my obsession with Boston Pizza, revealed

so I meant to post this during the Blackhawks' recent trip through Canada, where they defeated the Oilers, Flames, and Canucks (after wins at home against the Canadiens and Maple Leafs, both of which I attended). then I got lazy, but now I see Scotty Wazz has a bit about how the Winter Classic could be the battle of the Philly cheesesteak vs. the Boston cheesesteak, except the Boston one is from the Canadian chain Boston Pizza and as such might not have to do with the city of Boston.

this came up when I mentioned my obsession with BP previously and there was a comment about Boston vs. Chicago pizza and if I was betraying Chicago...my opinion of pizza in Boston? well, I've been to the original Pizzeria Regina in the North End, and I can tell you it was fantastically delicious and easily the equal or better of any pizza in Chicago pretty good. but Boston Pizza I only know from ads inside Canadian ice rinks, seen while watching online feeds of hockey games. and sometimes commercials during the show. I wanted to know what this chain was and looked up their website...AND FOUND THIS.

it's called "The Pepper Pizza." bell peppers are great on pizza, sure, but guacamole? and sour cream? ON A PIZZA? why? THIS IS WHY YOU CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS, Canada, like wins against the Blackhawks. I like guacamole and sour cream, but not on pizza.

now, they do also have some sort of pizza with pierogi ingredients on it, and that could be interesting. but I am baffled by this chain, and would welcome any explanation from Canadian readers. also, what's Mr. Sub like? Tim Horton's I know at least, I've been to stores in Providence and Buffalo.

re: Scotty Wazz's piece again, I think the Chicago vs. Detroit Winter Classic could have been the battle of hot dogs. Chicagoans are kind of fanatical about hot dogs (here's one I had) and the outrage of putting ketchup on them (whatever), and Detroit loves their coney dogs (and here's one I had) (and it's where all food in Detroit should be consumed for optimum enjoyment, inside an abandoned skyscraper you snuck into).

the HNIC report for 11/21/09

I got this blog finally up and running (i.e., moved nearly all my Tumblr content to Blogger) yesterday, and celebrated with...a Saturday night exactly like my past few. Discovering how to watch Hockey Night in Canada online = precipitous decline of Social Life in Chicago. But it was a good one last night. (And since I'm here now, I can promote my other blog by linking to how I got free beer at my local liquor store. It's relevant--I was drinking some of it last night.)

Capitals @ Maple Leafs and Red Wings @ Canadiens both started at 6:00 Central, but it took a long time for me to find working feeds for those (and I lost the Leafs one for a while). The feed I found for the latter game was in French, the first time I've ever watched sports in French. It's the "LNH"! I'm still learning hockey lingo in English, honestly, so I'm not sure what everything above means. I understood the Boston Pizza ad in French, later. Have I mentioned I'm obsessed with Boston Pizza? That ad was the most exciting part of the game for me, not that the French shouting wasn't entertaining...

The Habs had somewhat surprisingly beat the Caps the night before, and the Leafs had surprisingly beat the Wings two weeks earlier, so I was actually prepared to NOT be surprised if both Canadian teams won last night, too.  I hadn't before tried a screenshot of two games at once, but when both games went to a shootout at the same time, and I noticed it was two games of underperforming Canadian teams wearing blue and white (Habs were in retro jerseys again) versus highly ranked (well, not so much the Wings right now) American teams in red, I couldn't resist.

Canadiens lost. I wasn't rooting for them but against the Wings, of course. Oh well. The 30th-place Leafs beat the 2nd-place Caps. I had a hunch that could happen, even with Ovechkin playing, but I never jumped into the game thread discussion on Pension Plan Puppets, not wanting to jinx it somehow. Then the Blackhawks-Oilers game was on, and I listened to the WGN radio broadcast while watching a feed of the game that ranged from being about 30 seconds behind the radio to about 1:15 behind. Well, at least I don't miss any of the goals that way, which is more than I can say for the games I've attended in person. 

Questionable goal with 0.01 seconds left in the second period. It was overruled (both the Hawks and Oilers SB Nation game threads agreed it should be) but the incorrect score was up for a while, at least on the Oilers site. Oops. Hawks won 5-2 (Toews' first game this season with two goals), and I was so hyper when I checked the standings and saw Chicago 3rd in the entire league (2nd in Western as long as the Sharks keep winning--I had my eye on the Sharks-Ducks game at the same time as the Hawks one) I didn't get around to writing this last night.

it'll be Hockey Night in Canada on a computer in Chicago

it’s a beautiful day in Chicago, and I will go out, but then I’ll be back for HNIC. long story, but I’d never seen it until last month. and once you get used to watching live feeds of Canadian TV on the internet, you’ll NEVER WANT TO WATCH ANYTHING ELSE. or maybe that’s just me.

I mean, I’ve been to Tim Horton’s (in Buffalo and Providence), but never seen an ad for one. they have reasonably-priced lattes and the whole office was excited! then I saw an ad for the Canadian military! and apparently, there’s Subway and Taco Bell up there, too. (note: while I saw the glittering lights of Windsor yet again, just a few days ago, I haven’t actually set foot in Canada since 2001.) and don’t even get me started on Boston Pizza (which I looked up after the seeing the name in a rink): bell pepper pizza with guacamole and sour cream on it? a pierogi pizza? how horrible/wonderful does that sound? time to renew my passport!
and, of course I finally saw THIS: