Noteworthy: New auction location, nice temps, and jobs, jobs, jobs

By Medicine Hat News on December 8, 2018.

Medicine Hat needs a two- or three-level parkade downtown. Parking is sometimes just too difficult to find. A parkade could be a money-maker, or it could just be an investment by stakeholders to make it easy for Hatters to do business downtown, The recent sale of the Chokecherry parking lot next to the older Parker’s Furniture certainly didn’t enhance the situation. … Considering what happened Nov. 6 during the U.S. mid-term elections, is it safe to say that Donald Trump’s actions helped to “Make America Dem Again?” … Christopher Haley of Winnipeg won $1 million in the Safeways-Sobeys ‘score and win’ contest Nov. 24 when Patrik Laine of Winnipeg Jets had a five-goal game against St. Louis. It’s the first five-goal game by one player in the NHL since 2011. Haley will get his $1 million in 20 annual instalments of $50,000. People are automatically entered when they swipe their Air Miles card at a Sobeys or Safeway in the four western provinces and northwestern Ontario. … The annual auction for the Santa Claus Fund, being held this year at the Cypress Centre instead of the Corona, is on tonight. Lorraine Schmaltz and auctioneer Darren Lutz, for years the big wheels behind the huge fundraiser, are back at it again this year, giving it their all for the benefit of Hatters who may not otherwise have a merry Christmas. Changing the venue, we don’t think, will affect the turnout, because regular patrons of the auction know what a good time they have every year. Viewing of the wide array of items to be auctioned starts at 4 p.m. Lutz starts waving his auctioneer’s hammer around 7. … Not sure how accurate long-term forecasts are from Environment Canada or the Weather Network, but I like what I’m seeing for the next couple of weeks. Starting today, with a high of at or just above zero, Medicine Hat is forecast to have temperatures reaching into the plus range every day until at least Dec. 18, including 5 C on Monday. “Hey, Martha, cancel that trip we had planned to Palm Springs.” … Things aren’t going to be the same around this place in 2019 with the retirement of three long-time employees. Group publisher Mike Hertz’s last official day is Dec. 31 (but he will stay on in a partial consulting role in ’19); long-time sales representative Marion McRoberts will leave a big void, as will Mary Rose, who quietly goes about her advertising support duties. … One of these days we’ll have a video up on our website with some of the nicest Christmas-decorated homes and yards in Medicine Hat. Watch for newspaper notification. … Would you donate a kidney to a complete stranger? A Florida firefighter saw a plea on Facebook by a man whose 33-year-old daughter needed a transplant. He was tested, found to be compatible, and the surgery went well. Now that’s a pretty rare Christmas gift that not even Neiman Marcus could offer. … Pass the roast beef or (burp!) BBQ’d ribs: First there are contamination warnings about romaine lettuce, now packaged kale salad. It’s getting more difficult to eat healthy, so let’s just stick to that good Alberta beef. … Whatever happened to Kalan Porter? Ten years ago he was the talk of the Canadian entertainment scene. Thought for sure he was headed for Bieber-like fame. … That was quite an honour received by former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney — being asked to be one of four people to eulogize the 41st president of the United States, George H.W. Bush, at his funeral earlier this week. The two were friends while leading their respective countries and kept up their friendship in their post-governing days. … Quite an uncomfortable scene at the Bush funeral when the current president, Donald Trump, showed up. It’s so obvious all former presidents have a great deal of respect for each other, but it was also obvious that doesn’t apply to Trump, who has brought a great deal of shame to what has always otherwise been an office of the highest respect. … The biggest controversy in Britain isn’t about Brexit; it’s about the reported feud between the two newest high-ranking royals, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. The Queen may be on the verge of calling them in for a “chat.” … A recent study by KPMG showed that nearly two-thirds of Canadians don’t trust any organization to see or hold their personal data. The report, ‘Me, My Canadian Life, My Wallet’, finds that Canadians are among the most distrusting in the world with nearly one-third (31 per cent) unwilling to share their personal data for anything. China (91 per cent) and India (85 per cent) are the most trusting and willing to share their data. … Speed chart: Glaciers, snails, the Mueller investigation. … If your steak is under- or over-cooked and you feel as a result like the world is treating you badly, consider the plight of people of Yemen, who face life and death every day as that country’s civil war rages on. So far, estimates are that 50,000 people have perished as a result of the war or the associated famine. But hey, as long as it’s happening on the other side of the world, who cares, right? … Doom and gloom stories have recently outnumbered positive yarns on employment in Alberta, and then — eureka! — jobs numbers are released Friday that show 24,000 more people were working in the province in November. In the past 12 months, the number of people employed rose by 59,000 in this province. Not sure about that “job killing” carbon tax we hear about, but if it’s true, how many thousands of new jobs will be created by future premier Jason Kenney when the carbon tax is killed in mid-2019?