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Scylla Rhiadra

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Everything posted by Scylla Rhiadra

  1. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, on the FUN side, think how many Canadians are re-experiencing that fun T-Rex Google game today!
  2. Scylla Rhiadra
    In other news, and as some will attest here, one of Canada's major internet / cellular data providers, Rogers (no relation to the nice man in the cardigan) has been experiencing an outage for . . . 17 hours or so now. Probably roughly half of the country is without internet or cell phones. I'm ok, in the sense that I don't use Rogers. But it's also impacted on debit sales and bank machines, so I can't shop for groceries. Or pretty much anything. /me scrounges around in her fridge for leftovers that aren't actually green yet.
  3. Scylla Rhiadra
    “I’m very concerned that our society is much more concerned with information than wonder, in noise rather than silence. How do we encourage reflection? … Oh my, this is a noisy world.” There's a lot of wisdom to be found in Mr. Rogers, you know.
  4. Scylla Rhiadra
    We're all very political on this forum today. Which I'm sure is a peeve for some. Actually, sort of for me too. I was hoping for a quiet Friday, without agitation.
  5. Scylla Rhiadra
    Really good question. I used to be a member of the FLF group, but left it aeons ago. I wonder if there has been any chatter there?
  6. Scylla Rhiadra
    Particularly tragic. My life really has never been the same since we lost this one.
  7. Scylla Rhiadra
    This is one of the issues with LL generally: as an American company, they often seem rather unaware of other cultures. As you note, Black Canadian culture is quite different in many ways than what exists in US. Here, as also in the UK, the predominant culture influence is the Caribbean, with an infusion of African (there is, for instance, a large Somali diaspora here in Toronto). I'm not sure what to do about that, or if anything can be done. Every community is diverse, including the LGBTQ+ one. The answer I suppose is to be as diverse as possible, and not prescriptive.
  8. Scylla Rhiadra
    I'd not go that far myself. Nazi regalia? Yes. Proud Boys merch, clearly identified as such? Maybe. I don't this is clear cut enough. It is, however, enough for me to make a personal decision not to patronize this merchant. And honestly, I'm at the point of feeling the same way about any store that feeds into the glorification of gun culture.
  9. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, it's probably both. Wikipedia says "Heavily armed, boogaloo members are often identified by their attire of Hawaiian shirts and military fatigues."
  10. Scylla Rhiadra
    Who has said anything about banning?
  11. Scylla Rhiadra
    I have read that the closest thing you can get to the sound of Shakespearean (i.e., Elizabethan Early Modern English) is in the Appalachian regions of the eastern US. So, yeah. Time to stop laughing at Jethro!
  12. Scylla Rhiadra
    I am becoming less inclined to think that this is an accident, but your principle is a good one, Ceka. As always.
  13. Scylla Rhiadra
    Then again, there is this . . . https://gyazo.com/ff4b7fa92826cf8e2d4925d487ee16d5
  14. Scylla Rhiadra
    This is a fair call, and I will do that. Although I'm pretty sure that this is not the first time I've raised my eyebrows at the offerings from this particular store. ETA: Just looking over their MP. There is a LOT of sort of militia-looking paramilitary gear. Which . . . yech. But it might actually bolster your point.
  15. Scylla Rhiadra
    Interesting theory, and by no means implausible. When Upper Canada and New Brunswick were founded and settled by United Empire Loyalists ("Tories," to you Yankee types) in the aftermath of the American Revolution, a fair number of those who were resettled were First Nations allies of the British, who had fought for Britain: the British (to their credit) considered them "loyalists," and made efforts to accommodate them. Brantford (named after the First Nations leader, Joseph Brant) in South Western Ontario, and the nearby Six Nations Reserve are existing reminders of that. So, a fair number of the original British-sponsored settlers of the heartland of what came to be called "Canada" were, in fact, First Nations people dispossessed during the Revolution. I'm sure they must have had some impact on the English spoken.
  16. Scylla Rhiadra
    That is, of course, mostly my objection: it's the aesthetics. Would you trust a far right militia group that made this kind of choice when they got dressed in the morning? They probably also wear socks with sandals.
  17. Scylla Rhiadra
    I don't know, actually! I've read a fair bit about Canadian pronunciation generally, which is actually unusually consistent across a really wide geographic expanse. And there is the "open vowel" thing which people often remark upon when they say that Canadian's say "aboot" rather than "about." (I'll note, btw, that Canadians themselves don't hear it that way, because we are of course acclimatized to it.) But I don't think I've ever ready anything that class distinction in intonation. Nor about our ubiquitous "eh," which is really a thing. Even I do it. I'm sure there must be information on it out there. Interestingly, I've sometimes been mistaken for a Brit by southern Americans. Weird.
  18. Scylla Rhiadra
    Plausible deniability, which is one of the main points of using dog whistles. Besides, LL lets all sorts of crap slip in under the wire.
  19. Scylla Rhiadra
    This is almost the dictionary definition of a "dog whistle." Yeah, 90% of those who buy this aren't going to get the subtext. And no, LL isn't going to do anything about it, nor, arguably, should they. But the combination of tactical vest and Hawaiian shirt is distinctive, and otherwise odd enough that it's clearly not an "accident." One doesn't inadvertently combine those two looks. So . . . not much to do about it. Other than find out who is selling it and choose to boycott their store in future.
  20. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yes!
  21. Scylla Rhiadra
    It is particularly prevalent in cultures where old class systems are still in evidence. The "Queen's English," as taught at "public schools" and Oxbridge, is a definitive marker in England still of class, wealth, and prestige. A British friend of mine noted just yesterday, in fact, that many of the political, social, and cultural elites of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have Oxbridgean English accents because that is where they were educated. Canada has relatively few really distinctive regional dialects, Newfoundland being the very strong exception. There is, however, a very distinct classist distinction between educated and relatively less-educated Canadians, with the accent of the latter parodied in things like Bob and Doug Mackenzie's "The Great White North" skits. It's not just about vocabulary or grammar: there is a detectable intonation and lilt associated with the latter.
  22. Scylla Rhiadra
    They are that too! But the etymology of the term is different, and comes from the Italian "conservatorio," which was an orphanage attached to a hospital (in the older sense of "hospital" as "hospice"). https://www.britannica.com/art/conservatory-musical-institution (THERE! I can be pedantic too!)
  23. Scylla Rhiadra
    In Canada, both terms are in use, but have, as you say here, quite different connotations. The distinction is both functional and architectural. Conservatories are generally domestic spaces, in the sense that their function is not merely to house plants, but also to provide places to sit, eat, talk, listen to music, etc. They are for that reason usually attached to a house, and are often highly decorated (marble floors, statues, and that sort of thing). Greenhouses are most focused upon growing things, and not really intended as places to do anything else. There is just a wee touch of Old Empire contempt for "the colonies" in a lot of these sorts of conversation, I'm finding.
  24. Scylla Rhiadra
    I'm going to go ahead and assume that there is a language barrier at work here. Both "half-breed" and "bastard" are, in English, used almost exclusively these days in an insulting and derogatory fashion. The former term has deeply racist connotations, relating to fears (particularly among North American white settler populations) of the effects of miscegenation, or "race mixing." A song by Cher from the early 70s plays on the racist and derogatory meanings of the term. "Bastard" has been an insult for centuries, and has lost almost any connection with the actual question of parentage. That's not "political correctness": the corruption of these terms into insults long predates that. It's literally the way that the language has evolved. So, honestly, don't use these words. Especially "half-breed."
  25. Scylla Rhiadra
    I'd have hoped non-rubbery shoulders would have been a higher priority than squishy whatever.
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