Mysterious explosions? Widely reported and speculated upon, there were some loud bangs on or about Aug. 9; they even had the fire department out looking, but as far as we know, nothing came of it. The best explanation seems to be something called Tannerite, which is a product you can buy and then shoot at to make a big bang just for the fun of it. Or so we hear. This was supposedly happening in the jackpines area northeast of Slave Lake. Of course the Internet is full of videos of Tannerite explosions. All good fun until somebody gets hurt, as they say. Occasionally somebody does, such as the guy in Georgia who packed an old lawnmower with Tannerite and used it for target practice. The explosion was so violent, a chunk of the lawnmower took off the guy’s leg.
Slave Lake swimmers were at the provincial championships in Edmonton this past weekend in force. According to Sharks’ coach Darcy Hoover, 16 of the 17 kids who competed at the regionals in Grande Prairie on Aug. 17 qualified for provincials. It’s of course very tough to get on the podium at a provincial tournament, but we have high hopes and will publish the results next week. The provincials were at the Kinsmen Sports Centre pool Aug. 16 – 18.
Okay, quiz time, Page 9 readers. We’ve reduced one of this week’s news stories to its essence. Here it is: ‘Blah, blah – snip, snip – munch, munch.’ Can you guess which one it is?
Okay, so that’s a bit on the cynical side. Sorry about that. But it still works.
It’s been a bad summer for some things, but wildlife sighting isn’t one of them. Bears, of course, are everywhere. If you haven’t seen one in your back yard, it’s probably only a matter of time. Skunks are less common, but we did see one in a ditch a few days ago, near Marten Beach. And on the way up there something that very likely was a mink ran across the highway. Here’s the skunk – mostly hidden by grass, but it was the best we could do.
Further on the bear story, Jeremy Lindsay of Fish & Wildlife tells us they have removed one bear from along the creek, and have traps set up there, at Big Fish Bay and one in Marten Beach. There’s no way all the bears are going to be caught and removed, though, so just be careful and remove the attractants from your back yard. Lindsay says there’s also a plan to improve visibility along the trails.
Okay, here’s a new one from the world of petty theft. A resident in the northeast part of Slave Lake says somebody has been stealing flowers out of their yard! What’s the world coming to?
By the way, we made a mistake in an Aug. 1 story about the town’s sewage lagoon upgrade project. Ammonia and nitrogen levels in the discharge are not “exceeding” the allowable limits, says Doug Baird, the town’s project manager. Discharges are still just within those limits, but it was determined if the town grew at all, it would push the effluent over the limits. That’s what necessitated the upgrade.
If we say ‘The Town of Slave Lake has been receiving noxious weed complaints,’ does that suggest the complaints are noxious?
Just wondering.
Curly Burdock? For some reason, that term caused the majority of M.D. councillors to burst out laughing in the middle of councillor Esau’s report on the recent doings of the ag service board last week. Possibly it had to do with fatigue, thanks to the meeting entering its sixth hour. Or maybe a combination of fatigue and caffeine. Anyway, Curly Burdock may or may not be the name of a sidekick character in a John Wayne western, but it is one of the weeds the ASB is attempting to control.
News flash….. beer drinkers attract mosquitos. They prefer Type O blood, but if you drink beer and have smelly feet, chances are they’ll be attracted to you more than to somebody who abstains from the suds. This intelligence comes via a fellow (Timothy Winegard) who wrote a book about the mosquito’s influence on history, which he claims is huge. For example, he figures the British victory over the French at the Plains of Abraham in 1759 was partly thanks to mosquito-borne disease.
Winegard’s book is called The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator.
By the way, Winegard doesn’t know why beer attracts mosquitos. It just does.