"22 minutes" ... er ... I mean, "44 Minutes"

Last night we went to the season's final taping of "This Hour has 22 Minutes",  for next Tuesday's one hour Christmas special -- hence 44 rather than 22 minutes.

The tapings are free.  You just call and leave a message.  And then cross your fingers and wait for them to call you back.  When I spoke to the person at CBC I learned she had over 700 voice mail messages, so I consider myself very lucky to have seen three shows this season.

The joy of attending a taping is seeing the performers spontaneous humour and  how they interact with each other.  The live taping is interspersed with pre-recorded segments. While we watched those, the cast watched with us or talked quietly and comfortably with each other.

Left to right (below) they are: Geri Hall, Mark Critch, Cathy Jones and Gavin Crawford.

    

I noticed that Cathy Jones occassionally wiped her nose and her eyes were tearing up.  At one point (between takes) she quietly left the set, followed shortly by Gavin.  I thought she had a bad cold and was just having a tough go of it.  Turns out it was Gavin's last day with the show.

There were monitors everywhere.   In the scene depicted below, Gavin was on one side of the set in front of a green screen and Geri was on the opposite side of the set, facing the opposite direction and interviewing Gavin via a huge monitor where he appeared to be in a large opera house.

I was very surprised when in saying their final good byes at the end of the show, they said they'd see us in the fall.  Fall ?  What happened to spring ? 

Apparently the show's contract has been shortened. 

(insert your own biting, snippy comment about Conservative government here)

Hey, wait.

If Gavin is going, that means they need a new cast member.

I think I know just the right person for the job ...

Signs and wonders.

I am very ADD.  "ADD" as in  "Attention Deficit Disorder".   It's an unfortunate anacronym as I have too much attention and not a shortage of it.  I notice stuff.  All sorts of different stuff -- like signs.  I'm often snapping photos of local, odd, funny or disturbing signs. 

You know you've hit a tourist area when you see a sign like the one below. 

No shortage of things to do here.

The following wonderful sign was posted next to "The Happy Dudes Surfer Emporium" chip truck.  There was a lovely, lazy, yellow dog dozing in the shade not far from the sign.  He didn't even lift his head when we came by to take a picture.

Now what do you make of the sign below ?  Is it warning the ducks to be careful as there are children in the area ?   or is it telling children to watch out for attacking duck families ?

On gravel roads in Ontario you might see a sign that says "loose gravel".  This local sign intends to convey the same warning.

How on earth is a person supposed to avoid "flying stones" ?  I watched for ages but they pretty much just lay there on the road, thank goodness.  As I walked away I kept expecting one to whack me in the back of the head when I wasn't looking. 

I like church signs that get me thinking -- but I don't think the writer understands the impact of the message conveyed by this sign.

Did the minister / sign-writer-person not see the contradiction when later on they posted this new sign ?

I really liked this sign.  

This hand-written, self-explanatory sign in a lighthouse made me smile with its understated way of requesting that visitors not smoke.

My favourite sign is this one.  

 Great advice for all of us.