You know, Canadians aren't that different from Americans, but there are a few little differences that really crack me up. Yesterday, I was spending the day with Holly (who lives in Toronto) and as she was driving down a road with a 45 MPH speed limit, I glanced over at the speedometer and she was going 70! It took me a second to realize that her car has KPM as the larger numbers and MPH as the smaller numbers. Makes sense, of course, I had just never really thought about it and for a moment there, I thought Holly was living on the edge.
Then today, I had a Canadian family come in the bank. The man was telling me where he worked and the name of the company was something with the name "Fraser" in it. I spelled it "Frazier", and he corrected me by saying, "some people spell it with a zed, but there's no zed." Come again?
Also, the canadian lady asked me a question and, being the nice southern girl I am, I responded with a "yes, ma'am." Her daughter (who was about 7) looked at me and said, "it's not Ma'am. It's Mom." I stand corrected.
You forgot to mention that a whole bunch of them speak french. Unacceptable. They do have a buncha dutch...but that may be points against them, you decide...
Posted by: JosiahQ at August 14, 2003 02:07 PMthey also clap for the opposing team's pitcher in toronto. acceptable and polite sure, but strange nonetheless. and the female frenchie types there dont shave and give you dirty looks if youre sitting behind them and actually rooting for one of the teams. welcome to america, sweetheart.
Posted by: dp at August 14, 2003 03:53 PMand apparently they cause very large POWER OUTAGES! GEE WHIZ!
Posted by: dp at August 15, 2003 01:14 AMLet's just start calling them "America Jr." Hey America Jr., we'll let you know when we run out of wood.
Posted by: Patrick at August 15, 2003 12:50 PMor maple syrup or labatt blue, which is canada's greatest product/export if you ask me. except maybe for neil young.
Posted by: dp at August 15, 2003 04:55 PMWe *do* say "Ma'am" up here (well, some of us polite ones do); you can probably attribute that ignorance to the girl's age. But I plead guilty to ending the alphabet with zed. And to transferring MPH to KMH. (Actually, I think I probably do it the other way around, it you know what I mean.) And spelling things properly, such as honour, humour, and all the other words that are meant to have "u" in them. (Uh, not "you," just "u.")
And of course, we all drive dog sleds, except for 2 weeks in mid-July.
Posted by: Tim at August 24, 2003 12:47 AM