*snicker*

[camwyn]

BP Amoco (I think) has a commercial on CNBC that begins with the question, "Which would you rather have- a car, or a cleaner environment?" The camera then cuts to a Black woman who squirms a little and says, "I would love a cleaner environment, but that's like asking somebody to give up chocolate... I love my car!" Then the woman goes away and a list of ways BP's moved to cut emissions over the years comes up on screen.

I just look at that and laugh. Rather a lot.

I love my new bike.

Comments

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Gee, Camwyn, we'd never have guessed. /smartassery

[camwyn]

I used up all my allotment of Subtle and Stealthy for the year some time ago, I'm afraid.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

Well, personally I would give up my car if we had decent public transportation in my state - there's some, but not anything that would get me where I need to go. And I'm not sure how I'd do the grocery shopping, but people in cities manage so I'm sure I'd adjust.

My son would bike everywhere given the opportunity.

[camwyn]

Perfectly understandable. I would never have been able to manage this is I still lived in the suburbs with my folks- at least not to any great degree, though I would've been able to get to the office without the use of a car. Going to other places would've been a bit tricky. I can only do this because of the way things are so smooshed together in the Jersey City area, really.

[derien.livejournal.com]

Considering that a huge section of the population will soon be getting too old to drive, I'm hoping that will spur our society to either start building more sensible communities (stores within walking distances of homes) or create a better public transit infrastructure, or both.

[mandragoran.livejournal.com]

This has absolutely nothing to do with this post...

I happened to notice your Icon on Cadhla's journal (and it rocks, btw, makes me think of the Arrogant Worms).. also.. Honorary Canadian?:D Now I'm just damn curuious and stuff.

[camwyn]

Glad you liked the icon, and yeah, I had a friend make it for me using the Worms lyrics on purpose. (This was before I could do animatia myself.) I happen to be very fond of the nation of Canada for reasons that my family cannot discern and which I find a bit hard to articulate without sounding rather silly. I tend to get mistaken for a Canadian when I travel- even when it's within the United States- and I seem to have learned more Canadian geography and history than most Americans in my demographic groups. My friends from Up North have said that yes, I can be an honourary Canadian as a result.

*puts up other Worms-derived icon*

[mandragoran.livejournal.com]

>.<

That so rocks.

Really, if you can know WHAT a province is and that a mukluk isn't a sexual position, then you're probably ahead of MOST americans by a good shot. :) Wich isn't always the fault of the people themselves - While *I* fully agree as to the interestingness of The Great White North, seems most people just go 'Canada. Whatever.'

I keep saying we should, like, invade someone or something. Nobody would EVER believe it, and if someone complained, it'd be like 'Dude, you where invaded by CANADA? Hahahaha!'

Okay, now I'm just tangenting. Back to work for me. :P

[camwyn]

When I was in fifth grade, we had geography classes on a fairly regular basis instead of history classes, and after a unit on South America, we had to learn all the provinces and territories of Canada. At one point they gave us laminated maps and dry-erase markers and said 'trace the entire course of the Mackenzie River'. I decided to do the tributaries too.

Dude, that river and its associated systems look like a freakin' map of the circulatory system of the human kidney. How much of the western part of Canada does it drain??

Anyway. I know the provinces and territories (I'd flunk on the capitals, alas). I know enough of the speech regionalisms to peg someone as being from the Maritimes or the Ottawa Valley, a feat which spooked the HP tech support guy I spoke to last week (their call centres are in Ottawa- the guy was born in Montreal but had lived seven years in the Valley and picked up the accent). I could make poutine if local stores sold the damn cheese curds, and I have an Avro Arrow pin attached to one of my favourite blazers just because I liked the plane in question when I saw it on the web and read about it. I could go on for a while, but I think you get the idea... although I would mention at this point that I did write a Guide to Passing For Canadian once that seems to have become relatively popular.

Have a good day!

[mandragoran.livejournal.com]

Oh that so rocks.

See, I took an entire book of notes in, like, grade 5 on the states - capitals, presidents, history - all of it. And then, we KEPT getting at least one unit in each social studies class on it. Not that I remember most of it, cuz I don't. Half the time I'm lucky I remember the capitals of the provinces/territories.

Avro is very cool. And makes me giggle for personal reasons. :D

I will have to read the guide. As a random note, the most amusing (yet also annoying) part of my trip when I visited a friend in Indiana was having everyone point out EVERY TIME I said 'ey', and also them requesting me to say 'ey'. Bad enough I speak the cliche, but to have it pointed out.. >.

[mandragoran.livejournal.com]

Oh, that guide was very good. it's rather interesting to look at us from the outside for a change.. I'm going to have to give this to some of my friends - they'd love it, I'm sure. :)