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canada

Tragically Hip song about a Ukrainian Canadian

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Ever hear the Tragically Hip‘s song Fifty Mission Cap (click to listen)?  It’s a song about Bill Barilko, a talented Ukrainian Canadian hockey player who played his whole NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs winning them four Stanley Cups in 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951.  Barilko scored the overtime goal against the rival Montreal Canadiens’ Gerry McNeil in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final on April 21, 1951 to clinch the Cup. In the off season he embarked on a fishing trip where his plane disappeared and none of the passengers were found.  The Maple Leafs would not win another Stanley Cup until the year they found his body 11 years later in 1962, ‘the Barilko Curse’.  This popular Canadian song tells that story, off their 1992 album Fully Completely.

There are plenty more great Ukrainian Canadian stories detailed here.  The ‘Hip is a popular band in Canada.

Edit:  Here are some of the lyrics:

Bill Barilko disappeared that summer,
he was on a fishing trip.

The last goal he ever scored
won the Leafs the cup

They didn’t win another until 1962,
the year he was discovered.

Fifty-mission caps are the peaked uniform caps of Allied airmen of WW2.  Wearing a crushed, beat-up cap was an unspoken testament to many missions flown and would confer upon the wearer the panache of a seasoned vet in the officer’s mess, or out on the town on leave.

canada, video

Ukrainian Food on Street Eats

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Street Eats is a show that airs in Toronto on SUN TV Sundays at 6 pm ET and weekdays at 8:30 am ET:

Joy visits Natalie’s Kitchen and helps decorate Ukrainian Easter Paska bread. As well, she learns the art of Patychky, breaded pork and chicken shish kebabs, and Nalysnyky, sauerkraut crêpes. Meanwhile, Ali goes shopping at Vatra for authentic Ukrainian groceries like buckwheat kasha, pickled mushrooms, and birch tree sap.

Both hosts pop into the Golden Lion Restaurant for potato and cheddar Varenyky – Ukrainian perogies. Chicken Kiev and Borsht are also on the menu and a hunk of crispy peanutty Kiev Torte.

A special treat is in store for music lovers – the rock band Klooch performs their song “Pershyj Raz” (First Time).

Natalie’s Kitchen, Catering, 416-249-8773
Vatra Cheese & Deli, 1092 Islington Avenue, Etobicoke, 416-237-0297
Golden Lion, 15 Canmotor Avenue, Toronto, 416-252-3456

Special thanks to Klooch

Edit: Sorry I botched embedded the videos from the site, here they are:

Nalysnyky – Head Cheese – Borscht – Klooch

PlayPlay

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

canada, politics

PM plans to Perogy Parliament

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From the way the ball bounces:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper intends to perogy Parliament. That’s right, in the great Western Canadian tradition, he will be serving up a hot, yummy dish of conciliatory Ukrainian perogies.

The Liberals, Bloq, Greens, and even Jack Lenin will find them irresistible!

And that’s the way the perogied Ball bounces.

Interesting times in Canadian politics, where Stephen Harper is asking the Governor General for a temporary halt to Parliament or snap elections.

Edit:  Oh those bloggers, it’s not perogy it’s prorogue parliament:

After a televised appeal to national unity that raised the spectre of separatism, the Prime Minister arrives at Rideau Hall to ask that Parliament be prorogued until January

From the dictionary:

pro·rogue (pr-rg)

tr.v. pro·rogued, pro·rogu·ing, pro·rogues

1. To discontinue a session of (a parliament, for example).
2. To postpone; defer.
news, usa

Ukrainian-American teen turns in $10,000 he found at store

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From Tacoma News Tribune:

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — A 17-year-old grocery bagger was ready to wash his hands in the bathroom at the Federal Way supermarket where he works when he saw a brown canvas money bag on the floor. Moisei Baraniuc was curious. He opened it and saw envelopes filled with money – “a pretty thick stack.”

…

“The first thing that went through my mind was keeping it,” he said.

And then the Ukrainian immigrant remembered what his father, Vitalie Baraniuc, always says at dinner at the family’s home in Pacific.

“My dad is always telling us in this life you’ve got to work for yourself,” said Baraniuc, who goes by the nickname Moses. “If you take what doesn’t belong to you, it will catch up to you.”

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canada, event

ROM’s Mysteries of Ancient Ukraine can thank recent events for long-lost history

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From the National Post:

Had the Orange Revolution never happened, Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko could never have designated the chair of the Royal Ontario Museum’s board of governors for a special mission.

…

The request: that Temerty and the ROM staff assemble, with the assistance of Ukrainian cultural institutions, an exhibition about the Trypilians, a people who lived in that part of the world thousands of years ago. Now, thanks to the Ukraine’s recent Orange Revolution, the museum has created the first major showcase on this continent of the little-known society that lived during the Neolithic revolution. Mysteries of Ancient Ukraine: the Remarkable Trypilian Culture (5400 – 2700 B.C.) opens tomorrow, filling a large part of the third floor of the Toronto museum with a collection largely consisting of earthenware containers and trinkets.

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Mysteries of Ancient Ukraine runs until March 22, 2009. A special Ukrainian Day takes place Sunday, find out how to visit for free!