Leaving behind a thank-you note
Posted: Friday, February 26, 2010 10:56 AM by Daily Nightly Editor
Filed Under: Brian Williams
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
After tonight’s broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we’re going to try to brave the blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week. Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.
Thank you, Canada:
For being such good hosts.
For your unfailing courtesy.
For your (mostly) beautiful weather.
For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.
For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.
For your unique TV commercials — for companies like Tim Hortons — which made us laugh and cry.
For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.
For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games — you’ve made wearing your name a cool thing to do.
For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.
For not honking your horns. I didn’t hear one car horn in 15 days — which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.
For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.
For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.
For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.
For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.
For always saying nice things about the United States…when you know we’re listening.
For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.
For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.
Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.
March 3rd, 2010
Posted by
Lugatz |
Wonderful |
no comments
Now that the Olympics are on, I’m not hearing another word about air quality. Gosh, did it just magically disappear on opening day? Or is the China-bashing useless now that the games have begun?
Well, the news people have something else to jaw about – namely Russia and Georgia. Why is that? What is it their business? I guess their answer would be that it’s news and something about the public’s right to know.
I think it would be a much better world if people didn’t stick their noses where they don’t belong. Face it, what’s reported as having been said by ________ (fill in the blanks) and what’s talked about around the dinner table by _________ (fill in the blanks) or over drinks, are two different things. Politicians will say in public, what they think the voters want to hear. In private, well, let’s just say I’d like to be a fly on the wall.
I think I’d like to adopt Swiss’ attitude. Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Keep out of conflicts. As a result, they’ve lived in peace for 200 years. We should be so lucky. I’m sure the odd Swiss here and there, feels passionately about another nation’s issues from time to time. So if he/she wants to run off and fight and possibly have their legs blown off – or worse, I guess that is probably their perogative. But as a nation, their hands-off policy has worked brilliantly.
Let’s hope our leaders mature some day.
August 12th, 2008
Posted by
Lugatz |
Personal Opinions, politics |
no comments
I hope the fog lifts. I hope the sun shines through. I so admire the Chinese. Why, you ask? For many reasons, most of them personal.
As you know, I am a head-hunter. My job is to place suitable candidates with my clients. I have never over the years had any of them let me down. They have always done an outstanding job. They are hard workers, quiet, they don’t get into the office politics, they mind their own business. If you tell them something they are not supposed to know, they shyly giggle and it is never mentioned again. In short, they made me look good. So if these candidates are any indication of the country they represent, they are certainly on my A-list.
Go China. One day I hope to visit.
August 8th, 2008
Posted by
Lugatz |
china, Environment, Pollution |
no comments
She’ll never change. With her it’s always knee-jerk reactions. Like the latest – telling Bush to boycott the Olympics. Now granted, he is (in my opinion) a war criminal and nobody is anxious to have him around but that’s not the point. Instead of being on the side of the athletes who worked long and hard, she’s using it for her own political gain. Well, she hopes, anyway.
What do you think she’d do if she wins the presidency? Will she stop trade with China? Not on your life. China cannot be ignored. She’s too big and too powerful. She’ll go, hat in hand, just like all the others to promote trade.
That’s where our former Prime Minister had it right. From back in 1993, he led trade missions to China and other ports of call. He knew the power of the dragon. I’m happy to say that, although our trade with the US has declined, our trade with China and other overseas countries has increased. So it should be. We were relying on the US as our main customer and, although they’re conveniently located next to us, their economy went south and who knows if they’ll ever recover. We had no choice but to find other customers.
Free trade. Yeah, that’s a joke. Well, it’s great as long as it’s going their way but the minute it isn’t, they want out. It’s their way or the highway. For me, put them on the back burner and look for business elsewhere.
It is estimated that about one million Americans live in Canada. Some for business reasons, others are students. I swear a good many come illegally, buy fake health cards and use our socialized medicine. I say, let’s round them up and send them home. I don’t want them in jail here. That would mean our taxpayers’ money supporting them.
But to get back to Clinton, when we had the big power cut, her finger pointed north – it was our fault. Even after it was proven to be the fault of the Ohio grid, she never apologized or even just corrected herself. No, no Nanette. Not Ms Clinton.
How about the 911 guys? That finger pointed north claiming they came from Canada. They didn’t. In fact they came from within the US. When is that finger-pointing going to stop?
Now, she’s going to revisit NAFTA. Go right ahead, Hillary. But why in your speeches are you saying you’re losing jobs to NAFTA. You’re losing jobs to India and China. Last time I looked, they were not in North America and certainly had nothing to do with NAFTA. Now, I know your education system sucks. I know most of Americans don’t know where Canada is. I know you’re using their ignorance to convince them that we’re the culprits.
Oh the sadness of it all.
Folks, vote for Barak Obama. Please tell me he’s different.
Well, that’s my rant for the day. I feel better now.
April 17th, 2008
Posted by
Lugatz |
Personal Opinions, politics |
no comments
Isn’t it awful that these games are used as a battering ram against the Chinese? I’d like to know who is behind all this. You can be sure it’s not only the Tibetans. To have riots organized takes money. It takes money to print signs, it takes money to get the word out. It takes money to pay the organizers. This is no voluntary movement.
So, who is really at the core of this outrageous behaviour? Just how many Chinese haters are there out there?
I’ve always found them to be fine upstanding citizens and very hard workers. They mind their own business but they do get involved in their communities. They blend faster into Canadian society – unlike, say, East Indians. Their kids play hockey and take ballet. There doesn’t seem to be the insistence that we accept them. They quietly go about their business. They are generous with their money. Maybe it’s easy for them. We all love Chinese food whereas we don’t all love curry.
I hope this silliness will blow over.
April 9th, 2008
Posted by
Lugatz |
Personal Opinions |
no comments