In Honor Of

Because today is July 1, I thought I would take the opportunity to give honor to our fine neighbors to the north. Here are twenty-six things I bet a lot of you don't know about them:

A is for Alpine. Because even though I don't drink beer, sometimes, I feel you really do have to live here to get it (yes, I know that's a semi-old slogan). It's also for Atwood (Margaret), and Anne (of Green Gables).

B is for Basketball (I bet you didn't know it was invented here). It's also for Blue Jays (I'm not a fan, but I think they deserve mention as the only MLB team NOT in the US)

C is for Curling. Ever seen Men with Brooms? Great Movie.

D is for Diversity. 'Nuff said.

E is for Eh? Yes, they really do say it.

F is for Fundy, the Bay of. High Tide, Low Tide, any kind of tide. Once you've lived on it for four years, you'll never think of tides the same way again.

G is for Garlic Fingers. Go north and have some.

H is for Hockey (of course), Halifax (a great city), and Hopewell (because those rocks are just darn cool).

I is for... well, I looks very much like the number 1 -- the number one country in North America in terms of size. Yes, it really is bigger than the US.

J is for Joey's, the best pizza place in the world.

K is for Kathy, down right the absolute coolest person in the place.

L is for Loonies. How come we can't give our money cool nicknames?

M is for Maple. Period. Yes, it can stand for other things, like Maritimes, or Molsen, or Macleans, or Mount Allison, but when you get right down to it? M is for Maple.

N is for New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, and Nunavit. More of Canada's political subdivisions start with N than another letter.

O is for Oil. There's more in Canada than there is in the US, believe it or not.

P is for Patons. (You didn't think I'd go through a list without bringing up at least one reference to yarn, did you?) It's also for Poutine, the absolute best, most delicious comfort food in the universe. Look above at G for directions.

Q is for Quebec. What else?

R is for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who usually wear dark blue and drive Chevrolets. They train in Regina, another great R (I've never been there, but I'm sure it's a wonderful place).

S is for Sackville, the home of Joey's. And many other things, but you really should consider stopping by just for Joey's.

T is for Timbits. Again, 'nuff said.

U is for Universal Health Care. A shame we don't have something similar in the US.

V is for Vimy Ridge. If you don't know anything about this WWI battle, well....

W is for Winter, which has a tendency to last ad nauseum, but really is one of the prettiest times of the year.

X is for X-files, which were filmed there.

Y is for Yukon. I've heard it's very nice up there. And without it, we would have no Call of the Wild.

Z is for Zed, which is Canadianese (I should say Commonwealthese, actually, since they say Zed in Britain and Oz too.) for the last letter of the alphabet.

Happy Canada Day to all my Canuk friends. I hope you all have a great one.