I’m learning how to put things in the past tense. Didn’t do too bad on this exercise, though my verbal translation was running at about 50%. Still, I can’t complain.
Sorry it’s been so quiet here, I’ve been moving office this week and otherwise getting started up, especially with GPD responsibilities. Also shepherding people through various hoops. I will have been in to school 5 days this week as of tomorrow. I keep meaning to write something blistering about the loyalty tests for the governor general, but it’s just going to have to wait. My basic point was that yesterday’s statement sounded a bit like a McCarthyite “I am not now, nor have ever been. . .”
A helpful person directed me to a McGill page that answered my questions with some words, but it looks like I’ll be purchasing a copy of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. I had a stroke of inspiration this morning and went to MS word to see if there was a “Canadian” setting for the dictionary, and at least in Word X, which is installed on this computer (will check 2004 at work later), there’s only British, American and Australian. You’d think they’d have a “Canadian” setting for their dictionary. I mean, if the Aussies get one. . . . Anyway, after some web research I see that Office for PC has a Canadian dictionary but it looks like as a Mac person I’m going to have to go to 3rd party software.
In the meantime, I suppose the best thing is to have an RA who “writes Canadian” read over my official documents before they appear in public.
I am up early (mostly because I have to be in at 9 for the Big Office Move but also because of the sun) working on a revised document that explains dissertation proposals in Communication Studies. The old document has Canadian spellings. Now here’s the question: do I change them to American spellings? If not, how do I know I’m spelling correctly? Am I Director of the “Graduate Program in Communication Studies” or the “Graduate Programme in Communication Studies”? Will the student have a “defense” or a “defence”? Are these ethicopolitical questions or merely practical ones?
Language is so much part of the political culture here, but I’ve learned all my Canadian language politics through the interface between French and English. What happens when it’s about the relationship American vs. Canadian English (acknowledging that there is more than one “English” practiced in each country but also acknowledging that there are some national differences as well)? Do people notice? Do they care?
So we got back Friday evening and after the post-trip decompression, I can definitely say we’ll be back to Ottawa. It was a lovely vacation spot, and there was tons of touristy stuff we didn’t even get to (museums, for instance). By and large, the food was great, though apparently they are used to tourists with bland tastes. Twice we were warned that our food would actually be spicy. Like “you do realize there are jalopenos in this, right?” which of course is why we ordered the thing in the first place. Then again, the “medium” at the Carribbean place was actually knock your socks off hot.
Octopus Books is a real treasure as well. We both loaded up on text. We also managed to buy shoes. Books and shoes seem like the kinds of things you should shop for on vacation. Work was great too, but less interesting for the purposes of blogging.
This post will feature a brief discussion of wildlife we encountered in Ottawa, which seems only appropriate, presented in the format of a vacation slide show.
I’d seen grey and albino squirrels before, but these we saw all over the city. I’d never seen a black squirrel before.
It was really cool to go up on Parliament Hill and see all the stately old buildings. I’m used to massive gothic buildings from my time in Pittsburgh, but these are somehow more ornate. The statue here is, I believe, Alexander MacKenzie, though it may also be some guy named Brown — I don’t remember. The important thing is that someone really needs to clean off his head.
This is just a short blog post from my heavily-discounted but not exceptionally huge suite in Ottawa. We’re on day 3 (though Monday was a partial day) and missions are being accomplished. The interview went well and my source may well lead me to other interesting people. We are getting a lot of writing done. We have done some touristy stuff, but won’t even come close to the amount of tourism that is clearly possible here. Guess we’ll return next summer to accomplish that mission.
In the meantime, I am posting an erratum published in The Utne Reader, that bastion of self-satisfied bourgeois hippie wannabe faux-leftism that I sometimes enjoy reading anyway. It sort of comments on itself, but it has some kind of poignance concerning Americans’ understandings of Canada. It’s especially choice since the Utne a) acts all enlightened and stuff and b) routinely fetishizes Canada as a bastion of progressiveness.
Oh Canada! In our May/June issue, we made a few errors about our neighbor to the north: In “Maple Leaf Rags,” we incorreectly referred to the newsweekly Maclean’s as “McLean’s” and to the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau as a “premier.” Also, in “Street Librarian,” we mentioned the “Canadian Maritime islands” when we meant the Maritime Provinces, of which two are part of the mainland and only one is an island.
After a successful birthday party (many props to our aweseome guests!) and a day of recovery, we are heading off to Ottawa for a week of research, writing and relaxation. That’s not as oxymoronic as it sounds. I might even blog. We’ll see.
New Toy
I figured I might actually want to scan something on my trip, so today I set up my new scanner (a relatively basic Canon LIDE 35) and I’ll be damned if Optical Character Recognition doesn’t actually work. Last time I bought a scanner, it was 1998, SCSI was the fastest interface going, Umax was in business as a profitable company, and OCR was basically a joke. I found the old scanning to be a PITA, though I did include a bunch of images in my dissertation at a time when that was a new and hip thing to do — ie., before cowardice overran univerisites and it became a huge hassle to reproduce images for purposes of fair use. Anyway, it’s been a few years since I’ve used a computer with a working SCSI interface, so the scanner got given away when we left Pittsburgh. Or maybe I sold it for $20 on half.com. I don’t remember. But with all the grants and everything, I thought it was time to give scanning another try. I hooked up my new scanner tonight, installed the software, and then tried the “copy” function. To my amazement, it actually worked. Then I grabbed the top page of a Bourdieu article (Program for the Sociology of Sport) that was sitting on my desk and ran it through the OCR. It actually worked. I guess I just have a childlike fascination with technology or something, but I’m pretty psyched that I will actually be able to use this thing if there are papers for me to scan on my trip. A nice alternative to photocopying and then typing it in.
This just arrived in my mailbox. It’s probably just the right form letter this time, but I’ll take it:
Greetings from Amazon.ca.
Thank you for contacting us to bring this matter to our
attention.
Our goal is to support freedom of expression and to provide
customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find,
discover, and buy any title they might be seeking. We do not
condone censorship, and the situation that you have described does
not represent the opinion of Amazon.ca.
This information has been forwarded to the appropriate party for
investigation. I am very sorry if you have been inconvenienced or
offended in any way.
As a gesture of apology and of goodwill on behalf of Amazon.ca, I
requested a refund of $10.00 to your credit card. [snip]
I am truly sorry that we were not able to fulfill your
expectations for this level of service. I hope that you will
honour us with another opportunity to prove the quality of our
service to you in the future.
Thank you for shopping with Amazon.ca.
Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:
Best regards,
[Name Deleted]
Amazon.ca Customer Service
http://www.amazon.ca
Good for them. I am only slightly disappointed that I will not be designing my Nietzsche/Firestone bookmark.
