Tired but happy
Raoul sporting his new head. Thanks for the suggestion, Sis!
Raoul and I are back from the Himalayas. Got a bunch of stuff to catch up on, and I owe you guys an anthropology post, eh? Eh. (Vocal mannerism courtesy of two weeks in a tent with Raoul. When he was a parrot he lived with a family in Montreal.)
36 Responses to “Tired but happy”
-
therealuk says:
That’s scary.
eh?
It’s a mannerism from the very North West of England as well. I wonder if it’s a linguistic connection or it developed seperately ?
November 6th, 2007 at 11:53 am EST -
Sis says:
It’s so multi-cultural, that head. As we say in Canada, eh. Note, that’s not the interrogative eh? but the emphatic eh.
There are about 25 different ways eh is in Canada. It’s origins here are south Ontario farm country, which had a large 19th century immigrant base from northern England.
It’s kind of spread out now, but is still primarly used only by rural and working class people. That’s not racism, that’s a fact.
-
Infidel says:
The other thing aboot Canadians is how they go to the donut shop, okay, and, then, ’cause they’ve been hav’n a couple of beers they’ll get there, eh? and like there won’t be enough parking spaces eh? because like, you know, like the McKenzie brothers said, and they should know, eh? Because SecondCityTelevision was out of the great white north, okay, So don’t call people from Canada hoses or hosers okay because that would be like racism eh? okay that’s our show KU KU KU KU KU KU KUU KUUUUUUUU.
-
Sis says:
Seriously, I thought for years that eh? was something the McKenzie brothers invented. Never heard in the Arctic, well then. Now, with oil field workers coming from all over the place, you’re as likely to hear Newfoundland isms.
Newfoundland/Labrador. Oh I love to listen to them. They don’t mince words either eh? Like, there’s this village called Dildo? in Newfoundland?
-
The Ghost of Violet says:
I used to have a colleague who was from Quebec, eh? And she used to say it all the time, eh? Like, every sentence, eh? And she was a francophone, eh?
-
Infidel says:
I’d say people that come from Dildo are self-reliant.
-
Sis says:
I’ve heard it from Quebecois too. I’m trying to nail that one down. Maybe from western Quebec, born and raised near the Ontario border? Hmmm. I bet she was from a working class family though. Duh. As were most Francophone until the last generation, with Anglo bosses.
Sources I’ve seen say it’s a common ism among segments of the Irish and Scots.
-
Sis says:
They are that lass.
Infidel you wouldn’t be Canuck would ya? Eh?
-
Sis says:
Casselman’s good but he missed on one major Canadianism in his article. Tsk. No true Canadian hoser says brew. It’s brewksi.
Chaucer, Conrad, Salinger, Arthur Miller, Chayefsky all used “eh” before Canadians did:
http://www.billcasselman.com/cwod_archive/eh.htm
But doUGHnuts eh? Like, they’re ours eh? The yeast ones anyways eh. Those cakey imposters are American.
-
therealuk says:
They are that lass.
I never knew there was a N. England influence on Candian speech - lass and lad are from there as well (and Scots), in fact that exact phrase, classic Yorkshire or Cumbrian.
-
Infidel says:
“But doUGHnuts eh? Like, they’re ours eh? The yeast ones anyways eh. Those cakey imposters are American.”
So like, we used to get off work at the local pizza place, eh? and like we’d go out and have a few brewskis okay, eh? Then we’d go to this doUGHnut place which was really a restraunt, eh? but the name of the place was “The Donut Hole”, and they had a poem written on one of those decopage wood plaques eh? So like it said something about keeping your eye upon the doUGHnut and not upon the hole, eh? And like we’d be pretty toasty eh? so we’d like, well not all of us but my hoser friend would stuff the doUGHnut in his eye and say like, “Keep your eye upon the doUGHnut, eh?” and we’d all call him a hose head eh? cause he was a real hose eh? anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say, eh? Oh! and no I’m from Chicago, eh hose?
-
Sis says:
Thousands and thousands and thousands of Scots, Irish and north of England emmigrants to Canada in the 19th century, more after WW1, and more again, after WW11. Scots surnames are probably6 about a quarter of the family names in Canada. Nova Scotia is all Gaelic, kilts and bagpipes, Mc this and Mac that.We were primarily settled, until the mid-Eurpean immigrants, by people from the UK. Now the most common immigrants are Asian.
In Canada there are nearly as many descendants of Scots as there are people living in Scotland.
http://www.naturalheritagebooks.com/
booksbysubject.php?categoryid=6 -
therealuk says:
Thousands and thousands and thousands of Scots, Irish and north of England emmigrants to Canada
I’d reckoned on the Scots and Irish, but didn’t realise that N.England was an influence - and still there in speech patterns !
-
simply wondered says:
anyone who was poor and likely to get crapped on at home tends to go somehwere else - founding fathers onwards….the geordies are sometimes honorary celts anyway. we get patronised like them sometimes.
-
Sis says:
Canada is all immigrants, five or seven generations here, or just last month, with the exception of native people who are the original people’s here. Everyone else, from somewhere else. Customs stay here, although everyone pretty much but the first generation considers themselves Canadian. We specialize in hyphenations: Ukrainian Canadian, Irish Canadian, Chinese Canadian. For example, at Xmas you will find everyone making shortbread (Scotland) fruit cakes (England) pyroghy (Ukraine) tourtiere (France) Lebkuchen (Germany) roast goose (Denmark) moose stew and cranberry sauce (native.) Once the leftovers are truly well and gone, it’s time to celebrate Vietnamese New Year. And we do.
Come to dinner.
-
simply wondered says:
dinner! if only…flights to vancouver? walk to newfoundland. i mean how long can it take?
-
therealUK says:
I’ll have everything on the menu there, thanks, and will bring some nice Wensleydale cheese to go with the fruit cake. Don’t forget the Tofurky for Dr Socks and Raoul though …
-
Sis says:
They can bring the Tofurkey. Simply Wondered moose stew takes forever to cook so you just get on the boat and when you arrive it’s served.
Wensleydale cheese will be perfect. Oh and maybe, Stilton too?
Those little Cadbury flake bars I can’t find anymore…
-
Infidel says:
…and cheddar, and swiss, and jarlsburg, monterey jack, blue, rochfurt, gouda, cottage, cream, that lacey swiss, gorganzola, creamy havarti, brick, brie, laughing cow, Kahuna swiss almond, Kahuna port wine cheddar, Merks swiss almond, Merks port wine cheddar, cheese logs from swiss colony-only not little like they are but big logs like they look like in the catalog, velveeta, fondue,…
-
simply wondered says:
i’ll bring a bottle of milk - presumably it will be nice and cheesy by the time i actually arrive.
hey we’re having a party - this is so cool. i never go anywhere since we had kids.
almost as much fun as when we had our own republic on another planet - no in fact this is better cos there is food. socks rocks!what’s the betting infidel posts a list any minute now?
-
Infidel says:
Haah! ha! eh?!
-
The Ghost of Violet says:
what’s the betting infidel posts a list any minute now?
He already had, but I’m just now getting to the blog to release Infidel’s latest contribution from the moderation queue. Don’t know why it was in the queue in the first place. Did I build a filter at some point to screen out long lists of foods?
I’m so glad we’re having a party.
-
Infidel says:
There are engineers and technicians in the field today that have no idea what the “Y2K” thing was all about, ’cause it was eight years ago and they were 10 years old and stuff, man! I thought everyone knew about “Y2K”. I can’t think of anymore cheeses right now but I’d be more than happy to screen, Oh! yeah! Casa Fresco where you sort of screen the curds in cheese cloth and smush the liquid out of it, and it’s a soft cheese and white as virgin snow, and crumbly like, but you can smush it onto a cracker or spread it over, around, and about a salad or a taco with the meat or stuff an olive with it like you might with feta cheese which is very similar- oh and the wines you drink while eating these cheeses.
Wine/Cheese = Insect/Orchid
…some are just made for each other. -
Sis says:
You missed Gjoetost. Or something like that. It’s that brown toffee tasting Norwegian cheese in a red wrapper.
Anyone for the sauna after din dins? Simply Wondered will bring the birch twigs. Make sure they’re good and green SW.
-
simply wondered says:
gjoetost - you just made that up. i am part viking and i never ate anything like that - tho i must admit i never drank my own urine for that matter (or anyone else’s). my stale milk will be wondermilchkase and will certainly be weird and wonderful by the time i make the party. i bring cheese straws in honour of my mother.
bit nervous about these birch twigs - last time i got asked to bring wood they declared me the tannist king and tried to burn me alive. now you aren’t going to start any of that unpleasantness again are you? i mean i’m a bloody republican (in the real sense not the perverted american non-meaning of the word) and allergic to being placed on bonefires (sic).
-
Infidel says:
I’ve just recently discovered this magnificent shampoo that tingles and invigorates like nothing I have ever experienced before in life. It was at the training facility condos I stayed at last month in those little sample size containers. The one lasted me the whole week but every day I’d stash the restock that was daily provided(I did that with all the soaps and coffees too), so I left there with a bunch of sample bottles and hope to find out where to get the commercial size bottles. Anyway, I was thinking, after the sauna if anyone would like to… you have to be careful though because it kind of stings if it gets in your eye- I don’t know what affect it has on ghosts.
-
The Ghost of Violet says:
i am part viking
So am I! So is everybody in the western world, for that matter. So since we’re all part-Viking, I think we should all wear large metal helmets and arrive in flaming boats.
-
Sis says:
I found a UK site so you could stock up and bring with. Don’t forget one of those little Viking type cheese slicers. Makes lovely thin caramel tasting curls that just melt on your tongue.
http://www.norwegiancheeses.co.uk/ski_queen.htm
Oh all that flaming boat floating stuff is myth. The Vikings were farmers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L‘Anse_aux_Meadows
-
Sis says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L‘Anse_aux_Meadows
The url previous post didn’t come out right. It’s supposed to be:
(stuff)L’Anse(underscore)aux(underscore)Meadows
-
Sis says:
Vi! I think I may have found a head for Raoul. This could be his party head. Whadya think? And note, you share a hobby.
-
Sis says:
Hello? Hello?
The lights are all out. Maybe I’ve got the wrong address. {candle flickering} Oh hi Raoul. Just the two of us?
Fade to purple.
-
Infidel says:
“take your hands off me!”
-
simply wondered says:
i am part viking
So am I! So is everybody in the western world, for that matter. So since we’re all part-Viking, I think we should all wear large metal helmets and arrive in flaming boats.
alright you dead pendant you. i am perhaps more vikinger than you (unles you are minnesotan perhaps). ne of england generally having higher proportion of viking genes than elsewhere (if that 30min tv programme i saw once is correct - so don’t go telling me you did a degree in the stuff and know what you’re on about. oh the tyranny of the educated.).
and i want horns!!! (long live the cliche)if you grab something in the dark and it has a big long cheesy list - it’s infidel
-
Infidel says:
Could we do our feast like Vikings with no forks or spoons just big knives and bowls? …and big tankards of mead? Simply…if I eat a Thomas’s English Muffin, have I had the real deal??
-
simply wondered says:
i am not aware of thomas - he doesn’t sound like a viking. nor have i tasted his muffins. i take it this is a product you have in america. i imagine therefore it is an unreal deal at best.
or a bad deal.
or a bad seed.
tho not bird seed. -
Infidel says:
It is the muffin of choice for McDonald’s infamous “EGG MCMUFFIN’ and it is packaged to be English. You know no Thomas?
