Happy Canada Day!

 

 

--mmy

---

 

The Slacktiverse is a community blog. Content reflects the individual opinions of the contributors. We welcome disagreement in the comment threads, and invite anyone who wishes to present an alternative interpretation of a situation to write and submit a post.

Comments

[cjmr, on her son's netbook]

Shall we have a sing-a-long?

"O, Canada, our home and native land...."

(We always went to the Windsor side of the Detroit River for the fireworks when I was a kid. Much better view, better company, singable anthem...)

[Brin]

I like the "our home and cherished land" version. More accurate, for one thing.

[Mmy]

I always "think" the Canadian anthem in exactly the way that Roger Doucet sang it before every home game of Les Canadiens de Montréal/The Montreal Canadiens for years. Doucet began the anthem in French and ended it in English -- so whenever I hear the opening words of "O Canada" sung my mind expects the next line to be Terre de nos aïeux.

[storiteller]

All of the Cornell University hockey games include the Canadian national anthem, as there was a higher number of Canadian players than American ones. The associate pastor of our church is Canadian, so his little boy had an adorable t-shirt on today. It had a moose on it who was itself wearing a Canadian flag t-shirt.

[Amaryllis]

Happy holiday to Canada!

I'm sorry to say that I can't join in the sing-along, not without looking up the words. Guess I grew up too far south.

I could quote "The Cheese Poet" on "Birth of Canada as a Nation," but I won't.

[hapax]

Thou land of hope for all who toil,
Thou True North strong and free!
Ton histoire est une épopée --
(Let some sense trickle down here someday...)

[Froborr]

Does anyone ever call it Canaday?

[Mike Timonin]

Froborr - no, not as far as I'm aware.

storiteller - Cornell? Are we (semi) neighbors? I'm in Binghamton.

[storiteller]

storiteller - Cornell? Are we (semi) neighbors? I'm in Binghamton.

Nope - I went there for undergrad. I adored Ithaca, but live in the Washington, DC region now.

[Winter]

Happy Canada day to everyone who celebrates it!

[P J Evans]

Happy Canada Day! (to all the Canadians, dead and alive, in the family tree, also)

[Dan Audy]

Took my son to see his first fireworks display this year since he is old enough to stay awake that late now. There is something incredible about experiencing something with a child who is not jaded to the excitement and awesomeness that helps bring it back for me too. The nearly 20 minute fireworks show was punctuated by rising and falling choruses of WOW and HOLY CROWS as the barrage of light and sound infused us.

[sarah]

Happy Canada Day to all you Canadians!

(My dad, who has a tendency to break out into song at any time, likes to sing "O Canada." He says it's more melodious than the US anthem.)

[Nenya]

Happy (belated) Canada Day! :D

My father, who was born in the US but lived in Canada for thirty years (thus the reason I'm Canadian) wore the "Eh?" t-shirt I got him for Christmas to his family reunion this weekend. I was proud.

[Will Wildman]

I always prefer the half-French half-English versions of our anthem, which I only started hearing after moving from Ontario to Manitoba. Ton histoire is an épopée.

This was the first time in about eighteen years that I actually set off fireworks directly rather than going to see one of the major shows. The big shows are amazing, but there's something inimitable about gathering with friends in a pitch-black field, illuminated only when someone shouts "I AM A WIZARD" and starts launching a fountain of fiery red stars from her hand. (Note to whomever designed fireworks that it's safe to hold while firing: you are a terrifying and morally-questionable genius.)

[hapax]

This was the first time in about eighteen years that I actually set off fireworks directly rather than going to see one of the major shows.

This Fourth will be the first time in twelve years that we don't spend buckets of cash on Stuff What Blows Up in our front yard. The ongoing drought has made things so flammable that all the local towns and counties are seriously enforcing fireworks bans* and even the pyromaniacs in my family** aren't stupid enough to risk it.

*as opposed to the usual fireworks bans, which involves the cops driving around town and asking folks, "Say, ma'am, that wouldn't happen to be a mortar in your hand, would it?" "Why, no, officer, fireworks are illegal in town, we sure wouldn't want to break the law!"

**I will not speak for the pyromaniacs down the street, who (judging by the available evidence) are indeed that stupid. We plan to keep the hose out and the fire department on speed-dial.

[Mike Timonin]

Here in New York, personal fireworks are illegal all over the state. I'm largely agnostic on the issue generally - I like fireworks, I understand the appeal of blowing stuff up, but I don't need to be the one to light the fuse. I think the ban might be a little stringent - sparklers are included - but I have no huge problem with the ban as such.

My problem is this:

1) we live minutes from the PA border, where fireworks are 100% legal. There's a huge business of selling personal fireworks to the poor benighted New Yorkers. Again, I have no problem with this - but, if fireworks are illegal in New York, surely it should be illegal to advertise them in New York? We don't see billboards promoting the local cocaine dealer, or hear radio ads for the local hit man, why should we see and hear ads for fireworks?

2) recently, my daughter got a flyer from the local fire department on fireworks safety. It said, almost verbatim, "Fireworks are illegal in New York. Don't use them, and you will be safe." The abstinence only approach.

[Froborr]

we live minutes from the PA border, where fireworks are 100% legal.

Not true! The law in Pennsylvania is that *selling* fireworks *to non-Pennsylvanians* is 100% legal. If you sell fireworks to Pennsylvanians, you cannot sell anything that goes above a certain height or can fire horizontally, and it is illegal to set any of those off in the state. (Unless you are a licensed professional performing an authorized public fireworks show, of course.)

Thus, all the really good Pennsylvania fireworks stores check to make sure you have out-of-state ID before they'll sell you anything. Not that I, you know, do an annual roadtrip with my brother to one of those stores or anything like that.

[cjmr, on her son's netbook]

There's also a lively cross-border black market in fireworks between Ohio and Michigan...

----

On a similar celebratory note...

Tonight is the '4th of July' evening Concert on the Common. Everyone showed up this morning to claim the good spots with their lawn chairs and blankets. And then left them there and went about their business. No one will move them or steal them. I grew up one mile north of Detroit--there are things about small town life that seem simply incomprehensible to me. This is one of them.

[Mike Timonin]

Tonight is the '4th of July' evening Concert on the Common. Everyone showed up this morning to claim the good spots with their lawn chairs and blankets. And then left them there and went about their business. No one will move them or steal them.

Boggle.

[cjmr]

I'm off at o'dark-thirty to drive with cjmr's husband and the kids to visit all the grandparents in Ohio and Michigan.

'See' you all in two weeks! (Or sooner, if I can find some good free wifi...)

[Nenya]

Enjoy, cjmr & family!

[Dash]

Belated happy Canada Day! I still regret, to a degree, that my loyalist ancestors didn't leave the U.S. like so many others did. Based on what many of their current descendants think, they stayed in the new U.S. out of fear that if they fled to Canada they might some day be given decent and affordable health care.