{"id":341,"date":"2005-11-04T16:11:56","date_gmt":"2005-11-04T20:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/?p=341"},"modified":"2005-11-04T16:12:08","modified_gmt":"2005-11-04T20:12:08","slug":"best-of-halifax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/04\/best-of-halifax\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Of Halifax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year Halifax’s free weekly, The Coast<\/a>, has a couple of Best Of <\/a>competitions, where the readers vote in numerous categories (typically the Food & Drink voting is one competition, and all the other Best Of<\/a> voting happens in the other competitions.<\/p>\n

This year’s Best Of results<\/a> are out now.<\/p>\n

I note that Strange Adventures<\/a> has won again. I am not surprised–I would call them the best comic store in Canada, and I’ve seen what the competition would be in every major city in Canada, and lots of the minor ones (although I think Butcher<\/a> and the Beguiling<\/a> guys might be able to make a very good argument on that point, I’d ultimately come down on Cal’s side).<\/p>\n

\nBest comic book store, Winner<\/b><\/font>
Strange Adventures Comic Bookshop<\/a>
Address: 5262 Sackville<\/font>
Phone: 425-2140<\/font>
Eight years in a row for Strange Adventures. Balou the dog is still around. Owner Calum Johnston says, \u201cWe enjoy what we do. We have a great selection and knowledge we try to share.\u201d There\u2019s no hard sell at Strange Adventures. Johnston\u2019s job, as he sees it, is to get you in the door and give you suggestions if you want them. \u201cAfter that,\u201d he says, \u201cthe work will speak for itself.\u201d<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also worthy of note is that the Best Salesman in Halifax is apparently “Crazy Uncle” Drake, although I know a few people, including Mike himself, who would be surprised to find out that he was suddenly the store manager. I also know a lot of people who would be surprised that someone with as much HATRED as Drake has can manage to deal well with the public–I guess you can never underestimate the power of a good hug.<\/p>\n

Best salesperson, Winner<\/b><\/font>
Mike Drake<\/a>
Address: Strange Adventures Comic Bookshop, 5262 Sackville<\/font>
Phone: 425-2140<\/font>
The fact that Mike Drake was too busy helping customers to spend much time talking to a reporter probably explains a lot about the Strange Adventures manager\u2019s win. After a bit of small talk\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s easy to be good at your job when you have a great boss and great customers,\u201d Drake said\u2014he excused himself so that he could go help with a sale. So put it down to his excellent product knowledge and customer service\u2014or maybe what he calls \u201ca willingness to hug my customers.\u201d Drake is the Superman of sales people.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(In addition to this, Drake also hosts a mean poker tournament<\/a>. But don’t get him started on the Fireball<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

There’s lots of other interesting results in this year’s Best Of:<\/p>\n

Best member of parliament, Winner<\/b><\/font>
Alexa McDonough<\/a>
Love her or hate her (but probably love her), New Democrat Alexa McDonough always lets you know exactly where she stands. For that, you\u2019ve at least gotta respect her. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of cynicism surrounding politicians these days,\u201d says McDonough. \u201cAlthough there may be many people who don\u2019t totally agree with my point of view, they at least know that I\u2019ll be direct about what my point of view is.\u201d<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I still wish Alexa was leading the NDP–I was always impressed with her stances, which seemed to be based on an underlying philosophy that I could get behind. I was never more impressed with her than when she stood up to Manning, et. al. and argued that Canada should not be involved in the U.S.’s ridiculous and illegal war in Iraq. Hell, read what she wrote at the time<\/a>–her predictions for what would happen are pretty sound, and you can’t argue with this:<\/p>\n

\nOn invasion, however, Washington has the gall to say the test of UN relevance is whether it obeys.<\/p>\n

True irrelevancy comes when, after Mr. Bush fails to heed the world majority, countries such as Canada participate in a reckless invasion only to inoculate the UN against charges of impotence. It is perversity to suggest that complicity in a clear breach of the UN Charter somehow helps the United Nations.<\/p>\n

The challenge facing Canada is not Mr. Manning’s, but whether we will stand for peace with other middle powers, or invade under cover of a UN resolution that fails to specifically authorize it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This one made me laugh:<\/p>\n

Best cheap thrill, Winner<\/b><\/font>
Ferry from Halifax to Dartmouth
I suppose the novelty wears off if you commute via ferry each day. For the rest of us, two dollars buys a little slice of naval paradise, plus views of Dartmouth, Halifax and the bridges\u2013all worth the proverbial million bucks. Up on deck you can play King of the World or stand steady, chin jutted to the brine, arms akimbo, riding up and down with the swell of the waters.<\/font><\/p>\n

Best cheap thrill, 2nd Place<\/b><\/font>
Rolling down Citadel Hill\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and, of course…<\/p>\n

Best place to have sex outside, Winner<\/b><\/font>
Point Pleasant Park
Forget nooners in a secluded parking lot overlooking the Bedford basin; Haligonians are making it happen in Point Pleasant Park. Not wind, nor sleet, nor rain, nor lack of cover will deter Halifax\u2019s outdoors-lovers from getting busy in the great outdoors. Hurricane Juan and the subsequent loss of foliage in the park didn\u2019t seem to bother too many people; this is a repeat win for the park. One wonders what effect recently proposed changes to Point Pleasant\u2014with more trees at the top of the list\u2014will have for our wilderness Romeos and Juliets. Requests for more spongy undergrowth should be submitted before planting season.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(I’m guessing that’s for the people with cars, since it would be a bit far to walk from the bars for the downtown folk.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year Halifax’s free weekly, The Coast, has a couple of Best Of competitions, where the readers vote in numerous categories (typically the Food & Drink voting is one competition, and all the other Best Of voting happens in the other competitions. This year’s Best Of results are out now. I note that Strange Adventures has won again. I am… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-storytime","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5UQvw-5v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chrismclaren.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}