Bob the Canarican Celebrates Post/Predependence Day!
This was originally posted a year ago in 2015, when the world was a different place. There was cleaner air, prettier sunsets, better television reception, and more than enough Gummy Bears. All of that changed after the advent of the Man Bun and Robot Bingo Callers. No…wait…that was a dream I had after a night of fish tacos and Metaxa.
Never mind….
Unlike the Man Without a Country, I am a man with TWO countries. The Country of my birth, the United States of America, and the Country I choose to live in and love with all my heart, Canada.
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Three days ago, before the sacred day of July 4th, a hallowed and fiercely proud day for the country of my origin, (known to some as Canada’s Pants, and to others around the world as Those Greedy Bastards), and after July 1st, a hallowed and beer-fueled and proud day for the country where I get my mail (known to some as America’s Hat and to others around the world as Those Nice Folks Who Live Amongst the Moose and Apologize for Everything), I have decided to extol the virtues and the differences between America’s Hat and Canada’s Pants. Independence Day vs Canada Day…it’s a corker! So, crack open a Bud Lime and open a bag of Hostess Poutine and Joe Louie Infused Kale Chips, and find your reading glasses. (They’re on your head, Einstein….)
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Where I was Born
San Francisco. A beautiful city on the water with cable cars, great food, wonderful music, the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, and a huge ethnic population including a large LGBT community. Tony Bennett sings its praises.
Where I Live
Toronto. A beautiful city on the water with streetcars, great food, wonderful music, Ashbridges Bay Park, the CN Tower, and a huge ethnic population including a large LGBT community. Tommy Ambrose sings its praises.
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Popular Television Shows
Canada’s Pants
The Big Bang Theory, The Walking Dead, Modern Family, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, The View, and Fox News.
America’s Hat
Hockey Night in Canada, Hockey Night in Canada Recap and Highlights, Men’s Curling, Trailer Park Boys, Gord and Brian’s Beer of the Week.
Popular Radio Shows
Canada’s Pants
Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Howard Stern, Ryan Seabiscuit Seacrest
America’s Hat
Terry David Mulligan, David Marsden, The Hockey Show, That Hockey Show, Hockey Today!, The Week in Hockey.
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Hat and Pants Fun Facts
Canada’s total population is less than that of the state of California.
America is a Melting Pot
Canada is a Stew
America’s second language is Spanish
Canada’s second language is almost but not quite French
America has a Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Canada has Winter and Construction
America has Beer and Bourbon but everybody drinks Scotch
Canada has Better Beer and Rye but everybody drinks Beer
America has a President, some good, some bad
Canada has a Prime Minister, some good some bad
America had a President who had an Enemies List
Canada had a Prime Minister who took advice from his dog
America takes its football seriously
Canada takes its hockey seriously. Really. Really. Really. Seriously
America had to break away from England
Canada had to break away from France, and England, and America
America has The American Dream
Canada IS The American Dream
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Who is More Likely to Say the Following, Hat or Pants….
“Watch it, Bub”
“Excuse me”
“Dammit! I left my wallet in a cab”
“Here’s your wallet, Sir, I found it in a taxi”
“Give me a ticket to the Monster Truck Rally”
“May I please have a ticket to the Ice Capades”
” I’m taking my vacation in Hawaii”
“I am going on Holiday in Cuba”
“Pass the ketchup”
“May I please have the malt vinegar”
” I’m going to do something about that”
“I’m going to write a letter to the Editor”
“Fer chrissakes, take Bieber back”
“Please keep Bieber there. Thank you”
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Politics
Choose One….
Rob Ford or Marion Berry
George W Bush or Stephen Harper
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Why I Moved to Canada in the First Place….
Billboard Magazine 1972
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Things I Love about America
The amount of food you get in a restaurant.
My cousins.
My hometown of Stockton, California and the childhood I spent there.
The smell of the Pacific Ocean, the seaweed and kelp drying in the sun on the beach, the call of the seagulls, the salt water breeze.
The beauty of the Redwoods and Yosemite National Park
The excitement, hustle and bustle and vibe of Manhattan.
Summers in Tahoe, Pinecrest, and Eureka California
Pink’s Hot Dogs, Cioppino, and Crab Louie’s, Tamales, and Cal-Mex enchiladas, Stockton’s asparagus and Bruno’s Peppers.
Taking the train from Sacramento, California to NYC.
Most of the weather
The outspokeness of the people
The prices
The Sierra Nevada foothills and the mountains themselves
California summer nights
The amount of ice bartenders put in the glass
Bloody Marys
A barbecued steak at Al the Wops in Locke, Calif, Clams at the Latin Quarter in Cherry Hill NJ, Pasties in the Midwest, Manhattan Clam Chowder, Frozen Red Hot brand Tamales, Snappy Tom Spicy Tomato Juice, 7oz. cans of Coors Banquet Beer, Genoa Bakery, and the breeze coming off the water driving on the levees through the San Joaquin Delta.
Things I love about Canada
My Daughter
The Grand Kiddles
My friends
The food and the restaurants
Toronto’s vast amount of food and restaurant choices
Seafood in Halifax and PEI
Montreal’s ambiance and of course, the food
The music and the people who write and perform it
The bars and venues where you can hear the music
Summer in Toronto
The Rockies, Banff, and Jasper
London, Hamilton, and Niagara in Ontario
The train across the country
Toronto’s Little Italy, Chinatown, and Queen Street and the Dundas/Ossington corridor
Vaughn, Ontario’s Centre street Deli, Toronto’s Harbour Sixty, Rancho Relaxo, and New Ho King
Streetcars
The view from the balcony
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Things I Dislike in Both Countries
Traffic
The God Damn wind! Spoils too many days. Breeze, Oui, Wind, Not so Oui.
Worse pedestrians
Bicycles on major streets
Stupid, intrusive, childish, and unconstitutional/non-charter government control of smoking laws, gas, liquor and cigarette taxes
Transit stopping before restaurants and bars close
No place to park
Politics. Government would be better off without them
What has happened to radio
Extreme conservatives and liberals
Toques and Hoodies
Drake and Kanye leaking over both borders
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No matter how you look at it, The Pants and The Hat are still much better than most other places. We are very lucky to be where we are.
We do need to protect what we have here, but not from threats from the outside as much as we need to protect ourselves from the threats from within.
We celebrate on the First and Fourth of July for good reasons…let’s not forget what those reasons are.
…like some of us already have.
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Be safe, be well, be grateful.
Happy Birthday, Pants!
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Segarini’s regular column appears here after hours of frustration and weeping
Contact us at dbawis@rogers.com
Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now publishes, edits, and writes for DBAWIS, and continues to write music, make music, and record.
July 8, 2016 at 9:09 pm
Very interesting, informative and entertaining. Remember you way back in the sixties doing the music thing at the Minotaur and Music World etc. I was just a Plastic Explosion groupie lol, so you probably didn’t know me. Nice to see you are still around and witty as ever