The Queen and Prince Phillip are here on a royal visit, but this one's rather unique. I thought there were a couple of interesting features you'd find interesting if you're a Canada follower. They're, well, "different."
1. CBC has leased a VIA Rail train to more-or-less follow the royal tour. It's a kind of mobile history museum and is supposed to be quite good (something like the Confederation train that toured the country during our centennial celebrations in 1967 -- my first "date" was taking an LDS girl from my ward there, but because I wasn't 16 [a rule that wasn't enforced as much then, at least in my ward, it seems] yet, I had to take her little brother along, too, which was fine. But I digress]. Luba Goy, a comedienne (of Royal Canadian Air Farce fame) of Ukrainian background, is the announcer and official host. They're in the Vancouver rail station right now, and every time the stationmaster makes an announcement about train such-and-such for Port Sunnevershines, or wherever, is boarding on track "garble garble" -- you know how garbled these announcements are, she makes the same announcement, only in a Donald Duck voice. It's apparently quite a hit with commuters in the station. Don't know about the stationmaster.... 2. The Queen started her trip at Iqaluit, where her plane landed in light snow (gee, just like Onoway this morning!) and slightly sub-zero temperatures. She spoke in the architecturally innovative new Territorial Assembly (Iqualuit is the capital of our new, 3rd territory, Nunavut) and was entertained by a choir singing in Inuktitut and an exhibit of Inuit games at the local high school (like two runners racing towards and leaping up to kick a suspended ball made out of the leather of some creature like a walrus or an Alliance MP or some other endangered species) 3. In Vancouver (tonight, I think) she's going to drop the puck at a Vancouver Canucks hockey game. My goodness, how on earth do you figure out the protocol for that? Would it be bad form to hide a loonie, head-side up under centre ice? It worked against the Yanks in SLC. Does Matts Sundine, a Swede, have to bow? Does she get to keep the puck? Reminds me of a comment Prince Phillip made once in Calgary when he opened their new city hall and thought the mike was off. Or maybe he knew it was on and didn't care. "Not another *(^&^$ white hat!" -- the white stetson is Calgary's official symbol and every visiting dignatary gets one. The duke owns a large ranch south of Calgary and has made many unofficial visits, but this was a state visit so he had to have a white hat. At the G7 meeting at Kananaskis earlier this year every visiting head of state/government got one. Only Jacques Chirac refused to wear his for the group photo. But you may have heard we've always had problems with the French. (Sheesh, you'd think he'd at least try it on out of symbolic thanks to the fact that France's economy used to depend heavily upon beaver pelts imported from Canada from as far west as Spokane, Provo and Fort Astoria...) -- Marc A. Schindler Spruce Grove, Alberta, Canada -- Gateway to the Boreal Parkland "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." --Michelangelo Buonarroti Note: This communication represents the informal personal views of the author solely; its contents do not necessarily reflect those of the author’s employer, nor those of any organization with which the author may be associated. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ==^^=============================================================== This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^^===============================================================
