Yesterday was deemed the most depressing day of the year. If your winter SAD has kicked in or your holiday bills are catching up to you, that classification might be justified. But here in Vancouver RIGHT NOW, the sun is shining, yes, there’s SUNSHINE.

I propose, just for a day, just while there’s no cloud cover overhead, that there be no complaining about umbrella etiquette, ICBC rates going up in the Valley, school closures in Surrey, or the aging eye-sore that is BC Place.

Let’s just all gaze over at the gorgeous North Shore mountains, or peer across the ocean toward Vancouver Island, or you know, vote for our favourite local blog (whose only competition is “local” blogs in Ontario). But I digress…

John Bollwitt on Flickr

Sure, we could be turning a museum into a fitness club, but I want to focus on some fluffy, positive material here.

Open forum: What makes you HAPPY about living in Metro Vancouver?

No mention of the word “Sam”, “2010” or “Translink” (let’s keep it clean here folks) and no mention that when I missed the Skate for a Cure, that John got to meet Trevor Linden instead of me. It could just be one word, like “gelato” or many, like “snow day next week!”.

Last year I participated in The Amazing Hunt twice with my sister, once on Granville Island (in a foot race) and the other (with a car) in Surrey. This year they’re ramping up offering several different locations for races throughout the spring and summer:

As an added bonus, if you register now for any of these 2008 races you will receive a movie pass (for two) to view the upcoming Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson film, “Fool’s Gold“.

When: February 6th, 2008 at 7:00pm
Where: Fifth Avenue Cinema located on 2110 Burrard Street.
More Info: The Amazing Hunt’s blog.

The Amazing Hunt is always a good time and is so well-organized. Bill even takes the time to produce YouTube videos and mails out a DVD to all participants to really make you feel like a rock star even if you did come in dead last.

I’m a nut for trivia and lesser-known facts. I also love feeding my brain with all kinds of nuggets of information especially when it comes to our fair region. I recently found a new section of my favourite Vancouver history website that features “Oddities“: bits of news that probably weren’t news at the time, but are certainly entertaining (and somewhat puzzling) nowadays. Here’s a sample:

• People were a lot more brave 50 years ago, “On December 22, 1958 a French adventurer completed a swim of the Fraser River from Prince George to New Westminster’s Pattullo Bridge. (NOTE: in December!)”
• One of my first blog pieces that I sought to write about was regarding the Nine O’clock Gun, “In 1898, on October 15, the Nine O’Clock Gun was fired for the first time in Stanley Park . . . at noon.”
• Yikes! “In 1925 a Vancouver branch of the Ku Klux Klan, the racist organization that had originated in the southern USA, used the Tait Mansion in Shaughnessy (aka Glen Brae) as their headquarters. Rent was $150 a month. Today that building is the children’s hospice, Canuck Place.”
• We’ve filled in a lot of what used to be ocean and waterways around here ie. False Creek, “In 1924 Lansdowne Track in Richmond opened, named for a former Governor General. The peat bog on which the track was built acted like a sponge and horses ran slower at high tide.”
• On March 29, 1949 the sale of margarine was approved. However, the lobbying dairy industry who feared that sales would hurt the butter industry, urged that it be sold yellow and not white like butter. When it hit store shelves on April 22nd, margarine in Vancouver was sold white, in bags, with a colour pill that had to be popped and kneaded in to make it yellow.
• “In 1909 Vancouver took its first mechanized ambulance out for a test drive and ran over and killed an American tourist.”
• Ever wondered just how many tunnels there are under this city? “In 1965 the tunnel at Vancouver’s main Post Office, built to carry mail to the CPR station, was closed permanently for that purpose, having proved impractical. It will be used for storage and creepy movie scenes.”

Photo © VancouverHistory.ca

• “In 1930 a world record for egg-laying was set by No Drone, No. 5H, a hen from the Whiting farm in Surrey. She had laid 357 eggs in 365 days. No Drone was preserved for posterity and her stuffed form put on display at the World Poultry Congress in Rome.”
• There’s always a petition to be signed in Vancouver (and now on Facebook) and back in 1947 it was about candy bars. School children circulated a petition calling for an end to wartime taxes on candy. As a result, the price of chocolate bars dropped from 8 cents to 7 cents.
• This might make you feel better about our gloomy spring so far. Rain poured down on January 6, 1953 and didn’t stop for 29 days. It’s still Vancouver’s longest wet spell.
• The Vancouver Grizzlies were a semi-professional football team that only played one season, in 1941.
• I’d still buy my CD’s there if I could, “In 1958 a man named Fred Steiner sold his Toronto radio store and moved to Vancouver. He opened a shop here, and called it A&B Sound. Why A&B? A&A was taken. True story.”

All of these and more can be found in the Oddities section of Vancouver History.

Thank you to everyone who voted for me in the categories in which I was nominated. It looks like I survived as a finalist for “Best Local Blog” and Round Two voting will commence on Wednesday (tomorrow).

All the other nominees for Best Local Blog are from Ontario so if you feel my blog represents the West Coast, BC, Vancouver or “just not Ontario”, vote me in.

Other super cool people who have made it to the finals in their categories include:

If you’d like to vote for these finalists – or the finalist or your choice, obviously – head to the Canadian Blog Awards on Wednesday to place your single vote in each category.

I flew out to Toronto for a trivia quiz along with about a hundred other contestants from various careers and walks of life to participate in Test the Nation on the CBC. Those watching at home on Sunday January 20th were be able to play along with the television show, or even online. There were several teams (cab drivers, bloggers, backpackers, celebrity impersonators, chefs, and flight attendants) and we were all put to the test with some 21st century trivia. Here’s how the night unfolded:

SWEEP! SWEEP! SWEEP! That was the chant when it was announced that our celebrity, Samantha Bee and teammate Rick Spence were both crowned top scorers at the end of the night. We were still awaiting the final team results but the bloggers were feeling pretty good at that point.

Throughout the evening our team chanted (Bee! Bee! Bee!), hooted and hollered, and talked a fair deal of smack. We were completely enamored with Samantha – who talked to us often, made motions our way and really interacted with “her people – the indoor kids”. Even when other teams would let a rousing “nerd” chant slip in our direction our solidarity was never shaken and we stood strong. It was also rather amusing that a teleprompter was facing our way (and our way only) before the show started. At one point someone rebooted the system and when the Windows 98 start up screen appeared we all had a nice chuckle.

So… was it a sweep? Did Samantha and Rick represent for the Bloggers while some other team won? Of course not, we took it all!

With an average of 50 correct answers out of 60, the Bloggers were victorious. It’s been a long day. A long day of cold winds and waiting around watching celebrity impersonators strut their stuff and have diva moments. There are so many witty, snarky and hilarious catch phrases that made me laugh today but I can’t bring my exhausted mind to remember them right now.

I have to say it was a pleasure to meet everyone – from the House impersonator dude, the Surreal Gourmet, Samantha Bee, Mr Geography of the cabbie team, and even “Paul Stanley” who said he practiced wearing his platform shoes for hours by jogging in them. The Flight Crew was impressive, the Borat impersonator was in character all night and freakin hilarious and the backpackers were probably our biggest competition.

Congrats to Rick Spence, and be on the lookout for photos of each person on the blogger team, taken by Rannie. Big thanks to Molly @ the CBC for getting me out here, being very encouraging, and supporting ‘Team Blogger’. Super tons of thanks to my family and friends (who all held viewing parties) and to all those Vancouver bloggers who supported us, watched the show, and played along.

We won’t get to know our individual scores til tomorrow but since the ‘test audiences’ scored an average of 40/60 and our team had 50/60 as an average, I’d say we did pretty darn well. Good times guys (hence the stupid grin on my face all night) and by the way… for the record… BLOGGERS RULE!

Update: John Biehler made some clips and put them on YouTube – video 3, video 2, and video 1 – check out “some of the face of non-mainstream media”.

Update: In case some trackbacks don’t work, here are a few more bloggers (and viewers) who have covered our victory last night – that will surely lead to world domination:

Buzz Bishop – We’re Blogging This
Canadian Entrepreneur – Sweep! Sweep!
Calgary Grit – The Answer is Bee
Jon Arnold – Bloggers 1 Rest of World 0
Lainey Gossip – I Love Winning
Right Between the Eyes – Don’t Wanna Brag, But …
Nunc Scio – The Sweet Smell of Blogger Victory
BlogTo – Backstage Celebrity-ish Interviews
Jonsian Logic – Test the Nation
Unsweetened – We Will Blog You
Pen Machine – Yay for the Indoor Kids!
James Viloria – Results – CBC – Test The Nation: Trivia
Airdrie – Bloggers Victorious
Five Blondes – Bloggers Emerge Victorious
Buzz Canuck – Bloggers are the Smartest
Ryan – Post Game Show
Amber Mac – Are Bloggers Smarter…

Update: More detailed results are in.