OK, I am only kidding about that. This entry won't *only* make fun T.O... I will point out a couple of things I like about the place too. I just happened to notice, while I was there, a few notable differences between the T dot and Vancity. But first, a quotation:
"One of the extraordinary things about life is the sort of places it's prepared to put up with living."
I read this in Mostly Harmless* and my immediate reaction was "that's kind of how I feel about Toronto!" Much to my amusement, the passage goes onto to discuss the inhospitable nature of living in New York, with much the same reasons as I had for thinking this was related to Toronto. But it's not just in that you have to "wrap [yourself] up in lots of other animals at one point in your planet's orbit, and then find, half an orbit later, that your skin's bubbling" that Toronto differs from Vancouver. I also noticed the following things about T.O.:
- you only see 3 other joggers on a 40 minute run (unlike Van's current rate of 35 jpm**)
- the Skytrain is underground for some reason- what's up with that?
- similarly, this underground Skytrain goes to places that people might want to go, like the colleges and universities in the city... weird!
- no one knows what you are talking about when you say "hey, it's 4:20!"
- they hardly have Sleeman on tap anywhere
- air comes in either gritty or chunky (or, on especially bad days, gritty with chunks in it)
- I can get Air Miles when I buy booze. Air Miles!
- no mountais or ocean makes navigation much more tricky
- if you smile at a hot guy on the subway, he will ask you out on a date! right there on the subway platform!
- someone there calls me Aunt Beth and it is the cutest freaking thing I've ever heard
**jpm = joggers per minute
6 comments:
Um.
You obviously didn't go jogging in my neighbourhood, where the rate is 40 jpm.
Toronto looked that much better while you were here, though.
;)
The best was when you kept telling me about the Skytrain stop where your cousin lives. And I was like..WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Actually, I did notice that your neighbourhood had A LOT more joggers than anywhere else I went in T.O. And I mentioned that to your wife, who had herself just come home from a run!
If by "kept telling you" you mean "the one time I said that" and by my "cousin" you mean "my sister", then yes, that was pretty funny. =P
Gritty vs. Chunky air - heh. Last time I was in Toronto, and someone found out I live in Sudbury, they asked how I was enjoying the clean air in T.O. I felt like saying, "Dude - our air is WAAAY cleaner (because our smoke stacks are taller than yours ;)"
Welcome home! How did the ARM research go?
I'm so glad you're home - and back in the blogosphere!!
I can't claim drunken memory problems.
So I will claim old age memory problems.
"they hardly have Sleeman on tap anywhere"
- biggest laugh I've had all day.
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