a small RANT, if you will

When I hear "American" I think of people from the US. I am Canadian, I teach a Brazilian child, my friend has Bolivian relatives, etc.

HTH

Higs, Katherine (giving a Canadian perspective)

When I was in the nearby city this morning I was told that they heard on the radio that MY area (on the edge of the snowbelt, thank you) was supposed to be hit hard again today. So far, nothing... but then, it's still considered today until midnight, right? ;op~

Gemini

hehehe Okay, Mr 'Meric'n... I apologize (should I be doing this?) for my perfect diction. LOL

Seriously? President Bush puts on his accent? Or are you just pulling my leg? Watch it now, I may kick! LOL

Gemini

Thank you, that's pretty interesting to read. :o)

United Statians. LOL I like it!

Gem

Sure! Look at the tapes of his debates and speeches from when he was running for Gov. of Texas. In the first debate he spoke well, and fell in the polls. About that time, he hired Rove and within a month his diction had changed and he stopped in the middle of his sentences. By the next debate, he spoke "'Meric'n" and won the election.

A year ago GWB gave a speech at a economic summit in Europe. He used lots of big words, and sung them like Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics. I'm sure that speech was written by Greenspan's people, rather than the regular White House speech writers, which accounted for the difference in language, but he spoke it perfectly.

All the world is a stage, and I would consider GWB to be the greatest actor on that stage, playing the greatest role since Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

My mother taught me to shear a sheep without getting kicked when I was still in grade school. Aaron

Heh, heh - I thought it was "Merkin".....

Shelagh

Ca'se w've lost the skill of diction to properly

When one says Americans , here and both in Europe , one means the people of the USA ,,,, than we know of South Americans and of Canadians ,,,, mirjam [from Asia ]

OK who is going to be shorn here.......Aaren......LOL

When I shore a sheep some one was always standing close by to make shure the sheep would not get up and run away. I did try to shove my foot under her shoulder but, might not have had the right touch........LOL If I get my website up and running I will post some pictures of that great event. I was in training for a sheep to shawl event in 1979......

els

In the circles I travel, and that includes my family in Holland, Americans are the people who live in the United States. Canadians live in Canada, and Mexicans live in Mexico. I think that here (Canada) we may use the word "North America" when we talk about the continent as a whole, or about weather patterns that cover large trackts etc. I have often notice when I travel in the States, to visit our son, that Americans tend to sort of include Canada as America. Letters I receive from the States often miss stating that I live in Canada. There is a huge difference though, certainly seen from this side of the border...LOL

Els

Jan thanks for your giggle back....LOL. I have a brand new dictionary on my computer and love it. However when you do not know how to spell a word, it can be very tricky getting the right spelling, also must be said the letters are miniscule in size. See I may become 70 tomorrow, but I am crafty enough to find many good excuses for misspelling a word....(grinning).

OK here is a definition of the word agron·o·my [n.] 1. scientific agriculture (the application of soil and plant sciences to land management and crop production) science, scientific discipline, No wonder you had to giggle Jan, I am laughing as well.

Thanks for all the other explanations as well, even at 70 learning time is never over

Sleep well

Els

Shelagh and Jan, I am sorry you guys have still to cope with the cold weather, although Shelagh, I was told by my brother in law, who lives in Calgary, that they had a very mild winter so far. As a matter of fact I think that they had grass fires, because it was that dry this winter. I will send some warm weather you way.

Els

Hi Mirjam:

Yes, I believe here in Canada when someone says "Americans" we automatically think of someone from the USA. And, I'm assuming that it's that way throughout most of the world.

take care

Donna from Ontario, Canada

Thanks for the sympathy but I don't really have any complaints about our weather as it has been mild. We had the warmest January on record and I think Shelagh said the same. It has been closer to normal this month but not bad so far. If we were to see signs of spring this early, I would actually be concerned about such a drastic change in the weather.

What she said (grin). No real complaints here. It's snowing today and windy again, but only -10°C.... hee, hee - the Olympics start today! Can't wait to see the figure skating, women's hockey, speed skating and curling!!! Yeah!!!!! All the while, knitting of course.

Shelagh

Yeah, and it usually seems it's when Canada wins some sporting event - as if it was an American win, not Canadian. As that idiot Tucker Carlson says about Canada "they are invisible". heh, heh.

Shelagh

We're having *very* fine snow here today, and it doesn't really seem to be sticking either. However, we have a HUGE bump of frozen snow and ice at the end of our laneway where the snowplow cleared the streets and blocked up the end of the laneway. Unfortunately Matthew wasn't home until after dark, so the temperature had dropped enough to freeze it solid by then. He did go out with the shovel (steel rim on the edge of it) and tried to break it up to move it.... but to no avail. So now I have to go very slowly backing out, so that I don't scrap (or worse, knock off) the tailpipe once the back wheels drop over that bump of ice. Hopefully the temperature will get a little midler on the weekend so Matthew can try to move the bump of ice.

Other than that, no complaints about our weather either... although, I won't be too upset when spring does arrive. I like it warm... to be able to sit in the foyer with the windows open, and of course when it gets warm enough, to be able to get in the pool to cool off. ;o)

Gemini

My Grandfather was a Kansas rancher. Using his credit, my Mother bought and herded a flock of 500 ewes that paid for her colledge education. Later, when I was a kid in Wyoming, there were still vast flocks of sheep tended by Basque shepards. My Mother was collecting stories about sheep in Wyoming history, so we went up to visit those shepards, and my Mother would help the shepards with their chores so they would have time to tell her their stories. They had dogs and horses, but there was not a fence or barn or house for 20 miles. Most of those Basques still lived out of horse drawn wagons.

Sure, my Mother taught me to shear a sheep by myself with hand shears. I mean, sheep are not as strong as bison. But, those Basques could do it really fast. The thing abut sheep is that there are enough sheep in a flock, that one gets to practice shearing until you get really good.

One scene burned in my memory is heaps of fresh cut "Rocky Moutain oysters" (sheep's testicles) piled on fresh sheep skins in the cool moutain air - with flys buzzing, and the dust from 10,000 sheep everywhere. Boiled, those oysters became our dinner that night. I got stern instructions to look like I was really enjoying dinner because the shepards did not get much meat and we were VERY lucky that they were sharing their big feast of the year with us.

It has been 28 years since I last worked sheep. Could I still shear sheep by myself? Maybe. But it would not be pretty, and after a dozen lambs, I would know that it was a very long day. heh, heh, heh!

Aaron

LOL Being a town girl (only ever stayed at a farm friend's house a couple of times), and never having to sheer a sheep, as I was reading your story and reached the part where the "Fresh cut Rocky Mountain oysters (sheep's testicles) piled on fresh sheep skins"... I had visions of those poor sheep losing those parts to slipped sheers while someone was sheering them too quickly. LOL Sorry... weird imagination at work.

Gem

Clipping and castration were two different processes - but, both done while in the same camp at about the same time. You are very right about the sheers being sharp enough to take body parts off sheep or man (i.e., fingers!) Between the blood, flies, and dust, it was nasty. These days we do not let kids see that kind of stuff.

Heck, these days we do not even let sheep see that kind of stuff any more.

Aaron