gizblog

Craig Ferguson on Canada

Craig Ferguson's speech to Bush's last Whitehouse press corps dinner is now on YouTube.

"Canada: it's not the party, it's the apartment above the party. It's nicely decorated and everything, but they're up there going "Can you keep the noise under control down there? We're trying to wear knitwear." We reply "Come on down and join the party". "No thanks, we weren't invited." "Nor was Mexico, but they've shown up"

Or words to that effect.

Oh Canada! (again)

I'm getting ready for my 13th season on Bond Island in Ontario. It's now geotagged on Flickr (click here), and there's a good new satellite photo (click here): the small square is a swimming platform, and you can just make out some of the cabins. The sky is so clear that we regularly see satellites passing overhead at night. Maybe one of them is taking these photos.

This is a Canada vs. US story that's done the rounds online before. But it's so classically, and under-statedly, Canadian that it's worth repeating.

It's (allegedly) a transcript of an actual radio conversation of a US Naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. The transcipt of the Radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval operations on the 10th october 1995.

Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Canadians: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid collision.

Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy Ship, I say again, divert your course.

Canadians: Number One, I say again, divert your course.

Americans: This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that you change your course 15 degrees north. Thats on five degrees north, or counter measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.

Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

Gotta Love Canadians

Interesting piece from CBC on Canadian inventions.

I knew they'd done the arm for the space shuttle, but I had no idea that Canadians were responsible for screw propulsion, basketball, luggage tags, the telephone, instant mashed potato, electic ovens, insulin, the electron microscope, java and the wonderbra.....

The top fifty list is here, and you can comment or submit here.

Oh Canada! (part 2)

  The World Needs More Canada 
  Originally uploaded by giz..

I love this sign. It's a feature of Indigo book stores in Canada, and it always makes me smile.

I don't know anyone who's got a bad word to say about Canada, or Canadians. And the occasional mockery always seems underpinned by an affectionate envy for a country which seems to have mastered a combination of economic prosperity, social harmony and political stability. No surprise that it consistently scores very highly on the UN indices of great places to live.

But there are a couple of problems.

The first is Canada's own self image. Living next door to a neighbour who is larger and louder, and who syphons off talent, can undermine your confidence. Macleans, the Canadian news magazine, ran a competition recently for the Canadian equivalent of "As American as apple pie". The winner was "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances". Wry, but telling.

The second follows from the first, and is Canada's image round the world. While most people have warm feelings, few people are sure what Canada's about.  Adam Morgan recently described Canada's brand values as "quiet decency". When I challenged him on it he tried  again with "large, cold and Leonard Cohen". Neither does it justice.

Canadians seem to be happy to get on with their lives, and to play an important but understated role in world affairs (they're in the thick of it in Afghanistan right now). But I think there's a real opportunity: the world would be a better place with more Canada: as a country, an approach to life, and a brand.

Oh Canada (part 1)

The first of a couple of riffs on Canada after our annual top-up in August. This one is an affectionate and very funny ribbing from Jon Stewart after the arrest of suspected terrorists in Toronto.

It's been on YouTube for a while, so should still load here too.

Breakfast at the Muffin House

  Breakfast at the Muffin House 
  Originally uploaded by giz..

These muffins are very close runners up to 1369 as the best in the world. A brave judgement given they're made by Kate's mother.

Fresh, warm, crunchy & squishy, with fruit from the market in Kingston. And loaded with a dozen summers of memories.

We've got the recipes, but I'm not sure how we'd mass produce them for the bakery project. Nice problem to experiment with, though.

Longer elastic....

Our eldest son is off to camp today. Two weeks on remote Canadian lake, sharing adventures with a hundred other boys (including two cousins, one of whom is already having a brilliant time there). He'll thrive, I think, particularly as he's ready to do riskier and 'cooler' things than we'd do with him (however young we think we are), and he'll benefit from knocking around with peers his age and older, rather than his younger siblings.

But it'll be strange not having him around. And strange, too, that he's forging his own friendships and making his own choices. By the time we see him he'll hopefully be bouncing with news, and full of life long memories that we're not part of. And he'll have had the odd wobble with missing us, as we will with him. All part of gradually letting go, even from the age of eight.

Despite all the preparations, investigations and rationalisation over the last few months, there's still a risk that this is the wrong thing to do. I guess we'll know soon enough. And in the meantime we're cranking up a letter writing operation on both sides of the Atlantic....

UPDATE.
We've just had a letter, which must have been posted a couple of days after he arrived. Two phrases stand out: "I'm having an absolute blast, just like you said I would" and "Everyone loves my accent"!