Rumours and things

They’re making a movie of Canadian golf pro Moe Norman’s life. He was a golf legend and a man revered by golf professionals around the world as one of the greatest ball-strikers in golf’s history.

Moe was an unnaturally shy man who didn’t like public appearances or speaking in public. That changed somewhat when he had a golf club in his hands.

Moe passed away on September 4, 2004 at the age of 74. There were hundreds at his funeral to pay their respects in Kitchener, Ontario.

The independently produced movie will focus on the mid to late fifties when Norman won every tournament he played.

I met him in a parking lot of a golf club in Winnipeg where I was working for the sponsors. I didn’t realize who it was at first because here was this dumpy, untidy man changing into a new golf shirt out of the trunk of what I assumed was his blue Cadillac car. We introduced ourselves. I couldn’t believe it.

In January 1995, Titleist CEO Wally Uilheim made the decision that someone had to look after Moe in his later years and through the company he paid Moe $5,000 per month, no strings attached. He just said it was for his unique contribution to the game. I read that Moe asked the CEO what he had to do for the money and was told, "You have already done it."

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Were you planning to travel to Calgary to see Paris Hilton at the Calgary Stampede? Cancel those plans. Paris says she isn’t coming. She has canceled whatever she does for the $100,000 and isn’t going to make it to the cow town. She was supposed to do something at The Cowboys nightclub and she is being replaced by an act called Pitbull. All I know is that he is a rapper. The Hilton lady said because of some conflicts that have developed with her new TV show she is taping in Dubai and can’t make the date in Calgary.

I know you’re excited, it is called “Dubai BFF”. She is in this series searching for a “new best friend.” I know you want the info so I will find out what network this new show will be on and I will inform you.

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Where is the best barbecue in town or in the valley for that matter? I love barbecue. We are looking for meat that doesn’t fall off the bone of course. Real barbecue never does. There must be some unique place here that does real BBQ. Let me know because I have been looking for years.

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I know there are about 100 people with money invested in the company that has sold the idea to these investors of producing this extra special parking meter. The Vancouver based company is Photo Vision Technologies. It’s a high tech parking meter that takes the picture of the car as it pulls into the parking space. If the time expires when you come out you just pay the tab and you don’t get a ticket. If you don’t pay that creates a violation that goes somewhere in the electronic system and before you can blink a ticket is issued.

Time magazine named it one of the top fifty inventions of 2007.

Nothing seems to have happened with what seemed on the surface to be a very good idea, although it may be too complicated because for some reason it doesn’t seem to leave the paper the promoters have used to raise a significant amount of cash.

We’ll follow up and find an investor that will talk to us.

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We have had so many retail companies from Canada that try to crack the U.S. market and fail miserably. Canadian Tire, Peoples Jewelers and Tip Top Tailors just to name a few.

Our retail icon Tim Hortons have made some headway in the U.S. since their association with Wendy’s. The company is going to do the impossible by challenging the New York market with five stores. They have found the right key to this market and they are going in with an established player in U.S. retail, Cold Stone Creamery. They did a successful test in Rhode Island and it worked.