It Came from... Canada

Liz Kelly, you had me at "Hello, eh."

Lest we forget, Canada also unleashed upon us, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, and Tom Green. I'm still waiting on an apology from Stephen Harper for those three.

Feist!

I'm guessing, Liz Kelly, that you meant "CTU," not "TCU" (unless Kiefer Sutherland attended Texas Christian University...I'll have to check imdb.)

You might have to wait a bit on that apology from the Rt. Hon. Mr. Harper, what with the him having his hands full with somewhat more pressing issues at the moment. (There's a possibility that he might not even be Prime Minister after lunch today. It's all very exciting.)

Liz Kelly, you didn't mention Lizard Island's Candian expat!

My fav's Alex Trebek (smart = sexy) and Robert Goulet (God rest his soul) because I love his Emerald Nuts commercial and he had the gall to do South Pacific waaaay past his prime.

Dorkus: Both Mike Myers and Jim Carrey once were very funny men; then they each started believing their own hype. (Tom Green's appeal is beyond me.)

That Canadian Walk of Fame link was interesting. I kept going back and forth from "hooray" to "blecch," to wit:

* Frances Bay (hooray -- fight Jerry Seinfeld for the babka!)
* Norma Shearer (blecch -- the woman does not know the meaning of subtle)
* k.d. lang (hooray! -- one of the best voices in the business)
* Bryan Adams (blecch! -- he has fans?)

And then in the middle of the Bryan Adams clip, Internet Explorer crashed. Must be a Microsoft conspiracy against Canada and/or Bryan.

(Oh, and The Kids in the Hall? Not sure about them. Jury's out for me.)

You said Feist! I love Feist. She's the best.
Other Canadians - Nelly Frutado, Seth Rogan (duh), Kim Cattrall, the list goes on and on...

Apology update for Dorkus:

The Rt. Hon. Mr. Harper will continue to be Prime Minister after lunch today. But now he just told the media assembled in front of Rideau that he's got to go home and work on the budget.

In six weeks Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition will spit on that budget, tear it up, vote it down, and try to take over the place. (M. Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois is less patient. He's tearing the PM a new one right now. Just called him a liar and everything!)

How can it be that no one's mentioned Celine Dion? The single worst thing that Canada has done to the United States, ever. There's also Alanis Morissette... who I will never forget is Canadian after all the times that Pop-Up Video, for lack of anything better to say, would throw up some statistic like, "34% of American women have trouble sleeping after eating beans... but that doesn't apply to Alanis... She's Canadian!"

Trouble in the Great White north eh? Watch out for those Quebecians, I can only imagine M. Duceppe saying:

"I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."

Okay, so Liz did mention Celine Dion, I just skimmed the intro.

(Er, that's Rideau Hall. The Governor-General's house. It's quite the pile. Even nicer than the PM's place across the street at 24 Sussex, if you ask me.)

I just heard M. Duceppe say, "If my grandma had wheels, she'd be a tractor." I'm not sure what that means, and it doesn't make much more sense even if he would have said it en francais, either ("Si ma grand-mère avait des roues, elle serait un tracteur.").

Two words and one letter:

Michael J. Fox.

Love him. Always have, always will.

In honour of the topic of Canada, all posts should contain superfluous vowels, er vouwels.

Who is Alex Trebeck?

Sorry hodie, didn't see you'd already mentioned my fav game show host.

btw, anybody see the shat's talk show on a&e? kinda dull... interviewing that guy from home improvement....

Overheard during a Canadian Parliament budget meeting:

M. Duceepp: If my grandma had wheels, she'd be a tractor.

PM Harper: Can we come up and have a look?

M. Duceppe: Of course not. You're English types.

PM Harper: What are you then?

M. Duceppe: I'm French. Why do you think I have this outrageous accent, you silly Prime Minister?

Paul Martin: What are you doing in Canada?

M. Duceppe: Mind your own business.

Nelly Furtado!

Walter Huston - Oscar winner + 3 Oscar nominations
Ryan Gosling - 1 Oscar nomination
Lorne Greene - Canadian & Jewish - a twofer!

I'd like to see a Shatner-hosted home improvement show called "Who Shat In My House?"

Shatner can constantly tell people they need more captain's chairs in their living room and shag carpeting on the floors.

Tell me you wouldn't watch that.

Who is Alex Trebeck?

Posted by: dablues1 | December 4, 2008 12:34 PM

Sorry hodie, didn't see you'd already mentioned my fav game show host.

Posted by: dablues1 | December 4, 2008 12:36 PM

No problem dablues, you win because I obviously forgot to answer in the form of a question.

Mary Pickford - film industry giant

Mudge, can you tell me who is in charge of fixing keyboards on Liz Kelly's Lizard Island? And charge it to MStreet's account. (MStreet, I would totally watch!)

Lorne Michaels of SNL

Lorne Michaels of SNL

Posted by: jezebel3 | December 4, 2008 12:49 PM

Another Canadian - Jewish twofer!

What's up with the name Lorne?

Is Lorne the male equivalent of Lorna?

hodie,

Elias_Howe, our Lizard Island Noble Prize winning inventor, has been working on a spit-take-impervious keyboard for sometime now.

Ever now and then one may hear a pop, a krackle, and see a cloud of green stinky smoke coming from the lab. Poor dog. It's not much better in Elias' inventing place.

'sigh'

Have faith and keep your receipts.

Your friend,

Curmudgeon

Canada has much to love for the sci-fi crowd: James Doohan, Raymond Burr (Burr vs Godzilla -- gotta love that), the majority of the recurring villains on "X-Files", Nathan Fillion, Tricia Helfer, Amanda Tapping and more. :)

Now if only we could get them to take back Keanu Reeves and Hayden Christensen...

oh, I forgot.

LIZ KELLY

Liz Kelly

and

"Liz Kelly"

also

Mr Liz

VTY,

Curmudgeon

Would I watch it, MStreet1? I would work as a production assistant w/o pay. I would kill to see the opening credits for a show with that name.

And what guy from Home Improvement was Shatner interviewing, dablues1? Tim Allen (A/B list), Richard Karn (B/C list) or the neigbor who you couldn't see behind the fence (D list)? Not exactly a guest coup any way you slice it.

or the neigbor who you couldn't see behind the fence (D list)? Not exactly a guest coup any way you slice it.

Posted by: td_in_baltimore | December 4, 2008 1:01 PM

Pretty sure he's dead but I can't remember his name to check. Would that make it a better get?

For those who've never seen it, the Governor General's house sits on a bluff at the edge of Rideau Falls as they empty into the Ottawa River. The house looks out over the Ottawa River to Hull, Quebec. If it is not the most beautiful setting for a an official government residence, I'd like to see the most beautiful one.

Meanwhile, something is boobing...errr.. bobbing in the South Pacific:

http://www.watoday.com.au/national/storm-in-a-ccup--130000-boobs-lost-at-sea-20081202-6pa5.html

No mention of Will Arnett? Come on!

I'd watch that Shat, MStreet.
That Shat would be the sh*t.

MStreet1
Shatner can constantly tell people they need more captain's chairs in their living room and shag carpeting on the floors.

Uh-oh, somehow I misread "shag" as a verb, as in "Shatner can constantly tell people they need... [to] shag carpeting on the floors." Shagging ON a carpet, I get, but how does one shag a carpet itself? Note to self: Get mind out of gutter.

byoolin, I though perhaps you meant that PM Harper was skating on Rideau Canal, since it still must be mighty thin ice this time of year, eh?

From La Belle Province (besides Shatner):

Jazz legends Oscar Peterson and Maynard Ferguson - and another Canadian & Jewish twofer, Mordecai Richler.

Shirley someone else besides me recalls this native of the Great Frozen North - Leslie Nielsen.

From the Maritimes (even if you don't like her singing, she's doubtless done wonders for the Canadian economy with recording sales over the decades) - Anne Murray

Authors - Margaret Atwood ("The Handmaid's Tale"), Farley Mowat ("The Dog Who Wouldn't Be"), Michael Ontdaatje ("The English Patient"), and so many many others.

And without Canada, the NHL would be only a shadow of itself.

Nosy,

If you have a problem with Shat shagging the shag in your shack, you may need to break out the hose. Or move. I'd probably move.

How could I overlook Gordon Lightfoot?

And David Clayton Thomas of BST?

If you have a problem with Shat shagging the shag in your shack, you may need to break out the hose. Or move. I'd probably move.

Posted by: MStreet1 | December 4, 2008 2:17 PM

****

I vote move. Once the Shat breaks out the hose (as it were), you breaking out the doesn't help anyone.

byoolin, Is Margaret Trudeau still alive? She was always good for la belle snarque.

And my OTHER favorite spaceship captain, Nathan Fillion from "Serenity" and "Firefly". ; )

Nosy, Maggie is still alive. She's been doing a lot of public speaking for the last two or three years about her experience with bipolar disorder.

Thanks, byoolin. But now I'm feeling guilty for snarking on a real illness.

re:
From La Belle Province (besides Shatner):
Jazz legends Oscar Peterson and Maynard Ferguson - and another Canadian & Jewish twofer, Mordecai Richler.

Shatner and Peterson were in the same high school at the same time - Peterson was already a radio star with his own program - Christopher Plummer was also in the school too - Shatner and Plummer were on a Gzowski special a few years ago where they talked about this.

Oh man, Gordon Lightfoot! Thanks, Nosy. I always enjoy an opportunity to watch yet again one of the best SCTV commercials ever.

Gordon Lightfoot Sings Every Song Ever Made
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSThKFtOC48

I haven't thought of "76 Trombones" the same way since.

Peter Jennings(ABC)
Morley Safer (CBS)
John Blackstone (CBS)
That hawt John Roberts (CNN)

Other expat newshounds?

td, I'm actually a fan of Lightfoot's music, so please tread lightly. How about Ian and Sylvia (Tyson)?

Oh, and Buffy Saint-Marie.

byoolin, or anyone else who's so inclined: Which celebrity Canadian hails from the highest latitude? My money's on Leslie Nielsen, but surely(!) you know of someone even more northerly.

Thought I would add this in:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_entertainers

kiosk, I now wonder what would've happened if Christopher Plummer and William Shatner had a "Freaky Friday" moment circa 1965/1966.

Plummer as Captain Kirk:

"Your fuhrer, er, FATHER was a computer, like his son. An ambassador from a reich, er, PLANET of traitors. The Nazi, er, Vulcan never lived who had an ounce of integrity. You'll never be one of then, Rolf, er, SPOCK!"

Shatner as Baron von Trapp:

"Edel....VICE! EDEL!....vice. Every... MORNING you.... GREET ME! Small -- AND WHITE! Cleanandbright! Fraulein Schrader, to tbe bridge!"

Could we make the late Sir Peter Ustinov a posthumous honorary Canadian for waxing rhapsodic that Toronto is "New York, run by the Swiss"? Not only is Toronto a great place to visit, but I WOULD want to live there!

Small -- AND WHITE!

Posted by: td_in_baltimore | December 4, 2008 3:19 PM

Small -- AND WHITE!

That would be my first husband's thingy....

Two words and one letter:

Michael J. Fox.

Love him. Always have, always will.

Posted by: eet7e | December 4, 2008 12:25 PM

Me, too...Sigh...

Nosy, no offense re: Gordon Lightfoot. "The Wreak of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is one of the best songs ever.

I was about to take offense with reaching down too far down into the barrel and coming up with Buffy Sainte-Marie. But then Wikipedia enlightened me.

Buffy has an Oscar! She co-wrote the song "Up Where We Belong" from "An Officer and a Gentlemen." Can't say I am a fan, but I'll back off the snark.

From my home town:
Neil Young (for the teen years)
Monty Hall (Pick me Monty I'm dress like a potato!)
Marshall McLuhan (casual veiwin')
though note if any one of them had stayed, no one reading this would have heard of them.

Also Paula Abdul's parents were married down the street from my childhood home, but neither were residents, it was a relatives place (apparently she is part of the Asper clan - for those jewish--almost-canadian bonus points that seem to be handed out)

No one mentioned Rachel McAdams yet?

td, I always thought "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" was something like what medieval troubadors must have sung (OK, except for the electric musical instruments, but you know what I mean).

Re Buffy, at least she has real talent, whereas Pam Anderson is mostly famous for getting herself artificially embiggened. Twice.

Which celebrity Canadian hails from the highest latitude? My money's on Leslie Nielsen, but surely(!) you know of someone even more northerly.

Posted by: Nosy_Parker | December 4, 2008 3:16 PM

****

Leslie's from Regina, not that far north at all. Jordin Tootoo is from Rankin Inlet, about 240 miles south of the Arctic Circle. But is he a "celebrity"? In Canada, sure. Plays pro hockey (Nashville). First Inuit in the NHL. But would more than a few hundred people in the lower 48 know who he was?

More people might know the writer Pierre Berton, who was born in Whitehorse, Yukon, or Skookum Jim Mason, one of the prospectors who started the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896. He was from Bennett Lake, BC, at about the same latitude - (and about the same latitude as Wasilla).

Q: Which celebrity Canadian hails from the highest latitude? My money's on Leslie Nielsen, but surely(!) you know of someone even more northerly.

A: Not sure of exact degree of latitude as compares to Nielson, but Margot Kidder is also a northerner.

And then there's all those lucious hockey players . . .

Sigh,

Curmudgeon

Wasn't Pamela Anderson born on Canada Day?

Dorkus, if Pammy had her own perfume line, would it be called "Eau, Canada"?

Diana Krall, beautiful and multi-talented pianist, song-writer, and singer.

Married to Elvis Costello, eehhh.

DLD

Jordin Tootoo? As in Hamlet's line, "O, that this too too solid flesh would melt"? Or like the ballet skirt?

Nosy, you are on fire with the puns today.

Dorkus, it's a congenital defect.

Hot hot hockey player back in the day, Rod (Rodrigue Gabriel) Gilbert, a native of Montréal, part of the NY Rangers' GAG line (with Vic Hadfield and Jean Ratelle). So handsome he did nationwide TV commercials.
Then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rod_Gilbert.jpg

Still handsome, at age 66 (OMG!):
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/01/25/sports/25rangers_CA1.ready.html

Add
Joni Mitchell
Ellen Page
The Trailer Park Boys (A very young Ellen Page had a recurring role in season 1)
Rufus and Martha Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright, what a tool! Canada can have him back.

Barenaked Ladies, anyone?

And then there's all those lucious hockey players . . .

Sigh,

Curmudgeon

Posted by: bmschumacher | December 4, 2008 4:03 PM
=============

Until they smile, that is.

Caroline Dhavernas of "Wonderfalls."
Chris William Martin of various things, including a guest shot on "The Mentalist" this week.
Raymond Massey of the powerful Canadian manufacturing and political dynasty.
Janet Kidder, Margot's niece.
Cobie Smulders of HIMYM.

My high school crush, Jason Priestley from 90210

Yes indeed, Sas is suppose to be field testing the S.N.A.R.K.* for me. I gave him the Kevlar version but have yet to receive the first report!

*Snark Neutralizing and Reducing Keyboard

(Perhaps not even Kevlar is Sas proof!)

And speaking of White Russians, Dorkus, did you see this NYT article yesterday?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/dining/03lebo.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=bowling&st=cse

Dave Letterman's own Paul Schaffer, the most boring band leader in the world eh!

Let's not forget four-fifths of The Band.

David Foster is from Victoria. For those that don't know, he's won 15 Grammys and made Celine Dion among others the stars that they are.