A brief Montreal fling

A couple of days ago we spent a brief 2 days in Montréal to drop off G's Father at the airport and renew our visas as we returned across the border. Any excuse to enjoy Montréal at Xmas!
The next morning, we headed out amidst winter conditions through a route that took us through Vermont, New Hampshire, and northern Massachusetts. It probably would have taken us 6 hours had we driven straight, but we renewed our visas at the border just as a tour bus came through (we sat at the border for 3 hours). Anyway, the drive was gorgeous; here are some snaps. Here's the full Flickr set

Disturbing at so many levels

While reading a kid's nature book called "Creatures that Glow" I came across this passage regarding the Angler fish (which you may recall as the deep-sea fish with a flashlight from Finding Nemo):

During mating, the tiny male attaches himself by his teeth to the female. His body then fuses into hers--all that is left of the male is a small pouch on the female's side. The pouch contains the male's reproductive organs, which will fertilize the female's eggs.

Here's wikipedia's take on it:

When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were females. These individuals were a few inches in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turned out that these "parasites" were the remains of male ceratioids [...]

When it is mature, the male's digestive system degenerates, making him incapable of feeding independently, which necessitates his quickly finding a female anglerfish to prevent his death [...]

When he finds a female, he bites into her skin, and releases an enzyme that digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood-vessel level. The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads [...]

This extreme sexual dimorphism ensures that, when the female is ready to spawn, she has a mate immediately available.

Weird.

I'd better watch myself

We're settling into our new house and, by extension, our new life. It's kind of hard to deny that we have a certain commitment to our changed circumstances when you've just signed a 30-year mortgage. Anyway, it got me thinking about the last decade in Toronto, and a few flashbacks came to me:

• Port Hope, Ontario (a lovely small-ish town to the east of Toronto), I am walking down the main street with G., and saying "You know, I wouldn't mind living in a small town at some point. Something on a transit line to a city. Just to see what it would be like." "You'd hate it," says G. "Well, maybe. But would be interesting," I say.
• Antigua, Guatemala, 2005, I am walking the cobblestone streets with Cyp, an instructional technologist. "You know, I am thinking I want to get into this education and technology field. How do I go about that?" Cyp is offering some good advice; I would later apply for an Instructional Technologist position at Ryerson and not get it
• Toronto, probably around 2000, G. and I are musing over coffee, and I am saying "You know, I'd like to try living in the States. Just for a year or two. Just to try it out, see what it's like." "Well, you never know," says G. "You never know," I say.
  

Now I look at where I find myself; an instructional technologist in a small town in the intellectual heartland of the U.S., on a transit line to two major cities.

Before I do any more casual musings, I've got to start being very, very careful.

No kidding, Sherlock

This morning, amongst the mayhem of a typical weekday, Ben (freshly-turned 3-year-old) descended the stairs with his pants dragging around his ankles.

"I poo'd inda potty," he said, "... and took de lego OUT of the toilet."

Racing up the stairs with Ben under my arm, I hear G. call: "remember to wash the hands!"

Another truly gross moment brought to you by Parenthood™.

Harper vs Longoria

It's impossible not to get caught up in election fever -- unfolding now as I post -- even as a somewhat bemused Canadian (although, now that I am a resident, suddenly the election does seem a tad more relevant than it did before).

A couple of political aspects have struck me about the States. First, as everybody has noted, politics is far, far more passionate and divisive here than in Canada. The levels of hostility are somewhat alarming to behold, although I've mostly either observed them through the media or anecdotally. Truth be told, I have yet to meet an out-of-the-closet McCain supporter (they're hard to come by on Massachusetts Liberal Arts campuses), but I have heard one first-hand account of a woman in Texas reporting that a terrorist was parked nearby because she had seen an Obama bumper sticker.

People here do not vote Democrat or Republican, they are Liberals or Conservatives. Political affiliation is a far, far greater part of one's personal identity than in Canada. Combining this with the extreme emotions that have built up over the last 8 years has resulted in a weirdly intense climate that doesn't really compare to election time North of the border.

Enough about the divisive nature of the political climate here: other Canadians have blogged about this topic already, and better (this link points to a fascinating post from an American Liberal who finds his hatred of the Right to be approaching the bigotry and intolerance he himself opposes).

I though I would mention an aspect of all this that has really impressed me: people take their democracy very, very seriously down here. Not long after we arrived last year, there was an election for mayor of the town next to ours, and crowds of placard-carrying chanting supporters filled the downtown.

For the federal election, various state-level "propositions" are voted upon. Months prior to today, government-printed booklets with detailed examinations of the issues behind the propositions were widely distributed. Each proposition contained a (relatively) intelligent argument for and against (the online versions are here, here, and here). I have never seen anything close to such material in Canada.

Mind you, all the material and placards in the world does not result in informed voting or high voter turnout; nevertheless, I've been genuinely impressed by how democratic processes are (in some ways) taken more seriously here.

Plus, in terms of sheer entertainment, Election 2008 has been the best damn soap opera I've seen in a while. Frankly, comparing it to Election 2008: Canadian Edition was like comparing Desperate Housewives to CPAC.

Exotic local delicacies

A while back at work we got into a conversation about twinkies, and my American colleagues were shocked (SHOCKED!) and bemused to find that I had never had one.

(An aside: I think health Canada may have actually outlawed them. I do remember reading the comic book ads from the 70s advertising twinkies and Hostess Cup Cakes and wondering: cake? in a bag? How does that work?)

Anyway, to their delight and my horror they presented me with a real-life twinkie, all livid sponge cake and creme filling. I tried it and unbeknownst to me, somebody was on hand with a camera (thanks, Scott) to record the moment.

 

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is just that good.

Please note that it is evident that the kreme filling is not milk-based in any way, but some sort of petroleum product.

So was Goldilocks Canadian, or just a fairy tale American?

I uncovered another weird linguistic variation between Canada and the U.S. the other day. During an everyday discussion of "so what do you eat for breakfast?" with a colleague, I mentioned that I usually have porridge.

"You have what?" he exclaimed.

"Um, porridge," I said.

"That's hilarious! I've never heard anyone use the word 'porridge' before."

"Okay, what do you call oatmeal porridge?"

"Oatmeal!"

"Okay, and if it's not oatmeal, what do you call it?"

"Cream of wheat!"

"So, no one in the U.S. calls that kind of food 'porridge'?"

"Only in fairy tales."