So in case anybody couldn’t tell, I am an American — and a New Yorker. (Sometimes the New Yorker part comes first.) But I’m also pretty fond of lots of other countries, like Germany, which I visited in high school, and Austria, where I studied for a semester in college. And my family has roots in Germany and England and most recently Scotland, so I have a deep affection for those nations too.
But there’s a much closer neighbor who I think deserves a little love today. So I thought I would present
Things About Canada I Love Even Though I am not Canadian:
-Koigu. It is my absolute favorite sock yarn. Squishy and in so many beautiful colors and did I mention squishy? Canada has lots of lovely yarns but Koigu will always be my favorite.
-Tim Horton’s Maple Donuts. (See also: Official Donut of the Canadian People.) Speaks for itself. Maple. Mmm. See also maple syrup, maple candy, maple cookies — maple anything, really.
-Sharon, Lois & Bram. I can still sing all of Skinnamarink, complete with the arm motions. You can too. I know it. Don’t lie.
-You Can’t Do That On Television. Slime. Barth. Alastair. That is all. Nickelodeon apparently showed nothing but Canadian shows when I was a kid. Huh.
-Creamy Dill chips. Canada has all sorts of interesting chip flavors, like bacon and ketchup, which are all delicious, but to my mind Creamy Dill is the best of them all. I wish they’d import!
-Blue Rodeo, who kindly hold their summer Toronto show right around my birthday, which is always a good excuse for a visit.
-Kathleen Edwards, who I learned about because of Blue Rodeo.
-Jann Arden, who I learned about from J.
-the Canadian National Exhibition, which also happens around my birthday, and always has cracktastic butter sculptures and midway rides, and is another good reason to visit Toronto in August.
-that nifty font in the Toronto subways, because it’s nifty! (There’s the transit geek coming out).
-Anne of Green Gables, for breaking her slate over Gilbert’s head and having imagination and teaching me about bosum friends.
-Vancouver, for doing such a nice job of playing so many other cities. (Toronto doesn’t get that one because playing spot-the-CN-Tower usually gives it away.)
-Due South, because it introduced me to the first (and possibly only?) magical-realist-cop-show, and led me to discover:
-that Mounties are awesome
-Paul Gross
-Slings & Arrows
-Callum Keith Rennie
-playing spot-the-CN-Tower
-Canadian Actor Bingo. Canada’s very big into recycling, and this includes actors. They start popping up all over the place once you’re paying attention!
-Inukshuks, which are a Native tradition of stone cairns, and acted as a message of welcome (or a sign of shelter or food or whatever… very flexible). It’s a lovely idea (and now you know why the symbol for the Vancouver Olympics is a pile of rocks). Everyone would be much happier if they got to go play with rocks once in a while.
-Canadian Knitters. Because it’s cold, so there’s lots of them, like Amy who runs Knitty and Veronik Avery and Kate Gilbert and the Landriu family who dye Koigu and I’m going to just wave a white flag now because if I kept listing I’d be sitting here doing that all day.
-the Yarn Harlot, who taught me how to knit a sock without needing a pattern, and teaches me how to be awesome in knitting and everything else.
-J, my best friend, who likes to educate me whenever I come up to visit. This is how I know where they filmed Anne of Green Gables at UT and what Second Cup is, and where to get off the streetcar to get to the Purple Purl.
Dare I try to make this a meme? If you’re reading this, tag-you’re-it.
