MONTREAL - The owner of a new American Basketball Association team has stirred up a storm in Quebec but is sticking to his decision to use a cartoon frog in the team's logo. Depending on the outcome of an on-line vote, the team, which starts play in November, will be named either Kebekwa or the Quebec Jumping Frogs. In his 49 years, Quebec City economic adviser and entrepreneur Réal Bourassa has been called "frog" plenty of times, he said. "I've heard sometimes, 'Hi, frog,' or 'Hi, froggie,' but it has never been an insult to me," he said from his home in Quebec. "I feel good with the fact that maybe someone will say, 'You are not shy to be a frog.' My answer will be ... 'I may be a frog, but I am proud to be a frog.' For more and a picture... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060809.wFrogs0809/BNStory/Sports/home
-- Deutschland Snippy "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." --Albert Einstein
MONTREAL - The owner of a new American Basketball Association team has stirred up a storm in Quebec but is sticking to his decision to use a cartoon frog in the team's logo. Depending on the outcome of an on-line vote, the team, which starts play in November, will be named either Kebekwa or the Quebec Jumping Frogs. In his 49 years, Quebec City economic adviser and entrepreneur Réal Bourassa has been called "frog" plenty of times, he said. "I've heard sometimes, 'Hi, frog,' or 'Hi, froggie,' but it has never been an insult to me," he said from his home in Quebec. "I feel good with the fact that maybe someone will say, 'You are not shy to be a frog.' My answer will be ... 'I may be a frog, but I am proud to be a frog.' For more and a picture... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060809.wFrogs0809/BNStory/Sports/home
-- Deutschland Snippy "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." --Albert Einstein
I'm not sure what I think of this, but it's a little payback for treating non-french speakers brutally rudely and being total [censored] to them. That seemed to be Quebecs main amusement pastime, even towards other Canadians, let alone Americans. I have VERY little sympathy here. Grrriibit! Bill C
I'm not sure what I think of this, but it's a little payback for treating non-french speakers brutally rudely and being total [censored] to them. That seemed to be Quebecs main amusement pastime, even towards other Canadians, let alone Americans. I have VERY little sympathy here. Grrriibit! Bill C
I never saw it that way. I had an office in Montreal for 18 years and as an American never expienced any anti Anglo or anti English language problems. What one did see was a French speaking majority attain political majority and demad a certain amount of respect from a Canadian Anglo community that had shown precious little over the years. In the world of business there were few language issues. The good Anglo businessmen could speak French and the leading Francophone busnessmen could speak English. In rural Quebec it was bit tougher for non French speakers as only a small % of the French speakers (the vast majoriyt in rual Quebec) could speak English.
Interestingly among my staff all the Francophones spoke English quite well as did the older Anglos. But younger Anglos seemed to have no inerest in the French language or the culture that brought so much richness to MOntreal life. Really sad. So, to my mind while much of the Party Qubecois agenda went a bit over the top it was grounded in many years of insult to the French community by the minority (but relatively wealthy and powerful) Anglos.
BTW, overe the years my French improved greatly but even when it was quite weak you could go into any restaurant in the French sections of town and if you could simply say "Je suis Americain" the wait staff would happily speak english. It was the Anglo Canadiens that could not get served in English.
I'm not sure what I think of this, but it's a little payback for treating non-french speakers brutally rudely and being total [censored] to them. That seemed to be Quebecs main amusement pastime, even towards other Canadians, let alone Americans. I have VERY little sympathy here. Grrriibit! Bill C
I never saw it that way. I had an office in Montreal for 18 years and as an American never expienced any anti Anglo or anti English language problems. What one did see was a French speaking majority attain political majority and demad a certain amount of respect from a Canadian Anglo community that had shown precious little over the years. In the world of business there were few language issues. The good Anglo businessmen could speak French and the leading Francophone busnessmen could speak English. In rural Quebec it was bit tougher for non French speakers as only a small % of the French speakers (the vast majoriyt in rual Quebec) could speak English.
Interestingly among my staff all the Francophones spoke English quite well as did the older Anglos. But younger Anglos seemed to have no inerest in the French language or the culture that brought so much richness to MOntreal life. Really sad. So, to my mind while much of the Party Qubecois agenda went a bit over the top it was grounded in many years of insult to the French community by the minority (but relatively wealthy and powerful) Anglos.
BTW, overe the years my French improved greatly but even when it was quite weak you could go into any restaurant in the French sections of town and if you could simply say "Je suis Americain" the wait staff would happily speak english. It was the Anglo Canadiens that could not get served in English.
That's definitely not my experience, or those of my Canadian friends who would actually drop down through the States after having problems going through Quebec. We have tons of people traveling back and forth for BMW motorcycle rallies and they've had massive amounts of trouble. The worst probably was the rider and his wife broken down on the highway at night and the cop who stopped then refused to call a tow truck and drove off because they didn't speak French. They told him "You don't speak our language you don't get our help." That was probably 15 years ago and they filed an official complaint, last I heard was it was still being investigated. We've got people going back and forth from the Maritimes to BC and the only place they hit trouble every year is Quebec, though it is getting better. These aren't loud Harleys either, those and choppers were banned from the rallies. Bill C
I'm not sure what I think of this, but it's a little payback for treating non-french speakers brutally rudely and being total [censored] to them. That seemed to be Quebecs main amusement pastime, even towards other Canadians, let alone Americans. I have VERY little sympathy here. Grrriibit! Bill C
I never saw it that way. I had an office in Montreal for 18 years and as an American never expienced any anti Anglo or anti English language problems. What one did see was a French speaking majority attain political majority and demad a certain amount of respect from a Canadian Anglo community that had shown precious little over the years. In the world of business there were few language issues. The good Anglo businessmen could speak French and the leading Francophone busnessmen could speak English. In rural Quebec it was bit tougher for non French speakers as only a small % of the French speakers (the vast majoriyt in rual Quebec) could speak English.
Interestingly among my staff all the Francophones spoke English quite well as did the older Anglos. But younger Anglos seemed to have no inerest in the French language or the culture that brought so much richness to MOntreal life. Really sad. So, to my mind while much of the Party Qubecois agenda went a bit over the top it was grounded in many years of insult to the French community by the minority (but relatively wealthy and powerful) Anglos.
BTW, overe the years my French improved greatly but even when it was quite weak you could go into any restaurant in the French sections of town and if you could simply say "Je suis Americain" the wait staff would happily speak english. It was the Anglo Canadiens that could not get served in English.
I went to Montreal on vacation a few years ago. Every time I walked into an establishment (retail or restaurant) I was greeted with "Bonjour". I'd reply "Howdy" and the conversation would very pleasantly shift to English. No trouble at all. Quite the opposite. It's a very welcoming place. I am quite fond of it.
On 10 Aug 2006 16:20:08 -0700, "Bill C" <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:
That's definitely not my experience, or those of my Canadian friends who would actually drop down through the States after having problems going through Quebec. We have tons of people traveling back and forth for BMW motorcycle rallies and they've had massive amounts of trouble. The worst probably was the rider and his wife broken down on the highway at night and the cop who stopped then refused to call a tow truck and drove off because they didn't speak French. They told him "You don't speak our language you don't get our help." That was probably 15 years ago and they filed an official complaint, last I heard was it was still being investigated. We've got people going back and forth from the Maritimes to BC and the only place they hit trouble every year is Quebec, though it is getting better.
I always thought it was funny how the English parts of Canada bend over backward to include French all over the place at the same time the French parts do their best to stamp out English.
I went to Montreal on vacation a few years ago. Every time I walked into an establishment (retail or restaurant) I was greeted with "Bonjour". I'd reply "Howdy" and the conversation would very pleasantly shift to English. No trouble at all. Quite the opposite. It's a very welcoming place. I am quite fond of it.
Are you Canadian by any chance?
-- Deutschland "No" Snippy "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." --Albert Einstein
I was walking my dog in Montreal the other day and some guy started to wonder out loud why dog owners insist on having their dogs pee on other people's lawns. Apart from the fact that my dog didn't pee on that lawn (it wasn't even his), I thought it was kind of rude to identify me as representing all dog owners. I quickly noted that he had a BMW M3 convertible, and I pointed out that there was a significant number of very bad BMW drivers including one who had run through a stop sign while cutting me off exactly outside his house, but that I was not going to blame him for their excesses. How does this apply here? I don't know, because BMW motorcycle drivers are usually the best behaved out there. Forget it...
-ilan
Bill C said:
That's definitely not my experience, or those of my Canadian friends who would actually drop down through the States after having problems going through Quebec. We have tons of people traveling back and forth for BMW motorcycle rallies and they've had massive amounts of trouble. The worst probably was the rider and his wife broken down on the highway at night and the cop who stopped then refused to call a tow truck and drove off because they didn't speak French. They told him "You don't speak our language you don't get our help." That was probably 15 years ago and they filed an official complaint, last I heard was it was still being investigated. We've got people going back and forth from the Maritimes to BC and the only place they hit trouble every year is Quebec, though it is getting better. These aren't loud Harleys either, those and choppers were banned from the rallies. Bill C
I was walking my dog in Montreal the other day and some guy started to wonder out loud why dog owners insist on having their dogs pee on other people's lawns. Apart from the fact that my dog didn't pee on that lawn (it wasn't even his), I thought it was kind of rude to identify me as representing all dog owners. I quickly noted that he had a BMW M3 convertible, and I pointed out that there was a significant number of very bad BMW drivers including one who had run through a stop sign while cutting me off exactly outside his house, but that I was not going to blame him for their excesses. How does this apply here? I don't know, because BMW motorcycle drivers are usually the best behaved out there. Forget it...
-ilan
It's really pretty simple, and relevant. Harley rallies are usually based around loud bikes, bands, wet T-shirt/blowjob competitions, getting incredibly drunk tattooed and usually stupid. Large portions of the crowd tend to be hardcore bikers bent on raising hell while chemically altered. Good time, not good for the neighbors. The BMW rallies tend to be older people, families with kids and campers, very few drunks, and no tolertance for loud obnoxious ones. It's the difference between a Redneck/Biker bar, and a Jazz piano bar. Bill C
OK, someone finally managed to convince me to buy a Harley.
-ilan
Bill C said:
It's really pretty simple, and relevant. Harley rallies are usually based around loud bikes, bands, wet T-shirt/blowjob competitions, getting incredibly drunk tattooed and usually stupid. Large portions of the crowd tend to be hardcore bikers bent on raising hell while chemically altered. Good time, not good for the neighbors. The BMW rallies tend to be older people, families with kids and campers, very few drunks, and no tolertance for loud obnoxious ones. It's the difference between a Redneck/Biker bar, and a Jazz piano bar. Bill C
