JoeSchmoe

He's terrible

In Canada an Assistant Manager in Training at a gas station with maybe two or three employees working at one time wouldn't be anywhere close to 60-80k. You'd likely get about 45k to start and max out at no more than 50 or 55k. The centrist in me wants to see everyone making a living wage, and for that area north of Utica, $60-80k would be an excellent salary. My only complaint is things haven't kept up in Canada, and now travelling to the US is becoming more and more unaffordable.

I know a family that moved back to Niagara from Vancouver because of the weather. Too much rain in Vancouver. My daughter's friend's dad that moved to Seattle said that all the homes in their neighborhood have concrete play areas in their backyards due to marshy conditions. (Thay said, they are still happier in the US vs Canada). I've never been to Vancouver, but based on the climate data I've looked at (7C highs in the winter and 22C highs in the summer) it doesn't do it for me as a place to live... Even without it being the most expensive place to live in Canada... and despite snowboarding being my favourite pastime. I'd rather live in a small town in the BC interior with a true winter and true summer and take my chances with forest fire smoke. I know the Vancouver ocean is a big selling point but my understanding is it's too cold to swim in. Are there pockets anywhere that are shallow enough to warm up to be comfortable in the summer? The BC interior lakes are more appealing to me. On paper I think Penticton, Invermere, and Nelson would be more up my alley. Closer to home here in Southern Ontario, I'd like to move to an English speaking town in Quebec in the Eastern Townships and still be driving distance away from my kids (presuming they stay in Ontario). My favourite spot in the world though is the Adirondacks, and I'd gladly move to a small town like Long Lake or Speculator if immigration were a non issue.

That's advanced type stuff that only oil well money can afford.

That's about right for the Canada Pension Plan. Plus as long as you're not a high earner you'll get about another $700 in Old Age Security. Above a certain income they'll claw that back. If you're poor, they'll top you up a bit.

Yep... Them Swedes are all just sitting around eating meatballs on their Ikea furniture singing Kumbaya. https://www.euractiv.com/section/elections/news/far-right-party-making-inroads-in-sweden/ There's media agendas of all sorts, left and right. Here in Canada though, the media knows what side it's bread is buttered on and skews left given the massive subsidies ($600M worth!). In any case, NHL players are all going to find a place they like left or right, hot or cold, tax or no tax. Me, I don't mind spending extra tax on a well funded school system and health care, but I'd like to see people be able to pay for services to reduce lineups in the public system. I always think of Craig Rivet in these discussions. From Northern Ontario, played a long time on Montreal which is an amazing city, moves to the West Coast to the high-end Silicon Valley, but fell in love with Buffalo. Of the NHL cities, I'd want to live in, I'd rank Buffalo high since there's no traffic, I don't like clubbing, I like winter, and the suburbs are good and safe places to live. North Buffalo is nice too.

I don't think right wing think tanks give a rats behind about carrying out an international "happiness" survey. And even if they did, as Swamp mentioned, you'd never hear about them since they don't fit the media agenda. Among the 1st world countries with relatively comparable quality of life, you can crank out whatever result you want depending on the questions you ask and the weightings you give it. As I'm closer to the centre (admittedly slightly right), neither the left or right "happiness" surveys are worth the paper their printed on.

I agree with your second two paragraphs, everybody is different. I love winter, some don't. Some like paying extra for well funded public schools, some would rather save their $$$ and go the private route. Some like big city living with all the hustle and bustle, some like small towns. I don't agree with the happiness studies though. Quantifying happiness is nearly impossible, and the groups producing these studies nearly always have a socialist bent (including the UN). I'm sure if a right leaning think tank were to devise a similar study, the results would be completely different. Anecdotally, I have quite a few friends that moved to the US, and as a whole they're all happier there than those of us that are still in Canada. The spread seems to have been trending wider and wider over the last 8 years... I wonder why 😉

Most things aren't not cheaper anymore. Gas and booze still are... Not much else. Inflation has been bad here in Canada, but it's been way worse south of the border. Now, everything is about the same in USD as it is in CAN, but you're paying close to a 1.40 premium on exchange. Last summer I was gassing up at a Stewart's Shops in a small town just outside the Adirondacks. They had a Help Wanted ad on the gas pump for an "Assistant Store Manager in Training. Salary $60-$80k / year." Seeing that was a real eye opener as to why prices have really skyrocketed down there. Places had to pay that kind of premium just to get people to work.

Congrats on the raise! Hopefully you figure out the weed thing. My friend was a wake and baker, and it took a bit to get straightened out after giving it up, but he feels better now than he had in a long while.

So Robinson is the hole?

I would really like Greenway if he was on the 4th line.

Robinson is ass.

The standings are on a spreadsheet. They use it to decide who goes to the playoffs.

Skinner is a 46.2% expected goal player 5 on 5 this year... Not great, but not terrible either. On the other hand, here's our entire team 5 on 4. In what world do we buy this out.

If you think the guy they put in to replace him isn't going to "hurt" us more than Skinner, I think you've got another thing coming. He's flawed, he's not great defensively, but he's still better than any free agent JAG Adams has brought in since he's been here.

It has... But nowhere close to fully. Starters are still starters.

At risk of taking this off topic, my biggest thing is why do we still have starting pitchers in baseball? Pitchers should still pitch the same number of innings in a year, but spread them over less innings per game in more games. There are so many benefits: -You can maximize lefty/lefty righty/righty matchups. -Your weaker pitchers can pitch against the bottom of their order. -The batters only see a pitcher once per game and never will time them up the 2nd or 3rd time around or recognize their tips. -Your never leave a guy in too long. -You should be able to manage and prevent injuries. I know some teams like TB do dabble with this sort of thing sometimes, but try telling a Verlander that he's not a true starting pitcher anymore. I believe a team could win 10-20 extra games a year if they adopted this full-time. Won't happen though.

Does anyone think that Savoie could have a better season next year at age 20 than Benson did at 18? Seems reasonable that he would, and could be a cause for optimism. Could he put up 35pts?

I figured I'd leave him off since he's effectively not part of the team anymore as hasn't been for a while. It's like a throwaway vote.

This is where I'm at too. Last year when he was dialed in, he was one of my most liked players. Everytime he had the puck in the offensive zone, he had me on edge of my seat. This year... Nothing. Who said anything about hate?

As someone who really likes seeing old school bunk get disproven, it'd be cool if someone could do the research on this.

Oh man... So much healthy competition, but I think I can get some votes. Winner gets voted off the island!

The beauty of this multiple choice question is there are so many right answers and just two or three wrong answers.

The drought continues, the anger is real. Most of the legit regulars are on here. Who do you like least?