Destination: Canada
‘Oh, Tabernacle!’
by Michael Yessis | 12.06.06 | 7:58 AM ET
You probably shouldn’t say that next time you’re in French-speaking Quebec. “It is too profane,” writes Washington Post correspondent Doug Struck. “So are other angry oaths that sound innocuous in English: chalice, host, baptism. In French-speaking Quebec, swearing sounds like an inventory being taken at a church.”
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Yahoo! BuzzIqaluit, Canada: Unlikely Celebrity Hot Spot
by Michael Yessis | 11.08.06 | 8:06 AM ET
All the stars go to Iqaluit: Foxx. Paltrow. Willis. Schwarzenegger. Banderas. The list goes on. And they go to the Arctic town of 6,500 on Canada’s Baffin Island for good reason: It’s where celebrities and politicians traveling between Los Angeles and Europe stop to fuel their private jets. “We’re a gas station,” Eric Leuthold, who runs Frobisher Bay Touchdown Services, told the Washington Post’s Doug Struck. “Some of the stars don’t even know where they are. They wake up groggy and ask where they are, and never come out of the jets.”
The 9/11 Anniversary: World Hum Looks Back
by Michael Yessis | 09.11.06 | 7:00 AM ET
Five years ago, on the morning of the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington D.C. and the air near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, World Hum was barely four months old. I was living in San Francisco, and Jim was making his way through Southeast Asia. “This isn’t the way you’re supposed to feel when you travel abroad,” Jim wrote in Terror in America: A Letter From Thailand, which we posted the following day. “You’re supposed to be immersed in the exotic, pleasantly buzzed, delightfully lost, happily, if temporarily, in exile. You’re supposed to shuck off your old self, lose track of the news back home and try on an utterly foreign way of life.”
“A Land Gone Lonesome”: More Tales of the Yukon River
by Michael Yessis | 08.14.06 | 11:30 AM ET
Yukon Summer Sky
by Laurie Gough | 08.03.06 | 9:25 PM ET
Photos by JDB99, via Flickr. A century ago, Canada's Yukon River carried dreamers from around the world in search of gold. Laurie Gough recently followed in their wake and found a multi-national assemblage immersed in love, languor and a valiant quest to save a runaway honey-baked ham.
The Australia Tourism Ad Controversy: ‘Has the World Gone Mad?’
by Michael Yessis | 03.24.06 | 11:04 AM ET
Now that the Canadians have joined the Brits in objecting to Tourism Australia’s “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign, and the U.S.-based American Family Association is poised to make its concerns known, Australians are asking themselves, “Is the ‘bloody hell’ ad campaign a growing embarrassment for Australia? Or is it the greatest marketing ploy of all time?” The comments are flowing on both sides at the Sydney Morning Herald news blog.
Airbus A380 Makes North American Debut
by Michael Yessis | 02.07.06 | 9:43 AM ET
The world’s largest passenger jet, the double-decker Airbus A380, landed in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada Monday for cold-weather testing, according to a CBC news story. Built in Toulouse, France, Airbus’s 555-passenger plane—the CBC has an excellent graphic and slide show—has already been tested for high altitudes in South America and for high temperatures in the Middle East.
‘Brokeback Mountain’ Tourism: If You Film it in Canada, They’ll Still Go to Wyoming
by Michael Yessis | 01.31.06 | 11:23 AM ET
Like “Sideways” did last year and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy before that, “Brokeback Mountain” is inspiring a surge in travel. But people are going to the wrong place. The Oscar-nominated film about two cowboys who fall in love was filmed in Canada, but according to an AP story it’s inspiring travelers to head to Wyoming. That’s where the characters meet and fall in love. “When we tell them it was shot in Canada, they’re still interested in Wyoming,” said Michell Howard, manager of the Wyoming Business Council’s film, arts and entertainment office. “They don’t hang up and call Alberta. They’re intrigued in the story.”
Innuendo and the City
by Michael Yessis | 09.27.05 | 4:42 AM ET
Sunday’s New York Times arrived with another travel edition of T Style Magazine inside, and it’s mostly what you’d expect from a style/travel magazine: it’s full of stories by and about celebrities and celebrated writers. I haven’t had a chance to read much of it yet, but I did notice a secondary theme: sex. Or maybe it’s just travel writing that would really entertain a teenage boy.
Germany Bans Smiling in Passport Photos
by Michael Yessis | 09.16.05 | 12:22 AM ET
It’s a security thing, according to the Associated Press story about German Interior Minister Otto Schily’s announcement: “Facial recognition systems match key features on the holder’s face and work best when the face has a neutral expression with the mouth closed.” Boing Boing reports that Canada and Britain have already made the same ban.
*Well, Duh
by Jim Benning | 08.01.05 | 1:09 PM ET
That was the response from a number of gay and lesbian newlyweds in Canada to a government travel warning that they might not be welcomed with open arms in other countries. Canada’s foreign affairs office issued the warning, noting that other nations may not recognize the same-sex marriages now legal in Canada, and may not even tolerate same-sex couples.
Planet Theme Park Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
by Michael Yessis | 07.20.05 | 9:52 PM ET
Lots of news in our ongoing effort to chronicle the world’s transformation into a giant theme park. Boing Boing reports that a Michigan man named Wally Wallington is reconstructing Stonehenge in his backyard. Discovery Channel Canada has the video. Across the Atlantic in Kent, England, the BBC has word that work has begun on Dickens World, a theme park based on the “life, times and books” of novelist Charles Dickens. The park is scheduled to open in April 2007. No word on whether the laborers are exploited children.
‘Dude, Don’t Blame Me, Eh? I’m Canadian!’
by Jim Benning | 12.07.04 | 4:41 PM ET
American travelers abroad sometimes find themselves in sticky situations. In the Middle East, they occasionally face hostile locals. From Europe to South America, they’re asked to explain everything from the overthrow of Salvador Allende to global warming to the invasion of Iraq. Three years ago this month, in our holiday Gift Guide, we suggested a solution: Give the American traveler you love a “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Canadian” T-shirt. The bold red-and-white shirts would say it all to the miffed mullahs and torch-wielding mobs, we insisted, diffusing any potential hostility. It was a joke. But it turns out that an American company is now marketing a “Go Canadian” package to American travelers aimed at accomplishing just that. T-shirtKing.com is selling a $24.95 package featuring a Canadian flag T-shirt, lapel pin, luggage patch and how-to-speak Canadian reference guide. CNN.com features a story about the package. Of course, some Americans have long pretended to be Canadian when overseas. But this is the first time we’ve heard of any marketing pitch aimed at them. We still think “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Canadian” is the bold way to go.
‘Dude, Don’t Blame Me, Eh? I’m Canadian!’
by Jim Benning | 12.07.04 | 4:41 PM ET
American travelers abroad sometimes find themselves in sticky situations. In the Middle East, they occasionally face hostile locals. From Europe to South America, they’re asked to explain everything from the overthrow of Salvador Allende to global warming to the invasion of Iraq. Three years ago this month, in our holiday Gift Guide, we suggested a solution: Give the American traveler you love a “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Canadian” T-shirt. The bold red-and-white shirts would say it all to the miffed mullahs and torch-wielding mobs, we insisted, diffusing any potential hostility. It was a joke. But it turns out that an American company is now marketing a “Go Canadian” package to American travelers aimed at accomplishing just that. T-shirtKing.com is selling a $24.95 package featuring a Canadian flag T-shirt, lapel pin, luggage patch and how-to-speak Canadian reference guide. CNN.com features a story about the package. Of course, some Americans have long pretended to be Canadian when overseas. But this is the first time we’ve heard of any marketing pitch aimed at them. We still think “Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Canadian” is the bold way to go.
Distraught Americans: We Want Out!
by Jim Benning | 11.04.04 | 9:31 PM ET
Could the election results be a boon for the travel industry? Americans frustrated with the outcome of the election—and I mean really frustrated—aren’t just sitting around and grumbling. They’re dialing up embassies and consulates—New Zealand, Canadian, Australian—to find out how they can emigrate. According to a story in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, a number of embassies are fielding calls. As far as Canadian officials are concerned, “disgust with the U.S. president would neither help nor hurt an applicant’s chances of being accepted by Canada.” Also, Slate today offers an explainer on how to move to Canada: “Applications take an average of 25 months to process.” Don’t they realize that’s half-way through Bush’s next term? (Thanks to InsideOut and About for the Chronicle story tip.)