I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. This week’s puzzle requires you to identify the twenty musicians/bands that are cryptically hidden in the image below. Clicking on the image will give you a larger view.

Happy Scheming.

On a typical Thursday night:

And, during the playoffs:

Eerie?

Oh Ford Fusion! Create a reaction, indeed.

And, for your reference, in case you have no idea what I’m talking about:

I’m back from Montreal, stirred but not quite shaken. I figure it’s too late to lament about the woes of goaltending, so it’s on to the weekly puzzles.

Happy Scheming.

As I sit here and write this post, I’m contemplating whether the mere existence of the San Antonio Spurs implies that God is either not paying attention or has one twisted sense of humor. The Spurs ability to suck the life out of anything basketball, combined with the Raptors’ early exit, leaves me mired in a basketball wasteland.

And hockey is no better. Every series is now at 3-0 except for the only one that matters to my hockey-verse. Meaning that while fans of the Pens, Stars, and Red Wings are sitting comfy (and Rangers, Sharks, and Avs have moved on), I’m still suffering pangs of heartburn every time a Philly player shoots the puck at the now precarious Carey Price. (Don’t get me started on the Jays.)

Maybe, as the poets say, April really is the cruelest month.

As an aside, I’ll be making a short trip tomorrow to Montreal to visit some friends. I haven’t decided yet, but there’s a good chance I’ll hold out from Toronto until the weekend is over and attempt to purchase some scalped tickets to the Bell Center. I don’t need that kind of additional heartburn, I know, but I can’t help myself. On that note, be warned to look out for a brown version of this man:

Brookie is REALLY looking forward to it.

Here is your puzzle for Monday. The challenge is to identify each picture’s unifying theme/category. It should be self-explanatory, though I’ve been known to ramble.

(note: due to a quirk with WordPress, you may have to click on each picture a second time to get the full-sized image as opposed to the medium-sized one)

Happy Scheming.

For those of you who thought my last post was a downer (needing an Iced Mocha Frappucino to cheer you up) I present to you this kitty:

Say it with me together: aawwwwwwww.

Now that you’re in a better mood, I have one more thing to add regarding this food crisis.

On Biofuels:

[The high prices] “mainly reflect changes in demand - not problems of supply, such as harvest failure. The changes include … the sudden, voracious appetites of western biofuels programmes, which convert cereals into fuel. This year, the share of maize (corn) crop going into ethanol in America has risen and the European Union is implementing its own biofuels targets.”
(”The New Face of Hunger,” The Economist print edition, 2008 April 17th)

There’s also this quote:

USDA Chief Economist Joseph Glauber predicts that 31% of the entire US corn crop will be devoted to ethanol production for the 2008/09 season.”
(Hamilton, Econbrowser).

It’s hard to ignore the moral question of whether or not it’s acceptable to convert food (that could be used to address the problem of world hunger) into gas. Imagine: burning a potential mountain of food for humans into food for machines.

Something is wrong with that picture!

With warm, patio weather coinciding with prime playoff viewing experience, what else could possibly be on my mind?

Naturally, the economy.

Seemingly forever, people have made a fuss about the never-ending rise in the price of gasoline. I got a taste of it the other day when I visited my parent’s place and offered to fill up their van at the gas station. Big mistake! 50 liters at $1.20 CAD per liter did not a pleasant experience make.

Since last year (2007) the price of crude oil has risen nearly 40%. The gas I bought at $1.20 CAD could have been purchased for $0.86 a year ago. I don’t drive a car, however, so the price fluctuations of gas don’t directly affect me in the same way they affect my anxious, coupon-clipping father.

The price of food, though, is another matter. When I began paying attention to the amount of money Brooke and I spent on groceries every month, we figured a budget of $250/month would suffice. That was 2004. Now, we’re lucky if we can get it under $400, which doesn’t include ordering-in and eating-out. While the price of gasoline has crept up to record highs, the cost of food has risen at an even faster pace.

Sugar is $2 f***ing 99. Milk is almost six bucks. You’re killing me, Value Mart!

In the chart below (created with Google Finance), blue is oil (up 40%), red is grains/rice (up 70%), and yellow is wheat (up 104%):

The Economist has even starker figures from the Chicago Board of Trade that saw the price of rice climb 141% in 2007. You shouldn’t be complaining about oil. You should be complaining about your grocery bill.

For most of the developed world, the consequence will be to tighten up their spending on discretionary items - you may not be able to buy that replacement ivory back-scratcher, for instance. But for the family that already has trouble making ends meet, it’s forced famine. This is a global food crisis.

And, it’s already started. The Philippines, because of the shortage, has now made it a crime punishable by life in prison to hoard rice. There have been riots in Haiti causing the Prime Minister to resign in the face of a mob. Egypt and Yemen, among other countries, have also had riots demanding that their governments get food prices under control.

The UN World Food Programme is calling the food crisis a “silent tsunami which knows no borders [and is] sweeping the world.”

The Chinese and Indians are getting richer and are driving demand for food to insane levels. Farmers just cant match the supply to the demand, and the prices are rising. So, while you might think $2.99 is a lot to pay for sugar, it might be the best price you see for a long time.

Stock up!

The flavor of this week’s puzzle is a little different due to WordPress’ new tool for playing around with images. Hopefully the visuals are self-explanatory, and we’ll see how it goes.

This week’s challenge requires you to unravel the somewhat cryptic, visual clues below. Each of the ten pictures below will reveal a famous movie. Your one hint is that each and every one of the movies has won an Academy Award for best picture.

Happy Scheming.

With apologies to those friends of mine who cheer for the Senators. (Why anyone would subject themselves to such social and psychological torture is beyond my ability to grasp…)

Almost a year ago I wrote about there being something rotten in my state of hockey. I got quite a bit off my chest back then and, looking back, perhaps I was a bit harsh in my finger-pointing. There’s something in the air that’s got me engrossed in hockey again, and it’s certainly not the “brilliant” analysis of Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger.

Maybe it’s seeing the Habs return to the playoffs riding the play of Carey Roy Dryden; maybe, like Stephen Leacock, I’ve realized that despite the deathly chill of winter which defines the Canadian experience, hockey is an affirmation that we are alive; or, maybe I’m just caught up in Ovechkin/Iginla man-love.

Whatever it is, it’s the playoffs and I’m back baby!