h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Canada's national anthem began as an instrumental piece
commissioned in Montreal for the anniversary celebration
of St Jean-Baptise Day which was and is more or less the
Quebec 'National' holiday.

Later, dripping patriotic lyrics were added by an English
speaker. These have been amended, deleted and 'improved'
many times over the years especially since the referendum
in Quebec (a motion to secede from Confederation) was lost
by a margin of less than half of one percent.

Most people no longer know the official words, half of which
are now in French, babbling on about maple syrup and rocking
chairs for the elderly (maybe - who knows?).


~jwf~

I remember singing this in a church in 1976. Elektra and I went up to Stratford, Ontario, to escape the Bicentennial, and ended up celebrating Canadian patriotism instead.

It could have been worse. We could have had to sing 'In days of yore, from Britain's shore, Wolfe, the dauntless hero came and planted firm Britannia's flag...'

Ahem.

On Ilkley Moor

Ba't
Baht
Bah't
...Whatever

But, please note:

'at

and that's a capital apostrophe
short for hat

Got that?

Oh, dear. The link said 'Tat'. I thought it was 'At, myself.

(Thanks.)

That's ok, Dmitri. Lesson learned, eh?


Incidentally squigs, No1Son buys maple syrup (I'm banned from it - too expensive) called
O'Canada.
That comma - quite uplifting, non?

As long as it tastes good...

As long as it tastes good? ...it ought to, at the price.

Well it is rather labour intensive to be produced. I think it takes gallons and gallons to cook down to a bit of syrup ---then the shipping costs on top that half way across the world. No wonder it is pricy. That is almost as bad as the poor far north living Canadians who have to spend $28 Canadian for a head of cabbage!

Elektra,
Yes, I appreciate the amount of processing.

$28 for a head of cabbage? Wow! I thought we were badly off, paying for logistics. However, cabbages aren't too bad - they're grown here.
Eat yer greenbacks, child.

>> $28 <<

This may well be true in the far, far north
where everything comes in by small plane, and
prices are exorbitant; and, even in the southern
reaches where goods are trucked from California
and Mexico we pay more than Americans for most
of our out-of-season produce. But $28 for a
cabbage sounds like mythical proportions from
tales of the Yukon Gold Rush.


-jwf-

Here in the local supermarket a head of cabbage costs about R5 ... that's about 60 cents, in American terms.

http://www.yorkshire-dialect.org/authors/dennis_rhodes_t_z.htm

http://www.yorkshire-dialect.org/humour/yorkshire_humour.htm

bah tat = without a hat on

You and Rod slug it out.

Yorkshiremen/women = strong as graniteeveryone else = pea size
therefore we are impenetrable

Ah So. 'ead t' 'ead is it?

You are a Yorkshire man eh? I lived there for a while and I've known some (no further comment) and I'll tell ye this:

On Ilkley Moor
bah tat
=
bar the hat
=
bar t' 'at
=
bar t'at
... so
bah tat


'okay?

tha'll do fer me

Uh oh, that wasn't so bad