the debts that are owed to her. Think Jackie Chan and Jet Li meet Tony Jaa, that's how good these fight sequences are. The film has a great villain, the Thai gangster and his Lady Boy sidekick, throw in the appearance of the lead characters 'Yakuza' father and you got a truly 'mixed' martial arts spectacular. The film was met with a standing ovation by the 1,200 loyal fans at the Ryerson and the overwhelmed Prachya Pinkaew was overjoyed.This film should get widespread release in the next year given the success and popularity of Ong Bak. The final 3 story fight is some truly remarkable stuff.

First Sunday

It's about 6:45 on Sunday, the first Sunday of the NFL season and the biggest story of the day is Tom Brady's 1st half knee injury. About 85% of Fantasy owners who don't have Brady in at least one pool are panicking. I'm in an 18 team and an 8 team pool, fortunately for me I have Brady in my 8 team pool meaning I have decent backup QB options.

The games aren't done we still have 3 prime time matchups, to date there are a number of surprises and also a number of not so surprising developments:

The Biggest Surprises:

The Chiefs hanging in until the end against the Patriots, even without Brady it is somewhat surprising that the Patriots only won by 7 pts. With less than 2 minutes remaining the Chiefs were facing a first and goal from the Patriots 5 and failed to score what would have been a game tying TD. The Chiefs offence looks like it will struggle this season.

The Bills blowing out the Seahawks. True the Bills were at home, but the rainy September weather must have made the Seahawks feel like they were at home in the Pacific Northwest.

The Eagles, absolutely pounding the Rams. Ok maybe one shouldn't expect anything from the Rams, but really one sided result.

The Chargers are trailing in the 4th quarter to the Panthers- but currently driving- ok they just scored it'll be 19- 17 after the point after. Good news for me a 2nd TD for Rivers, not spectacular numbers today but he doesn't seem to be maiking bad decisions.

The Falcons destroying the Lions, Michael Turner with over 200 yards on the ground and 2 TDS (one of my RBs in the 18 team pool). I thought Turner was capable of being a great starter, I was skeptical of the Falcons ability to prevent the opposition from scoring and allowing them to run the ball. The Lions don't appear to have a great defence, to echo what so many people have said, how Matt Millen still has a job is remarkable.

What isn't surprising: The Redskins only managing to score 7 pts vs. the Giants. Inexperience at QB against an experienced Giants defence, they will be in tough.

The Cowboys beating up on the Browns. The Browns are supposed to be much improved vs. the run but the injuries and lack of depth in the secondary made for a glaring mismatch for TO. Looks as thought th gigantic Cowboys offensive line is able to smack around the Browns 3-4 defence, maybe a 3-4 defense isn't suited to play against the Cowboys offensive line, so Marion Barber appears to be having a huge game.

I am looking forward to Monday night mostly because of the matchups, more divisional traditional rivalries being showcased. This whole Sunday night premium game thing just feels wrong. I really don't like NBC's coverage. As a kid I liked the way Bob Costas covered baseball, but the whole tone and look of NBC's coverage just feels I don't know mechanical. The music just doesn't feel right, I'm a huge NFL Films fan and this just doesn't seem to fit. Al Michael's is okay, but Madden and Michaels just have no chemistry together still.

It's funny people always want to make assessments about how things are going to be after 1 or 2 weeks, what Iv'e come to learn is you can't put too much in early results.

Blues Monday

Ok, this blog entry has nothing to do with Blues legend BB King nor does it have anything to do with the British New Wave pop band New Order. Yesterday was quite a remarkable day for Toronto football. For the first time in I don't know how long both the UofT Varsity Blues and the Double Blues, the Toronto Argonauts, pulled off Labour Day Monday victories.

The Varsity Blues victory is perhaps more significant and more of a notable accomplishment. The Blues ended a 49 game losing streak that dated back to October 2001. I did not actually see any of the game, the accounts I've read, it was a pretty dramatic victory. The Blues, losing 17-8 with under 3 minutes remaining scored a TD to pull within 2 points, then stopped the visiting Waterloo Warriors with enough time to drive down the field and kick a game winning field goal. For many years, it has been a very popular trend around the city for people to take shots at the football program, for the Blues to pull off a win just a few short months after the resignation of their head coach has got to be seen as a remarkable accomplishment. Congratulations to the Blues.

Toronto's Professional football team pulled out a much needed win last night in a highly entertaining 'Labour Day Classic'. Going into the game the Argos were 3-5, in 2nd place in the East division but only 2 pts ahead of Hamilton who were 2-6. Both of Hamilton's wins this season had come against the Argos so a win would have meant a season series sweep. Winning in Hamilton had always been a tough task for the Argos until recently, having surprisingly lost their home opener to Hamilton and blown an early lead in their previous encounter in early August their was much speculation in the Toronto media that another loss to the Ticats might have cost Argos head coach Rich Stubler his job. Speculation was that Argos ownership would have brought back Mike 'Pinball' Clemons. Again I missed bits and pieces of this game flipping back and forth from Prison Break but I saw a few very interesting things:

The Argos got a great kickoff return to start the game from Domique Dorsey to start the game, they proceeded to march down the field and score, much of that coming on the ground with Kerry Joseph taking off for a big first down run. Dorsey went onto have a monstrous game picking up over 250 total yards. Joseph's running was especially impressive and early on made the move made during the Argos bye week of trading away competitor Michael Bishop to Saskatchewan a good one.

On Hamilton's first possession TSN cut to an inspiring pre-game speech made by running back Jesse Lumsden. It was all very 'Friday Night Lights', the youngish Lumsden is very much like the Garret Hedlund's portrayal of Don Billingsley. Hamilton answered with a TD drive of their own, but Lumsden was notably absent for the most part. Rod Black and Duane Forde noted that the Ticats had dressed 3 tailbacks for the game, which was unusual, perhaps indicative that Lumsden was not yet fully recovered from a high ankle sprain

In the 3rd quarter Hamilton used it's 2nd replay challenge to reverse a short completion Kerry Joseph had made to the former QB Reggie Neal. A quick look at the replay revealed that the ball had hopped up before it was caught by Neal. Rod Black quickly called it a one-hopper and the pair took this chance to tell us all about how Neal was a standout college QB. While TSN was airing multiple angle replays of the replay of the catch under review Black and Forde continued to babble. Neither offered the possibility that the ball might have bounced up off Neal's hands first which is why the replay took so long to be resolved. Black and Forde have very little chemistry together and I was shocked that neither offered this possibilty. The Argos ended up settling for a field goal. To me at least it looked like Joseph was having a problem making some throws, either off target or a little short.

Going into the 4th quarter the Argos trailed 26-24. The season premiere of Prison Break completed so I watched most of the 4th quarter, which is where things got interesting. The Argos took the lead 27-26 on Mike Vanderjagt's 4th field goal of the game.

The Argos went ahead 34-26, some big completions got them to first and goal inside the 10. Dominique Dorsey used his speed to turn what looked like a loss in the backfield into a decent gain setting up a 2nd and goal from the 2 yard line. 2 yards in the CFL is tricky, although you have the 1 yard gap between the offensive and defensive line, a 2 yard plunge is kind of risky. Fortunately for the Argos, the Ticats linebacker insisted on getting the officials attention to the fact that their sideline had thrown a challenge flag, challenging where Dorsey had stepped out of bounds on the previous play. Unfortunately for the Ticats they had already used their two challenges and trying to use a 3rd is a delay of game penalty and an automatic first down. The Argos set up first and goal from the 1. The Argos ran a nifty little piece of trickery and Brian Crawfords 1 yard run put them ahead.

The Ticats got the ball back and moved it downfield but settled for a field goal. With plenty of time left they kicked the ball back to the Argos. TSN showed the Pinball on the Argo sidelines and commented that he had been in the news recently, Pinball somewhat angrily turned to the camera man and told them to focus on the guys on the field "they're the stars". Deep in their own end Joseph threw a floater to Bethel Johnson. Badly underthrown the Hamilton DB jumped up and looked like he may have caught it, but when he hit the ground the ball popped free. On field the play was at first ruled an incompletion, but then it was ruled a catch. Now standing next to Stubler it looked like the Pinball was urging Stubler to throw the Challenge flag. Stubler did and the Argos won the challenge. Pinball received high fives all around from Argo people on the sidelines. It was an awkward moment, for someone trying to play down rumours of his desire to return to coaching it was almost like he was still in control of the team. Rather than giving the Ticats ball deep in Argos territory the Argos could now punt. Still pinned in deep the Argos opted to concede a safety. The Argos 'drunken idiot kicker' ran around the back of the endzone for a good 10 seconds before stepping out.

The Ticats got the ball back and moved it downfield before settling for a field goal with under 3 minutes remaining the score was now 34-31. After forcing the Argos to punt the Ticats were now faced with needing to drive the length of the field to win the game or kick a game tying field goal. In the final minute after a few completions and first downs the Ticats were still out of field goal range. On 2nd down and long Casey Printers completed to Jesse Lumsden who looked like he had plenty of space in the open field to pick up the first down instead he tried to juke out the smaller defender who did a great job at wrapping him up short of the first down. Lumsden lunged but much like Garret Hedlund in Friday night lights- or Kevin Dyson for the Titans in Superbowl 34 he was just short. Now facing 3rd down and a long 1, and being still out of Nick Setta's field goal range the Ticats were forced to go for the 3rd down conversion. Instead of handing the ball again to Lumsden or keeping the ball himself, Printers handed the ball off to Piercey the fullback as he attempted to go around the left side. Piercey was stopped short and the Argos took over on downs and proceeded to run out the clock for the win. The Ticat play call was curious in that it was not given to their star running back or QB. A similar play had worked earlier, perhaps hoping to catch the Argos off guard again or inspired by Crawford's TD run earlier, it seemed to go against all the principles of working class ticat football of just ramming it up in there.

Curiously the Ticats who had led the league in rushing seemed to abandon the running game in the latter half even when they had the lead and Lumsden was not used much down the stretch. It looked to me like he lacked the explosiveness he had earlier in the season. Perhaps the Argos 4 and 5 man fronts and recognition that Lumsden was not fully healed led to the change in strategy. Printers has to take some blame his completion numbers were not great, the Argos brought a lot of pressure the Ticats looked sharper under Richie Williams in their August victory. There will be lots of Hamilton fans calling for the firing of Charlie Taafe or the benching of Casey Printers.

The Argos who started 1-6 last season and went on to host the East final could certainly use this as inspiration for the remainder of their season. At 4-5 the Argos look to be in good shape in the East to at the very least host a 1st round playoff matchup, the last three times the Argos were involved in Eastern Finals the road team has been victorious so just peaking come October/November could be enough to put them back in contention for the Grey Cup.