July 18th, 2008, 9 Comments »
A couple of Winnipegers are visiting us this weekend. We discussed going for Slurpees, and they unveiled their vast knowledge base of all things Slurpable. Apparently Slurpees are very popular, because it has been the Slurpee Capital of the World for nine years running:
“It’s nostalgic at this point,” said regional market manager of 7-Eleven Canada, Inc., Dale Shaw. “This is probably the only place in the world where it’s a four-season beverage.” Slurpees have been a Winnipeg staple for generations, he said.
Shaw said the best-performing store in the city is at Pembina Highway and Killarney Avenue. “For the province, it’s Steinbach,” he said. The best-selling Slurpee flavours are G-Shock Gatorade and Slurpaccino.
Really? Gatorade and Slurpaccino? That feels like new-flavour marketing to me–those are the flavours I avoid like a the semi-solid plague.
Apparently Alex Perez made a documentary about the phenomenon back in 2006. You can watch a couple of video clips on the film’s site.
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September 12th, 2007, 5 Comments »
I should know the answer to this, because it seems like a profoundly stupid question. But seriously, how do populations of mosquitos survive winter? Winnipeg is famous for both its bitterly cold winters and flotillas of Cessna-sized mosquitos. How does the latter make it through the former? The Wikipedia entry was no help.
I don’t ever remember seeing any mosquitos in sub-zero temperatures, but maybe I was looking in the wrong spots?
Hang on, I found the answer. In short, they hibernate:
In temperate climates, adult mosquitoes become inactive with the onset of cool weather and enter hibernation to live through the winter. Some kinds of mosquitoes have winter hardy eggs and hibernate as embryos in eggs laid by the last generation of females in late summer. The eggs are usually submerged under ice and hatch in spring when water temperatures rise. Other kinds of mosquitoes overwinter as adult females that mate in the fall, enter hibernation in animal burrows, hollow logs or basements and pass the winter in a state of torpor. In spring, the females emerge from hibernation, blood feed and lay the eggs that produce the next generation of adults
Dumb question resolved. Next?
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September 10th, 2007, 6 Comments »
I had the, uh, opportunity to hear the Weakerthans’ fourth album, Reunion Tour, before its scheduled release in late September. You could do the same, if you know what the word ‘BitTorrent’ means and how to use it.
I forget how I exactly first discovered the Weakerthans, but the first song I came to know and like was “Plea From a Cat Named Virtute”. It is that rarity–a rock song written from the perspective of a cat:
I always thought my song file was mislabeled, and that the cat’s name was ‘Virtue’. I recently heard an interview with lead singer and songwriter John K. Samson, and confirmed that it was, in fact, Virtute (Latin for ‘valor’ or ’strength’).
In any case, this is a long, roundabout way to say that their new album is great, and I’d highly recommend it. They tell great, Canadian stories. Everyone should own an album that includes a song called “Tournament of Hearts”. It could be the anthem of Men with Brooms.
Incidentally, I have a little side project in mind in which I’ll compensate the likes of The Weakerthans for my occasional, sketchy downloading habit. More on that this winter, I think.
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