What do we have hear? Two English-speaking gentlemen in the Sixties who have a problem. They gotta find space in Montreal to have a World’s Fair, but oh man, they don’t have room! But what if they build it on the water? Haha, how would that work? Oh, they can build an island. And they did. Happy ending.

Okay, this time out, I’m a little stumped. I mean, I do remember this Canadian Propaganda Commercial, I must have seen it in my youth enough times to absorb the information. I recognized the situation and knew the solution, but apparently my mind had managed to forget some of the details.

I didn’t remember it being black and white for example. I see no reason for it to be in black and white. I mean, is it done to evoke the era? If so, you’re kinda pushing it. 1963 still had black and white television as the standard, I believe, but I don’t think anyone associates the Sixties with B&W the way the Fifties were. And anyway, we’ve had Heritage Moments set during the black and white television era that were in color. And we’ve had ones set before that which weren’t told as books. There is simply no need for this “artistic” choice. You lose points for this, commercial. Also, the music is pretty ridiculous, but probably does fit the era for all I know.

Our gentlemen solve their problem by remembering that there are subway tunnels being built, so let us use that dirt for something, shall we? This I approve of. It is a useful synergy of resources. Well done, chaps. Two birds with one stone and all that. While it is almost certain that the conversation never took place in real life as it does here, someone had that idea and that is the point we’re trying to get across. Success there.

I don’t think either of these men is identified. The first line may say the name of one of them, but I can’t make it out. (I think it is “Hey Guy, we’re supposed to be at city hall.” But I doubt that the one guy who absolutely less French would be called Guy with that pronunciation.) A mayor is name-dropped at the end, but in all, I’ve learned basically nothing about any historical figures here. I guess I learned that Ile Notre-Dame was man-made (and that it exists), which I didn’t know. But that’s it.

Anyway, I can see Young-Me didn’t bother accurately storing this one in his brain. Not worth the effort. Two out of Six Pieces of PDR’s Reviewing System Cake.

Meanwhile, you know what we could all use more of? World’s fairs. Let’s get on that.

Phone Guys:

I wanted to see if my Early Morning Snow Sculpting skills had improved any since I made the Snow Duck, so when I got off work to see a layer of fluffy, packy snow was on the ground and the weather was pleasant, I went back to the Halifax Commons with a vengeance to make an animal I like even better than ducks. Stegosaurus!

I certainly don’t have the skill to make a standing Stegosaurus. I wasn’t even stupid enough to try that. But it turned out, I actually have no idea how the best dinosaur would have slept. I elected for “head down on forelimbs like a dog” because it seemed easier than “On a pile of notes from other dinosaurs admitting that Stegosaurus was the best”. Note are had to make in the medium of snow.

So anyway, this is my guy. He’s pretty small, but that’s okay, because he is clearly just a baby. He would definitely have grown into a mighty Snowgasaur whom even the Ice Age would be powerless to stop. He’d be eating all the snow peas and iceberg lettuce that I assume would have been around.

I like him, but I know I could have done better. If I’d planned this ahead of time I could have prepared. Even beyond reminding myself what they actually looked like, let alone seeing how they would have slept or how their legs bent. Also, I could have used carrots for that thagomizer spikes. That would have been sweet. Also, maybe wearing a pair of gloves. My hands are cold.

But anyway, the weather is supposed to get warm today, so this won’t be in town long. Bye snowgasaurus, thanks for dropping in.

Has anyone else ever been unable to sleep, but you know you have to wake up in a couple hours, so your just laying there in bed trying to sleep and failing and you decide say to yourself “here’s what we’ll do,” and you just make rapid eye movements in the hope maybe you’ll trick your body into thinking it actually got a little REM sleep in there? Or am I the only person who has tried that? Probably I am the only one.

Anyway, I don’t think it works.

Haiku!

Potato is here.
Potato is always here.
Such is potato.

Just for posterity, I feel that I should mention that I’m now working five days a week instead of the four I’d been doing for the last… two years, I think. I’m not happy going back to five days a week, but I do need the money. And I am aware that five days is the “normal” work week and that I should “quit whining” or whatever, but I’d be perfectly happy having everyone else get an extra day off as well.

Anyway, I’m going to try to not let this extra day of life-wasting a week harm my output for this site, Let’s see how I do.

I can think of no scenario where being in a crowd of people who are shouting “Woooooooo!”, as they are want to do, would be appealing to me. The very sound of people shouting “Wooooooo!” makes me hate the crowd in question.

And yet, people shouting “Woohoo!” I could probably get behind.