Canadians with Great Ideas
We Canadians don’t just have prettier money than you Americans. Sometimes we have good ideas, too. Evidence of this fact can be found in butter tarts, the CANADARM, Tim Hortons, the AVRO Arrow, and ice hockey.
Tim Challies, one of the most widely read Christian bloggers on the internet is also a Canadian. He’s just hit on a great idea, and is in the midst of executing. He’s started a project called 10 Million Words over at the Gospel Coalition. He’s going to read all the non fiction books that hit the New York Times Bestseller list over the next year.
It seems like an interesting project. I’ve recounted my attempts to read various “top novels of the x decade” lists in the past. I haven’t done so great. Part of the challenge there is, in my experience, a lot of “popular books” are just garbage.
But, there’s something to be learned from the garbage — it says something about pop culture when they celebrate garbage. Tim speaks well to this over at his blog. You should read it. Go now. Say G’day, eh, while you’re there.
Way to go with buttertarts and Tim Hortons- I’d add Lora Sechord (you’ll have to spell that one correctly).
Don’t know what CANADARM is, but I hope it isn’t blurring the lines between branches of the armed forces!
I will also happily give you hockey and Tim Challies- I read him everyday myself. My favourite Canadian resource is the people I have known- yep every one so far. But I can’t help noticing that you chose a life partner from very “ify” American stock. Way to go again.
By the way, the AVRO? I’m just saying…..
Ahem. “The Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS), or Canadarm (Canadarm 1), is a mechanical arm used on the Space Shuttle to maneuver a payload from the payload bay of the orbiter to its deployment position and then release it. It can also grapple a free-flying payload, maneuver it to the payload bay of the orbiter and berth it in the orbiter. It was first used on the second Space Shuttle mission STS-2, launched November 13, 1981…NASA has outfitted the Canadarm with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, a boom containing instruments to inspect the exterior of the shuttle for damage to the thermal protection system. It is expected the Canadarm will play this role in all future shuttle missions…SPAR Aerospace Ltd., a Canadian company, designed, developed, tested and built the Canadarm” (wikipedia).
You’re welcome.
As much as I love the Canadian icon that Tim Hortons has become, we need to stop calling their coffee ‘coffee’. It’s a pretty low-grade coffee drink.
That being said, I’m off to Tim Hortons for a coffee (for real…)
http://twitpic.com/o4onj
no jokes!
I guess it depends on what you’re comparing to. Living in a part of America where there is no coffee-shop culture to speak of, the comparison pool is either starbucks (better coffee / higher price/half hour drive) or gas station garbage (Swill in an ugly cup).
On the flip side, I recall living in Peterborough (ah, Peterborough), where you had real coffee shops all over the place (not to mention like forty-eight tim hortons… okay, that might be an exaggeration), and in that environment, yeah, the comparison is a little rougher on Timmy Ho-Hos.
Drink one for me, eh!