Inter Milan became the last team to progress to the quaterfinals of the UEFA Champions League with a 3-1 victory last night over last season's defending champions FC Porto. Striker Adriano scored a hattrick and was the star of the night. Porto lost most of their top-notch stars and most importantly their coach Jose Maurinho. Most critics say that his lose was the crucial factor in Porto not being able to repeat last year's performance. But hey, I think that it was just a one off.



Ryan Smyth is one of my favourite hockey players. This guy would die for his sport & his team. A star of the Edmonton Oilers, the Banff, Alberta born Smyth had an accident when he was child. The doctors told him that he would not walk let alone skate & play competitive hockey at the highest level. But Smyth had other ideas, he plays with metal rods in one leg.



Paul Gross is an actor/director/musician. The Canadian Gross is best known for his splendid performance as Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP in the hit series DUE SOUTH. Certainly his role is one of my favs as I can't imagine a character quite like his - a Mountie who is so polite, he also never carries a gun while on the search for criminals.


Paul Gross is also a singer and he is responsible for one of my favourite songs of all time - a barnstorming single called 32 Down on the Robert MacKensie". This song is also featured on the soundtrack of Due South and was in an episode during the last season of the series (where I heard it for the first time). He is backed formidably by fellow Canadians, Captain Tractor.



32 Down On The Robert McKenzie
==============================
32 men on a Great Lake boat quit the pier at Thunder Bay
28,000 tons of coal on a cold November day
800 feet and 10 more long, 80 feet across
The steel mills of Detroit our destination through the frost.

At 2 a.m. on the second, waves were running up to 40 feet
Winds were blowing 60 miles, our engines crankin' heat
At 3:13 we took a wave, our wheelhouse left behind
The radar slipped beneath the waves, and we were running blind

Chorus
Here me call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home someday
(Steel boats, Iron men) 32 down on the Robert McKenzie
(Steel boats, Iron men) 32 down on the Robert McKenzie
(Steel boats, Iron men) 32 down on the Robert McKenzie

A captain name of Phillips, seekin' shelter from the storm
Turned us south of Bete Grise Bay by way of Keewenaw Point
But the winds were pushing at such a rate we ended up drifting north
A wave broke over a knife of a rock six fathom shoal

The McKenzie she was cut in half and the stern she rammed the bow
Men were caught in metal jaws and flames burned out of hell
Stern kept runnin' all her lights ablaze, not one man would be found
Captain's last transmission read, 32 men down, 32 men down.

Chorus

Here me call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home someday.
Yes I call across the waves
If I don't come home tonight
I will make it home someday.

Song for the day - "32 Down On The Robert MacKensie" - PAUL GROSS