Hockey Night in Canada Tribute to Paul Quarrington on Sat. Jan 23, 2010

Because my beautiful multi-dimensional friend bloody deserves it, here here Dave Bidini! Thank you Tim Thomson! You've gained a new fan of that crazy game Mr. MacLean!

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Hockey Night in Canada Tribute to Paul Quarrington on Sat. Jan 23, 2010

A tribute to Paul Quarrington will air in the opening segment before the 7pm (ET) games on CBC Hockey Night in Canada, Saturday, January 23, 2010. It will air at approximately 7:00-7:05 pm ET - before the puck drops on the early games (it's a floating time, as the pre-game show goes before it). The segment will include the Rheostatics song "Dope Fiends and Booze Hounds" from that bands album release 'Whale Music.'

Tim Thompson, show writer, describes the opening as "pretty awesome, if I do say so. It's Dope Fiends as the soundtrack, with various quotes from Paul's hockey prose threading the piece, set to hockey footage from the two games we

have on - Toronto vs Florida and Montreal vs the Rangers." Host Ron MacLean will pay tribute to Paul either before or after the piece runs.

The on-air tribute was the brainchild of Thompson, who is a long-time friend Dave Bidini, inspired by Bidini's writings on hockey, including "The Best Game You Can Name" and Dave's writings about knowing Paul. Tim contacted Bidini to

help out with the idea. Bidini reports "I have known Tim for many years and he plays on the Morningstars, my hockey team. He told me that he was thinking about this idea as a way of toasting Paul." Tim reports that Ron MacLean simultaneously had the same idea, so it came together naturally.

Says Bidini "When I think of what Paul meant to so many people who loved hockey, and who like to write about the game, and how he loved the Leafs...The hockey nation can mourn as one on Saturday night, the best night. It's overwhelming. He so f*%ing deserves this. I suggested before that Paul will be watching on high with Teeder Kennedy. I realize now that it's gotta be little King (Clancy) Leary or no one."


(For more information about Paul Quarrington, visit www.paulquarrington.org. To donate to Quarrington Arts Society, visit www.quarringtonartsociety.ca)