Olympian Hughes opens book on doping nightmare

Emergency rooms need help — now

Triage. It’s an interesting, necessary, and bluntly pragmatic concept, but it’s not for the faint of heart.

It’s a method of determining how and when to treat the injured and the sick, and it has a long (and disputed) history. Many historians credit French army surgeon Dominique-Jean Larrey, who, in Napoleonic France, came up with a classification system to help evacuate and treat injured soldiers by quickly dividing their injuries into three different classifications.

“In the Battle of Jena in 1806, the French army used the triage system developed by Larrey. The system involved categorization into three grades based on the severity of the wounds irrespective of the soldier’s rank: dangerously wounded, less dangerously wounded, and slightly wounded,” wrote researchers Hiroyuki Nakao, Isao Ukai and Joji Kotani in the medical journal Acute Medicine and Surgery.

Triage, in fact, means “breaking into threes,” and there’s a dispute over whether it was originally used to classify coffee beans or wool — but we’re not going any further down that particular rabbit hole today.

Film soundtracks provide the score of business analyst and part-time radio host's life

Last month, 20th Century Studios released the first trailer for West Side Story, director Steven Spielberg’s much-anticipated remake of the 1961 musical, winner of 10 Oscars including Best Picture.

The new version, scheduled to hit theatres in December, will again tell the story of Tony and Maria, young sweethearts with ties to rival New York City street gangs. That the 2021 rendition will retain its predecessor’s much-loved score comes as music to the ears of Amanda Stefaniuk, a vinyl-record aficionado whose area of expertise is particularly unique. 

The 41-year-old business analyst collects motion picture soundtracks, everything from Breakfast at Tiffany’s to The Breakfast Club, and from A Star is Born to Star Wars.

“West Side Story was actually the first soundtrack I ever bought with my own money,” says Stefaniuk, guessing she has in the neighbourhood of 1,000 soundtrack albums, give or take a copy of Flashdance, populating her shelves. “My father Mel, who passed away three years ago, took me to a used record sale at Minto Armoury when I was 12 or 13 and I remember fibbing to him, saying I’d paid a buck for (West Side Story) when I actually paid $3, only because I wanted him to think I’d gotten some great deal.”

Mayoral race lineup grows to 10 candidates

An electrical contractor has become the 10th candidate to register for the race to become Winnipeg’s next mayor.

Zac Uminski has thrown his name into the competition, after Scott Gillingham signed up to seek re-election as mayor and eight other candidates previously registered.

The father of four said concern about homelessness and addictions sparked his interest in politics.

“My campaign will focus on practical solutions to improve public safety, support families and strengthen the city services,” Uminski said. “We need safer communities.”

Thomas Ponder

Nine-block walk on Portage Avenue reveals difficult present, some cause for optimism

On a recent visit back to Winnipeg, I got to witness the multitudes of Portage Avenue.

From my Airbnb on Hargrave Street, I had the opportunity to do quite a bit of walking on Portage Avenue, from Portage and Memorial all the way down to the recently opened intersection at Portage and Main. Along the way, I saw it all: huge and dynamic construction projects, persistent urban decay and the occasional oasis of revitalization.

All in the space of nine blocks.

As Walt Whitman would say, Portage Avenue truly contains multitudes.

Beloved meteorologist to be laid to rest on Blizzard of the Century anniversary

On Monday, March 4, John (Jack) Junson will be laid to rest in a 2 p.m. service at Prairie Spirit United Church, at 207 Thompson Dr., and the timing of the memorial could not be more fitting.

That’s because Monday marks the 53rd anniversary of Winnipeg’s Blizzard of the Century, a storm that was a seminal moment in the career of a man who became one of the longest-serving meteorologists in Canadian history.

“It’s so fitting to have his service on the anniversary of the blizzard,” his daughter, Janeen Junson, 60, said of her father, who died Feb. 14 at Riverview Health Centre at the age of 95. “(The blizzard) was part of who my dad was. He loved being a weatherman. He was very proud of it.”

Her brother, John, 64, said their soft-spoken father would have appreciated the timing, too.