Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsri.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!clarke From: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) Newsgroups: can.general Subject: Re: O Canada vs. New York Message-ID: <1432@utcsri.UUCP> Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 08:59:41 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsri.1432 Posted: Wed Sep 25 08:59:41 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 12:53:10 EDT References: <347@zaphod.UUCP> <3900015@csd2.UUCP> <2537@watcgl.UUCP> <804@lsuc.UUCP> <884@utcs.uucp> <638@mprvaxa.UUCP> Reply-To: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 28 Summary: In article <638@mprvaxa.UUCP> tbray@mprvaxa.UUCP (Tim Bray) writes: >If you want to be really nauseated, go look up the first verse in French. >Enough to turn you into an instant separatist. Aaargh! When I was a kid, so long ago that people thought "God Save The Queen" was the national anthem, when we learned "O Canada" we learned it in both English and French. I don't recall being nauseated, nor am I nauseated now by what I remember of the French version. (One consequence of learning O.C. as a second-string anthem is that while I remember all of G.S.T.Q., and even parts of the second verse, I only remember bits of O.C., some bits in English and some in French.) It's a conservative, religious, nineteenth-century anthem -- what do you want in an anthem written in a conservative, religious, nineteenth-century country? At least in French it's original. Remember, the English equivalent to O Canada is "The Maple Leaf Forever" -- I might have the title wrong, but you remember that stuff about Wolfe the donkless hero and planting firm Britannia's flag? ... instant separatism there, if you're French Canadian. Neither of us is pure, but *ours* contains explicitly offensive material. Maybe I'm flaming at a straw man (sounds like fun). If so, I apologize for misreading Tim's message. But people do seem to be jumping on the old national anthem lately. -- Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4 (416) 978-4058 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsri!clarke