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

Use 49085, at least that's what I did. Most badly programmed sites have *New Zealand (Aoteroa)* as a selection and then still insist on a 5 digit area code, when here they're all 4 digits.

>> They are a primary tracking tool. <<

"I am not a number!"

U162344

I have found success by using 90210 as in "Beverley Hills"...
Truly!

canadians have treated the native people pretty badly..that's about all i can think of that may be wrong with canadians

Every now and then comes someone who hasn't read any backlog.

Greetings 'reality challenge equine'

that should have been

'reality challenged equine'

yeah i gathered that vision of john thomas day

damn, that was yesterday must change

Apparently what is really wrong with us canuckleheads is that we can't keep a thread going.
But at least the people of Ontario have come partially to their senses and staged a common sense counter-revolution to depose Ernie Eves.

Canadians give up too easy. According to a news report this moring, the canadians are not putting their best players up against the All Blacks and are saving them for, and I quote: "a winnable game against Italy"

After the drumming the UK teams have been dishing out so far, I don't blame them


I've only ever spent 3 days in Canada - loved it, btw, though a fair few of you I noticed do prolong your vowels...what's that all aboot? Eh?

careful, they won't let you in the hoose for saying that

I wonder if they're still subscribed.

I am. But I've still never heard anyone except non-Canadians say "aboot".

what aboot hoose?

Only students and professors of Old and Middle English. Sorry. We just don't talk like that. And we only say "eh?" when we're pretending to be the stereotype people have given us. I've seriously never heard anyone talk like the stereotype.

This subject has all been rather thoroughly treated around here and it seemed to come down to the fact that people in the Burlington area (a suburb of Toronto), do, in fact sometimes say something vaguely like "aboot". It should be remembered that there are a great many Canadians who have ended up having some sort of status and reputation as old standards of Britain and the BBC (Patrick McGoohan of The Prisoner and Linda Thorson of The Avengers come immediately to mind) And Christopher Plummer (the Sound of Music) has had almost his entire career in Britain despite his Canadian accent. Rent some tapes of The Prisoner, The Sound of Music, and The Avengers and tell me if we say "aboot". Or old Star Trek for goodness sake. Everybody's Canadian on that. Or 24: Keifer Sutherland and whatever her name is that plays his daughter are both Canadian. Cancer man on the X-files.

Of course, a reputation for saying "aboot the hoose, eh?" is certainly less troubling than certain national reputations for sheep things.

" is certainly less troubling than certain national reputations for sheep things" ooo, sensitive aren't we?

Actually "eh?" is something that used to be said alot here.

Actually, I have a friend who distinctly says "hey" at the end of many statements. But then, her father's Australian.

I'm not really sensitive. I was joking. But it is a little tiresome to have everyone know us as simply the people who say "aboot". I wish we had huge imperialistic ambitions for people to complain about - something of substance.

Oh, and, here's an interesting little Canadian story:

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/10/14/land_mines031014

And for those who can't get CBC:

Researchers hope for leafy landmine detectors
Last Updated Tue Oct 14 18:54:59 2003

EDMONTON-- A University of Alberta researcher is trying to develop a plant
that will change colour when there's a landmine in the soil.

Biology Prof. Michael Deyholos is working on a genetically-modified plant
that will act as an alert when it encounters TNT in the soil – a major
explosive found in landmines.

He anticipates that the plant would either
change colour, or its flower would change
shape.



The team is trying to find a receptor that
can detect TNT in the soil, which would
then be put into the roots of plants. When
the receptor encounters TNT, it would
send a signal that causes the plant to
change.

Deyholos says using plants to detect landmines is theoretically possible.
He says the challenge is to make the components work together.

He is working with the defence departments in both Canada and the
United States on a two-year feasibility project.

The warning system wouldn't work in combat, because the plants would
take some time to grow.

But Deyholos says they would be useful in former battlefields, where
people are now trying to go on with their lives without having a leg blown
off.


It is estimated that there are between 60 million and 100 million
unexploded landmines planted around the world, in countries such as
Angola and Afghanistan. They are estimated to kill or main more than
26,000 people every year.

actually, untill Da Silva brought it up. I hadn't heard anything aboUt pronounciation in years. Not since one of my highschool teachers (an american who's parents were canadian)

Oh come on Anahaga, we do too say "eh" - though I'll grant you that it seems to be a function more of age and education and class. As with most parts of the world, especially within North America, regional accents and dialects of English are fading and becoming more standard thanks to the flat middle american televison accent.While bluenosers, Newfies, folks from the Ottawa Valley (where Carol used to become Carl), the Praries and BC all used to have distictive accents as a general rule, most middle class folks under 50 no longer do, or at least the accent is not as strong as it once was.
As for talking like stereotypes, disparage the Mckenzie brothers all you like but they sounded like most of my neighbours in good old Sault Ste Marie, at least the ones that weren't Italian or Finnish immigrants anyways.

As for "hoose" and "aboot", the yanks claim we say that because we don't pronounce it "ha-owse" and "ah-baowt" like they do, eh?