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Tariffs may increase cost of Chinese-made outdoor gear

No real relevance. I'm an old baseball player/fan who uses that phrase anytime I'd like to see a particular subject of discussion changed before it goes totally awry.
 
I had a roommate in graduate school, who did his undergraduate degree at Harvard. He began most days by asking, rhetorically, "How about those 'sox?" And he wasn't even a paddler. He was an economist. But I haven't asked him his opinion of..... No reason to risk a life-long friendship.
 
Life has its social pitfalls that must be traversed with care. I'm a Red Sox fan and a Yankees fan. That really pisses some people off to an amazing degree ;) I just like good baseball. Whomever is playing it has my respect.
 
You can't be a fan of both the Red Sox and the Yankees. Think of Babe Ruth!

I became a Braves fan in 1957, when I was switching between our three channels. Came across the World Series, between the Braves and the Yankees. Until then, I had no exposure to Major League Baseball. Announcers were saying the Braves had no chance. I rooted for the underdogs. Braves won. My life was forever changed. Braves are in the playoffs this year. I am not optimistic, though.
 
This veering off topic is probably not appropriate. But some analysts liken this team to the '91 Braves, who went from worst to first, only to lose to the Twins in the Worlld Series. Braves have credible starting pitching, suspect relievers, and reliable hitters. Not a spectacular combination, but a politically free zone.
 
PaddlingPitt said:
This veering off topic is probably not appropriate. But some analysts liken this team to the '91 Braves, who went from worst to first, only to lose to the Twins in the Worlld Series. Braves have credible starting pitching, suspect relievers, and reliable hitters. Not a spectacular combination, but a politically free zone.
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Politically FREE!?! Are you not aware of the Kent Hrbek/ Ron Grant play at first? Talk about battle lines being drawn.

For the record: Ron Grant was a terrible base runner on the play. Hrbek played heads-up baseball plain and simple. Care to debate it!?!

I thought not :)
 
It's not bad base running when you're standing on first and some goon muscles you off, to declare you out! We were cheated. I see you are from Minneapolis. No bias there.

Years later, Gant was, briefly, an analyst for the Braves. He kept saying, "More often than none." Not "More often than not." But "More often than none." More agregious than being cheated by a Goon (stroke), I was not sorry to see his press box career terminated.
 
Babe Ruth? That fat guy and others are the reason they have pinstripes at home. To make them look thinner.

It will be a knock down, drag out weekend in the Fenway. The Sox will do their best to send the Yankees on a road trip to the West Coast for the Wildcard Game.
 
Come on up north for some cross-border shopping and canoeing, Sweeper... if gear does turn out to be cheaper in Canada, you can shop all you want at MEC for their Chinese-made goods with the ironclad return policy if unsatisfied and then use them on a good long canoe trip so they look like they've been owned for years and years. The Prime Minister of Canada canoes and so do other political figures, like the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, and I am sure they will back the shopping/canoeing 100%. I will even provide free parking for you in Toronto so you don't have to suffer through some of North America's worst traffic jams. Come on over!
 
I'm well aware of the value in Canada, my canoe partner and I have a half dozen Canadian Canoes, and MEC's Slogg bags are the best Portage Bags on the market and a great company to deal with.

My wife wants to become an Income Tax Resister (again) I told her I'm not doing anything to jeopardize my crossing the border to paddle.

We made the 2 hour, south to north, crossing of Toronto one morning on our way to Killarney, never again, the traffic, not Killarney.
 
I'm happy to shop Canada.. Luckily it does NOT have to be Toronto.. Just zip up to Sherbrooke and over on 20 and 30 around Montreal... Ottawa I can handle. That is a beautiful smaller city.. We do have to do a weekend in a Canadian City for our upcoming 49th.. It could be Quebec City which I have visited many times and love.

I can even find the MEC there. I have some of their locations memorized.. Ottawa, Longueuil but not the one in la ville de Montreal.. C'est impossible d'arriver a ce magasin.

Thanks for the baseball thread. We invited some friends over for Sun dinner. As the Yankees are playing dinner will be later than sooner. And yes it is possible for Yankees and RedSox fans to cohabitate.. My daughter and son in law have managed ( mostly) over fifteen years.
 
Highway 401 where it crosses Toronto is said to carry more traffic than any other North American highway... I can't say for sure whether that's true or not, but the congestion is bad and a new mayoral election includes a candidate making the usual promises with a long-term public transit plan.

One way to avoid the traffic is to drive through at night. Another way is to get around by bike and there are more and more roads with dedicated bike lanes... I now bike more often than drive since it's often faster and spending time going nowhere isn't worth it, at least not for this old geezer. Several million more residents are forecast to move in during the next few years so I don't think the crowding's going to end anytime soon.

One good thing about Toronto is Lake Ontario which stays remarkably empty most of the time... paddling to the Toronto Islands is possible on a calm day and if you're paddling in from the west, the first thing you're likely to see is the nude beach.

I'm not going post any OPs (Obscene Photos) from the nude beach, butt... here's a recent photo taken during a heat wave with lots of room at the lake... remarkably empty, esp considering that the highways that run along the waterfront were probably jammed solid bumper to bumper. On a calm day you can paddle from here to the islands in about an hour and this is where a fast boat like that Swift Cruiser might make it easier getting there.




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I have a soft spot for Toronto I must admit. Visits to my grandparents in Longbranch were always happy times. I rarely go to the big TO these days, but often drive around it. The toll highway 407 has steadily increased its rates making that route a little painful, though it is good to take end to end from Burlington to past Oshawa on our way east. Heading north OTOH we avoid it altogether by taking backroads. Over the years we've seen a steady increase of others doing the same. Not at all surprising. The countryside is pretty outside the GTA (greater Toronto area) and pretty easily travelled, tho' there is a constant creep of urban/suburban growth. The previous provincial government established a "green buffer zone" of sorts around the GTA that has become an occasional political football. I hope it survives the kicking. My gridlock avoiding routes amble north through this pastoral scene. Last weekend we stopped in a small town way outside TO for a coffee and pastry. And a relaxing 20 minutes of small town talk in a small town. You can have that same atmosphere in the heart of Toronto but you'll have to fight traffic to get there.
For any of you coming across the border I strongly suggest as FT does driving at night. Being a night owl I love road tripping the other side of midnight. All the best radio can be found in those hours. Otherwise I strongly suggest doing your pre trip planning with Google or Bing, considering alternate side roads to the major highways. I love using Streetview too to check road conditions. And Driving Directions can guesstimate travel time from your chosen A to B to C etc. Warning! Do not think for one moment there will be no time penalty to trying alternate routes. But you sure will avoid the argy bargy of traffic. I'm not put off by all that but my wife insists going the long way round. She is quite the navigator. Neither of us mind adding an hour (or two) to our drive. You never know. One might enjoy the detour.
My advice should be taken with an unhealthy dose of salt, because we are old school pencil and paper map kinda people. I glanced over at my lovely navigator to see her squinting at the dogeared Ontario map like she was decoding hieroglyphics and said "Put on your glasses. They're on your head!" Ah. Now it all made sense. She suggested a route. We never remember to write them down, choosing instead to try to remember them. Yeah. That works as well as remembering where we left our reading glasses. Anyway she chose a road that looked familiar on the map. She thinks we took this way last time. Except we didn't. No bother. It became just another alternative route is all. It seems when we do this we discover an even better way. If only we could remember them all. At one point we were in a slow line of traffic snaking our way through road construction. At a sideroad I pulled off and asked if she could find this one on the map. No? Maybe? No matter. We both smiled and chimed in unison "let's take it!" And yeah, it turned out to be an excellent route. if only we could remember where that was.
What I'm trying to say is don't white knuckle it. The trip starts between your ears. Relax and take the slow lane. Maybe the off the beaten track slow lane. Add a few miles, maybe a few smiles to your trip. There is no checkered flag at the end of the day. But it always helps to remember where you've been and how you got there. Ha.
 
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As a lifelong Leaf fan I can tell you this with certainty, this is their year, they’re going to turn it around, they’re not mathematically eliminated yet, and they’ll get ‘em next year. This has been my life for 48 years.

FT please stop trying to engage in contentious issues. I beg you, I like this place without the nonsense that infiltrates messege boards. I get it, tariffs affect prices, but so does minimum wage increases and weather and all sorts of things. Let’s just leave that talk over at the other place. We all know where that is and if we want to engage we can go there.
 
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