It looks now as though the Leafs might knock the Bruins out of the playoffs. (Score is 4-1 for the Leafs, as of writing). [Update, 10:09 PM: I spoke too soon. What a comeback by Boston. I'm happy for them, and sad for Leafs fans. Final score was 4-5.] I’m not really a sports fan, as I’ve said before, but being able to hear the crowds cheering from the ACC makes it hard not to get just a little swept up in the excitement. I’ll feel bad for the fans of whichever team loses…

Some photos I took:

Bleep Blap Bloop from Paul Constantakis on Vimeo.

If you didn’t already know or haven’t guessed, Brandon Flowers is a Mormon. Here’s the whole segment:

For a more serious discussion of this topic, I recommend Christopher Hitchens’ memoir Hitch-22, specifically the chapter titled “Of the Grape and the Grain,” or something to that effect.

I didn’t really care. I was mainly happy Doug didn’t leave the roof the same way. I couldn’t imagine the price of a new drill housing would be high, and it turns out it’s not. (They’re about $20, plus shipping.) However, the drill had broken quite cleanly, and I had some Sugru lying around that was approaching its best before date.

I decided to give the Sugru-fix a try, and I have to say it worked very well. I used an orange pack because I had two and thought I’d need them both, but in retrospect one was enough and I could have used the green packet (pictured above). No matter, the drill is more colourful this way. Here’s the after-shot:

This is very useful stuff. The drill has so far stood up to normal usage.

On Sunday past, I had the chance to pose this question to a detective in the Major Crimes Unit in London, Ontario. He asked, “so this guy calls in, asks for my department, and I’m just the first monkey to pick up the phone?” Yes, I replied. “Okay. I might try to find more information for the guy. Make any necessary phone-calls to relatives or whoever might be able to help him.” But the detective was adamant he wouldn’t put his livelihood on the line for somebody he plainly does not know. “Why? Did this actually happen?” he asked, chuckling.

Well, at home a few weeks ago I played host to some in-laws who had with them a curious guest of their own. One “Kraig Jacobson.” I had never met Kraig before. As we talked, he unfolded an interesting story: attempting to cross the USA/Canada border into Niagara Falls, Ontario, he was asked by a border guard if he had any firearms he’d like to declare. He declined. He told me this was an honest mistake, that he forgot he was carrying a handgun in the locked trunk of his Kawasaki. Asked to pull over to the side of the road, and faced with the prospect of having his motorcycle searched, Kraig said he decided to tell the border agents about his snubnosed revolver.

The weapon was seized and so was Kraig. He was thrown in jail where he languished for eighteen days. (He told me a mix-up that saw him wearing the wrong orange jumpsuit earned him a powerful hit to the face from a cell-mate who claimed to be a member of the “Latin Kings.”) Not long into his prison stay, Kraig said he looked up the number of the local Latter-Day Saints bishop and called him. On August 3rd, he was out of jail and staying with my in-laws. Before this, they did not know who Kraig Jacobson was, and they are not related to him.

What went through my mind first was how clearly Kraig benefited from his LDS membership. When I said this to him he replied, “Yeah! It’s like having family all over the world.” Wow. I can’t say with confidence I could call up the local secular humanist organization in Niagara Falls and reasonably expect to be bailed out and provided room-and-board for a yet-to-be-determined number of months. I noticed Kraig’s relaxed – or was it resigned? – demeanour and asked him whether his beliefs made it easier to bear the prospect of losing a year of his life to detainment and incarceration, and he mused affirmatively. “You know, when I think about it, this is all just a small blip in the history of my existence.” (Mormons believe in both pre-life and after-life.)

The blessings of religion being the extreme rarity they are is for me cause to examine them carefully. On the flip-side of Kraig’s luck and outlook is the credulity of my in-laws. Was it really an honest mistake, did the snub really just, as he put it to me, “slip his mind” in the jumble of border-crossing? Of course not. He knew about it. (In case you’re interested, the above-mentioned homicide detective agrees.) There are signs all over the border that say you must declare any firearms, along with a list of other things verboten. You don’t just forget your family jewels are practically perched on top a thirty-eight. To paraphrase one commenter in, if I remember correctly, the comments section of the Salt Lake Tribune’s article covering this story, “What was he going to do if he actually encountered a bear?” – Kraig claims the weapon was for protection against wild animals while camping along his impressive ten-thousand mile trek – “would he forget he had a gun then, too?” As for Kraig’s relaxing with the knowledge that this episode is but a flash in his ultimate history, yes I’m slightly staggered by the arrogance of this assumption, but what’s more is its merely a convenient leaning-post for his cognitive dissonance. It makes it easier not to reckon with the gravity and stupidity of his actions.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that Kraig’s family are apparently neighbours to another set of my in-laws. (I must also add I think the term “neighbours” is being applied very loosely.) Also, as the detective suggested to me, the church probably fronted the money for the surety, which can be pulled at any time by my in-laws, and the church may also be subsidizing them for the cost of food and suchlike. Nevertheless I can’t help but feel in this case religion was useful in one of the few ways it has ever been useful: as a tool for the dishonest to exploit the credulous. I’m not sure that can really be counted as a positive aspect. Is Kraig Jacobson a nice guy? He seems so. Is he any sort of criminal? I can’t say he strikes me as the career type, whatever that means. But, for someone in a similar situation as Kraig, I don’t think anybody in their right mind would bail him out and have him in their home given their complete unfamiliarity. After posing to various folks the hypothetical I did above, no one I’ve spoken to has so far said they’d step in as my extended family has done, and I think rightly. Though they would probably deny it, the assumption my extended family made is that Kraig is OK because he’s a Mormon. Well, Anders Breivik is as righteous as they come, but most Christians would be well advised not to go anywhere near him. We know morality does not come from religion. Kraig could have been literally anybody.

It does make me uneasy that Kraig insists on passing this off as some kind of innocent mistake. It obviously was not. Given that he must be with his guarantors at all times until his court date in late January of 2013, I’m sure I’ll be seeing him again at Christmas time. I wonder if this waiting period will weaken or strengthen his and my extended family’s resolution. I think I know the answer.

Here’s another angle from the same project several days later. We’re putting on the metal sheets of the roof and hanging the rolling door: