Thailand’s king, queen test positive for COVID-19

Board game company charts winning path

Dennis Northcott has launched a game without frontiers.

The Winnipeg entrepreneur is the co-designer of Galactic Cruise, a board game published last year by Kinson Key Games LLC, the business he co-founded. Since its release, Galactic Cruise has been translated into 11 languages and sold around 50,000 copies worldwide.

It’s also one of three finalists for this year’s Deutsche Spiele Preis, a prestigious community-voted board game award. Northcott will travel to Essen, Germany, later this month, where the winner will be announced at Spiel Essen, an annual board game trade fair.

“It’s been amazing,” Northcott said of the response to Galactic Cruise during an interview in his Island Lakes neighbourhood home earlier this week. “The sales have been great, but it’s also been amazing in terms of people giving their reviews.”

Calm, balanced approach to game, life is what matters to unassuming Stastny

When the day comes for Paul Stastny to hang up his skates for good, ending what’s already been a sparkling pro career, he hopes to leave a lasting mark on the game he loves.

He didn’t use the word legacy, nor would he. If you’ve had the chance to speak with Stastny before, you quickly realize his discomfort in talking about personal accolades, despite possessing many. He’s been selected as an NHL all-star, and represented the United States on multiple occasions, including at two Olympics.

In 961 NHL games, Stastny has 253 goals and 482 assists for 735 points. He’s played another 97 playoff games, having reached the Western Conference final on three separate occasions over his career, adding another 25 goals and 42 assists to his point totals. He’s still chasing his first Stanley Cup.

But at 35 years old, and in the middle of his 15th NHL season, which includes a second go-around with the Winnipeg Jets, it’s not what shows up on the scoresheet that matters most to the veteran centre. Stastny is acutely aware that professional sports can be unforgiving; a good season one year doesn’t necessarily guarantee one the next. But what doesn’t have to change, he says, is how he approaches the game, and the way he treats the people around him.

Stable incomes, not more weapons, provide security

Even amid a global arms race, a hike in Canadian defence spending should be a tough sell, David Olive writes.

Thailand’s king, queen test positive for COVID-19

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's king and queen have tested positive for COVID-19, and so far have only mild symptoms, the royal palace said Saturday.

Doctors prescribed treatment for King Maha Vajiralongkorn, 70, and Queen Suthida, 44, and requested them to refrain from duties for a while, the Royal Household Bureau said in a statement.

Their symptoms are “very mild,” the statement said.

Earlier Friday and Thursday, the couple visited Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol at Chulalongkorn Hospital in Bangkok, where she was admitted after she fell unconscious due to a heart problem on Wednesday.

Prairie sculptor Joe Fafard pays tribute to revered Dutch master

Vincent van Gogh has been inspiring artists for close to 150 years. For sculptor Joe Fafard, the Dutch master’s life and art have been objects of fascination for many of his 75 years.

So much so that Fafard’s latest Winnipeg exhibition, The Essential Joe Fafard — Van Gogh and Other Inspirations, which opened Friday at Mayberry Fine Art, includes several sculptures of van Gogh, who began painting in 1881 but lived a short, turbulent life, fraught with mental illness, before committing suicide in 1890 at the age of 37.

“Starting about 1983, I started doing portraits of van Gogh,” Fafard says in a phone conversation from his home near Regina.

“Essentially, people used his life, his career and his anguish as sort of a stereotype of an artist’s blueprint for artistic endeavour. I became quite fascinated to see that he was the Christ and other artists were the apostles.”

Alouettes not short on reasons why they want to beat Bombers

MONTREAL — Clinching top spot in the East isn’t the only reason why Tyson Philpot is itching to beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“Obviously, my brother (Jalen) plays for the (Calgary) Stampeders, so I’d love to help push the Stampeders above them and help him get in the playoffs,” said the star receiver for the Montreal Alouettes after Friday’s walkthrough.

While the Als are sitting comfortably at 11-3, the Bombers (7-7) are trying to fend off Calgary (7-8) while also keeping pace with B.C. and Saskatchewan, who both entered the week at 8-6.

But there’s another reason that applies to everyone on the Als: they want revenge for the embarrassing 44-28 loss they suffered in Winnipeg in Week 13.