[browna]

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

What was this about? I missed it.

Back in 2001, a British writer in Edmonton to cover world track championships,titled “Deadmonton comes alive”:

Like each and every one of Edmonton's 900,000 citizens, Joey, my friendly neighbourhood cab driver, is touchingly - if bafflingly - proud of his home town, dubbed `Deadmonton' for the paucity of its attractions by one member of the British team. "Deadmonton? No way. It's known throughout North America as the City of Champions," related my self-appointed tourist guide.
"Wayne Gretzki began his ice hockey career here, winning four Stanley Cups with the Oilers, and it has staged just about every major sporting event you can think of." "Such as?" I prompted.

"The 1978 Commonwealth Games," recited Joey, with practised ease. "The 1983 World University Games, the 1996 World Figure Skating Championships."
"Anything else?" I inquired as Joey racked his brains.
"Oh, yeah, the World Tae Kwon-Do Championships, the World Fire Fighter Games, the World Arm Wrestling Championship."

"Just let me out here, Joey, I'll walk the rest of the way," I interrupted as kindly as I could.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oth...mes-alive.html


He got ripped by Edmonton and made many snowflakes angry in the country for his tounge in cheek bluntness about Canada athletic success too, which at the time was pretty accurate. But, with all his new found infamy for the article, he did a follow up “apology” to Edmonton, in some top class trolling (before trolling was a word in this sense), a few days later:

Ah, well, those who live by the pen and all that. I regret causing my hosts, who have been unfailingly welcoming (although that may change now I have been splashed across their TV screens and front pages) such grievous offence and, as a man of my word, I will now say something nice about Edmonton . . . Errr . . .
Oh, yes, the city's No 1 tourist attraction is the West Edmonton Mall, the world's largest shopping and entertainment centre, boasting 800 stores, 110 dining outlets, 20 movie theatres, the world's largest indoor amusement park containing a roller-coaster, the world's largest indoor wave pool, the world's largest indoor lake with an exact replica of Columbus's Santa Maria, an 18-hole miniature golf course, an NHL-sized ice rink, a Las Vegas-style casino, dolphins, bears and what have you. It covers 48 city blocks (115 football pitches) and consumers who do not feel up to walking can hire an electric scooter or ride in a rickshaw. There, does that not sound appealing?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oth...st-wanted.html