Opinion

Whistler’s Snoweaters gather to say goodbye to a cherished friend

The Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival starts this weekend, the annual celebration of winter, skiing, snowboarding, Big Air, big parties and other things that we're all here for.

I'm not so naïve that I still believe that the best things in life are free anymore. Almost everything has a cost, even your spare time and every day you're alive it costs money for housing, utilities, groceries, and other necessities.

A heartfelt thanks to all who came out to Dusty's last Thursday to help celebrate the life and times of Shane McConkey, skiing's most influential star. As skiers, we are all in some way indebted to him and his zest for the sport.

Many years ago, in one of the idiosyncrasies of journalism school, we spent a day writing obituaries. The instructor talked about not making them too flowery, as had been the fashion decades earlier.

Sometimes, I admit, I could probably use a robot around the house. It could clean the bathrooms, vacuum the floor under Elly's high chair, bring beer from the fridge when the game goes into overtime, and have dinner waiting after a long day at work.

There are Snoweaters. And then there are Snoweaters. Multi-linguist, passionate glisseur , innovative tech guy and event organizer par excellence: the man they call JiPé has been in love with sliding on skis since he was just a little guy.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but if you're in the electronics business it also makes good business sense.

On Monday, General Motors and Chrysler were given 60 and 30 days respectively to restructure, or face some form of bankruptcy. Once one of the largest companies in the world, GM has lost $82 billion since 2004.

Seeing as I was in the neighbourhood...