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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

FYI: Overheard

By: Staff Writer

21/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Saving cents, not souls

"At the end of the day it's all about the money; you are making this sound like a religious crusade."

-- CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein to Rogers cable executives at the hearings into whether broadcasters can demand a fee from cable companies carrying their signals.

And we'd like that transfer back, please

"...Over the past 40 years, regulatory policies and decisions have favoured one sector to the detriment of another, resulting in a massive wealth transfer."

-- Canwest Global Corp. president Leonard Asper blames the CRTC for setting ground rules that have impoverished broadcasters -- and put cable firms in the penthouse.

A very soggy game

"We're just being kicked around like a political football."

-- Duncan Allan, St. Clements resident, about the fight the federal and provincial governments are having over paying for flood protection along the Red River.

Don't call us...

"I actually tried to phone the school board today and they refused to take my call."

-- MP Shelly Glover, St. Boniface (Conservative) after reading in the Free Press the Louis Riel School Division would not accept her offer of Tory-logo-tagged water bottles for students.

Looking forward to those frogs and pestilence next

"They've just been (champing) at the bit waiting for a pandemic for the last 10 years and I think they dramatically overreacted."

-- Dr. Richard Schabas, Ontario's former chief medical officer and a top health officer in the province on the World Health Organization's handling of H1N1.

Used to be proud of our suds, eh?

"I'm old enough to remember when Canadians routinely made fun of Americans for the crap beer that they drank."

-- Nicholas Pashley, author of the new book Cheers! An Intemperate History of Beer in Canada, who learned to his surprise Budweiser and Coors Light have managed to displace once-dominant Canadian brewskies like Blue and Export. (On his top 10 Great Beer list? Winnipeg's Half Pints Stir Stick Stout)

Lex-crazed nation

"Unfriend has real lex-appeal."

-- Christine Lindberg, a senior lexicographer with the Oxford American Dictionary, on the choice of unfriend as Word of the Year.

Proud mum

"I told her she's strong, she's brave and I couldn't be more proud of her. She's a survivor."

-- The Winnipeg mother of a girl who fought off an attacking stranger in her home.

Cold comfort

"There's no skin and cleavage in this calendar, it's all about the layered-up look."

-- Weather prognosticator David Phillips of Environment Canada, explaining how his annual weather trivia calendar outsells Playboy's version.

Snowbirds take cover

"After years of being in marriages... they're out in a different world than they were before."

-- Prof. Sandra Bullock on why Canadian snowbirds in Florida need to be warned about rising rates of HIV/AIDS among the state's over-50 set. People older than 40 today have the fastest-growing incidence rate of HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 21, 2009 H2

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