An open thread for personal stuff, continuing from here.
As usual for these threads: no trolls, no MRAs, no I’m-not-really-an-MRA-buts, don’t be mean.
Categories
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
We Hunted The Mammoth
I can’t tell Canadian and American accents apart, so I tend to ask visitors where they’re from rather than say “Oh, you’re American!” or something equally silly. I’ve heard plenty of stories of Canadians being quite unimpressed at being called American. Mind you back in the Iraq War, I’ve also heard of Americans saying “No, I’m Canadian” to avoid a heaping of shit while overseas, much as Australians would say they were from New Zealand – most people in other countries couldn’t tell the difference.
And long before we were ashamed of being ourselves, Australians used to go to some lengths to avoid being mistaken for Americans. A friend of mine used to go to Nicaragua fairly frequently, and, the times being as they were, (mid-late 80s) she had kangaroo and Australian flag badges, ribbons and other stuff all over her clothes and her luggage. I know some who used to wear similar things when they were visiting Europe, though that wasn’t so important as when the CIA were backing those ghastly Central American armies.
Definitely guilty of going with state instead of country. In my defense:
Alaska is really cool, literally and figuratively (except when it’s hot).
The rest of the US constantly forgets us, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Phillipines when they say things like “nationwide shipping” anyway…
…it can sometimes be a little tricky to feel connected to the south. By south, I mean Lower 48. By lower 48, I mean that big block of continuous US shaped space…
Well, except for the people living near the border, Canadian and American accents sound fairly distinct to me, even without the “aboots”… but I probably haven’t heard a large enough sample of Canadians.
@contrapangloss
If I was offered a free trip to the USA, but I could only go to one state, I’d pick Alaska no question. It seems like the complete opposite of here, and awesome. How misled am I by the movie The Proposal?
When I went to college in Illinois my friends teased me by calling me Canadian because to them, my Minnesota accent sounded Canadian. I wonder if that means I’d really easily pass as Canadian to people not from North America. I can see how the accents would be easily mixed up and we do share a border with Ontario and Manitoba.
http://www.ezilon.com/maps/images/usa/minnesota_simple.gif
Wait, don’t Minnesota accents sound sort of Scandinavian? (I know that’s hopelessly vague itself, but I don’t know the difference between Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, etc, accents. Well, except the tour bus driver who really did sound like the Swedish Chef and was almost as hard to understand …)
Contrapangloss:
I’ve long held the assumption that those regions are best regarded as separate “countries” or despite not being independent. This would be based partly on geographic distinction, partly on political autonomy and partly on cultural distinction.
Does this sound accurate with regards to Alaska? I’ve certainly noticed that people tend to equate “USA” (or rather “America”, natch) with the lower 48.
my hand is healing, but I think it went downhill overnight. I was able to type and hit the shift key with my right hand yesterday, but not today. today I can only hit the letter keys. annoying.
Kittehs,
I think Minnesota accents sound Scandinavian and Canadian accents don’t but people seem to mix them up a lot for some reason anyway.
11-28 is not a good time for someone in the northern hemisphere to discover spider mites on a houseplant.
In related news, if any Mammotheers need a cheap way to moisturize dry skin, horticultural oil works great, and it costs almost nothing because you dilute it 1 tbsp/quart of water before you use it.
@Arctic Ape:
Of the list, Alaska and Hawaii are actually states, where the other two are territories. The territories have more political autonomy, in exchange for not getting as much federal grants and getting less representation in congress (as in, they get a nonvoting delegate to the house). Every so often, they vote on whether they want to become a state.
Puerto Rico just voted no, again, if anyone was curious.
People born in territories (with some exceptions) are automatically citizens, so they do get to vote in national and local elections!
Alaska and Hawaii have less autonomy, because of being ‘incorporated’ and having statehood, but it comes with the perks of having three voting delegates to the congress (2 senators, one house rep) and having access to federal funds (politics, it is messy).
Culturally, though, we tend to behave like we’re separate, though! I’ve had one room-mate in college from the Lower 48 who told me flat out that I shouldn’t even try moving to the ‘east coast’ because my culture and it’s culture would be non mixable things.
I don’t know how true that is.
@Kim:
The Proposal was actually filmed in Massachusetts (eastern coast of the lower 48). Sitka is much prettier, with slightly less impressive looking buildings, but way more eagles. I’ve only been through Sitka once, and it was gorgeous. It also has awesome SCUBA diving, if you happen to be certified.
It rains and snows a lot though… But when it’s sunny it’s incredible!
The interior has better Aurora-spotting. More clear, more northerly, without being too far north. 🙂
PoM,
Hope your hand heals well. Sorry about the downturn, and hope it upswings soon!
thanks! It’s definitely better today than it was three days ago, just not as good as yesterday.
I’ll be glad when it’s all the way healed, though. I’m tired of baths and microwave dinners.
The Philippines have been an autonomous nation since 1946.
Thanks, Contrapangloss. I have to go offline now.
@Katz:
THAT IS SO COOL!
Apparently, my Alaska Studies course in high school was borked, which isn’t too surprising. Then again, the only time they really mentioned the Phillipines in school was to talk about how territories work. Funny they’d leave that bit out, eh?
*runs off to do some ferocious googling to fix world knowledge*
Ooooh!
The Phillipines joined the UN on October 24th, 1945! That’d make them a founding nation, wouldn’t it?
Any Mammothers with Philipine history reading recs out there? (Since us history texts are kind of bogus, apparently)
The Northern Marianas are the territory that gives me the angries currently. That is where they put women in sweatshops who paid serious money to “come to America”. They make clothes with “made in the USA” labels.
I’m just starting to read up on it because I’m thinking of writing a novel set during the Philippine-American war, so I’m looking for sources myself. But as I understand it, the short version goes something like:
1896:
PHILIPPINES: Woo hoo, throw off the Spanish oppressors!
1898:
US: Hey, we’re fighting Spain too. If you help us, we’ll give you your independence.
PHILIPPINES: Cool.
(war)
PHILIPPINES: OK, we won. How about that independence?
US: Psych! We’re going to keep you as a colony.
PHILIPPINES: WTF??
1899:
US: Why are you starting a revolution over unfair taxation? How uncouth of you.
PHILIPPINES: You have no sense of irony.
1902:
US: Tell you what. We’ll give you your independence in, like, 30 years, if you promise to be good.
1935:
PHILIPPINES: OK, it’s been 30 years. Can we have our independence now?
US: BRB, world war.
(war)
1946:
US: OK, here’s your independence. Enjoy.
PHILIPPINES: FINALLY.
katz, that summary was brilliant!
I think the message here is – don’t mess with Aussie women! (Also, edited in story to Game reviewer strikes back. She’s unsure it’s directly GG related. But still brilliant)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/11/gamergate-victim-strikes-back-at-male-stalkers-with-a-brilliant-new-ploy-telling-their-moms/
Good news: Finland has legalised gay marriage! Same-sex unions now have the same status as heterosexual marriages. Finally! This makes me so happy!
Not-so-good news: My mother has gone on a fucking rampage complaining about this “travesty” that will “destroy the cornerstones of this country” on Facebook, linking all sorts of right-wing anti-gay blog posts left and right, and generally acting like a homophobic jerkface. Don’t act surprised that I don’t feel like visiting you this Christmas, mom.
Good news: the Liberals are out in Victoria, the first one-term government in 60 years! Labor is in, the Greens have gained their first lower-house seat here, and as usual these days, looks like the upper house is going to be messy, with lots of one-note microparties and no majority for Labor.
My seat’s probably still held by the Liberals (hiss boo) but it is close, and I’m relieved to say the far-right creeper parties – Australian Christians and Rise Up Australia – have less than 400 votes apiece as yet.
Rise up and do what? It’s not like they can stomp all over either the people who lived there before they arrived or the people attempting to immigrate now much more than they have already.
“Rise up and stop all those Nasty Brown Muslims coming in.” Basic anti-multiculturalism.
They also don’t like the English language much – I quote:
“Rise Up Australia Party appreciates the relentless, good work and noblesse oblige of all our volunteers and workers…”
Noblesse oblige? A dictionary, you should buy one. I really, really doubt any of their workers or volunteers belong to the nobility.