Rites of winter

A new toy for middle aged men who fancy driving a fancy machine at weekends. During the week used for clearing ice on the Rideau River in Ottawa. Is the idea that the black jobs on each side stop the machine from turning over while the spiky thing on the front bashes the ice about? Or perhaps they are paddles?

Or, if you don't fancy one of these or don't have access to suitable ice, you can have get a top of the range snow blower for $(CAD)185,000. The only snag being that there is a tricky legal problem being chewed over by the Federal Buying Lawyers Cooperative (FBLC): is it fair to specify a component in a public procurement tender document for snow blowers knowing that only some of the suppliers of snow blowers fit a component - a maintenance free, sealed clutch - of this particular type? A snag that should keep FBLC in tea and biscuits for months, if not years, to come.

PS: I feel the urge to mention that I was once given lunch in the Rideau Club (see http://www.rideauclub.ca/), an establishment named for the river in question. Appropriately, on a public procurement driven visit to town.