To non-middle eastern posters here

[Mouthwash]

sharif dont like it

Coherent ideas only, please.

 

[madviking]

I think what madviking is trying to articulate is that the Clash's song "Rock the Casbah" promotes a kind of pan-Middle-East-ism through rock and roll music (specifically the new-wave-punk genre "Rock the Casbah" is played in). If you view the music video for "Rock the Casbah", you will see that an Arab man and Jewish man are both cooperating to travel to a Clash concert. This furthers my previously discussed point that all Middle Eastern nations should be considered equal.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I passed out drunk on a ferry one time. When I woke up I was in either Vancouver or Seattle. Not sure which one. The ferry's overnight dock was Seattle, so I went back to sleep figuring when they threw me off I'd be on the right side of the border.

Spoiler :

Okay, I made that up, but I did find Vancouver and Seattle to be mostly interchangeable, and since 95% of Canadians live within fifty miles of the (laid down arbitrarily) US border I doubt there are vast differences between these two peoples.

I live a lot farther from the border than 50 miles. And "vast differences" depends on context. There was a time in the '80s when I was in a second-hand bookstore in Vernon, British Columbia. I'd paid for my books, and my non-verbal reaction to the change given to me was all the clerk needed to tell that I'm from Alberta.

My thinking was "like descendents of mostly British colonists and descendents of mostly British colonists". I suppose that might provide Quebec as a somewhat unique experience though, so I retract my total lack of interest.

I am not descended from British colonists.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I live a lot farther from the border than 50 miles. And "vast differences" depends on context. There was a time in the '80s when I was in a second-hand bookstore in Vernon, British Columbia. I'd paid for my books, and my non-verbal reaction to the change given to me was all the clerk needed to tell that I'm from Alberta.


I am not descended from British colonists.

Valka, I have long since accepted that you are exceptional.

 

[sophie]

Coherent ideas only, please.

come on eileen i swear what he means at this point you mean everything

 

[LucyDuke]

I live a lot farther from the border than 50 miles. And "vast differences" depends on context. There was a time in the '80s when I was in a second-hand bookstore in Vernon, British Columbia. I'd paid for my books, and my non-verbal reaction to the change given to me was all the clerk needed to tell that I'm from Alberta.

Can you elaborate?

 

[Hygro]

I don't have avatars or sigs turned on but I see what's going on in this thread. Top notch.

 

[Wrymouth3]

"Exotic" you say? Well in that case I only take my travel advice for tours of the Orient from two people:

and

Not only have they noted the beauty in the harems, but the young men are handsome as well, and taking one to your bed is a wondrous thing.

 

[_random_]

And should "you look Egyptian" be taken as a compliment, insult, or neither?

I know a Coptic guy who's hella cool and has an attractive girlfriend. He's pretty decent looking I guess, although I don't really know enough about specific Middle Eastern ethnicities to say whether or not that's generalizable or the sort of thing people generalize or whatever.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Turkey seems to be the one on top of my Middle Eastern travel list.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Can you elaborate?

Along with a few coins, she gave me six or seven $2 bills. Until the government stopped producing $1 bills and introduced the $1 coin (hereafter known as the loonie, which is what we call it because one side has a picture of a loon on it), Albertans had rarely used $2 bills. We didn't need to because we had $1 bills. And the reason why we didn't use $2 bills in the first place was because many decades ago, $2 was the amount a man would expect to pay for an evening of entertainment with a lady (ie. in a brothel). There were other "sinful" connotations associated with them as well - gambling, for instance. So the attitude persisted - and gradually just became an accepted social norm in this province - that anyone who possessed or used $2 bills was up to no good.

Practicality won out after the currency change, though. Eventually the $2 bill gained acceptance here and I used to have a lot of them - until they too were withdrawn and the $2 coin (the toonie) was imposed.

My reaction all those years ago in the bookstore was to stare goggle-eyed at that handful of $2 bills. I'd rarely seen even one of them, and had never seen that many in the same place at the same time before in my life. The people in B.C. didn't have the same notions about the $2 bill, so she could tell right away that I was from Alberta.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Errrmmmm...in America we have people who come in from the sticks and stand out in the crowd too. How does that make Canada different from America?

 

[Zelig]

My thinking was "like descendents of mostly British colonists and descendents of mostly British colonists".

I'm a descendent of British colonists to Guyana, does that count?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I'm a descendent of British colonists to Guyana, does that count?

Count for making Canada a locale that the average American would consider exotic? I would guess no, but that's just a guess.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Errrmmmm...in America we have people who come in from the sticks and stand out in the crowd too. How does that make Canada different from America?

Vernon was not exactly the "big city" in comparison to Red Deer. Granted, they do occupy a larger area. Our population outnumbers them by about 50,000. But what they do have that we don't, is a huge, beautiful lake that contains Ogopogo, and nice scenery (not the Rockies, but still an official mountain range).

Besides... bible belt, remember? Alberta is one of those. British Columbia has a lot of churches, but it's not a bible belt like it is here. And they actually change their provincial government occasionally.


Anyway, on topic... I would love to visit the historical sites and wonders I've read about - the Pyramids, of course, and lots of other places in Egypt. I'd also enjoy seeing Petra. So I have no particular country in mind, but I do have a list of sites that would be fascinating to visit.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I shall rephrase. We too have sufficient regional differences that a visitor can stand out in the crowd. That doesn't make Canada markedly different from the US. Someone looking for specific landmarks of interest obviously needs to go where those landmarks are, but the "well, this is the US, let's go see the vastly different culture of Canada" is not something I expect to hear.

 

[Mouthwash]

I don't have avatars or sigs turned on but I see what's going on in this thread. Top notch.

And this grand joke is...?

 

[LucyDuke]

Along with a few coins, she gave me six or seven $2 bills. Until the government stopped producing $1 bills and introduced the $1 coin (hereafter known as the loonie, which is what we call it because one side has a picture of a loon on it), Albertans had rarely used $2 bills. We didn't need to because we had $1 bills. And the reason why we didn't use $2 bills in the first place was because many decades ago, $2 was the amount a man would expect to pay for an evening of entertainment with a lady (ie. in a brothel). There were other "sinful" connotations associated with them as well - gambling, for instance. So the attitude persisted - and gradually just became an accepted social norm in this province - that anyone who possessed or used $2 bills was up to no good.

Practicality won out after the currency change, though. Eventually the $2 bill gained acceptance here and I used to have a lot of them - until they too were withdrawn and the $2 coin (the toonie) was imposed.

My reaction all those years ago in the bookstore was to stare goggle-eyed at that handful of $2 bills. I'd rarely seen even one of them, and had never seen that many in the same place at the same time before in my life. The people in B.C. didn't have the same notions about the $2 bill, so she could tell right away that I was from Alberta.

Thanks! I didn't know they had character.

 

[caketastydelish]

And this grand joke is...?

He thinks he can troll by pwing himself so hard, which is sad because he and Owen know so much about me there's a near-unstoppable amount of genuine material they could have used. They should leave the trolling to JR who does much more with much less.

 

[plarq]

Persia. Meow...