Sozadeeis a state of mind. It was discovered (or founded) many years ago on a hot August afternoon's sail out of Newport Beach. There was no wind (at least any stronger than the current) and a burning, glaring sun. The limp sails afforded no shade. All aboard knew the outboard was questionable. The ice on the beer was melting and discussion was skirting the issue of sunstroke. Suddenly, the word "Sozadee" was uttered, the breeze returned, and all was well.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Happy B-Day Mr. President
Time-out for a Cool Change! POTUS #44's birth certificate was issued 48 years ago. That's a day worth celebrating. But I'm going to chill.
Tomorrow is another mid-week twilight "Beer Can race" on the water, just off the shores of Lake Sozadee and I'm thinking it will be an especially welcome opportunity for a Cool Change!
All things are joined by waters, troubled or not. As we observe our President's birthday, we are learning that we must rededicate ourselves to the struggle for the future against our past. The process doesn't become any easier. Results just become more critical.
You learn somethin' everyday! Officially launched on April 5, 2004, The Greatest Canadian was a television program series by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to determine who is considered to be the greatest Canadian of all time, at least among those who watched and participated in the program. More than 1.2 million votes were cast. Wayne Gretzky was not selected.
The top 10 finishers were:
Tommy Douglas (yeah! Who was he?)
Terry Fox (athlete, activist, humanitarian)
Pierre Trudeau (Prime Minister)
Sir Frederick Banting (medical scientist, co-discoverer of insulin)
David Suzuki (geneticist, environmentalist, broadcaster, activist)
Lester Bowles Pearson (Prime Minister, former United Nations General Assembly President, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate)
Don Cherry (hockey coach, commentator)
Sir John A. Macdonald (First post-Confederation Prime Minister)
Alexander Graham Bell (Scottish-born scientist, inventor, founder of the Bell Telephone Company, which later became the American Telephone and Telegraph Company)
Wayne Gretzky (hockey player)
Tommy Douglas, was not just the Premier of Saskatchewan, but the father of Canadian Medicare. Jerome Doolittle of Bad Attitudes informs me:
For more than 50 years, his staunch devotion to social causes, rousing powers of speech and pugnacious charm made Tommy C. Douglas an unstoppable political force. From his first foray into public office politics in 1934 to his post-retirement years in the 1970s, Canada’s ‘father of Medicare’ stayed true to his socialist beliefs — often at the cost of his own political fortune — and earned himself the respect of millions of Canadians in the process…
Tommy Douglas’s legacy as a social policy innovator lives on. Social welfare, universal Medicare, old age pensions and mothers’ allowances — Douglas helped keep these ideas current, watching as more established political parties eventually came to accept these once-radical ideas as their own.
Time-out for a Cool Change!
