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FutureShop- All Stores Closed Immediately
#31
(05-21-2015, 09:10 AM)MidTowner Wrote: ookpik, I'm with you on use of the term "Americans." The Arrogant Worms had a very clever song about that ("I Am Not American") which included the lovely lyric "I long to be an American, as the French are European."

For some reason, I always thought that "serviette" referred to the paper products used in some restaurants, and "napkins" to the cloth products used at home. I use "chesterfield," but notice many other people do not even though that's what they mean. I had no idea that a "beanie" and "toque" might be the same thing for some people- beanie makes me think of something like a skull cap, or panamaniac's propeller beanie.

Re: Foreign ownership. I am a lot more wary about communist governments (through their state-run enterprises) purchasing companies which own land and resources in this country, than I am about a publically-traded company based in the United States buying a consumer goods store here.

It's the reverse - a serviette is made of cloth and napkins are made of paper.  My understanding is that "serviette" in considered antiquated in the UK and was always associated with the lower classes.  It is one of our holdovers from the colonial era.

Perhaps we should open a new thread on "English as spoken in Waterloo Region". 
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#32
Quote:It's the reverse - a serviette is made of cloth and napkins are made of paper.  My understanding is that "serviette" in considered antiquated in the UK and was always associated with the lower classes.  It is one of our holdovers from the colonial era.

Perhaps we should open a new thread on "English as spoken in Waterloo Region". 

I don't honestly think that the words are considered to refer to different objects by most people, but if there is a difference, 'serviette' refers to the paper variety. I have heard the same from Brits, that serviette was a 'working class' tell.
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#33
Now you've got me wondering. "Paper napkin" sounds fine to me, but "paper serviette" seems strange. I think I'll have to drop "serviette" in favour of "dinner napkin". Wink
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#34
(05-21-2015, 07:56 AM)ookpik Wrote:
(05-20-2015, 05:07 PM)panamaniac Wrote: I will confess to using a sloppy mix of metric and imperial measures
What annoys me even more is the inconsistent use of date notation. It used to be that in Canada we used DD/MM/YY and in the US they used MM/DD/YY. That was bad enough. But now an increasing number of Canadians use MM/DD/YY with the remaining still using the (IMO) preferred, official DD/MM/YY. So dates get even more confusing, especially when the DD is 12 or less and thus the actual date is ambiguous.

I actually favour YYYY-MM-DD, as it sorts logically.
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#35
I hate the date like that. If you planned a party for Friday I am sure you would invite people to drop by on May 22nd. I doubt you would say " see you 2015 May 22.. even Quebec .... okay never mind.. as for the shot Ookpik took at Imperial measurements, I would argue we could start another thread for that one. 99% of people would identify themselves or another person's height and weight by imperial because no one really knows what a centimeter is beyond 30cm, which is essentially one foot. ... and on I could go, but seriously. If we still measured gas in gallons instead of litres we would know we are getting hosed there too (hosed is a Canadian term). 

I am glad youall (y'all) has not caught on. So yeah.. Future Shop...
_____________________________________
I used to be the mayor of sim city. I know what I am talking about.
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#36
(05-21-2015, 05:57 PM)jamincan Wrote: I actually favour YYYY-MM-DD, as it sorts logically.
Me too. But that's even more esoteric for most people. So is miltary time, e.g. 21:00 rather than 9pm.

(05-21-2015, 08:17 PM)Drake Wrote: as for the shot Ookpik took at Imperial measurements
What shot was that? For the record I'm a fan of metric and use it as much as possible. But since I grew up with Imperial I still sometimes think in those measurements. Interestingly I think of my height in metric but my weight in imperial. Yet when doing wood work and related stuff I think/estimate in imperial but measure in metric. I'll estimate the length of a piece of wood as say 2 feet but use the metric scale on my tape measure to measure the length precisely before cutting.


Quote:If we still measured gas in gallons instead of litres we would know we are getting hosed there too (hosed is a Canadian term).
 
To add to the confusion don't forget that our US cousins use a different size of gallon to our old imperial one. The price of a gallon of gas in the US will always be cheaper than in Canada because their gallons are smaller than ours.

But I agree this is a huge digression from Future Shop.
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#37
Sorry Ookpik, my use of the phrase 'shot' was to add some flair to the conversation. I have checked the Imperial database again and I note you are listed as "supporter".
_____________________________________
I used to be the mayor of sim city. I know what I am talking about.
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#38
(05-21-2015, 05:57 PM)jamincan Wrote: I actually favour YYYY-MM-DD, as it sorts logically.

I do too, for the same reason. For more than a decade I've sorted my folders on computers as 2015.04.25 - Folder Subject etc...

And I use 24 hour time too, as it's just perfect. It's 20h39. Technically, that's the official standard for Canada, too (ever notice how the post office has times listed in 24 hour time? That's why.)

Future Shop is gone, so what's this thread about anymore, anyway? Sounds like a perfect candidate for a lockdown...
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