He’ll be appearing from 6-8 pm. Saturday at GameStop in the St.Lawrence Centre Mall.

Tickets are also on sale at the St. Lawrence Centre Arena for the TNA Wrestling event that will take place at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at the St. Lawrence Centre Arena.

As Sharkboy would say, “Shell yeah!”

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on their victory over the Indianapolis Colts. I don’t like the Colts for reasons I can’t explain. Maybe it’s because they think they’re so good with their “we could have gone 16 and 0 this season” attitude.

And those Saints certainly told them who was the better team in this Super Bowl.

Though I would have liked to be saying, “Congratulations, Cincinnati Bengals.”

But, if you’re like most Americans, while the game was enjoyable you were there for the commercials too.

And some of them were downright lame this year.

And some of them were so stupid that you found yourself snickering and blowing Pepsi out of your nose.

Like the Doritos commercials:

And Snickers, well, I had a pretty good snicker at this commercial:

But again, some of them were pretty lame and I have to wonder why they’d bother to spend those millions of dollars for a 30-second spot if they knew people were going to give them the big old thumbs down.

It’s their money, I suppose, and they can spend it any way they want it, but Super Bowl commercials are supposed to be imaginative, funny and entertaining – and watching a car get dunked into a vat of paint just didn’t send my thrill level soaring.

And the half-time show? Well, can we say “old men trying to be young again?”

I never listened to The Who when I was growing up and after Sunday’s performance, I doubt I’ll ever listen to them again.

I wanted to grab a set of earplugs when they started “singing.”

Let’s just say I’ll take Janet Jackson’s breast over the The Who any day of the week.

And not a moment too soon.

I lost the feeling in my toes and fingers standing out at Hawkins Point from 9 this morning until noon waiting for the Massena Dash dog sled races to, well, start dashing through the snow.

Oh, it wasn’t just cold. It was well beyond that point and even though I was dressed to the hilt in winter weather gear, it didn’t matter. The cold still still got through.

This was day one of the dog sled races. Interesting experience indeed. You stand around for three hours. While you’re waiting, the mushers adjust their sleds and their dogs.

Then they start bringing dogs and their mushers to the start line, say go and they’re off.

And you stand there and say, “OK, that was fun, but I’m still freezing.”

If you missed today’s races, you still have an opportunity to check them out starting at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Luckily I didn’t get totally numb and was able to get back to the car, where I warmed up and headed for the Robert Moses Nature Center, the site of some more Winter Carnival activities.

In a much more user-friendly environment.

By the fireplace with hot chocolate and other goodies.

Oh, they had some outdoor stuff too, like skiing and snowshoeing if you’re into that sort of thing. Which I’m not because it involves actual exercise.

The other outdoor activity was bird feeding.

Alas, it wasn’t long before I headed back out into the frozen tundra – I believe the temperature was hovering between 0 and 10 degrees – and headed for another activity.

Snow volleyball.

What would a Winter Carnival be without snow volleyball, I ask you.

Personally, I’d like it more if it involved sun, warmth, sand and women in bikinis.

But that’s just the sexist side of me coming out.

Now I’m home again, home again, jiggety jig, and my work is done for the day and I’m not leaving the house again unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Like if I run out of M&Ms and Pepsi or have a sudden craving for a loaded 21-inch pizza. But then again, there’s always delivery.

But I digress.

Don’t forget, folks, that the dog sledding will continue tomorrow at 9 and the closing ceremonies start at 1 p.m. at Hawkins Point.

Happy Winter Carnivaling.

Yupper, that would be yours truly on the right hiding behind the dark shades. I don’t know who the guy on the left is. He just said he wanted to have his picture taken with Big Bob.

Seriously, meet Rich Boprey, the head of Massena’s recreation department. Nice guy – even if does needle me about my Mets who, by all indications, will be deep in the race for last place this year.

But I digress….

As you can see, we’re in our stylish touques in preparation for the outdoor hockey tournament at the Massena Arena Annex, part of all the fun and festivities of our Winter Carnival.

You wanted hockey, you got hockey. Nine hours of it to be exact in the daylight and under the lights.

You want a parade? You’ve got it.

You wanted frosty cold? You got it. Thus, the wearing of the touques and gloves was a mandatory part of today’s attire.

The first full day of the Massena Winter Carnival is now in the books, but there’s plenty more to come. Lots more to come on Saturday and Sunday.

Dog sled racing. Snowshoeing and skiing. Snow volleyball. Chicken barbecue. Sledding. Skating. You name it, it’s on the calendar.

Go. Enjoy the weekend of activities.

But since it’s gonna be cold, don’t forget your touque.

And not toe licking.

Seems a Massena man was arrested for trespassing and harassment Thursday night after he went to a woman’s Willow Street home and subjected her to unwanted physical contact.

He reportedly was licking her feet and toes.

To each their own, I suppose, but if my name is going to be published for the world to see, I’d rather that it be something a little more common, a crime like speeding where I can be grouped with another bunch of folks who’ve been nabbed in a speed trap.

Somehow I don’t think toe lickers fits that bill.

CANTON – Matthew J. Flynn II has announced his Republican candidacy for St. Lawrence County Legislature District 8 and a lot of people have taken notice! The Canton 18-year-old is finishing up high school this year and is ready to take on the counties issues head on.

Matthew J. Flynn II will be on The Northern Radio Show tonight (2/5/10) to discuss his stance on some issues, and his recent trip to NYC to be on The Huckabee Show.

Feel free to Call in and chat with Mr. Flynn, 1-917-889-2441, or you can enter a chat room to get your instant feedback on the show.

The show airs live 10-11 pm, but if you can not listen live all prior shows are available at www.thenorthernradioshow.com where you can listen online or download for your MP3 player. (There is no charge for the show or downloads.)

Details on the show can be found at www.thenorthernradioshow.com.

Mr. Flynn’s Web site is http://www.voteflynn.us/

Massena’s Winter Carnival 2010 celebration got into full swing Thursday night with an opening reception at the Knights of Columbus hall.

The next three day are packed solid with activities, starting today at 1 p.m. when they drop the puck for the first-ever Massena Cup hockey tournament at the Massena Arena Annex. That goes until about 9 p.m., so you get to see not just outdoor hockey, but outdoor hockey under the lights.

Then bundle up and grab a space downtown when the Winter Carnival parade comes marching through starting at 7 p.m. It heads from Water Street to Bridges Avenue, so there should be plenty of good spots to see it along the way.

Fireworks will light up the cold winter sky – ever notice how clear winter skies are? – at around 8:30 p.m. from Bushnell Field. Boom, boom.

And then Saturday and Sunday, well, more, more, more for all ages and all tastes.

You can check out the full schedule of events at the Greater Massena Chamber of Commerce Web site.

Organizers have been planning this event for the past 10 months and it would be fantastic to see a hearty crowd at all of the events since it’s the first time in about 30 years that Massena has had a Winter Carnival. And for the first go-around, it’s a pretty impressive list of activities.

So bundle up and head out to some of them and shake away those mid-winter blues.

On with the show this is it.

If I recall correctly, it’s been that way ever since all three cats decided to sleep with me.

Each picking her spot as soon as soon as I’m snuggled in the blankets.

And each one of them gripping their claws into my body because I’m a restless sleeper who tosses and turns all night and they want to make sure they’ve got themselves latched to me.

So it takes a while to get to sleep – once I get the claws out of my skin – and whenever I try to move in the middle of the night I get a prickly feeling as they dig in.

Really deep.

Deep enough to leave blood.

So no, nights haven’t been particularly good, but I don’t know what the solution is. If I kick them out and shut the door they’ll just scratch until I let them in.

But maybe scratching is better than clawing now that I think about it.

Either way, it’s going to keep me up all night.

Blame it on the groundhog.

You see, we had more than 1,850 hits yesterday – a brand new daily record – and 99.9 percent of those were people searching for a groundhog.

Well, he wasn’t here. He was still squirreled away in his little hole in Pennsylvania, waiting for those men in top hats to rouse him out of bed to see his shadow and declare that, indeed, winter was far from over.

But people thought the groundhog was living life in the slow lane – and here they come and I don’t know if they ever found what they were looking for.

We try to be equal opportunity employers when it comes to animals. From my recollection we’ve talked about dogs and cats and horses and pigs and, yes, groundhogs.

As much as I hate that furry forecaster whenever he sees his shadow, proving that once again winter is never going to end.

You’ll see the picture if you click on the above link. Even though I took the picture, I’ve opted on a personal level not to add it to this blog posting or to my Flickr photo gallery.

I understand that the picture upset some people. How many, I don’t know because I talked to one gentleman this afternoon who was initially taken aback by its publication, and he told me several people had shared their concerns with him. Others meanwhile shared their feelings on the Watertown Daily Times Web site where the story and photo also ran.

I understand that a family has just lost their son and the last thing they want to see on the front page of the newspaper is the scene of the accident.

But what I also understand, having been in this business since 1976, is that news – as ugly as it may be sometimes – has to be told, and you try to be as sensitive as possible.

But it’s not always possible under some circumstances.

You may recall that some newspapers opted to run photographs of people jumping out of the Twin Towers during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. If I were the editor, I think I would have passed.

But they considered it newsworthy.

And a tragic accident like one that claimed the life of an extremely popular high school senior last night was newsworthy. A young man died and a school and a family and a community went into mourning.

There was no way to sugarcoat it.

I did receive an e-mail today saying that while the picture was graphic, the writer hoped it would point out that driving carries serious responsibilities.

My intent wasn’t to offend people with the picture and it wasn’t to say, “See what can happen if you’re not careful on the road.”

It was simply to report the news.

Just like this picture that will be running in tomorrow’s paper – fellow students gathered at the site today, where they had set up a memorial and stood in silent prayer.

Because that too is just as newsworthy as today’s picture.