More a series of cosmically hilarious but directly infuriating/extremely disappointing events upending the plans of myself and people I care most about, delaying a series of very important life events.

eyes this comment suspiciously, knife hand at the ready

Later: reads about European Hornets in Vermont, slowly but not entirely lowering knife hand

Most years I enjoy it, this year someone’s liable to get throat-chopped. March has drained my tolerance for shenanigans (which is a shame, as I usually love shenanigans).

Ugh, knew I should have checked this thread further before posting, it’s such an obvious pull.

Shake it once (that’s fine), possibly shake it twice (that’s ok), but never three times (that’s playing with yourself)

I’ve done a bunch of work with folks in Nunavut before, and I find it’s a useful distinction given that very fact. Life’s pretty different up north and it’s a term they use to talk about the rest of us.

(Will say I don’t know if it gets as much play in NWT or Yukon).

Edit: According to StatsCan, the line’s further down than I thought it’d be, but honestly it still makes sense. Source: map from this release.

You’re not wrong, and I tried to communicate this in my caveats. But considered as a whole, Southern Canada at least doesn’t seem all that different from the U.S imo (though there’s a U.S. immigrant in this thread who mentioned a little bit of culture shock, interested to read their take if they feel like expanding on that). And I say this as someone who has visited a lot of it (though not everywhere - cheap shots at Saskatoon aside I really would like to go explore Saskatchewan one day).

Most of us get our groceries from large, pretty evil corporations. Most of us want to own single family homes that few can afford anymore. We generally watch the same TV shows, listen to the same music, and have many of the same pop cultural reference points (Quebec, as in most other aspects, being a huge exception. Honestly find their media industry fascinating.). There’s a generation of Canadians that knows waaay more about U.S. history than Canadian history. etc.

Then again, I suppose this is the bird’s eye view - zoom in and you’ll see lots of regional differences (still recall disparaging remarks about ‘Upper Canada’ when chatting with old timers in NS the last time I went).

Seconded, the differences from the U.S. seemed kinda subtle most of the time (but same issue, what I noticed as a tourist kinda thing).

Sometimes cheaper, sometimes simply more available (ex used to go for all sorts of sugar-free shit we don’t get here).

Can’t help but wonder how Ogdensburg, NY is doing these days.

Stronger USD does help, though exactly how much I’ll leave someone from the U.S. who has made the trip to comment on here.

Very similar culturally. Our proximity to the U.S. has had a massive impact on our culture (what exactly constitutes distinct ‘Canadian culture’ is a bit of a fraught question, even if you just stop at ‘Canadian settler culture’. But, beyond leaving this provactive song, I digress.). But lots of regional differences - your experience in Antigonish, NS will be different than Toronto, ON, which is different from Trois-Riviere, QC; Brandon, MB; Saskatoon, SK (lol, jk, no one goes to Saskatoon), etc. Then there’s the North, which is very different from anywhere in Southern Canada.

There’s an impression that we are more polite, in aggregate, than the U.S. I don’t know how true that is and believe it’s a function of population difference (U.S. has way more people, so if the % of assholes is the same that’s still a whole lot more assholes), but whatever.

If someone from the U.S. comes here and isn’t a knob, they’ll generally be treated fine (though perhaps the usual jokey jabs have a little more spike to them these days, given the state of U.S-Canada relations). They usually marvel at the little differences (bagged milk gang what-what).

Not comfortable enough to wear a sundress I guess, but if there wasn’t a cultural element that could create a problem, I would wear the fuck out of those breezy robes you see Muslim guys wearing to mosque in the summer.

It’s fucking hot and I trust the fashion choices of people from desert climates. A good idea is a good idea. I have watched these guys while sweating my balls off with severe envy before.

The day I’m told by an Imam “Dude, no one would give a fuck”, I’m making a purchase.

Curious about your culture, in the North American anglosphere at least Professor has some negative/sarcastic connotations if you’re not actually a professor (essentially suggesting someone is a dumbass). Just be careful with that one.

You are a treasure, please never change SMCF <3

Random question: You ever have a dream involving someone you’ve never met, then eventually meet them?

hands over DMT vape Just keep hitting this, you’ll get there eventually.

[/s, but people have reported the ‘living a surreal but otherwise ~realish life experience for a while’ experience before, rather than the more common ‘machine elves in psychedelic munchkin land’ experience. I personally wouldn’t touch that shit with a 20 foot pole - I like weird but there’s such a thing as too weird]

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Very true. Realistic context behind this comment: thinking about early puberty (where a stiff breeze could get things stirring), and times I’ve met amazing women where there was lots of chemistry and tension one evening, but nothing happens and probability of seeing each other again is low (hey, people are in all sorts of situations, nbd). The next morning is … well, annoying. Just when you think you’ve settled your system, you zone out for a moment and bam, you’re back in business.

This experience is more like ‘a lot of boners in a 24 hour period’ v ‘one sustained boner for more than 4 hours’. Idk if that makes a difference. But yeah, priapism is serious and if you have a boner that last more than 4 hours 100% go see a doctor.

As someone who has been bricked up for pretty much a full day before, it sounds a lot better than actually is. At a certain point you’ve got stuff to do, and practically no one wants to see your boner at the supermarket.

Oof - glad your friend got out of it unmolested (…no pun intended, I swear). Given everyone came out ok, chalk this one up to live and learn.

Hooray for trail magic! Reminds me of the time I hoofed it to an outlying town and back (think it was about 8 hours round trip?), had a few folks slow down and ask if I needed a ride. Restores your faith in humanity a touch.

Since there’s nothing better than a close call story, are there any you’d like to share? Feel free to balance it out with one of the fun stories as well if you want (since close call stories, as well as sheer bad outcome stories, colour a lot people’s impressions about hitching).