Canada as Seen in our Neighbours’ Eyes

 

1. Canadian Secretary Syndrome

“In Barbados, female sex tourism has been dubbed ‘Canadian secretary syndrome.’ In Martinique, locals refer to incoming flights of Air Canada as ‘Air Coucoune’—French for ‘Air Pussy.’ ”

as reported in the Ottawa Citizen ( Jan. 8, 2007 ) in an article by Jeff Heinrich

 

2.The Canadian Ballet

“Dozens of strip clubs line the streets of the Canadian towns just across the Niagara River from Buffalo. These clubs were collectively known as ‘the Canadian Ballet,’ a euphemism I find terrifically amusing to this day.”

from “Oh, Canada !” in Comics Curmudgeon by Josh Fruhlinger, Sept 4, 2004

 

 

Alberta Place Names

Alberta place names have fascinating origins.

Hairy Hill, Alberta

It’s a town name that recalls the vast herds of buffalo that once roamed the softly undulant prairies of Alberta. Buffalo stopped at the place that came to be called Hairy Hill to scratch their hides on the rocks. The buffalo were rubbing ticks and fleas off their shaggy coats by scratching themselves on the many thorn bushes that grew abundantly in the vicinity. Settlers happened upon hairy thorn bushes and for a moment imagined in error that they had discovered a new species of shrub! But watching a buffalo have a good scratch, all soon became clear, and an Alberta place name was born.

Bluesky, Alberta

My favorite Alberta place name is a wee whistlestop on Highway 2 just east of Fairview, west of Peace River, northwest of Edmonton, the name given first to a post office opened in 1914 by Adam and Sarah Dodge, early settlers.

I had the good luck to come upon Bluesky on a fair summer day many years ago. The little place lay curled in the sun, panting like an old dog come home after a trot. Above the hamlet arched a dome of moonroad and starpath, the mild blue yonder, a prairie canopy spun of sun threads and noon-blue cloth. Had I suffered sun stroke, or was I perhaps victim of a dread CVSA? Cerebrovascular Sentimental Accident. Right there outside Bluesky, a poem memorized at school had suddenly popped back into my head. I stopped the car, stood on the roadside and said aloud these lines by Edna St. Vincent Millay from her 1917 poem “Renascence.”

“The world stands out on either side

No wider than the heart is wide;

Above the world is stretched the sky,—

No higher than the soul is high.”

 

Had I been overheard, I would have been branded a nutty easterner. Never mind. That poetic moment was long before true prosperity arrived in Bluesky. To check that out, visit the website of the BLUESKY OIL SANDS PROJECT.

 

 

Reviews of my Book

Click bookcover for preview

 

 

 

A Great New Review of My Latest Book!

October 26, 2011

Welcome to the Enchanted Forest

By WB Johnston

This review is about Bill Casselman’s latest e-book about words: Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A Word Lover’s Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems (Kindle Edition)

 

“Wade Davis, lately of National Geographic, once described each living language as “an old-growth forest of the human spirit.” Once you decide to enter the kleptomaniacal woods of our mother tongue, what you need is more than a tour guide. This is no Disney-fied ‘keep-your-hands-inside-the-car-at all-times’, point A to point B, clear-cutting mining of language. You, here, are in the hands of Sir William of Cassel, a genuine shaman modestly posing as a simple lover of words.

In the best of the spiritual tradition, Bill is the shape-shifter who constantly leads you to all the places you need to find in your soul. Every page is a new country, an invitation to an excursion into the wonderland of rich connections with the myriad of sources of what so often we unthinkingly wield as a prosaic tool.

Pay absolutely no attention to anyone who tells you that this book is anything but pure gold. It’s simply not true, sadly, that all the world loves a lover. Particularly someone whose love is so boundless.

But Sir William is fearless. You don’t earn your keep as a medicine man if you have a thin skin. While I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could walk away from this book unmoved by its wit, its wisdom and the beautiful transparency by which the author celebrates the glorious romp of our almost unlimited linguistic exuberance, I have to sadly conclude that once in a while, you do meet someone who can’t see the forest for the trees, eh?

Read this book. Leave it on the sofa instead of the $%#!*$% TV remote. Maybe someone you care about will pick it up, even just for a moment, and fall in love with their heritage?

Leave it on your desk at work and trust that someone will riffle through it when you are out at lunch. Shamans are magicians of the highest order. The work of their hands and hearts is game-changing. Or, hey, put it on your Kindle and just feel comforted that you can wander back out into the forest with Bill even in the middle of a boring lecture.

Enjoy.”

 (Casselman replies: Thank you so much, Dr. J., for the kudos.)

 

 

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Jenni French of San Francisco, California writes on her blog “My Corner of the Universe” for March 19, 2011:

Casselman, Bill. Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik: A World Lover’s Guide to the Weirdest, Wackiest, and Wonkiest Lexical Gems. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2010.

“I admit it: I’m a word nerd. I love words: weird words, long words, obscure words, funny words.  This book is right up my alley.  With chapters like “Nautical Words,” “Creepy Words,” and “Edible Words,” I have enjoyed every page of this book. 

And the author has quite a way with words, so I have found myself rereading many sentences in this book and slowing my progress through it. 

My current favorite sentence is found in a discussion of dog hybrid breed names: “What a revolting concatenation of cutesiness and smarmy nomenclatorial treacle parading under the name of canine hybrid breed names” (19).

I’m sure I’ll have another favorite sentence in a day or two. 

This book is just that good and just that entertaining.”

(Author Bill Casselman replies: “Thanks, Jenni!” )

Just a reminder that this book contains my ALL-NEW word essays, none of which are available anywhere else in print or online.

 

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Cindy Lapeña on her blog “Creativity Unlimited” of July 19 ,2011, writes:

Posted by mimrlith in 365 Things to Look Forward to.
Tags: 365 things to look forward to, books, reading

19. Starting a book

To a certified bibliophile like me, a.k.a. bookworm, one of the most exciting things to look forward to is to start reading a new book. In fact, sometimes the prospect of starting to read a new book is so exciting that I have to hurry to finish the book I am currently reading, just so I can start a new one.

If there’s one thing I can’t resist, it’s a book, especially if it promises to be a good one. Of course there are certain books I just won’t touch or be seen with, but at the risk of being hung by my thumbs by fans of such literature, I will not mention any genres in particular. . .

Seeing a book with a title that totally captivates me, like Where a Dobdob meets a Dikdik (yes, that is a book title!) has me so worked up, I just can’t wait to dive in. I imagine all sorts of deliciously fancifully outrageous words with a title like that. Is it obvious? I just love books on words. You won’t believe how many dictionaries I own. Or books on lexical oddities and other lexical explorations. Yes, I am a logophile of sorts. I love the new words I pick up from new books. I relish finding out the meanings of all manner of words and phrases and expressions. What could be more fun?”

(Replies author Bill Casselman: Please scroll to bottom of page or click here to link to a free seven-page preview of my book, Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik.

 

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Testimonial Email

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Dear Mr. Casselman,
A search for the origins of an improbable-looking word, paraprosdokian, led me to the first piece of your prose I have had the pleasure of reading, “The Bogus Word Paraprosdokian & Lazy Con Artists of Academe.” I have just placed an order for Where a Dobdob Meets a Dikdik, Canadian Words & Sayings, and As The Canoe Tips, and will add more of your titles as I finish these.

I have just retired from a 40-plus year career in book publishing, the last thirty years spent as director/editor of a number of university presses, attempting to sort the genuine writers from the “Lazy Con Artists of Academe.” Sad to say, the latter have so over-bred the former that I could no longer see the rare gem in the avalanches of offal that daily swamped my office and desk. I visited your website and spent far too long there; it was a pleasure to meet a real writer through his work.

. . . I revisited the paraprosdokian page, and have finally quit laughing again at “Casselman’s Conclusion.” You were not unkind to the “profligate prof-lets.” During my years as an acquisitions editor, in rejection letters I often quoted Prof. Moses Hadas, classicist at Columbia University, who wrote a young scholar in response to having been sent the prof-let’s first book, “Thank you for sending me your book. I will waste no time reading it.”

I know I will enjoy your books. Keep up the good work.

Thank you,
Luther Wilson
Director (Retired)
University of New Mexico Press, among others

 

 

 

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© 1996-2012 William Gordon Casselman