Ah, the life of a Canadian kid.

The light starts dropping at 4pm.

Dinner is had by 6pm, and you REALLY hope it wasn't going to be poached fish in milk, or liver and onions...

There was just time to watch a bit of TV, and maybe get your homework done, before the game started at 8. You didn't know it at the time, but you were listening to history being made.

The “scintillating saves”, the “Savardian-spinarama”, the “Oh baby!” and the “Holy mackinaw!”

These were the words that became the catch-phrases of this Leaf fan's youth.

Today's focus is on the man who just retired, after using one of those sentences for over 40 years, to help celebrate the successes of his favourite hockey team.

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If you would like to be a part of my podcast, please send me a recording of you saying, “This podcast is produced by the Fireside Chat Club of Canada”, and you can be the first voice that people around the world, hear every week!

Please send it to: AsISeeIt@whorpole.ca

AND, you can also contribute, by Buying Me A Coffee. Please go to my website – https://whorpole.ca and click on the yellow “Buy Me A Coffee” icon. It'll help me in my endeavour to find and produce the best Canadian content for you, every week.

This is a musical week.

I talk about a gentleman who wrote the song that brings pride to every Canadian who sings it, and a gentleman who wrote music that we all know...whether we know it or not...and had the best.singing.voice.ever.

Calixa Lavallée and Leonard Cohen. I just realized that their initials are the same...but reversed. I didn't plan that...honestly. Calixa and Cohen – sounds like a comedy duo! They're not necessarily funny when played together, but they are definitely entertaining. Join me, as I take a brief look at what they have given to Canada.

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I'm still looking for your stories of your home province – please send them to me (audio file or a few paragraphs that I can read) to me at the SAME address you can use, if YOU want to be a part of MY podcast. For that, please send me a recording of you saying, “This podcast is produced by the Fireside Chat Club of Canada”.

Send either of those to: AsISeeIt@whorpole.ca

AND, you can also contribute, by Buying Me A Coffee. Please go to my website – https://whorpole.ca and click on the yellow “Buy Me A Coffee” icon. It'll help me in my endeavour to find and produce the best Canadian content for you, every week.

This week, my stream-of-consciousness gene kicks in.

It all started with “one little spark of inspiration”, and a name, and I was off.

A little nod to a new podcast I'm listening to now – Dropping Names. One thing led to another, and boom, I have a podcast.

AND, a proposal for a Canadian version of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”... The Garber Effect. Let me know what you think!

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I'm still looking for your stories of your home province – please send them to me (audio file or a few paragraphs that I can read) to me at the SAME address you can use, if YOU want to be a part of MY podcast. For that, please send me a recording of you saying, “This podcast is produced by the Fireside Chat Club of Canada”.

Send either of those to: AsISeeIt@whorpole.ca

AND, you can also contribute, by Buying Me A Coffee. Please go to my website – https://whorpole.ca and click on the yellow “Buy Me A Coffee” icon. It'll help me in my endeavour to find and produce the best Canadian content for you, every week.

Every once in a while, I check on the numbers of the podcast.

So, we're looking at those.

AND, I submit to you a theory that I have that looks at a potential perfect storm that could happen, when it comes to all of Toronto's professional sports teams.

AND, an update on the Blue Jays game that I reference on the pod – oh boy, what a game. Reminiscent of a bit of the world series run – the Blue Jays took it in the 11th inning: 8-7!

*****

I'm still looking for your stories of your home province – please send them to me (audio file or a few paragraphs that I can read) to me at the SAME address you can use, if YOU want to be a part of MY podcast. For that, please send me a recording of you saying, “This podcast is produced by the Fireside Chat Club of Canada”.

Send either of those to: AsISeeIt@whorpole.ca

AND, you can also contribute, by Buying Me A Coffee. Please go to my website – https://whorpole.ca and click on the yellow “Buy Me A Coffee” icon. It'll help me in my endeavour to find and produce the best Canadian content for you, every week.

Today, I'm talking about the Montréal Canadiens, the NHL team.

It's been a bit of a crazy week for me – I'll tell you more in the podcast.

And to answer the question that I started in the podcast – Montréal did, in fact beat the New York Islanders, 7-3.

Check out “not me”, not watching the Canadiens playing “last night” on TV, on my Instagram feed - https://www.instagram.com/firesidechatcoc/ I have to admit, this one looks a lot more like me!

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I'm still looking for your stories of your home province – please send them to me (audio file or a few paragraphs that I can read) to me at the SAME address you can use, if YOU want to be a part of MY podcast. For that, please send me a recording of you saying, “This podcast is produced by the Fireside Chat Club of Canada”.

Send either of those to: AsISeeIt@whorpole.ca

AND, you can also contribute, by Buying Me A Coffee. Please go to my website – https://whorpole.ca and click on the yellow “Buy Me A Coffee” icon. It'll help me in my endeavour to find and produce the best Canadian content for you, every week.

Today's podcast is not about my mother.

Well, that's because her name was Shirley, and well, she would never have used that phrase.

No, today I am speaking about a Canadian who worked his way up through the entertainment trenches to arguably achieve his greatest success in his later years.

Today, I take a look at the life of Leslie William Nielsen.

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I'm still looking for your stories of your home province – please send them to me (audio file or a few paragraphs that I can read) to me at the SAME address you can use, if YOU want to be a part of MY podcast. For that, please send me a recording of you saying, “This podcast is produced by the Fireside Chat Club of Canada”.

Send either of those to: AsISeeIt@whorpole.ca

AND, you can also contribute, by Buying Me A Coffee. Please go to my website – https://whorpole.ca and click on the yellow “Buy Me A Coffee” icon. It'll help me in my endeavour to find and produce the best Canadian content for you, every week.

My voice is almost back. I'd say it's at 75%

I'm calling on my buddy Ryan to help out again, but I'll be there too!

This week, it's all about comfortability. Just taking it easy with what I know.

Hockey and movies.

I'm still looking for your stories of your home province – please send them to me (audio file or a few paragraphs that I can read) to me at the SAME address you can use, if YOU want to be a part of MY podcast. For that, please send me a recording of you saying, “This podcast is produced by the Fireside Chat Club of Canada”.

Send either of those to: AsISeeIt@whorpole.ca

AND, you can also contribute, by Buying Me A Coffee. Please go to my website – https://whorpole.ca and click on the yellow “Buy Me A Coffee” icon. It'll help me in my endeavour to find and produce the best Canadian content for you, every week.

My colds are like leap years. I get one a year, and every four years, I get a doozy. This isn't a leap year though – I guess I'm on a Winter Olympic schedule...

This week, I enlisted the help of some AI, both on the writing-side and the recording-side.

I will not be changing to this method for the podcast, this is just to give my voice a rest.

Just for funsies, I also asked Google AI to create a picture of me in a studio, referencing a photo of me that exists online. Check out my Instagram to see the pic: https://www.instagram.com/firesidechatcoc/

I'm going through all of the home remedies, and hope to be back to my old self for next week's show.

I'm still looking for your stories of your home province – please send them to me (audio file or a few paragraphs that I can read) to me at the SAME address you can use, if YOU want to be a part of MY podcast. For that, please send me a recording of you saying, “This podcast is produced by the Fireside Chat Club of Canada”.

Send either of those to: AsISeeIt@whorpole.ca

AND, you can also contribute, by Buying Me A Coffee. Please go to my website – https://whorpole.ca and click on the yellow “Buy Me A Coffee” icon. It'll help me in my endeavour to find and produce the best Canadian content for you, every week.