A Toronto newspaper poll on the weekend asked readers if they trusted weather forecasts?
Only 18% said yes. Or, on the flip side, 82% of us don’t trust/believe what the weather guy/gal on television is telling us.
Blame it on climate change and schizophrenic weather patterns if you want but weather forecasting these days too often has trouble getting it right. Like, it is going to rain tomorrow? No, but check back in 15 minutes.
As the poll showed, television weather guys and gals can’t be trusted to deliver the straight goods on forecasts. Of course, most are just talking heads employed as messengers who follow the script.
It wasn’t always this way.
For 30 years – 1952-1982 – Percy Saltzman, a skilled meteorologist, was the weather forecasting face of English CBC Television. (In Quebec it was Phillippe Robert).
Each evening he brought the weather to life with a piece of chalk and a chalkboard. No smiley face, just the bare facts. Someone said that the guy who had to erase the chalkboard after the show deserved a raise.
The Excited States of America may have had the most trusted television news anchor in the universe, Walter Cronkite, but Canada had the most trusted weather prognosticator: Winnipeg-born Saltzman.
If Percy Saltzman said it, you believed it. Armed with a piece of chalk, he laid out the forecast to a national audience. None of this seven-day-shot-in-the-dark or percentage stuff. He told us what we wanted to know: Was it going to rain the next day or the day after? And he nailed it with his signature flip of the chalk. Just as he did with his forecasts, he never missed.
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It was once said that rabid Philadelphia sports fans were the kind of people who would show up at a funeral and heckled the pallbearers.
But an uglier side emerged during a National Lacrosse League game last month when a member of the visiting Georgia Swarm became the target of racist taunts from not only some of the fans but an insensitive public address announcer.
Lyle Thompson, one of the best boxla players in North America, whose father is from Akwesasne, wears his hair in a long braid that runs down his back. For Thompson, it is part of his Native heritage.
During the game the announcer could be heard “Let’s snip the ponytail” every time Thompson touched the ball.
Perhaps encouraged by the brain dead PA bozo, several fans started chanting “scalp him.”
A quick apology was issued by the home team. It said the public address announcer had been fired.
Thompson’s brother, Jeremy, who plays for Saskatchewan Rush, called the incident “disgusting” and said more education and diversity training is needed to end racism in sports.
“It’s something that our people have been going through for the last 500 years,” he said.
SPORTS STUFF Talk about egg on your face. A veteran Ottawa Citizen/Sun sports reporter had a half-page piece that assured Ottawa Redblack fans that Canadian Football League free agent quarterback Trevor Harris was a sure bet to sign a new contract with the team and his signature on a Ottawa contract was imminent. The story was just hours old when Harris signed a new contract. Problem was, it was with the Edmonton Eskimos. Ouch! .. Anaheim Ducks’ general manager Bob Murray, captain of the 1972 Cornwall Royals’ Memorial Cup squad, fired head coach Randy Carlyle and took over the bench duties for the rest of the season. It was a bold leap for the veteran GM. He has never coached hockey at any level.
HERE AND THERE You know it is a (really) slow news days when a metropolitan daily newspaper runs a story that claims Michael Jackson’s chimp, Bubbles, tried to commit suicide after the pop star was charged with molesting two kids. Does anybody give a rat’s bottom? What, did Bubbles become depressed after reading about it? … … Just a thought re: Quebec tourists caught during rioting in Haiti: Why would anybody want to take a winter vacation to Haiti? Hey, honey, next year let’s try Afghanistan.
THIS WEEK IN 1932 – Seven firefighters were injured while trying to contain a fire in downtown Alexandria. The fire destroyed Marleau’s Garage, the Markson warehouse, Dr. Markson’s office, A. Chenier Hardware Store and Warehouse, J. Larocque ice cream parlour/restaurant and the E. J. Dever Store. Dozens of people who lived above the buildings were left homeless. The town brigade was assisted by the Cornwall fire brigade. A call was put out for every able-bodied man in town to help fight the fire which threatened the entire downtown. … Cornwall (Central) Public School held the official opening of an addition that included eight classrooms, a principal’s office, washrooms and a school nurse’s office. … In an editorial, The Standard said it was time for an artificial ice plant at the Victoria Arena. The Alex McDonald Estate was willing to help pay for the equipment. Several few months later (Aug. 7, 1933) the worst fire in the city’s history destroyed the arena. … A Salvation Army report said that since Dec. 1 it had served 959 meals to jobless men passing through the city looking for work. Each was given supper and breakfast before moving on. … Orval Crites announced that he had taken over Mrs. Barnhart’s general store at 439 Amelia St.
TRIVIA ANSWER In the 1968 federal election, Stormont MP Lucien Lamoureaux, who was also Speaker of the House of Commons, decided to discard his ties to the Liberal party and run as an Independent. The Liberals and Conservatives agreed not to oppose him. However, the incumbent didn’t get a free ride. The NDP nominated a candidate to run against him.
TRIVIA On a July weekend in 1971, thousands of people lined the banks of Cornwall Canal for this event.
ONE FINAL THING “I am really enjoying the new Martin Luther King Jr stamp – just think about all those white bigots, licking the backside of a black man.” – Comedian/activist Dick Gregory
