So I was clicking around the other night to see what was on. One of the channels had the CFL game between Montreal and Ottawa. Now the Montreal team is the Alouettes, which I have mentioned before.  The Alouettes is a fine mascot. It’s a bird, small bird, an innocuous little bird. Not fierce or inspiring, but at least there’s nothing controversial about the name. Unlike the Saskatchewan Rough Riders which inspire, well, primarily chafing I guess. Now I have to be honest here. I’ve come to think of the CFL as the home to really odd mascots. We have the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, an homage to redundancy. Then there’s the Winnipeg Blue Bombers which manage to combine being blue, as in sad because your team lost, with bombing, as in a comic dying on stage. Or the Edmonton Eskimos, which manages to remind everyone of the impact of climate change when they come to see a game in the heart of the Canadian Tar Sands. But the Ottawa team caught my eye because they are the Ottawa Redblacks. (In French they are Le Rouge et Noir d'Ottawa, which sounds so much better.) So what’s the matter, Binky? Did everyone else get the good team names? I guess the obvious one, the Ottawa Senators was taken by a hockey team. Mind you with the scandals that have hit the Canadian Senate in the last year or two the NHL might be regretting that choice. But seriously the Redblacks? Prior to this season they had a list of potential names that they tried out with the public and focus groups; The Nationals, The Voyageurs, The Redblacks, and The Raftsmen. Seriously, The Redblacks won? I can understand not going with The Raftsman but The Redblacks? Didn’t anyone think of the Ottawa Wolverines? How about the Ottawa Polar Bears? The Grizzlies, OK that’s an NBA team but it would make more sense in Ottawa Canada and Memphis would probably be willing to change. The Redblacks were even formed out of another franchise, the Ottawa Renegades, not a bad name, who’s team colours were even Red and Black. They had all the parts and yet, they ended up with the name Redblacks. It’s amazing.

Now I know what you all are wondering; what do their uniforms look like. They are in fact red and black. Mind you their normal uniforms are actually black with red lettering so technically they should be the Ottawa Blackreds, but punsters like me would have had far too much fun with that. Now they do have an alternate uniform that IS mostly red with black pants. The most eye catching part of those outfits though are the helmets, which are a red and black plaid. You can’t get much more Canadian than that. Of course I also should mention the Calgary Stampeders have red and black as their colours as well and nearly identical uniforms, minus the pIaid helmets.  I guess when the Redblacks play Calgary they will have to use their third uniform design which is white with black lettering. Maybe the white means they gave up on common sense.

In a completely unrelated vein I got to thinking about age this week. In particular why is age a good thing for some things and bad for others? I mean, we all look forward to drinking a fine five year old bottle of wine. But people run away when you offer them some five year old yogurt. What’s the problem? Both are a foodstuffs with a bacterial infection. Or cars. Offer someone a ’75 corvette and they’ll be happy. Offer them a ’75 AMC Hornet, and they’ll be offended. I mean why is a hundred year old house good and a hundred year old horse bad? Why do we insist on the latest fashion with classic designs. It’s completely arbitrary.

This week was exceedingly busy. Rehearsals are taking off. I had a conference call for my periodic check in with one of the doctors. Work has been really crazy with us shipping stuff hand over fist. One robot is going to the military and I suggested that we should go with a NASCAR look with company logos all over it. I mean, I thought it would look really sharp trundling through a free fire zone with a nice red Target logo on the side. Somehow nobody else thought that was funny. I also tested a completely redesigned robot for inspecting pipe. To do this I had to line up a series of pipes, from 6” through 12” to compare the designs performance in various configurations. The sections weigh up to 100 lb so my boss was surprised when I did it myself without asking for help. The thing is, I learned years ago to let the object do the work whenever possible. I scooted and rolled the pipes into place without ever having to actually lift one off of the ground. Age can also imply wisdom and that’s a good thing.

Ottawa should have called me about their CFL team

PIX: Fall is coming on fast. Here's a crisp sunrise and Momiji in the window enjoying the last summer breeze.