The logo for the London 2012 Olympics has been circulating for months, but it was only today I read an article that displayed the logos for each of Olympics, including some logos for cities bidding on the Olympics.

The official logo for the London Olympics in 2012 is a disgrace.

It is not uncommon for Olympic logos to not contain the five Olympic colours, blue, yellow, black, green, and red, but the colour choice usually has some significance.

I can’t imagine what significance the bright pink and yellow has other than maybe that the 1980’s happened in London.

The design is totally retro, but completely lacks the cool appeal of retro.

They were looking for something “dynamic, vibrant, contemporary, flexible and inspiring” and they may have hit all those elements but they also could have designed something classy.

And it doesn’t come as a surprise that the logo came with a price tag of approximately $650,000 CAD. I can respect that the marketing company Wolff Olins invested considerable time researching, collaborating, and designing, but the committee selecting the brand for these Olympics surely could have challenged Wolff Olins to make the best possible logo.

My expectations are that Jem and the Holograms perform at the 2012 Olympics in London based on the logo.

Rants Logo Design, London, Olympics

Jean-Sebastien Giguere

It just crossed my mind why Jean-Sebastien Giguere is a great fit for the Leafs. Experience. Obvious, I know. But here’s why.

The Leafs have been playing all season with two young aspiring netminders who have had an incredibly inconsistent season. Wilson had the Leafs defense working hard to keep the puck from reaching the net. (In fact, the defense was practically forbidden from entering the attack zone.)

Unfortunately the puck always eventually gets through.

And when it did, all it would take would be a sharp shooter or a good rebound to put the puck in the net.

Now that Giguere is there that same hard-working defensive mentality is there, but when the offense reach the net, they aren’t facing a rookie. They’re facing a Venza-winning Stanley Cup goaltender who is ready for both the first shot and the second shot.

Now Giguere has 60 saves in back-to-back shut-outs.

Interest, Rants Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Toronto Maple Leafs

A few years ago my friend Joe Coffey and I sat down to eat some fries from the Ziggies van in Churchill Square and a mountain of ketchup packets.

When we were applying the ketchup we exchanged our annoyances with the design of standard ketchup packets.

Firstly, the packets never contains the right amount of ketchup. You always find yourself opening multiple packets.

Second, they always make a mess. You have to squeeze the ketchup through the rip in the corner. It’s hard not to get ketchup on your fingers.

We thought surely there must be a better design.

The biggest problem is affordability. Restaurants are not going to pay extra for a ketchup packet that is larger and cleaner. The current design is very efficient.

Joe and I thought of many options but narrowed it down to one perfect design. We shared it with a few people in the industry and it garnered a little excitement.

Unfortunately it ended there. We didn’t persue it any further.

Recently Heinz released a new ketchup packet design. It’s more or less the same design Joe and I created with some minor differences. Here is their new design:

To read more, check out Heinz Ketchup Packet Makeover

GregPike.ca, Rants, Service Heinz, Ketchup Packets

Early in the season Burke made a trade that many Leafs fans were excited about but that created much discontent. Phil Kessel for a first and second round draft pick in 2010 and a first round draft pick in 2011.

Many people felt it was too much to sacrifice, but I disagreed. The Leafs have an extremely youthful team, Wilson says “the youngest team in the league”. The average age is 26.5 years old (as of today’s trade) compared to the league average of approximately 28 years of age. In other words, the Leafs are not disparate for youth.

Additionally the point of a team picking up an early draft pick is the chance that a perspective player will become a star. The Leafs have traded the chance to obtain a star for an actual goal-scoring stud.

Sounds great to me.

Today Burke made some welcomed announcements. Two big trades that resulted in the movement of ten players with Calgary and Anaheim.

The Leafs have lost four of their offensemen in exchange for a stronger back end. While I am not sure what Burke’s plans are to fill in the forward lines after this trade (perhaps make room for Bozak, Hanson, or Kadri) I’m impressed with the defensive mix up.

It has been said that Burke led the Ducks to a Stanley Cup victory by building from the netminder out. In Anaheim he built a team with Giguere, Beauchemin, Niedermayer and Pronger.

Now he is doing much the same thing in Toronto. Giguere is a Stanley Cup championship goaltender who, if he cannot offer wins, he can offer mentorship to Jonas Gustavsson. Despite Gustavsson’s losing record he has exhibited incredible potential.

Giguere has not been doing well in Anaheim, but he did not want to play there and even threatened retirement unless he was given more action. He will certainly get that in Toronto.

In terms of the blueline, the Leafs now have Karbele, Phaneuf, Komisarek, and Beauchemin as well as World Junior champion Keith Aulie. With any luck it will be more challenging for opponents to put the puck in their net.

In terms of their offense, the Leafs never really had talented goal-scorers anyways. What they had was Ron Wilson’s shoot-and-get-as-many-rebounds-as-you-can dirty style of scoring, which is brilliant when you don’t have the talent to put it in the net.

To top it off, the Leafs can now make a push for the playoffs. While getting a slot may be near impossible, they have nothing to lose in terms of draft picks as their first and second pick for next season goes to Boston.

I am sure that Burke is now formulating a plan to get stronger skaters to meet Kessel at the front lines, but until then we will have to see how this current mix-up will affect the Leafs ability to win games.

Interest, Rants Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Dion Phaneuf, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Toronto Maple Leafs

Anytime it’s snowing in St. John’s and the roads are in hard shape I always hear people say “I’m not taking the highway” referring to Pitts Memorial Drive.

Everytime I hear this I feel like defending the highway in poor driving weather.

The “Arterial” as it is called is part of the Governement of Newfoundland and Labrador’s highway infrastructure and thus it’s snowclearing is managed by the provincial government. Compared to the City of St. John’s those roads are immaculate in the snow.

Additionally the highway swurves around the turns of the hills on the southern side of St. John’s and is surrounded on both sides by thick coniferous vegetation which prevents virtually any blowing snow.

To top it off this is a popular highway where there is a lot of traffic. Even when the plows cannot keep up on the accumulation of snow the flow of traffic keeps the roads clear.

When it comes to driving in poor winter conditions I am confident there is no safer road to drive on. Outer Ring Road is a completely different story.

Rants Newfoundland & Labrador, Pitts Memorial Drive, St. John's, Street Cleaning

On January 4th St. John’s began issuing snowclearing tickets as promised. They advertised on the radio and on television. I rarely pay attention to either, but even I was aware of the snowclearing date.

All the same, 300 motorists found themselves with hefty $45 snowclearing tickets the next morning.

Needless to say,  many were not happy.

You leave your vehicle on the road overnight when snowclearing is in effect and you deserve a ticket. I agree with this. Otherwise we have messy streets in the morning because plows were unable to maneuver properly through them.

But 300 tickets on a clear night? City Council is just going out looking for people to ticket needlessly. Random sweeps are fine. The odd ticket for a violator will prevent people from parking on the road overnight. Obviously if it snows, nail them with a ticket. Otherwise, frig off.

There is no need to ticket so many people on a night where there was no snowclearing and the weather forecast indicated no chance of snow.

But if the city must ticket absolutely everyone with a tire on the road, then why not put the money they make to snowclearing?

In one night of ticketing they raised $13,500.00. Take out the expenses for ticketing those violators and you have a significant profit from one night’s work. Surely this kind of cashflow could be put towards improving the city’s dismal snowclearing efforts.

If St. John’s put as much effort into actually cleaning the streets as they do ticketing parked vehicles we’d have wonderfully clean streets.

Local News, Rants, Service St. John's, Street Cleaning

Is it just me, or is it silly that an election for an office of power for the next four years was determined by a coin flip?

I know it’s legislation and it’s only fair that the rules laid out be followed, but it seems like this particular rule was drafted under the impression it was an impossible scenario.

I know nothing about the mayoral candidate from Paradise, except that one is a 19 year old student and they other is a seasoned municipal politician, but I don’t think what happened in that municipality was fair to either candidate or very democratic.

For anyone unfamiliar with this case the mayor was literally chosen at random after a recount resulted in a tie. In Newfoundland that is how we resolve electoral recounts.

Costly as they are, I think that legislation needs to be upgraded to allow additional recounts or a tie-breaking election. If there were any discrepancies from one count to a second, coundn’t it also be possible that the recount was inaccurate?

Could you imagine if a hockey playoff match tie was determined by a coin flip? I suspect people would lose interest in hockey.

Local News, Politics, Rants Elections, Paradise

A while back I wrote an post jesting that street cleaning in St. John’s is a big money scam for the city to make money off of your parked cars.

Last night there was street cleaning on the street (and there will be again tonight). Most people on the street continued to park as they normally do, unaware of the ticket they were about to receive.

It absolutely kills me that the city does not provide more notification about street cleaning. If everyone is still parked in their usual spots, the street isn’t going to get cleaned, so why bother?

No other reason I can think of than money.

From GregPike.ca: Street Cleaning – St. John’s Biggest Money-Making Scam

Local News, Rants, Service St. John's, Street Cleaning

The decision-makers at Tim Horton’s have decided to establish their popular donut organization as a homophobic one.

According to online sources, Tim Horton’s is co-sponsoring a rally on Rhode Island for the National Organization for Marriage. The NOM is an organization that is fighting for the preservation of traditional marriages.

It’s especially notable because it is a direct violation of their own policies:

Tim Hortons does not sponsor individuals, those representing religious groups, political affiliates, book endorsements or traveling sports teams. Tim Hortons does not provide cash donations.

Is this a strategic move or an accident for Tim Horton’s? Either way I hope the message spreads the this donut shop supports anti-gay rallies on marriage.

UPDATE: Tim Horton’s has pulled funding for this event. It was the result of a franchisee ower violating their policy.

From Truth Wins Out: Doughnut Chain Tim Hortons Violates Its Own Policy, Sponsors NOM Antigay Fund-Raiser

Politics, Rants Tim Horton's

Last night (and the night before) there was street cleaning on my street in Downtown St. John’s. I knew about it because shortly after moving in I got a street cleaning ticket (without warning) and I immediately jumped on the St. John’s Street cleaning mailing list. I also check the City of St. John’s website frequently.

But most people don’t.

In fact, I don’t think the city really cares about actually cleaning the streets. They send the street cleaners down the streets still lined with parked cars and put tickets on everyone’s windsheild. The streets don’t get cleaned. The city just gets paid.

If they were really concerned they would provide some kind of notice to residents and I am sure people would move their cars.

I know there is a mailing list, but I can’t say I blame the people who aren’t on the mailing list. They send an email every day and list every single street that gets cleaned. It’s a mess. You should be able to receive emails ONLY when the cleaning affects streets you are interested in.

I have said this before (about potholes and snow removal and sidewalk clearing) and I’ll say it again. I wish this city was more progressive instead of just reacting to each situation thrown its way.

Signs, flyers, or e-mails would be a great first step to getting our streets clean.

Local News, Rants, Service St. John's, Street Cleaning