Oh, Canada

Last week I neglected to mention a video I watched on https://apprendre.tv5monde.com/. It was about secessionist sentiments and talked about some region in Italy that wanted more autonomy, etc. The woman in the video lives in Italy but was originally from Quebec, Canada. It's hard to describe, but she sounded like a country bumpkin/hillbilly/redneck. Imagine a French person speaking with a Hollywood fake Southern accent. It was a lot like that. TV5Monde's videos have speakers from various French-speaking countries. The difficulty of understanding them varies. The Canadian woman was understandable, but she sounded so weird.

Fun fact: As of the end of 2020, Canada had an estimated population of 38 million people. In comparison, California in 2020 had an estimated population of 40 million. Isn't the mind blowing? Canada is smaller than California. Canada is so big on the map, I've always assumed it had a lot of people living there. I was so wrong. Even small Mexico has about 128 million people.

I think California should secede and become its own country. If it wanted to take Oregon, Washington and Nevada with it, that would be perfectly okay. If Canada can make it in the world and stand on its own two feet, so can those western states. They should secede right now.

A few years ago, I thought of something to tell children like my niece and perhaps certain adults about Canada. It goes like this. Canada is so far north and is so close to the North Pole that the cities there are actually under ice that's a kilometer thick. (You have to say kilometer.) The ice slowly melts on the underside of what are essentially giant domes and drips down to form the rivers there, but the continual snowfall keeps the ice layer above the cities from ever melting. It's so dense that the bubbles that normally make ice cloudy get forced out. That's why pictures from Canadian cities have the sun in them. It's shining through the clear ice. After every snow the Canadian Department of Transportation sends out Zambonis to melt/refreeze the top layer to keep the ice clear enough for the sun to be seen. Airports have special corridors in the ice that planes have to fly through to get in and out. A lot of highways run through huge ice tunnels. The ice layer in Canada is so clear that you don't notice it in pictures, but once you're there in person, it's obvious that the pictures rely on an optical illusion.

Have a great weekend.