The FOX Rocks

You probably don't care about my bio, but for the sake of clarity here's the short version: I grew up in Vancouver. I moved to Montreal last year. Yes, for a girl. Yes, we're still together. Anyhow, my radio station of choice in Vancouver is 99.3 the FOX. The Fox gives Vancouver its daily dose of loud, in-your-face rock. The kind of thing you NEED on a dark, rainy November night spent delivering pizzas in your Toyota Tercel at high speed. The Fox is rad. The Fox Rocks. So, I was pretty stoked to talk on-air with Jeff O'Neil of the Fox. In addition to being only one 'L' away from having the same name as an NHL Hockey player, Jeff is a Vancouver morning DJ who digs one red paperclip so much that he just started his own on-air trading game. He started with one small rock. A Fox Rock. The Fox Rocks. I love a radio station that’ll take a pun to the physical level. You can listen to our converstion here. Some neato small-world stuff going on here. My cousin Carmen works in the same building as CFOX in Vancouver. Jeff O'Neil lives in the suburb I grew up in, Port Moody, and actually lives in the former house of a guy my brother went to school with, Mike Quinn. That's fun and all, but the shirt I wear for each trade, my lucky trading shirt, was given to me on the day I posted the paperclip on the website, July 12th, by a fellow named Ricky Hebert. Ricky is Carmen's husband. He is the former star quarterback of the Arkansas Twisters, an arena football team. Ricky is a cool guy. He's originally from Haverhill Massachusetts. The shirt is not some emo-rock ironic-that-its-somebody-else's shirt kinda thing. It's Ricky's shirt. He didn't want it any more. He gave it to me as a joke. So far, the joke's going pretty well. Ricky thinks it's funny. I do to. Okay, so Jeff O’Neil started with one fox rock today and they’re going to trade their way up for bigger or better things until they get something massive to auction off for the annual CFOX Santa Fox Food Drive. The Santa Fox Food Drive is an annual xmastime campaign to raise money for Vancouver-area Food Banks. The Santa Fox Food Drive is a good thing. I've got good memories of the Santa Fox Food drive. I remember my brother Scott, his buddy Skippy, and I set a cassette tape on 'record' then drove down to CFOX's Satellite broadcast van in Coquitlam wearing our Witness Relocation Program T-Shirts. We got a DJ by the name of Bill Courage to say "Witness Relocation Program! - right on boys!" on the air. We donated some cash to the cause, then went home and listened to the tape. We thought that was so awesome. We still do. I'm extremely happy that CFOX has added the one red paperclip concept to the Santa Fox Food Drive. The Santa Fox Food drive is a force to be reckoned with on it's own, but this takes things to the next level. The Fox Rocks on so many levels. This might even edge out the Witness Relocation Program t-shirt experience as my favorite CFOX experience. CFOX has really upped the ante with this one. Upping the ante is always a good idea. One red paperclip has now franchised. Franchising is fun. If you want to start your very own one red paperclip style trading game, give’er – especially if it’s going to a good cause! Don't worry about stealing one red paperclip's thunder, I've got surplus thunder. Not Zeus-like surplus thunder - more like this kind of thunder 'round these parts. Speaking of good causes, a few people have asked me what I’m going to do with the house if/when I get it. Will it be given away? Will I sell it and keep the money? Will I live in the house? Some valid questions here. This is a potential house we’re talking about. I have a great idea for what I’ll do with the house, when it happens. But you’ll have to wait for it to happen to find out. Until then, keep making offers for one famous skidoo and get in on whatever Jeff O’Neil and the crew decide to call the CFOX Santa Fox Food Drive Bigger and Better Barter Bonanza – and it won’t be that.