@PocketBrain
In Florida, in my history - at least from Orlando and points south:
There is “mild summer” (Nov-Feb) and “summer” (Mar-Oct).
It is harder to get a bad sunburn during “mild summer”, but not that hard. If you temp fate, you’ll get a sunburn.
Swimming is usually fine year-round as long as you don’t co-habit too close to gators, crocs, sharks, things w stingers, and weird fungus and bacteria beasties in ponds and rivers and canals and oceans.
Some years you get a few days of winter or a “storm that destroys all in its path” thrown in as a bonus.
Humidity is constant. On some days so thick it can turn a clear sky silver instead of blue.
The cockroaches and other small things that wanna share your walls and house are astonishing.
Florida has lots of people who would require some explanation if they lived somewhere else.
(Cf: Elmore Leonard)
@jqubed Thank you. That was a great discussion.
Yes, schools were all primed & ready to convert to metric & it just fizzled I guess?
QUESTION: Is a centipede metric?
@narfcake Agreed, but in the case of the pedes, centipede = “hundred feet” and millipede = “thousand feet” - which is totally illogical, since it should be centipede = 1/100th of a foot, etc. if we were thinking metric. So the new Americans went metric with our money. Dollars and cents (which makes sense of “cent”!) vs. Pounds and Shillings and Pennies and Ha’pennies galore. But they kept miles and furlongs and feet and yards and inches. And illogical names for crawly critters.
@rockblossom The U.S. did have half-pennies for a while, until eventually they disappeared because they were worth less than the metal they were made of. That’s now true of the penny and the nickel. We should get rid of them, and at some point I’m sure it will reach the point where keeping them becomes too ridiculous to endure. Frankly I’d be fine with dumping all coins except quarters.
let’s have a C Ay? and then an N Ay? and then a D Ay?
__________________________________
( but the accent is so cute, )
( almost like they are yupers? )
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o ^__^
o (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
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Don’t think I have a right to voice my opinion on Canada without ever living there or even visiting it. That being said, Canadians sure are less hated around the world than Amehricans are. Perhaps they are a little bit more polite. I am sure they have a much better climate, that’s not summer 350 days a year. Then again, it’s sure as hell to go downhill shortly, as soon as Cher moves there. RIP, Canada.
Sure. NOW it’s a poll without the ‘some other answer’ option. Canada is… complicated. It’s a country full of nice people – unless we’re backed into a corner. Or you run into some assholes. It’s a country that’s hard to mock, if only because we got there first. Seriously, you’ve got to dig deep to find something sarcastic to say about Canada that wasn’t already said in Canada, by Canadians, and probably on national TV. Canada has a national anthem that you can sing while drunk at a hockey game and still sound okay. Not great, but okay.
A lot of what people who see movies think America looks like is actually Canada. This has, on occasion, led to some confusion.
Canada has serious racism issues it doesn’t like to talk about. See above about assholes.
Canada is dead serious about maple products. Dead. Serious. Do NOT offer that flavoured corn syrup bullshit as being maple syrup. Vermont won’t take you down as fast or hard for messing with maple.
Canadians are ruder than most people think. It’s often done subtly. Think Southern Manners adjusted for the cold and the space. Canada is bigger than people realise. A LOT bigger.
In other words, Canada does not fit into your neat little categories. Canada is a large, multilingual argument that will pause and turn unilaterally on an outside attacker, even though it had just been arguing about whether it was going to break up.
@Pixy well said.
people really don’t get just how FUCKING HUGE Canada is…* mainly because the majority of the population (which is roughly a tenth that of the US*) is clustered within a hundred mi or so of the US Border (almost like they’re snuggling up against us for warmth…)
the VAST majority of the country is wilderness.
*Canada - 9.9million sq/km, around 30million people
USA - 9.8million sq/km, around 300million people
However, many studies have shown that racsim in Canada may in fact be worse than in the US.
It can be argued that racism in Canada towards Blacks and Hispanics is much less than what you might see in the United States, only because Blacks and Hispanics generally don’t form their own distinct areas within Canadian society (some minor exceptions exist in Toronto and in two other highly populated urban areas, however the density is no where near what you would typically find in US cities).
Racism (and hate) tend to have very little to do with population numbers, but everything to do with specifc populations.
@Pavlov This is something I’ve noticed. Racism is definitely still a problem in the U.S. and it still needs to be worked on. That said, the U.S. has made tremendous improvements and is doing a lot better than it was a few decades ago, because the U.S. has been working on this for decades now. Racism in the U.S. is a lot better than it is in a lot of other countries that tend to be less-diverse overall. I’ve noticed this more with European countries, who tend to look at the U.S. and judge it for its very public problem with racism, and try to act like they have the moral high ground. The thing is, they haven’t had many people who aren’t like them, so their problem has been easy to ignore, but now as more and more immigrants are coming into these countries they’re having to confront the reality of people of other races, cultures, religions, and ethnicities, and their response to the growing minorities has often been shockingly overtly racist and xenophobic. If the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one, a lot of these countries have been (and remain) in denial.
@Pavlov This is EXACTLY what I was talking about. Canada doesn’t like to advertise that native people have been classified (under law) as dependent children. This is MORE insidious than the approach taken in the US wrt the rights and sovereignty of the different Nations. For a horrifying scare, people should google Starlight Tour. Or the Residential Schools that even now some people want to pretend were okay.
I would say Canada tries to pretend it’s not racist, because outside of certain Neo-Nazi groups, the racism is more laser focused on particular sub-groups. That doesn’t mean it is less racist, just better at hiding it. We like to crow about how good we are – kicked out Stephen Harper, over his policies targeting Islam – but it’s really because he got too blatant and indiscriminate in his discrimination. If he’d picked on a more obscure group, nobody would have cared.
@jmbunkin Canadians are racist. It’s just a different type of racism. They have a big problem with aboriginals (Native Americans) and there are problems with the French/English side of things to the point that Quebec wanted to secede. The French don’t believe they are treated fairly. Canada doesn’t have the “melting pot” mentality of the USA so there is a diversity of cultures but they have their own issues.
@RedOak
With far fewer people than Cal, Canada is perhaps doing ok then economy-wise.
Will they take me I wonder? Don’t intend to leave, but always nice to have a JIC alternative. I have a relative living there legally now - moved so that he could play online poker.
@f00l it had been several years since I looked at the data…actually:
California and Canada still have very similar sized populations.
California’s economy has grown a lot more to the point where it is is now about 60% larger than Canada’s.
Even New York and Florida have economies similar or larger sized vs. Canada.
As to Canada’s openness - anyone regularly traveling across the Canadian border will see that Canada is extremely sensitive about their jobs being taken by interlopers.
In fact, they can be pricks about it even when you’re simply visiting a sister company for a coupe days. We learned never to use words like “work”, “train”, etc… Much better: “Coordination meetings”.
I’ve been pulled aside to the Ministry of Labour, asked to provide our meeting agenda and interrogated point by point on the agenda. It was a relief we had an explicit agenda!
A couple of our newby traveling colleagues once made the mistake of saying “training”. Three hours, an appearance before a magistrate, and a $400 “fee” later, they were on their way to Toronto.
As probably one of the only Canadians on here (I send my meh purchases to the USA), I am watching today’s poll with bated breath. Don’t let me down, people.
Eh?
@jsh139 m eh
Cold physically, or attitude wise?
@PlacidPenguin physically, which may be why the people (but not the moose) are warm and friendly. It’s a balance thing.
@curtise Canada has a lot of nice people. Hi Curtise!
@curtise
How do you feel about house guests?
/giphy terrance and philip
a place meh.com won’t ship to.
Definitely too cold. My father lived there for some years and used to say there are three seasons in Canada - July, August, and Winter
@AnnaB almost like charlotte, where there are two seasons - february and summer
@Yoda_Daenerys I used to say we get seven days of winter in Florida, just not all in a row.
@PocketBrain
In Florida, in my history - at least from Orlando and points south:
There is “mild summer” (Nov-Feb) and “summer” (Mar-Oct).
It is harder to get a bad sunburn during “mild summer”, but not that hard. If you temp fate, you’ll get a sunburn.
Swimming is usually fine year-round as long as you don’t co-habit too close to gators, crocs, sharks, things w stingers, and weird fungus and bacteria beasties in ponds and rivers and canals and oceans.
Some years you get a few days of winter or a “storm that destroys all in its path” thrown in as a bonus.
Humidity is constant. On some days so thick it can turn a clear sky silver instead of blue.
The cockroaches and other small things that wanna share your walls and house are astonishing.
Florida has lots of people who would require some explanation if they lived somewhere else.
(Cf: Elmore Leonard)
/giphy weird Florida
@f00l Elmore Leonard is the bestest ever
Nice for snowboarding.
-where prescription drugs cost a lot less, and they still have real Cadbury’s chocolate. Border run!
The Hershey Company Sucks Eggs.
@Pavlov hey. Miss you.<neverforgettheolddays3
South of Michigan
@RedOak in some parts, perhaps
A little more polite …
Well, except for the French.
They’re just like us, but French.
@2many2no equating the Quebec French-speakers with the French French might be going too far.
@RedOak Oh no, the French French are not like us at all.
It’s a place with stupid metric speed signs, gas is sold in some stupid metric amount & their dollar ain’t worth a buck.
@daveinwarsh You may want to revisit that last part in about six months . . .
@daveinwarsh I disagree with you on the metrics, but kudos for the strong opinion.
@serpent yea, metric is so much easier, but aMeh.rica is, like, duh?
This exchange between @Starblind, @narfcake, and @DaveInSoCal is still pretty much my favorite metric discussion ever.
@Pavlov did we miss the news that Canada had also thrown their Progressives out of office?
@RedOak
Their dollar and our dollar might change relationships somewhat.
I suss we are all due for some surprises.
@jqubed Thank you. That was a great discussion.
Yes, schools were all primed & ready to convert to metric & it just fizzled I guess?
QUESTION: Is a centipede metric?
@daveinwarsh
ANSWER: To the extent that a centipede is 1/10th of a millipede, yes.
@rockblossom
@narfcake Agreed, but in the case of the pedes, centipede = “hundred feet” and millipede = “thousand feet” - which is totally illogical, since it should be centipede = 1/100th of a foot, etc. if we were thinking metric. So the new Americans went metric with our money. Dollars and cents (which makes sense of “cent”!) vs. Pounds and Shillings and Pennies and Ha’pennies galore. But they kept miles and furlongs and feet and yards and inches. And illogical names for crawly critters.
@rockblossom The U.S. did have half-pennies for a while, until eventually they disappeared because they were worth less than the metal they were made of. That’s now true of the penny and the nickel. We should get rid of them, and at some point I’m sure it will reach the point where keeping them becomes too ridiculous to endure. Frankly I’d be fine with dumping all coins except quarters.
you know how they decided to spell canada?
let’s have a C Ay? and then an N Ay? and then a D Ay?
Don’t think I have a right to voice my opinion on Canada without ever living there or even visiting it. That being said, Canadians sure are less hated around the world than Amehricans are. Perhaps they are a little bit more polite. I am sure they have a much better climate, that’s not summer 350 days a year. Then again, it’s sure as hell to go downhill shortly, as soon as Cher moves there. RIP, Canada.
@serpent Also, buddy, eh?
/youtube hosers eh
Sure. NOW it’s a poll without the ‘some other answer’ option. Canada is… complicated. It’s a country full of nice people – unless we’re backed into a corner. Or you run into some assholes. It’s a country that’s hard to mock, if only because we got there first. Seriously, you’ve got to dig deep to find something sarcastic to say about Canada that wasn’t already said in Canada, by Canadians, and probably on national TV. Canada has a national anthem that you can sing while drunk at a hockey game and still sound okay. Not great, but okay.
A lot of what people who see movies think America looks like is actually Canada. This has, on occasion, led to some confusion.
Canada has serious racism issues it doesn’t like to talk about. See above about assholes.
Canada is dead serious about maple products. Dead. Serious. Do NOT offer that flavoured corn syrup bullshit as being maple syrup. Vermont won’t take you down as fast or hard for messing with maple.
Canadians are ruder than most people think. It’s often done subtly. Think Southern Manners adjusted for the cold and the space. Canada is bigger than people realise. A LOT bigger.
In other words, Canada does not fit into your neat little categories. Canada is a large, multilingual argument that will pause and turn unilaterally on an outside attacker, even though it had just been arguing about whether it was going to break up.
So, yeah. Complicated.
@Pixy well said.
people really don’t get just how FUCKING HUGE Canada is…* mainly because the majority of the population (which is roughly a tenth that of the US*) is clustered within a hundred mi or so of the US Border (almost like they’re snuggling up against us for warmth…)
the VAST majority of the country is wilderness.
*Canada - 9.9million sq/km, around 30million people
USA - 9.8million sq/km, around 300million people
Here is the Canadian project to build a Hummer-type vehicle:
@f00l Red Green FTW!
There are fewer minorities in Canada so Canadians don’t hate minorities as much as people do in the US. It’s all about the numbers.
@jmbunkin Yes, there are in fact fewer people in Canada that identify themselves with a visible minority group. (~20% of the total population - click for details)
However, many studies have shown that racsim in Canada may in fact be worse than in the US.
It can be argued that racism in Canada towards Blacks and Hispanics is much less than what you might see in the United States, only because Blacks and Hispanics generally don’t form their own distinct areas within Canadian society (some minor exceptions exist in Toronto and in two other highly populated urban areas, however the density is no where near what you would typically find in US cities).
Racism (and hate) tend to have very little to do with population numbers, but everything to do with specifc populations.
@Pavlov This is something I’ve noticed. Racism is definitely still a problem in the U.S. and it still needs to be worked on. That said, the U.S. has made tremendous improvements and is doing a lot better than it was a few decades ago, because the U.S. has been working on this for decades now. Racism in the U.S. is a lot better than it is in a lot of other countries that tend to be less-diverse overall. I’ve noticed this more with European countries, who tend to look at the U.S. and judge it for its very public problem with racism, and try to act like they have the moral high ground. The thing is, they haven’t had many people who aren’t like them, so their problem has been easy to ignore, but now as more and more immigrants are coming into these countries they’re having to confront the reality of people of other races, cultures, religions, and ethnicities, and their response to the growing minorities has often been shockingly overtly racist and xenophobic. If the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one, a lot of these countries have been (and remain) in denial.
@Pavlov This is EXACTLY what I was talking about. Canada doesn’t like to advertise that native people have been classified (under law) as dependent children. This is MORE insidious than the approach taken in the US wrt the rights and sovereignty of the different Nations. For a horrifying scare, people should google Starlight Tour. Or the Residential Schools that even now some people want to pretend were okay.
I would say Canada tries to pretend it’s not racist, because outside of certain Neo-Nazi groups, the racism is more laser focused on particular sub-groups. That doesn’t mean it is less racist, just better at hiding it. We like to crow about how good we are – kicked out Stephen Harper, over his policies targeting Islam – but it’s really because he got too blatant and indiscriminate in his discrimination. If he’d picked on a more obscure group, nobody would have cared.
@jmbunkin Canadians are racist. It’s just a different type of racism. They have a big problem with aboriginals (Native Americans) and there are problems with the French/English side of things to the point that Quebec wanted to secede. The French don’t believe they are treated fairly. Canada doesn’t have the “melting pot” mentality of the USA so there is a diversity of cultures but they have their own issues.
America’s hat.
A huge country, geographically, with an economy about the size about the size of one US state, California.
@RedOak
With far fewer people than Cal, Canada is perhaps doing ok then economy-wise.
Will they take me I wonder? Don’t intend to leave, but always nice to have a JIC alternative. I have a relative living there legally now - moved so that he could play online poker.
@f00l it had been several years since I looked at the data…actually:
California and Canada still have very similar sized populations.
California’s economy has grown a lot more to the point where it is is now about 60% larger than Canada’s.
Even New York and Florida have economies similar or larger sized vs. Canada.
As to Canada’s openness - anyone regularly traveling across the Canadian border will see that Canada is extremely sensitive about their jobs being taken by interlopers.
In fact, they can be pricks about it even when you’re simply visiting a sister company for a coupe days. We learned never to use words like “work”, “train”, etc… Much better: “Coordination meetings”.
I’ve been pulled aside to the Ministry of Labour, asked to provide our meeting agenda and interrogated point by point on the agenda. It was a relief we had an explicit agenda!
A couple of our newby traveling colleagues once made the mistake of saying “training”. Three hours, an appearance before a magistrate, and a $400 “fee” later, they were on their way to Toronto.
@RedOak
Ok what imbeciles.
As probably one of the only Canadians on here (I send my meh purchases to the USA), I am watching today’s poll with bated breath. Don’t let me down, people.
If I met a tourest and they seemed extra nice, and looked American…they were Canadian.
Culturally similar to the U.S., thus ripe for annexation once the new Rei . . . ahem . . . administration gains power.