Weird

[desoto_hia873]

Although my parents are from Newfoundland and I was born in Toronto, I spent most of my growing-up time in Ottawa. We moved there when I was five years old. I left to go to university, but wound up back there during various summers and again for nearly 10 years after finishing my PhD.

And yet I've never really liked the place all that much. Ottawa's climate is stiflingly hot and humid in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter (although global warming is helping out with the latter a little bit). It's flat, it's far away from just about everywhere, and nationally detested because that's where the government lives. There are a few things I like about the place--the city has never felt as large as it is, and it has a lot of Vietnamese restaurants--but I've always preferred southern Ontario and the east coast. Ottawa just seems like my parents' city, and I'm happy not to live there.

I've also never been much of a fan of team sports. I follow the University of Guelph's football team, but that's about it. I don't watch baseball, soccer, professional football, hockey (bad Canadian!), basketball, etc. Generally, I can't even stand being in the same room as a hockey game--I find the sound of it irritating. The only hockey game I've watched on TV in more than 30 years was the Canada/U.S. gold medal round at the Salt Lake City Olympic games because I knew everyone at work would be talking about it the next day, and I didn't want to be completely left out.

And yet...

The Ottawa Senators have made it to the Stanley Cup this year for the first time in their renewed history. This had me perpiphally interested enough to remember to listen to the sports news on CBC on the mornings after the games just to hear who won. I figured that would be as far as it went, especially after they wound up 0-2 after the first two games. But then they went and won their third one, and now they're tied in the second period of the fourth.

How do I know this?

Because I'm sitting here in a hotel room in Pembroke watching the freaking thing on television. All by myself. Voluntarily.

Who am I and what did I do with Kristina?

Furthermore, I kind of want them to win, and I think I'm going to be disappointed if they don't.

Apparently, my loyalty to my Ottawa roots is a little stronger than I thought.

Comments

[deathisyourart.livejournal.com]

I am very sorry that they lost, and I am not looking forward to the next game.... if the name "ducks" ends up on my Stanley Cup I am going to cry for days! Unlike you, I LOVE Hockey *is good Canadian*, and I do not want to see the trophy defiled with another badly named team who exist in a market that doesn't care about Hockey. :(

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

You are a much better Canadian than I. I blame my Newfoundland roots: my predecessors were late entrants to Canada (it still confuses the passport office whenever my parents go in to renew theirs and tell them that they weren't Canadian at birth). Although that excuse will only go so far--the Leafs' farm team was in St. John's for quite a number of years and was much lamented after it left.

Hey--a question to a real hockey fan: Why is it Toronto Maple Leafs? Whose astonishing ungrammatical idea was that, anyway?

[deathisyourart.livejournal.com]

Hey--a question to a real hockey fan: Why is it Toronto Maple Leafs? Whose astonishing ungrammatical idea was that, anyway?
That would be Conn Smythe, when he took over the team in the 1920's. The team was originally named The Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club (much like how the Candiens are actually the Montreal Canadiens Hockey Club(French spelling came in with a change in ownership), which explains the H on our jersey). The name "Maple Leaf" was considered to be a brand, plus there is only a single leaf in the logo after the single leaf on the Canadian flag, so they kept the name and just added the "s" to make it plural.

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

See, I knew a real fan could explain it to me. :-) I knew about the H on the Canadiens' shirts, but not the Maple Leafs story. Thanks!

[ezagaaikwe.livejournal.com]

Canadian blood will out. I hope your team wins!

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

I think Canadian, American, and European blood gets pretty mixy in the realm of professional sports. Which is partly why I can't generally get too het up about who wins what. When none of the players has any more than the most casual connection to the city that the 'represent', I have to wonder what all the fuss is about.

As for my blood, I like to think I have some level of seawater in my veins. I come from a long line of Newfoundlanders and they didn't become Canadian at all until 1949.

Would Newfoundland blood taste salty to a vampire?

[ezagaaikwe.livejournal.com]

The only sport I get agitated about is Winter Olympic figure skating. In 1988, I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and rooted heavily for fellow northern Californians Brian Boitano and Debi Thomas. I was seriously het up and could be heard muttering "East German slut!" under my breath whenever Katarina Witt appeared. It like to broke my heart when Debi lost to that, that... other skater.

A typical Murrican, I know next to nothing about Canadian history, and thought Newfoundland had been part of Canada forever. I love its namesake doggies, though. Re: Would Newfoundland blood taste salty to a vampire? -- it would be fun to find a certain platinum blond vampire and see if he'd tell you, in the spirit of science and all.

**swoons**

[desoto-hia873.livejournal.com]

Hey, you should join fs_watchers! Various Buffy fans (including its founders entrenous88 and ponders_life) hang out there in the winter to discuss skating. It's not a terribly busy comm, but there are occasional good discussions. Have you read entrenous88's Spander on Ice (http://entrenous88.livejournal.com/tag/spander+on+ice)? If not, you should--it's hilarious. All our Buffyverse men, on skates, competing at US Nationals. Hee.

I suspect that typical Canajin's think Newfoundland's been a part of Canada forever, too. Certainly, it confuses the passport office when my mother goes to renew hers--she's not an immigrant, but neither was she born in Canada because Newfoundland was a British colony until 1949. There were two referendums held in the 1940s to decide Newfoundland's fate. The first one had three choices: stay independent (and impoverished), join Canada, and join the US. I believe the vote was evenly split among the three, though joining the US may have come out a little ahead. In any event, a second referendum was held later with only two choices: stay independent or join Canada. Join Canada won by a hair. Many people cried foul and claimed conspiracy theories (the film Secret Nation tells the story of one conspiracy theory), the main jist of which was that Britain didn't want us, the US didn't want us, so a deal was struck and Canada got 'stuck' with us.

I bet that was more than you wanted to know, wasn't it? :-)

[ezagaaikwe.livejournal.com]

No, that's fascinating--that there was a chance it'd become an American state. I remember Alaska and Hawaii becoming states, and rumblings that Puerto Rico might, but never knew that Newfoundland might have been one, too.

I'm reading that fic now. Hee-larious. Thanks for the rec.