Grey Cup vs Super Bowl, by J.C. Kavanagh

Darkness Descends, 

Book 2 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

The Super Bowl took place February 13 and wasn't it a grand spectacle? Even the game was exhilarating. As a Canadian, I'm fascinated by the exuberance Americans display for football in general and the Super Bowl in particular. It's taken very seriously south of the border, much like ice hockey is 'Number One' in Canada. But back to football. What's the difference between the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the National Football League (NFL)? Here's my list of almost-everything-you-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask.

Teams

CFL: There are 9 Canadian teams divided into Western and Eastern Divisions.

There are 32 US teams divided into two 'conferences' - the National Football Conference  and the American Football Conference.

Longevity

CFL is entering its 109th season since forming. However, modern-day rules and regulations began in 1958 (64 years ago).

NFL held its 56th Super Bowl (LVI) but was officially founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA), though renamed National Football League (NFL) in 1922. After merging with rival American Football League (AFL) in 1966, the first Super Bowl was held in 1967.

Halftime shows

Grey Cup performers since 1991 include: Shania Twain, Keith Urban, Justin Bieber, Nickelback, Blue Rodeo, Gordon Lightfoot, Bryan Adams and Celine Dion. Prior to 1991, the halftime show typically featured marching bands.

CFL Grey Cup halftime show in 2017,
with a Canadian entrance on a dog-sled - Shania Twain

LVI Super Bowl halftime show featuring Eminem, Mary J. Blige,
Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lemar

Super Bowl performers since 1993 include: Michael Jackson in 1993 who revolutionized the format and turned the halftime show into a 'must watch' feature, Prince, U2, Shania Twain, Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5, Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars, Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Lada Gaga.

Season Length 

CFL plays 18 games prior to playoffs, from mid-June to early November.

NFL plays 17 games prior to playoffs, from September to January.

Field Size

CFL field is 150 yards (450 ft.) long. Each end zone is 20 yards and the neutral playing field is 110 yards. Field width is 65 yards (195 ft.)

NFL field is 120 yards long (360 ft.) End zones are 10 yards and neutral playing field is 100 yards. Field width is 53 yards (160 ft.)

Downs

CFL has three downs (attempts) to gain 10 yards in order to retain possession of the ball. Canadian teams favour long, 'passing' plays as a result, and teams tend to select 'running' athletes over bulk.

NFL has four downs to gain 10 yards. 

Players on field

CFL allows 12 players, with one additional 'receiver' due to the larger field area.

CFL 12 player field format

NFL 11 players field format

NFL allows 11 players.

Salary

CFL - average annual salary is $80,000 (US) and highest paid quarterback receives approximately $600,000 US.

NFL - minimum contract is $660,000 and highest paid quarterback receives $45 million per season (Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes).

Out-of-bounds catch rule

CFL requires player to have one foot on the ground, within the playing field, after catching the ball.

NFL rules dictate two feet on the ground after the catch.

Pass complete as Pittsburg Steelers player manages to keep both feet in-bound
(photo not from LVI Super Bowl)

Grey Cup vs Lombardi Trophy

CFL awards the Grey Cup to the game-winning team. In 1909, the cup was donated by Earl Grey, then the Governor General of Canada.

Canadian Football League Championship trophy:
The Grey Cup

NFL Super Bowl Champion team receives the Lombardi Trophy 

NFL awards the Lombardi Trophy to the winning Super Bowl team. It was named after the late Vince Lombardi, a player with five NFL championships and two Super Bowl wins. Mr. Lombardi passed in 1970 after a battle with cancer and the NFL board voted to name the Super Bowl trophy in his memory.

Trivia: In case you were wondering, it's estimated that 1.42 billion, yes billion, chicken wings were consumed on Super Bowl Sunday in the U.S. 

(All numbers and stats courtesy of Wikipedia, NFL and CFL official websites.)

Until next time, stay safe everyone.

 

J.C. Kavanagh, author of
The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2)
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
AND
The Twisted Climb, voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll

Voted Favourite Local Author, 2021
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)
Instagram @authorjckavanagh
 

Myers-Briggs for Writers by Mohan Ashtakala

 

 The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has long been a favorite among authors. In fact, the first novelist to use the Indicator was Katherine Cook Briggs, its founder, as a better way to understand her characters.

The MBTI, by way of personality tests, categorizes individuals into sixteen different archetypes, based on Carl Jung’s idea of cognitive functions. The personality test measures the extent of the test-taker’s adherence to the following characteristics: Introvert (I) or Extrovert (E); Sensor (S) or Intuitive (I); Feeler (F) or Thinker (T); and Judger (J) or Perceiver (P.) Each of these sixteen archetypes is assigned a four letter label, and personality traits are ascribed to each such archetype.

But the MBTI is much more than a description of different personality archetypes. Its examination of cognitive functions—Sensing, Intuition, Feeling and Thinking; allows for deeper exploration and “fleshing Out” of characters, especially when combined with “external” characteristics such as Introvert, Extrovert, Judger or Perceiver.

Sometimes, authors run into the problem of multiple characters who, despite outward appearance, all think and act the same way. The MBTI is useful because it allows writers to go beyond characters with whom they are familiar, based on personal experience. By using the MBTI, writers can create primary or secondary characters who would be true to their “character,” in terms of how they think and act. Genuinely diverse characters are important in creating believable tension, an important function in novel-writing.

As one may expect, the MBTI has shown usefulness in many areas, especially in Human Resource departments in the corporate world.

There are critics of the MBTI. Specifically, some find the number of categories to be limited, and perhaps, not fully useful in describing the enormous number of personalities that exist in real life. Of course, pigeon-holing a character into one archetype or another can be misleading. But, since MBTI is one of the earliest personality type indexes, a lot of literature and studies exist regarding the various personality types. This rich repository of information, if well-understood, can help authors create characters who, while showing distinct personalities, are believable and consistent in their words and deeds.

 

Mohan Ashtakala (www.mohanauthor.com) is the author of The Yoga Zapper, a fantasy, and Karma Nation, a literary romance. he is published by Books We Love (www.bookswelove.com.) 

 

The past is more familiar than we think....by Sheila Claydon

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Readers who have read the first two books of my Mapleby Memories trilogy will know that the heroines in both books travel back in time. In Remembering Rose, Rachel travelled back to the 1800s, while in Loving Ellen, Millie only travelled back a few years. The final book is different because this time both the hero and heroine travel back in time together, to the thirteenth century. Writing it has required more research than my other books. Thank goodness for the Internet!

I have learned so much while writing, some of it really surprising. It is, for example, a fairly commonly held belief that people in the Middle Ages never bathed and rarely changed their clothes. This, I discovered, is wrong. True they didn't have bathrooms or showers, and water had to be heated over a fire, but they did wash, both themselves and their clothes, and were as clean as it was possible to be in the often very difficult circumstances of their lives.

I learned, too, that when buying and selling goods they issued receipts much as we do today, and kept invoice books. And towns in medieval times were bustling with traders and craftsmen. No malls and supermarkets then. The people were all individual traders. As well as those we still recognise today such as bakers, brewers, bricklayers, locksmiths and carpenters, there were jesters, acrobats and minstrels who also played a part in everyday life. It was a sophisticated society too. There were barristers, engineers and architects for example, and diplomats, navigators and playwrights. In fact there were far too many occupations available in the Middle Ages for me to mention here. The list is endless.

Castles, too, were interesting. Even the smallest castle had around 50 servants, from chamberlains, laundresses, cooks, chefs and butlers to stewards, marshals and chaplains. Many even had their own doctor, dentist and apothecary. Living in a castle was like residing in a small town. And of course there were knights and soldiers as well. The downside of working in a castle was that the majority of employees were paid by the day. Only people such as the steward, the marshal and the chaplain were paid annually. Consequently most jobs were not secure because whenever the Lord travelled away, to battle or to court, or for any other business, many of the workers would be laid off until his return.

There were huge discrepancies in wealth too, far more than today, and most of the population had to survive on very little. There were no pensions, benefits or sickness payments. No health service. The majority of the population were peasants who had to rely on the goodwill of the Lord who owned the land they worked, and on monks and friars treating them when they were ill.  Some were lucky enough to have a benevolent master, but many were not.

I have woven many of these facts, the good and the bad, into my book, and when it is published in May I hope readers will not only enjoy the story but also the facts they will learn. Now all I have to do is edit it myself before sending to Books We Love for a second edit. Then there might be a third one before, all being well, it is published in May.

Oh and I have to do one other thing. Find a title! The first two books in the trilogy are Remembering Rose and Loving Ellen. To keep things neat I really need to come up with something similar. Unfortunately I am finding this really, really difficult. Still that is a writer's lot. I'm sure I'll get there.

Brave Enough for Happy Ever After?

 

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It’s that time of year again, when pundits come up with lists of the most important love stories of all time…You’ll often find these make the grade:

Romeo and Juliet (1597) by William Shakespeare

Anna Karenina (1877) by Leo Tolstoy

Doctor Zhivago (1957) by Boris Pasternak

Love Story (1970) by Erich Segal

The Notebook (1996) by Nicholas Sparks

Bridges of Madison County (1992) Robert James Waller

Cold Mountain (1997) Charles Fraizer

The Great Gatsby(1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

What do they have in common, dear readers? Here’s my list:

1.They are written by men

2. Things don’t end well.

Now, let’s consider:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)

Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Bronte

Gone With The Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell

Yes. Written by women, and.... everybody gets to survive. Even the heroine of problematic Gone With the Wind is left with the Pandora’s Box gift of hope. 

Why are there so many modern Jane Austen variations? So many sequels to popular HEA (Happy Ever After) romances? Why does Lizzy solve mysteries and the Bennet sisters battle zombies? 

Because romantic happy ever afters are not dead ends of grief and regret (and, as in those crazy kids Romeo and Juliet: bad timing).  

Happy Ever Afters leave us to imagine the future. Did the lovers make good parents? How did they handle the slings and arrows of life? Did they grow stronger together? In short, were they brave enough for their Happy Ever After? 

So… give me Jane Austen’s Emma and and Lizzy. Give me Charlotte’s indomitable Jane, and Shakespeare’s Beatrice and Rosalind and Portia.  They are brave enough to last through a long and wonderful life with their heroes.

A Romantic Birthday

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Like many people, I celebrated a milestone birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic. I spent it in Mexico last fall, during the lull between the delta and omicron variant surges. My kids offered to treat me to the 'experience' gift of my choice while I was there. I thought the ideal present should be something I'd enjoy, but wouldn't splurge on myself. In Puerto Vallarta, I scanned the English language newspaper and spotted an ad for The Iguana Restaurant in the Casa Kimberly Boutique Hotel, the former home of actress Elizabeth Taylor. I decided, this is it! My husband Will and I made a reservation for my birthday at 6:00 p.m., to catch the sunset. 

In 1964 Elizabeth Taylor and actor Richard Burton had a torrid affair in Puerto Vallarta, during the filming of his movie, The Night of the Iguana. Their romance thrilled and shocked the world and is credited with turning the off-the-beaten-path fishing village into a booming tourist destination. On our four previous holidays in Puerto Vallarta, Will and I had walked by the Taylor and Burton homes in Gringo Gulch, uphill from downtown. A pedestrian bridge connects their two residences. You can peek at the statue of them in the hotel entrance, but can't see more than that without staying or eating at the Casa Kimberly. 

 

Armed with our reservation, this time we made it inside.  

   On our walk up the staircase to the restaurant, we were greeted by Liz herself. 

Our courteous server showed us to our table, which had a fabulous view from the open-air window. 

We could see the ocean, although this picture below washes it out and the condominium in the distance blocked our view of the sun sinking into the bay. The cupola stands atop Burton's former home, now part of the Casa Kimberly Hotel. During dinner, Will noticed people on the bridge and wondered if they'd climbed up from the street for a moment of romance. We found out later this wasn't the case.    

We started our meal with cocktails and appetizers. I ordered The Iguana Salad and Will chose the bean and poblano soup, which arrived in an interesting two-colour presentation. 

I loved my salad and had a spoonful of Will's soup, which tasted amazing. Will agreed. For our main courses, he had Cornish hen and I had Diablo Shrimp, which was delicious. I feel like a restaurant critic when I say that the subtle flavours blended into a complete dish that tasted Mexican, yet different. 

Of course, I had to check out the restrooms. They turned out to be ordinary, but the walk there passed through the spacious atrium and a Taylor/Burton photo and movie poster display. 

 

 

It's strange how the ghostly presence of these movie stars enhanced the restaurant's atmosphere, but it did for me even though Elizabeth Taylor was a little before my time. Richard Burton's career peaked later in his life and I'm more familiar with him as an actor and personality. Incidentally, he was my introduction to the concept of imposter syndrome. In a television interview, he confided his fear that people would discover that his acting was no more than what everyone did in their living rooms. Some called him the greatest actor of his day, and I was impressed with his vulnerability.

While I was away from the table, Will asked for the dessert menu. The server wouldn't give it to him until I returned, because it was my birthday. I chose a chocolate cake for Will and me to share. It arrived with decorations.  

As I took my first bite of cake, fireworks exploded behind the high rise building on the bay. This wasn't as as special as you might think, since they set off fireworks in Puerto Vallarta every night.  

We left the restaurant feeling our dinner was worth very peso. On our way out, we solved the mystery of the people on the lovers' bridge. The Casa Kimberly had opened the bridge part way so restaurant patrons could get a glimpse into Burton's former residence, enjoy a photo opportunity, and end the evening with a touch of magic.