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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, September 6, 2012 · 6 The Oakville Beaver The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 905-845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 905-631-6095 Guest Column Representing Canada well Neil Oliver Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West David harvey Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief Daniel Baird Advertising Director ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor Riziero Vertolli Photography Director Sandy Pare Business Manager RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association MARK DILLS Director of Production Manuel garcia Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Website www.oakvillebeaver.com The OakvilleBeaver is a division of Kevin Flynn, Oakville Member of Provincial Parliament Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award Editor's Note: The following statement was filed with The Oakville Beaver while the original speech was delivered by MPP Kevin Flynn in Provincial Legislature last week. ach Olympics, there are special moments that captivate Canadians. At the London Games, one of those moments was delivered by Oakville's Diana Matheson. Kevin Flynn In the dying seconds of the overtime bronze medal game, Diana scored the winning goal that lifted our team over the French team. The team's resilient spirit was evident as they bounced back following that tough semi-final loss to the U.S. that involved a very questionable call by the referee. "Resilient" would be a good word to describe Diana as well. She excelled in her development at the Oakville Soccer Club, but due to her size, Diana was often passed up by teams at the provincial and the national level. But that didn't stop her. Hard work and determination to overcome this paid off. She was named the Ivy League player of the year in 2007, Princeton's athlete of the year in 2008, and at the same time earned her economics major. She has represented Canada now 130 times. She holds the national record for the most consecutive international appearances. Paul Varian, the CAO at Oakville Soccer Club, has called Diana "the workhorse" of the national team, and she's an inspiration to young women around this country. I'd like to congratulate Diana, and the entire national team, for their success and for making this country so proud of what they did. E Submitted photo HELPING DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT: Florence Meats raised $2,100 at its annual barbecue draw, held earlier this year, and donated the funds to the Rotary Club of Oakville West's (RCOW) Dreams Take Flight project, which helps send Oakville children, who would not otherwise have the opportunity, to Disney World. At the cheque presentation were, from left, Bonnie Anderson, RCOW Dreams Take Flight co-ordinator, Carol Goriub, owner of Florence Meats, and Duncan McLeod, RCOW president. OAKVILLE BEAVER file photo / @halton_photog Club chief administrative officer, and hordes of soccer fans after arriving at Toronto's Pearson International Airport after the London Summer Olympic Games ended in August. A HERO's WELCOME: Diana Matheson was greeted by Paul Varian, Oakville Soccer Pigskin predictions from a dog who is as sick as a dog ur dog is sick. Sick as a dog. Although, honestly, the big dufus has no one to blame but himself. Actually, himself and our farrier. For the uninitiated, a farrier is a specialist in horse hoof care -- an equine pedicurist, if you will. Our farrier comes by every couple of months, trims and balances the hooves of our two horses, and replaces their shoes, if need be. The definitive word in that last sentence, at least where poor sick Zoey is concerned, is "trims." You see, what the farrier trims off a horse's hoof is the equine equivalent of really thick toenails. Encrusted in manure -- which the hound eats. Seriously. The idiot eats this until he throws up, which he did last night. And then this morning, sensing there must surely be more hoof-trimmings avec manure down by the paddocks, he went back for more. And so, for the past four hours, our dog's been hanging out on the porch, panting, intermittently throwing up and, I'm sure, wishing he'd saved some of this delicious delicacy for later. Sad thing is, he's not alone. According to the farrier, all dogs eat this irresistible trimmed treat. And, no surprise here -- all dogs yack it back up. There's a saying: "It's a dog's life." Originally, the idiom (first used O in the 1600s) was intended to reflect an arduous and oftentimes short life under crummy conditions. Today, most dogs have it pretty good. Consequently, the saying now reflects a more cushy life. Take our hound. He has an enviable existence. Unless he's running out the door for some toenail trimmings, we're hardAndy Juniper pressed to get him out of bed before the crack of noon. During the day, he wavers between doing very little and doing absolutely nothing. At night, he gets a nice walk, which he follows with a long pre-bedtime nap. And at various points throughout each day, family members remind him of how cute he is, and reward this cuteness with a cookie. Alas, last weekend -- with the onset of September, and a new National Football League season about to kick off -- I was compelled to wag a finger in the sick hound's face and tell him that things were about to change, that he was about to be put back to work -- back to living "a dog's life," old-school. I'm not sure he understood what I was wagging and shouting about, but I sensed he wanted me to go away. Actually, here's what I was wagging and shouting about: I run a sports-humour website, www.thesportjesters.com. Three years ago, on a lark, the Jesters gave the hound the handle "Einstein" (like the genius) and put him to work predicting NFL winners. We'd take a game, write down the teams involved, place the pages 20 paces from the wonder-hound, with a treat on each, and we'd see which team he'd run to first. Because (obviously) they would be the winners. It is our contention that professional pigskin prognosticators don't have any real insight as to what's going to transpire during any given game because the NFL has become too unpredictable to be predicted. Crazy thing: Einstein, our slug-eating seer, has turned out to be better than the pros. Last year he predicted winners at a .652 percentage. And that, my friends, is unheard of. Of course, as doggie fate would have it, the day he had to make his Week One predictions was the day that found him on the mudroom porch, feeling sick as a dog, not at all in the mood for treats. No excuses, but we're a little worried that his picks, like his stomach that day, might be a bit... off. Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, found on Facebook at www.facebook.com, or followed at www.twitter. com/thesportjesters.