Hey all. The NHL hockey playoffs are really heating up! I’m currently in a very respectable third place in my hockey pool and I have a decent chance to beat chickaDEE editor Aron for the top spot. Woo hah!
OWL blog reader Madison recommended this goal by Brampton, Ontario’s
Rick Nash last week, and I was so impressed I thought I’d share it with you guys as well. Here we go:
Sick of hockey? Still want more? Let me hear it in the comments section.
This is the picture on the desktop of my computer at the OWL office. Awesome, right? No: incredible. Great colours, hilarious placement of the stuffed animals… what’s not to love about this photo?
The story is this: OWL received it for a photo contest a while ago and, though it was in the running, it didn’t get selected the winner. But then Susan, our art director, scanned it and made it her desktop. (FUN FACT: It replaced a picture of Neil Finn, lead singer of Australian rock band Crowded House.) I did the same and it’s been there ever since.
Anyway, if anyone knows anything about this photo, or about “Rumney Farms,” please email me. We’ve lost the entry info for the photo and I don’t know who took it. I want to give the photographer a high five!
Heya! Here it is: the largest OWL mailbag in the history of OWL mailbags. Some of these questions have been sitting with me for a couple weeks now, so we’ve got no time to waste! Let’s get straight to the Q&A:
Q: Hello! I am 9 years old. I used to read chickaDEE, but my Uncle Pete says I should read OWL. What should I expect from OWL?
— Samantha B.
CB: Hey Samantha! Welcome to OWL. You can expect a lot of what you loved about chickaDEE (fun puzzles, funny comics, cool animals, and neat science stuff), and you can also expect some more current events, weird news, advice, and reviews of new books, CDs, movies, and video games.
Q: I was really wondering if you could put Max Finder with Alex and Charlie together in one comic. Can you?
— yustani, 9
CB: Hmm. That’s an interesting an idea. It would be very cool if the two worlds could collide somehow. Kind of like a comic all-star game!
Q: Where do you get all the comics from? Can you put more comics in the magazine?
— Katherine
CB: We create all of our own comics. Or, should I say, our comic creators create all of our comics for us. When we’re planning OWL issues, the writers come up with a bunch of ideas and we pick our faves. When they’re finished with the stories, we pass them along to the artists, who put it all together in comic form. Cool, huh?
If you want more comics to read, check out Brian McLachlan’s web comic:
“The Princess Planet.” Brian is the guy who writes “Alex and Charlie” every month, and he’s generally a very funny and smart dude. Enjoy!
Q: Do you think you can put in a Top 10 list of OWL readers’ choices of their fave pop artists?
— Brittney
CB: I would love to, but right now I don’t have one. This one’s up to you guys! Send me your picks for your favourite artists and I’ll add up the results and post them on the blog. Care to get us started, Brittney?
Q: I know you have talked about basketball, hockey, etc., but I was wondering about another sport. I am a competitive swimmer. How do you like swimming?
— Emily
CB: I love swimming, although I’m not exactly graceful at it. You know how you’re supposed to swim with your face down in the water? Yeah, I never really learned how to do that. But when I was the sports editor at my university newspaper, I covered a lot of swimming. It’s exciting. Here’s a question for you, Emily: can you do that flip in the water at the end of a lap? I always wanted to be able to do that.
Q: What happened to OWL’s annual story contest? I love to write and I’d like to try and get my story published in OWL!
— Frank
CB: Hey Frank! Don’t worry. The story contest is still around. We do it every October, and we like to switch up the rules to keep it interesting. This year we gave readers a picture and asked them to write a story about it. We actually just published the winning entry in our April issue.
Q: What’s the hardest thing about working on OWL magazine? What is the easiest?
— Katie
CB: The hardest thing: coming up with good “Hot Topic” articles. (Here is a link to the current month’s question. The whole story is in our May issue.) It’s one of my favourite sections, but it’s tough to get just right. The easiest thing: writing the blog. You guys come up with such good questions! The blog practically writes itself.
Q: I totally agree with Emily’s comment. Can we PLEASE do an issue on swimming?
— Joolz
CB: Whoa. You guys really love your swimming. The bad news: we probably can’t do a whole issue on the subject. The good news: I’ll definitely look into doing more stories in the magazine. The other good news: I found a really cool YouTube clip about the world’s largest swimming pool. Check it out:
Q: Do you think you could put in a word search contest?
— Katherine
CB: Sure! I like that idea a lot, Katherine. Maybe we’ll do one in the fall. If not, definitely by the spring. Keep an eye out for that, word searchers.
One of the most common letters I get at OWL goes something like this: “Contests! Put more contests in the magazine… PLEASE!” And I can see why. Contests are great. Take the ones from the May issue, for example. Sudoku? Poetry? Sign me up. That stuff is fun!
Now for some hilarity. Let’s just say I could enter the OWL contests for a second. (Note: I’m a little old to enter. But just a little…) Anyway, if I could enter OWL’s Scrabble Poetry Contest, I might go with a haiku.
Here’s my best effort:
think like a wind sock
and soar like some wonderful
white elephant moth
POETIC LICENCE ALERT! It turns out there’s no such thing as an elephant moth. But there is such a thing as an elephant hawk moth. (It’s just not white.) Which just goes to prove once again that you learn something new every day.
Anyone else entering the poetry contest? Anyone else write poetry, period? Fill me in!
Hey all. As promised in last week’s mailbag, I’m going to answer some serious hockey questions this week. I’ve also invited Aron Slipacoff, chickaDEE editor and hockey fanatic, to help me out.
Let’s rock and roll:
Q: Hey Craig! Are you interested in hockey at all? If so, who do you think will win the Stanley Cup? — Elle
CB: I must confess: I’m not the biggest hockey fan in the world. But this time of year I get fired up for the NHL playoffs just like anyone else. I joined a playoff pool with Aron and some other friends and picked the Detroit Red Wings. However, as the playoffs go on, I like the Pittsburgh Penguins to win more and more. They’ve got the two best offensive players left (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin), and their goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is pretty amazing. Here is a funny story I read about him and the science of goalie pads (what?).
AS: Am I interested in hockey? That’s putting it mildly. For me, hockey’s a lifestyle. I play it, watch it, talk it — heck — I even ref it! Many of my friends are the same way. But not all of them. Like Craig, for instance. Craig’s always talking about basketball. And if he’s not talking about it, then he’s playing it. It’s his game, I guess. But guess what? Earlier this year, I made a deal with him. I would join his basketball pool if he would join my hockey pool. And so he did! It’s his first ever, so wish him luck.
Q: Who is your fave hockey player and what is your fave hockey team?
— Allison
CB: Wow. That’s a hard one for me. I hear a lot of good things about this “Gretzky” fellow. He’s going to be amazing! (Just kidding.) I was born and raised in British Columbia, so my allegiances lie with the Vancouver Canucks. Too bad they didn’t even make the playoffs! My favourite player is… Alexander Ovechkin? I like what I see of him on the highlight reels. A lot:
AS: Wow is right! I also love Ovechkin and Vancouver is MY favourite team! Good choices, Craig. The difference is I like Vancouver because of the Sedin twins, not because I was born in B.C. The Sedins are like machines. But not just any machines. They’re like twin robots with a wireless brain connection, programmed to be cool and play hockey like all-stars. Where can I buy robots like that? Ha! I can’t! And that’s why everyone should be a Vancouver fan, because you can’t get the Sedin twins anywhere else. One and only, baby. Er, two and only.
Q: Did you ever play on a minor league hockey team when you were a kid?
— Madison
CB: Um, not exactly. I took figure skating for a year when I was 10. I also played street hockey in front of my house. Does that count? Mainly I played soccer, football, softball (AKA “fast pitch”), and — surprise! — basketball. Did I mention I’m a big basketball fan? (Note: to those of you who’ve been paying serious attention, my Tuesday night basketball team lost in the finals to a juggernaut of a recreational squad called The Disabled List. Man, they were on fire!)
AS: Tweet! Two minutes for such a good question. Minor hockey is the best! Okay, all minor league sports are awesome, but I mostly played minor hockey. I’ll always remember my first year. I was 10. My coach sent me on the ice and said, “Go lead this team like I know you can!” Wow. That was such a powerful moment for me. He made me feel so proud. I bet Craig knows this feeling. His basketball teammates and his ultimate frisbee team are always giving him huge props for how good he is! Cool, eh? Cool like hockey!
–
Once again, thanks for all the questions, guys! And thanks to Aron for being such a good “sport!” Next week we’ll be back to normal, random questions, so send me whatever ideas, comments, queries you’ve got saved up. Talk to you then.
Loading ...
