Come down to Michigan, and find out. 
1 Like
It could be worse… Alberta could export its drunken Flames and Oilers fans to Rogers Arena in retaliation.
1 Like
Hey! There is a red flag with a certain “C” logo hanging over my desk, right now.
At least they’ve actually won the Cup, as opposed to the others “C” logo’d team whose flag hangs in the next cubicle.
3 Likes
Dammit, can’t find the reference now…
Apparently someone asked Guy Lafleur what would happen if his Canadiens team played the current-day Canadiens. How many goals would his team win by?
Not that many, Lafleur replied. Maybe two or three.
That’s it? the reporter said.
Well, Lafleur explained, remember, all of us guys who played back then are in our 70s now.
10 Likes
Up to six now.
But they still refuse to call him a serial killer.
Motherfuckers
5 Likes
Maybe it was a hobby?
Cop-speak. Bastards.
2 Likes
I have heard that they don’t want to call him that because if they do it opens up the door to look at similar closed cases… and they don’t want to do that because closed cases stay closed…
2 Likes
Jeese, Tessa and Scott, could you be more gorgeous.
That was fucking amazing to watch.
3 Likes
Courtesy of my younger brother (and yeah, most of it is bang on, although I am absolutely no good with a Lac St. Jean accent).
YOU KNOW YOU’RE FROM MONTREAL WHEN :
• You pronounce it “Muntreal”, not “Mahntreal”.
• You have ever said anything like “I have to stop at the guichet before we get to the dep.”
• Your only concern about jaywalking is getting a ticket.
• You agree that Montréal drivers are crazy, but you’re secretly proud of their nerves of steel.
• The most exciting thing about the South Shore is that you can turn right on a red.
• You know that the West Island is not a separate geographical formation.
• You bring smoked meat from Schwartz’s and bagels from St-Viateur if you’re visiting anyone.
• You refer to Tremblant as “up North.”
• You know how to pronounce Pie-IX.
• You greet everyone you meet with a two-cheek kiss.
• You’re not impressed with hardwood floors.
• You can watch soft-core porn on broadcast TV, and this has been true for at least 25 years.
• You were drinking café-au-lait before it was latte.
• Shopper’s Drug Mart is Pharmaprix and Staples is Bureau en gros, and PFK is finger lickin’ good.
• You really believe Just For Laughs is an international festival. For two weeks a year.
• Everyone, – drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists – think they’re immortal, and that you’ll move first.
• You think leaving 1:30 AM is an early night
• You know that Rocket Richard had nothing to do with astrophysics.
• You’ve seen Brother André’s heart.
• No matter how bilingual you are, you still don’t understand “Île aux Tourtes.”
• You know the difference between the SQ, the SAQ, and the SAAQ.
• You measure temperature and distance in metric, but weight and height in Imperial measure.
• You show up at a party at 11 p.m. and no one else is there yet.
• You know that Montréal is responsible for introducing to North America: bagels, souvlaki, smoked meat.
• You don’t drink pop or soda, you drink soft drinks.
• You have graduated from high school and have a degree, but you’ve never been in grade 12.
• There has to be at least 30 cm of snow on the ground in 24 hours to consider it too snowy to drive.
• You remember where you were during the Ice Storm.
• You’ve been to at least 2 festivals drunk.
• You discuss potholes like most people discuss weather.
• “The Futuristic City” is actually Habitat '67.
• You find it amusing when people from outside Québec compliment you on how good your English is.
• You have yet to understand a single announcement made on the Métro PA system.
• You understand that La Fête Nationale is not a celebration of “Québec’s birthday”
• You don’t find American comedians speaking “gibberish” French even remotely funny.
• You don’t find it weird that there’s a strip club on every corner downtown.
• You know the words to the national anthem in French.
• You often switch from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day.
• You use a down comforter in the summer.
• Your parents drive at 120km/h through 13 feet of snow during a blizzard, without flinching.
• You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them.
• You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
• You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction.
• You don’t understand anyone from Lac-St-Jean, but you can fake the accent.
4 Likes
No mention of the Expos?
You are a Montrealer if you know who Bill “Spaceman” Lee is? You are a Montrealer if you know where Larry Walker got his start and who Felipe Alou was? You are a real Montrealer if you suspect that both “strike seasons” (lockouts, really), which took place when the Expos were leading the league, were predicated on the fact that a “small” market was likely to be in the World series?
2 Likes
A lot of them are just “you grew up with lots of snow”. But this one made me cackle.
Fucking Cegep man! Fuck you! You make no damn sense!
4 Likes
Well, in my case, the last year of Grade 12 took place the year I was in Grade 11, so I was part of very first cohort for which this is true. (For that matter, we were the very last to go through Grade 7 in elementary school - the year behind us did Grade 7 in high school.)
CEGEP phased in the year after my graduation, but the transition was not entirely clear-cut - I entered Sir George Williams University the year after I graduated high school, but on a 4-year (rather than 3-year) programme. Incidentally, Sir George amalgamated with Loyola College in Montreal West to become Concordia University at the start of my second year there - I lived through a sea change in Québec’s educational system.
I suppose you could make a point that CEGEP covers Grades 12 and 13 (the latter of which we never had in my day), but the truth of the matter is that it isn’t structured like “senior” high school - much more like “junior” college, complete with a 3-year vocational stream that is equivalent to Ontario’s vocational colleges.
1 Like
Grade 13 is long gone now anyhow.
One thing I’m grateful for is that my high school made a point of prepping us for university life as much as possible – things like deadline management and independent research. Sometimes we’d just show up for attendance and then the teacher would tell us to go to the public library.
3 Likes
I was the first cohort of OAC instead of Grade 13.
My nephew was the last cohort of OAC. 20 years later. LOL
Honestly, working in post-secondary, can I just say, OMG I WISH WE STILL HAD GRADE 13!!
The babies they send us for first year, OMG they are babies!!
We’ve had 16 year olds in first year! In residence! They do not belong here! OMG!
Babies! All of them!!
(Also, working with teens on the daily, gotta say, I side eye ANY “Adult” that “dates” teens, cuz no no no, they are all babies!)
@PatRx2 - They never told us that only ON had grade 13. That we didn’t have to do it. That we could just go to university with grade 12. We didn’t know the other provinces didn’t have it!
3 Likes
I was just turned 18 in first year, and that was after taking a mix of Gr. 13 and OAC classes (skipped Grade 2).
What I could handle: class schedules, studying, time management, cooking for myself (I’d been cooking for 4-5 people most weeknights all through high school anyhow).
What I couldn’t handle: dating and socialising in general, plus standing up to my family and choosing the post-secondary education and career path to suit my goals, not theirs. I actually considered getting emancipated so I could put some more distance between them and my course selections.
Between predatory campus rapists, mean girl “oh you didn’t go to PRIVATE school? I guess we can’t be friends” types, and “what we want is best for you and we know better than you” family members, I didn’t get a lot of honest emotional support back then. School sucks.
3 Likes
I just realised this makes no sense since at 18 I was emancipated in Ontario. I meant when I was selecting my university, first-year courses, and my major, which happened when I was 17. I had guidance counsellors who weren’t even my guidance counsellor stopping me in the halls and saying, “we think you’re choosing the wrong school”. I thought so too, but it was more about family convenience and less about programmes and campus culture.
2 Likes
Yeah, that dates me even more. Québec’s changes (starting with the move of Grade 7) were all within a 5 year span starting 15+ years before OAC. I was about 30 when OAC was introduced.
Hehehe! Yup. I recall myself as a wet-behind-the-ears first year student - I turned 17 during registration week.
To be honest, though, I thought moving Grade 7 out of elementary school and into high school was somewhat foolish - Grade 7 kids are baby babies in high school. My elementary school was smart in housing Grade 7 off separately in an annex building, but mixing 12-year olds with 17- and 18-year olds the next year? Ontario has the right of it with middle school for grades 7 and 8.
Well, my year had no choice, but the kids a few years older than I could also go straight from Grade 11 to university if they had the credits and were accepted. Grade 11 was junior matriculation; Grade 12 was senior matriculation, and optional (like Grade 13 in Ontario). From an academic point of view, Québec public schools were probably the best in the country at that time. (It probably did help that no one skipped grades in Québec.)
2 Likes
We had Jr. High. It was 7, 8 & 9.
High School was 10, 11, 12, & 13/OAC
Grade School was K to 6.
That always seemed a good split to me.
Keep all the 13-15 year olds away from the little ones, and away from the big ones. LOL
2 Likes
That’s suburban/urban though. My elementary school was K-6 at first, then K-8. High school was 7-13 at first, then 9-13.
And if that sounds bad, I met a guy from the same part of the county about 15 years older than me, and he did his elementary school years in a one room school house. Most interesting stat from that conversation: he was the only boy from his Grade 8 class who was still alive (he was ~35 at the time). The rest had mostly died in farming accidents.