To this day my most popular Miss604 Poll has been the one regarding a patio smoking ban in Vancouver. Well the Provincial government was pretty busy yesterday hammering out the details of a new smoking regulations that are to be in effect March 31, 2008.
The provincial government has released the rules that will govern its tough new anti-smoking policy, which includes a ban on smoking in all indoor public spaces and puffing near doorways.
Smokers will have to stay three metres away from doors and windows.
There will also be *no* smoking in common areas of apartments and condominiums, nor in work washrooms and lunch rooms. [News1130]
Wow – harsh eh? However, this new 3 metre rule will not apply to restaurants, bars/pubs, coffee shops, casinos and bingo halls and you will still be able to get a “smoking” hotel room.
So basically you can still sit on the patio at Shenanigans and have a puff but don’t do it outside Lululemon.
Come to think of it, what “indoor public space” are we allowed to smoke in now? Not the library… not Metrotown… hmm… so this seems more like a “don’t smoke outside your office building door” kinda regulation. That, and we may need a wider Robson Street sidewalk.
It doesn’t seem that harsh at all, really. Now if they were to ban all smoking in public spaces, indoor and out, then I’d have something more interesting to report (and celebrate).
Update: I just read the official release from the Province of BC which touches on advertising. This ban will also include:
– Tobacco sales in public buildings including: hospitals and health facilities, universities and colleges, athletic and recreational facilities, and provincial government buildings;
– Display of tobacco products in all places where tobacco is sold that are accessible to youth under 19; and
– Tobacco ads that hang from the ceiling, countertop tobacco displays, self-serve tobacco displays and outdoor tobacco signs.
Today at 10:30am PT we’ll all find out if our mascot for the 2010 Olympic games will be a bear, a marmot, or another freakin’ orca of some kind. The unveiling will take place in Surrey at Sullivan Heights Secondary… more specifically the adjacent Bell Centre for the Performing Arts.
I already blogged about past mascots and some possibilities, although I hadn’t yet heard about “Tokey”, the herbal leaf. The mascot’s purpose will be to personify the “spirit” of the games, say PR folks, however I’m more inclined to believe it’s for the purpose of making more money selling trinkets and souvenirs.
Stay tuned/check back to find out what they unveil this morning.
Update: Apparently there was someone in a skunk costume outside city hall this morning, however on morning radio shows “Tammy the Syringe” was an early favourite.
Update: The “ceremony” will take place from 10:30am to 11:05am so I’m anticipating the mascot won’t be unveiled until… 11:04…?
Update: There are THREE mascots as John reports to me over chat… and one appears to be a “happy looking sasquatch that plays hockey”.
Updates: The one source for video and photos of the reveal, Vancouver2010.com, is apparently down for “scheduled maintenance”… nice timing eh?
From The Province: The mascots are a Spirit Bear, a Sasquatch and a thunderbird, plus a sidekick that’s a marmot. “The Spirit Bear is somewhat like one of three mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics, which organizers are calling a sea bear based on native legend.”
From CKNW: The animal creatures are a sea bear named Miga, a Sasquatch named Quatchi and Sumi, and a mythical thunderbird spirit. They also have a sidekick named Muk-Muk who’s a marmot.
From CTV:
Miga — a snowboarding sea-bear inspired by the First Nations’ legends of the Pacific Northwest. Miga is sea-bear part orca whale.
Quatchi — a shy and gentle Sasquatch with a long brown beard and blue earmuffs meant to conjure the mystery and wonder associated with the Canada’s wilderness.
Sumi — an animal spirit who flies with the wings of the thunderbird.
Mukmuk – a Vancouver Island marmot sidekick considered an honorary member of the mascot team.
From CBC: Live-action shots of the mascots in person and a few more descriptions.
“The three creatures’ sidekick is Mukmuk, a rare Vancouver Island marmot. While not officially a mascot, Mukmuk enjoys surprising his friends by popping up on occasion. Mukmuk’s name comes from the Squamish word for food — muckamuck — because he loves to eat.”
From Vancouver2010: “Meet the Mascots” video is now up. Aww, Quatchi and Miga meet up at the Hollow Tree in Stanley Park.
Some reactions from the blogosphere:
From Now Public: “I’ve been talking to a few friends and their reactions have been mixed. Some of the comments I’ve heard are: * Sumi sounds like “Sue Me!” * They look like Japanase cartoon characters * Quatchi reminds me of the Kokanee Sasquatch * A fat sasquatch, a one-eyed teddy and a green alien looking thing! * looks like they were designed by a big committee and crammed all the ideas in, and rejected none.”
And I’ll probably be commanded to take the following video down soon… but enjoy for now (I’m still waiting for the “web linking policy” page to appear on the official site.
Update: November 28, 2007 – Merchandise goes on sale this morning at The Bay.
poll expired
To view and vote on past polls, visit the Miss604.com poll page.
A little while ago local blogfather and marketing sensei Darren Barefoot approached John and me (along with a handful of other lucky social medialites) to see if we wanted to test drive a Brother printer.
It’s no secret that if you want to give us free things in exchange for reviews, blog posts, our thoughts and feelings, then we’re totally game.
Here are the specs for this hefty piece of printing machinery.
Technical name: MFC-9440CN
Plain English name: Colour Laser Multi-Function Centre Beast
Fast color laser printing. Delivers an impressive color and monochrome print speed of up to 21 pages per minute, and copy speeds of up to 17 copies per minute.
Outstanding print quality. Produce brilliant, colorful presentations, brochures and documents that will give you a competitive edge.
Network connectivity so you can share its functionality. Its 10/100 Base-TX (Ethernet) interface enables multiple users to share its powerful print, scan and fax capabilities.
Easily accessible USB Direct Interface. Conveniently print PDF or JPEG files from or scan PDF or JPEG files to a USB flash memory drive. You can also print directly from a PictBridge compatible digital camera.
Expandable paper capacity. Its 250-sheet paper tray holds letter or legal paper and you also have the option of increasing your total paper capacity up to 800 sheets by adding an optional 500-sheet paper tray.
High-speed faxing. With its high-speed 33.6K bps fax modem, you can send and receive faxes quickly in either b&w or color, saving both time and money.
Versatile paper handling. Print letter or legal-sized documents through either its 250-sheet paper tray or 50-sheet multi-purpose tray. Increase your total paper input capacity up to 800-sheets by adding an optional 500-sheet paper tray.
High quality color scanning. Available from either the letter size document glass or through its 35-page automatic document feeder, you can scan documents, and images and more.
High capacity replacement toner cartridges. Lower your cost per page and copy, since you won’t have to replace toner cartridges as often.
It should be pretty fun to discover what this sucker can do so we’ll see how much use we can get out of it. Scanning and printing wedding photos, finally, is at the top of my list.
With frozen rain and slushie precipitation in the forecast what else would a good Vancouverite do than brace for school closures and abandon their cars at the side of roads when there’s a call for such treacherous conditions?
Local news outlets have already composed their “school closures” posts on their websites, and with that first frost of the year on our minds, I’m sure downtown will look like a ghost town if an icy storm front hits the coast this evening.
Honestly though, I can’t be too hard on those commuters who bundle up and stay indoors when there’s the slightest hint of ice on the roads, as living downtown I’ve been a bit sheltered in recent years from the true elements Fraser Valley residents face. Not to mention the trek my sister has to make from Surrey to North Vancouver, which can hit her with dozens of weather patterns throughout the single car ride.
However, this doesn’t stop me from letting my husband go about about how we all throw on two scarves and layer gloves when it’s -5C outside for a day, when he’s been brought up with -25C temperatures that last for months.
We love the pineapple express, La Nina, El Nino and all their quirky cousins. Rain in the city means snow on the mountains, snow in the city mean no work or school – it’s a win-win when winter actually decides to hit Vancouver. Sure we moan and complain about it being too cold, or when we slam on the brakes and skid into the car we’re following too closely behind, but that’s just what West Coasters do.
So pile on those fleece vests under your Goretex and prepare yourselves for a blizzard of Metro Vancouver proportions: possible snow in the Valley and frost from Langley to Stanley Park. It should be a doozy folks.
Of course if there actually is 2 feet of snow come morning, I’m SO grabbing my ‘krazy karpet‘ and hitting the nearest hill.
One thing John and I do when we have hours to kill, whether it be at a beach laying out in the sunshine or flying across the country, is hookup our headphones to a splitter and listen to podcasts he’s downloaded to his ipod.
I’ve mentioned a couple favourites before, but I just need to reiterate how greatly I appreciate Ira Glass and the This American Life podcast.
One of the episodes we listened to while flying over the Black Hills of South Dakota was all about humans’ interaction with their pets titled, In Dog We Trust. It opened up with a short story, The Youth in Asia, written and read by David Sedaris. I don’t think I’ve consistently laughed like that while listening to any other podcast or radio show for that matter.
Here’s an except:
In the early sixties, during what my mother referred to as the “tail end of the Lassie years,” my parents were given two collies they named Rastus and Duchess. We were living in upstate New York, out in the country, and the dogs were free to race through the forest. They napped in meadows and stood knee-deep in frigid streams, costars in their own private dog-food commercial. According to our father, anyone could tell that the two of them were in love.
Late one evening, while lying on a blanket in the garage, Duchess gave birth to a litter of slick, potato-sized puppies. When it looked as though one of them had died, our mother placed the creature in a casserole dish and popped it into the oven, like the witch in “Hansel and Gretel.”
“Oh, keep your shirts on,” she said. “It’s only set on 200. I’m not baking anyone; this is just to keep him warm.”
The heat revived the sick puppy and left us believing our mother was capable of resurrecting the dead.
Faced with the responsibilities of fatherhood, Rastus took off. The puppies were given away, and we moved south, where the heat and humidity worked against a collie’s best interests. Duchess’s once beautiful coat now hung in ragged patches. Age set in and she limped about the house, clearing rooms with her suffocating farts. When finally, full of worms, she collapsed in the ravine beside our house, we reevaluated our mother’s healing powers. The entire animal kingdom was beyond her scope; apparently, she could resurrect only the cute dead.
The oven trick was performed on half a dozen peakish hamsters but failed to work on my first guinea pig, who died after eating a couple of cigarettes and an entire pack of matches.
“Don’t take it too hard,” my mother said, removing her oven mitts. “The world is full of guinea pigs. You can get another one tomorrow.”
Eulogies always tended to be brief, our motto being “Another day, another collar.” (Continue Reading – Part One)
From “The Youth in Asia“, a part of Me Talk Pretty One Day, a book of essays.
David Sedaris on YouTube: Jesus Shaves, The Squirrel and the Chipmunk, Bend Over and Say “Ah” or read this review including the short story about the turd – one of John’s faves.
