Street Hockey Not For Everyone

Street hockey. Every summer you can expect this subject to be in the pages of our newspaper. And judging from the articles, it certainly appears that they are an advocate of this passtime. But, I am afraid that not everyone is so inclined. This article, like all others brings to our attention the fact that some people complain about it. Kids playing in the street, some neighbours complain and the next thing you know the police are at the door.
In this article, the Minister of Transportation commented that he carried a hockey stick in the back of his truck and that he was going down to that street to see if he could get up a game. Of course he is not going to do that, he's just playing politics. Politicians are famous for making stupid remarks and this is no exception. You do know that politicians are not the smartest apples in the basket, don't you? They just have the art of rambling on with what you want to hear.
I have been on occasion the motorist that comes upon a street hockey game. For the most part children move aside. But there has been times that the children forget who the legal user of the road is. Perhaps the residents of this street complained because of this. Maybe it was the noise. Or maybe it was something that no one ever mentions. The person working nightshift, who gets home at seven in the morning and deserves to be upset about noisy children and irate drivers.
The article also made a big issue about obesity and children's execise. It appears that street hockey is the only summer sport. In my old age, I failed to notice that all the summer sports had disappeared. Since school has started, I'm sure street hockey has petered out. Soon the snow will come and the kids will be inside. You certainly won't see them outside shoveling snow. So I guess you can say that weight loss has to be fun and not work.

"Everyone gets in an arguement and everyone loses."

Stock Market Problems

The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the second world war. It will end eventually when home prices stabilise and with them the value of equity in homes supporting troubled mortgage securities.

The S&P 500 index of financial stocks has already lost one fifth of its value this year and shares in many investment and commercial banks, such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers have shouldered even bigger losses.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Sunday that it is buying troubled Wall Street firm Bear Stearns.

The deal values Bear Stearns at $236 million, or just $2 a share. Shares had closed at $30 on Friday, down 47 percent that day.

Some analysts expected to be a brutal day for global stocks. Short-sellers could have a field day with bank stocks.

Asian stocks fell sharply Monday as uncertainty grew following an announcement that one of the world's biggest investment banks was being bought for a fraction of its former value.

The Federal Reserve, in an extraordinarly rare weekend move, took bold action Sunday evening to provide cash to financially squeezed Wall Street investment houses, a fresh effort to prevent a spreading credit crisis from sinking the U.S. economy.

Asian stock markets fell and gold prices hit a record high by this surprise rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve failed to calm investors panicked by the demise of Bear Stearns.

The euro meanwhile vaulted to a record peak over $1.58, up nearly 1 percent on the day.