CSO: Have you ever heard of a famous chef from Canada?
FWP: No, but it's you who follow the "food news," not I.CSO: Maybe it's because they don't have a cuisine.[1]
FWP: Sweetie, Canada is basically known for being a country full of very nice, very polite people. They export a couple of actors and singers now and then, but that's about it.CSO: Oh? Then what was the deal with that Vancouver-Calgary brawl the other night?
FWP: Hey, every country needs a safety valve. Theirs is the hockey brawl.CSO: That's how they let off steam, huh?
FWP: Yup. If it weren't for that, they'd be at war with every other country on Earth. Just think of the pressure: all those decades of perfect, uninterrupted politeness.CSO: Yeah. That would make me want to kill somebody.
FWP: For sure.
[1: We were told this in 1995, by a Canadian: the concierge on duty at Toronto's Royal Crown Hotel. A very polite young gentleman, and entirely unarmed...as far as I could tell.]
For a more extreme example of this behaviour, consider the Japanese.
ReplyDeleteI used to drive through western Canada from the continental US to Alaska regularly but infrequently. The "cuisine" could maybe best be described as ill-prepared, leftovers of starch, fat, and unidentifiable protein.
ReplyDeleteI didn't care for it.