This week I’ve been noticing language oddities. Poor word choices. Phrasing that could have been better.  For example we watched a documentary on the War of 1812. It was very interesting. In the US we hear about the British burning Washington, but not that this was in retaliation for American forces looting and burning the town of York, the capitol of what was then known as Upper Canada, (to differentiate it from Lower Canada which confusingly is to the east and is more mountainous.). We hear about Commodore Perry's victories on Lake Erie. We don’t here about Americas three or four attempts to invade Canada all of which were thrown back by a mix of Canadian, Native fighters under Chief Tecumseh, and British Regulars who not only drove the Americans back but captured Detroit and held it until the end of the war. Most interesting though was at the end of the program. They concluded the credits by saying “The War of 1812 was brought to you by The National Endowment for the Humanities”.  I thought this was a rather bad way to put it. I/m not sure I’m comfortable with a war being underwritten by the National Endowment for the HUMANITIES..

Public TV wasn’t the only place we noticed unfortunate terms for things. I don’t know if you’ve been seeing these commercials for Quicken Loans. They are advertising a mortgage product called the YourGage. Now I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad product, but I do know that it’s a terrible name. Why? Well every time I see the ad I think of two frat-boys talking about last night:

CHIP: Dude, That was a killer party.
DAVE: Yeah but I people drank WAY too much.
CHIP: Serious yourgage?
DAVE: Yeah dude. I don’t think the potted plants will ever recover.
See. It sounds like a euphemism for regurgitation, something that doesn’t inspire confidence right now when so many mortgage products have puked all over the economy.

Then there’s the commercial for Maple Leaf meats. They are proudly touting their new line of cold cuts and hot dogs that are preservative free. In theory that’s all well and good but we’ve been here long enough to remember a bit of history. We remember the recalls of Maple Leaf meats. A bunch of people were sickened and even killed in 2008 because of listeria contamination throughout one whole plant. Then a second round of recalls and plant closings happened in 2009 because of even more contaminated Maple Leaf meats. You know somehow I don’t know if it’s a good idea at this point to push preservative free, after their history of causing such serious yourgage. I’d rather see them advertising a line with EXTRA preservatives. It just seems more prudent with these guys.

But then I’m a vegetarian so it really doesn’t matter to me.

Then there was the story I heard on CBC Radio on Friday. Apparently Canadian forces issued a press release saying they weren’t taking any more recruits. “Sorry, but the Army is full right now” is not something I’ve ever heard before. Certainly not from the US Military. But up here, unless you are a dentist or a musician they have everyone need. They did say that “they valued peoples desire to serve” and to “please call back next year when we might have some vacancies”. It just felt weird.

But this week has been full of all sorts of odd things

This week, they were filming a zombie movie in Toronto. There was an accident and several of the actors were hurt.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/10/11/movie-stage-collapse-toronto547.html
When the paramedics got there, triage was complicated by the fact that they couldn’t tell which of the zombies injuries were real and which were makeup.

I figured being zombies none of them would be life threatening anyway.

Lastly there was the scare in Tokyo. After the problems around the Fukushima plant the Ministry of Health has been testing radiation levels all over the country. This week they found a radiation hotspot in a street in Tokyo.
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre79c0pl-us-japan-nuclear/
At first they were worried it was some errant radiation from up north. Late in the week officials released a statement telling people not to worry. On further investigation they found the radiation was not from Fukushima. Rather in a nearby house they found several bottles of highly radioactive material under the floor.

I think if I lived in the area I wouldn’t find this reassuring. To me it’s more a symptom of a bigger problem. The first question I’d have if I lived there would be WHY are there bottles of highly radioactive material under the floor of a house? Did the people who lived there know about them? For that matter how long have they been there? Inquiring people want to know these things. It’s also not reassuring they gave these bottles of highly radioactive material to the Ministry of Education for testing. This sounds like something the Japanese Military should be handling. But then maybe they aren’t accepting any offers either.

If I lived there I think it would be enough to cause major yourgage, but then maybe that’s just me.

Doug & Marsha

PIX: Day and Night


NOTE: I should mention that the night pictures are handheld 4 second exposures. Those are stars in the sky.