I Still Love Canada

With the two-pronged spanking of America's hockey teams by our neighbors to the north, many Americans are hating on Maple-Leafers like never before.  But I refuse to join the chorus.  The Canadians deserved their victories on both occasions.

Canada is like America's wondrous attic.  Filled with things you have forgotten, but delighted to see when you finally venture up the stairs and open the door...

10 Things I like about Canada:

1. Tim Horton's.   I like the coffee and I like the donuts.  I like the fact that duel franchises of Wendy's and Tim Horton's offer a donut as a side dish with your Double with Cheese.  I like that the coffee has no competition.  No bitter Starbucks-like alternative to make you occasionally wonder if you should switch.  And Tim Horton is on the Stanley Cup.  Twice!
2. Curling.  Yeah, I said it.  I love curling.  I even understand it, including various strategies and terms like "hog line", "center guard", "biter", and "the hammer". I love that you can keep a beverage cold during the whole match right next to you on the "sheet".
3. Beer.  I'm not a big beer drinker.  "Two a year at our golf tourney" has been my motto lately. (I did share a beer with Mark Hawkins at a Chinese New Year dinner following the Penn State National, making it a possible 3 this year!)  But I love the passion that Canadians bring to the arena of beer.  Just slightly less than their passion for hockey.
4. Sense of Humor. Canada has a sense of humor much better than America has.  They can take a joke, and they can dish it out as well.  And then everyone can share a beer while discussing curling or hockey as friends afterward.
5. There's no whining in Canada.  There isn't.  They take the good as well as the bad life dishes out with equal grace and humor.  And then a beer...
6. Eh.  A two-letter word with thousands of meanings and inflections, usually added to the end of every sentence.  Americans try to make fun of it, but Canadians have literally tripled the English vocabulary with it.
7. Plaid.  There isn't a special time for plaid or a fashion for plaid or a season for plaid.  There's just plaid.  Deal with it.
8. Actual Coins worth more than a dollar.  America has tried it hundreds of times without success. It has only led to hoarding. Canada not only succeeded, but they named their most popular one "a loonie".
9. Cold.  Not like the once in a lifetime frigid temps in America this year.  I'm talking that every year without fail.  The kind where the trunk of your car doubles as your meat freezer for 7 months a year.  And it's more reliable than the one in your basement.
10. Two Languages even without immigrants.  There's sometimes friction between the French and English portions of Canada, but only between them.  Anyone outside of Canada tries to impugn one, the other will come to their rescue "no questions asked" just like a family would.

God Bless Canada.  Who knows, I may be looking for a new home one day...