Blue Bombers coach Doug Berry's decision to start Ryan Dinwiddie over Kevin Glenn at quarterback this Thursday against Calgary is a foolish act that will prove to be his Waterloo. The Bombers' pregame meal might as well be beef Wellington served with a Prussian demi-glaze.
Glenn is a good, solid quarterback who is very consistent when he's healthy. Glenn passed for over 6,000 yards last season. People in Winnipeg have quickly forgotten the severe trauma Glenn suffered during the last five minutes of the 2007 Eastern final against Toronto.
Glenn and running back Charles Roberts were involved in two bad exchanges that resulted in fumbles inside Toronto's five-yard line and a broken left arm when Glenn tried to recover the second fumble. To have three horrific events happen in the span of five minutes left Glenn with football post-traumatic stress disorder.
It's taken six months and three-and-a-half games for Glenn to finally show signs of recovering from his ordeal. Roberts finally got his 20 carries last week after being avoided by Glenn for three weeks and our quarterback is showing signs of getting his pocket presence back.
Only an imbecile would yank his star quarterback when he is just beginning to show flashes of greatness that led his team to the Grey Cup last season. Coach Berry's irrational decision is the desperate act of a man trying to save his own skin -- not his football team.
T te d'arm ©e? Not after Thursday, Mr. Berry.
GORDON WARREN
Winnipeg
Story truly inspiring
Re: Swimmer kept hopes afloat, now she's bound for Beijing, July 21.
Avi Saper's story about Annamay Pierse's circuitous route to Beijing is truly inspiring. Her sheer joy at the opportunity to compete reminds us all that the Olympics are about so much more than podium finishes.
Whether she finishes in the medals or is eliminated in the preliminary rounds, Pierse's lifelong dream is being fulfilled. Saper's story brings back the ideal that to be able to win a berth at the Olympics and compete for one's country is an outstanding achievement, and that medals are a bonus.
Good luck, Annamay! We believe in you!
J. Hugh McMorrow
Winnipeg
Myths blowin' in the wind
Re: Tornado worries overblown, July 18.
When Gerald Machnee claimed tornado worries are overblown in Canada, he might have added that such exaggerations are commonplace worldwide. In the U.S., the greatest number of destructive tornadoes occurred not recently but between 1840 and 1936. The worst was the 1925 Tri-States storm that killed nearly 700 and destroyed 10,000 homes and buildings in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. The most damaging Canadian weather events were the hurricanes that caused 500 deaths in Cape Breton in 1873 and 4,000 in eastern Newfoundland in 1775.
Katrina notwithstanding, the most devastating American hurricanes struck between 1900 and 1938, the worst hitting Galveston, Texas, in 1900, killing at least 8,000. Yet of the 25 deadliest tropical storms in history, only one occurred in the western hemisphere, while the rest originated either in the western Pacific or the Bay of Bengal. Eighteen of these took place prior to the 20th century and as far back as 1584 and 1281.
Note how these extreme weather events somehow managed to develop long before any theories of human-induced climate change were advanced. So maybe the whole scenario is merely a case of the environmentalists trying to use any violent weather incident to convince governments to raise taxes, legislate new restrictions, and force consumers into buying green products at inflated prices. Meanwhile the storms will continue regardless.
Edward Katz
Winnipeg
Bookstore clarification
Douglas J. Johnston (Cutting-edge history of France and its guillotine, July 20) makes a common mistake when he associates the present Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. That bookstore, situated in the Rue de l'Odeon, was closed for good in 1941 during the German occupation.
The present Shakespeare and Company in Rue de la Bucherie is owned by an American, George Whitman, who gave it the name in the early 1960s as a tribute to the original.
However, literature, and indeed, civilization, is equally indepted to the new Shakespeare and Company, which today provides hospitality to anybody interested in books and once was a haven for poets and writers like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsbergh, William Burroughs and Samuel Beckett.
John K. Collins
Winnipeg
Field of nightmares
Re: Stadium proposal doesn't make cut, July 19.
Selena Hinds quotes Sean Connelly as saying "it seems bizarre to revert back to a 'field of dreams' way of thinking."
Were it so. In the novel by W.P. Kinsella, the farmer uses his own money to build his "Field of Dreams" and almost goes bankrupt in the process.
In all the stadium proposals currently on the table, there are large amounts of public funds involved. These are not the "Field of Dreams."
G.W. (Bill) Wallace
Winnipeg
I have a few questions...
Re: No idea how much cops drank, July 18.
If only people like us could ask questions at an inquiry filled with people covering their asses. Here are my questions.
Sgt. Sean Black states: "For whatever reason, my popcorn maker died... I was very fixated on getting the popcorn maker working."
Were these individuals smoking pot as well?
Chief Keith McCaskill states: "I didn't want people to think they wouldn't be supported for telling the truth," said McCaskill, who, at the time, was the supervisor of District 13 in the North End where Harvey-Zenk was working.
Do you think that these pillars of society would need anyone to support them if they told the truth?
Kim Sigurdson
Winnipeg
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