YIL that while in the UK, and I thought most of Europe, the 11th November is known as remembrance day, in East Asia it is the biggest online shopping day of the year, "
Singles Day", about being single, or not, or something.
I once had to explain Remembrance Day to a guy from Switzerland.
It is not a holiday here, but we have a minutes silence at 11 am.
Some Canadian provinces have declared it a stat holiday. It is here, which made some people look at me oddly when I mentioned having to see a doctor that day. I'd had a scare over the weekend, went to the nearest walk-in clinic, the doctor changed the dosage of one of my medications and said, "Come back and see me on Monday (that was Saturday) and we'll see if it's helped." So I did, and it did. I was told to check back in around the 27th or 28th to verify that everything's on track. So Monday morning I observed Remembrance Day and in the afternoon I went to the clinic. The malls are open in the afternoon, but I remember the public criticism when they opened in the morning on November 11. It's customary in my city for non-essential businesses to close until noon that day.
I remember my first game of civ I. I wandered a turn to see if maybe there was a better place to settle rome and a greek chariot popped up and killed me. Game over. Took all of about 10 seconds.
You must have wandered into an episode of
Xena: Warrior Princess. She really,
really,
REALLY doesn't like the Romans!
Wait, how did people even get to Australia? My galleys always sink when I send them into the ocean.
That won't happen if you build the Lighthouse (at least in Civ I and II).
remembering the fallen is not something politicians of most stripes are comfortable with in public lest they be accused of approving of most of the wars those soldiers died in...
It would be unthinkable in Canada for the local politicians at the municipal level, the premier at the provincial level, or the Prime Minister at the federal level
not to attend Remembrance Day ceremonies. When Justin Trudeau spent that day in France last year (he went to the Vimy memorial) and his wife and the Defense Minister stood in for him in Canada, he was criticized by a lot of people, who said it indicated a profound lack of respect for the veterans. Well, he couldn't be in two places at once, and
somebody from Canada had to be in France since it was the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI...
TIL that Google Street-viewed Venice by boat/Gondola and walking the ermmm....walkways!
Seems logical really, but I'd never considered it before.
EDIT: I'd sort of assumed that no cars = no Street View
Streets existed millennia before cars did. As for Venice, they do have walkways, but everything is underwater right now, due to flooding. Last night's news showed a guy swimming in St. Mark's Square.