Community Thread (Off Topic)

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

So, three big anniversaries for St. John's and Newfoundland today.

December 12, 1901 - The first successful trans-Atlantic wireless signal is received in St. John's by Marconi.

December 12, 1942 - The Knights of Columbus Hostel Fire. Suspected to have been set by Nazi spies (they came ashore in Newfoundland frequently enough that submarines captured after the war had lots of ticket stubs, etc., for events in the city). It took place during a dance being broadcast live over the radio and it was filled with Newfoundland and American servicemen and their local dates.

In total, 99 people were killed - making it the deadliest fire in St. John's history. Even the Great Fire of 1892 only involved four deaths (three ladies and an identity-unknown servant).

Heroically, only 12 women and girls were killed because the men pushed them through windows as the people burned.

CBC has a survivor's story in today's coverage:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...1942-1.2869438

Not to be disrespectful of what happened, but none of it is new for me. So what fascinated me about this article was the relationship between this domestic and her masters. The lady of the house lent her a dress to go to the dance. The family she worked for even hid the paper from her when they realized her boyfriend's obituary was in it. Very touching.

[B]December 12, 1985 - Deadliest air disaster in Canadian history. Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashed during take-off from Gander International, killing all 256 aboard - American soldiers heading home from Gander for Christmas[/B].

I made a photo thread of the memorial site last year:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=212026

Deadliest on Canadian soil, but 331 died just six months before - Air India 182.

[SignalHillHiker]

True! My mistake.

*****

[SignalHillHiker]

NPR chose our own Amelia Curran's album as one of the best Folk/American albums of the year.

http://www.npr.org/2014/12/13/369829...m_content=2039

Congratulations, girl!

[SignalHillHiker]

The two options are out for a public vote. It's a competition between Memorial University and College of the North Atlantic.

I think CNA has it in the bag. Gorgeous design.



The new star will replace the one that's been displayed in the same location for decades.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

The two options are out for a public vote. It's a competition between Memorial University and College of the North Atlantic.

I think CNA has it in the bag. Gorgeous design.



The new star will replace the one that's been displayed in the same location for decades.

Lol a little to progressive for st john's. Me thinks folks are very much anti anything that isn't vintage 1837.

[SignalHillHiker]

I know. But I'm hoping against hope. The fact he framed it as finding your way home... it could be enough to appeal. And the other one is a bit retro; people here seem tired of that, generally. There's very little love for our art deco buildings, for example.

So... shh... CNA has it in the bag.

[SignalHillHiker]

Classy.

[SignalHillHiker]

As surprising as it sounds, Jiggs Dinner has been discussed at the Playboy Mansion.

Stephanie Branton of Conception Bay South was on the cover of Playboy Magazine this past September and, since then, her life has been much more about work than play. She has been working with Playboy since her shoot and Playboy is acting as her agency, booking her for different jobs and opportunities.

“I just had a pretty big job working with some pretty big companies. I can’t go in to too much detail, but it will be out in the new year,” Branton says. “I’m really excited. I feel like I’m living my dream right now. It’s a blessing, for sure.”

Branton is so busy, in fact, that she won’t be able to make it home for Christmas. Her mother is going to Los Angeles to visit her in about a week and it will be the first time they have seen each other in a year.

Branton moved to L.A. about two years ago. She had spent a year in Toronto previous to that after leaving Newfoundland. When she got the gig as a centrefold for an edition of Playboy she was thrilled. Then she found out she was going to grace the cover. Being a Playboy playmate is something Branton was dreaming about long before she moved to L.A.

“My mother was going through storage the other day and found a letter I had wrote to God asking to be a playmate and Playmate of the Year and stuff, so it’s very surreal and funny to see that I wanted it that long.”

Nevertheless, it seems as though you can take the playmate out of Newfoundland but, “I feel like I’m still a Newfie, though out in L.A. I just really miss it and I can’t wait to go back,” she says, adding when she tells people where she is from they have no idea where it is and they say she is the first Newfoundlander they have met.

Her Sunday tradition is a little different than the Jiggs dinner tradition of her home. She spends the day of rest at the Playboy Mansion with other Playboy models.

“It’s so fun. We actually decorated gingerbread men this past Sunday, all the girls and I,” she says. “I tell them all kinds of stuff about (Newfoundland) and all the good food we have like salt beef, and all that good stuff that I miss.”

It isn’t just the other girls she gets to meet and spend time with.

“I get to see Hef. I wrote him a letter thanking him and everything for making me Playmate, so it’s just nice that I get to go up there and spend time with him and his family and everything like that. It’s so fun. I’m friends with all his friends and people up there, so it’s like a family.”

Branton paints a very favourable picture of the magazine mogul.

“He’s so, so sweet. He is what you think he would be like, I think. He’s just so charming and a gentleman. He’s so giving to his friends. He’s just a really good guy.”

Branton hopes to get home this spring for a visit. Besides other shoots, the details of which she can’t reveal just yet, people can see her in the January issue as part of the “Playmate Review,” which is actually a January/February double issue. It features the playmates from the past year, one of whom will be named “Playmate of the Year.”

“That would be beyond my wildest dreams,” Branton says.

Voting for that sought-after title begins Jan. 15. In the meantime, Branton seems driven to go as far as she can with her career and she’s thankful for how far she’s already come.

“This is the time. I need to seize this opportunity,” she says. “I definitely thank God every day for allowing me to be here.”

http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Loca...mate-of-year/1

[SignalHillHiker]

It was on this date in 1991 that our Father of Confederation and first Premier died.

[SignalHillHiker]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfou...-ads-1.2876189

[SignalHillHiker]

The Powers family in suburban St. John's went viral this week for their funny Christmas cards. Their son is a drag queen in NYC, that's why that one:

[bulliver]

^ I could swear I've seen those before. A few years old now?

[SignalHillHiker]

Top is three years old, second two, third one, last new (I think). When this was in the paper here a few days ago, they only had three and said the new one would be out soon.

From the paper:

This year’s card is in the works and will be ready by Christmas Eve, Ken says, and for the first time, the family feels some pressure to top last year’s creation.

Ken won’t talk about this year’s theme.

“We tell no one. It stays in the house, complete secrecy,” he says.

Playboy.com got it wrong at the end of the article, when it wrote a comment about assuming the family celebrates a non-traditional Christmas.

“We’re definitely traditional. Probably more traditional than we are anything else,” Ken says.

“Everything’s very traditional with us, the Christmas dinner, the family. There’s no freaky stuff going on there.”

[bulliver]

I get it. Yeah, only the first three look familiar.

[Architype]

Christmas Lobster Aliens?

[kwoldtimer]

I thought it was all for this year and all I could think of was that the Powers family of suburban St Johns has way, way too much time on its hands!

[SignalHillHiker]

Going through all of the various holidays (now that I actually get them all off - everything from St. Patrick's, to Orangemen's, to Discovery).

Is St-Jean-Baptiste, in Quebec, considered a sort of national holiday the way Discovery Day is for us? Like... does it reference the birth of the people/province?

Because it'd be really cute if both of ours was on the same day.



Also, discovered a weird quirk. Our government doesn't add "(Canada Day)" in brackets after Memorial Day the way is does with Armistice/Remembrance, because it's not JUST that we use a different name, it's that it's a completely different holiday. Wikipedia (in the above screencap) doesn't mention it's actually Memorial Day here, but the Government of Canada does on its materials.

Also, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec apparently don't have Nov. 11 off? We have it, just under a different name, but it looks like those provinces don't have it at all.

An ALMOST complete list of bank holidays here (it doesn't include Regatta Day, etc.), screencap from official government site:

[Nathan]

^That list is missing "Saskatchewan Day" for Saskatchewan... Just a civic holiday at the beginning of August.

As for Remembrance Day, it's a provincial decision whether it is a holiday, but I don't think it is a hard and fast rule in Saskatchewan. Most give it off, but I think with some workplaces it is almost used as a floating holiday, or at least it used to be.

I do once in a while hear in the news about the provinces that don't have a holiday talking about making it one. Whether people would use it for the "intended purpose" or just take a day off is general what the governments comment on.

[SignalHillHiker]

Yeah, the list is a bit off for us too. I don't think we have any "Civic" holiday on the first Monday in August.

The only thing near that time is Regatta Day. It's the first fine Wednesday in August. The Regatta Committee decides very early in the morning of if the Royal St. John's Regatta is going ahead (making them the only unelected body in the country that decides a holiday). And, of course, anyone who has it off goes out the night before for a good drunk, that's the roulette part. Do you have to work the next day or not? You just won't know.

Why does Yukon have DD/St-Jean-Baptiste? What's the significance of that date for them?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Is St-Jean-Baptiste, in Quebec, considered a sort of national holiday the way Discovery Day is for us? Like... does it reference the birth of the people/province?

There is nothing foundational about the date of June 24. It's the feast day of St John the Baptist, the patron saint of French Canadians.

In Quebec it's a bigger holiday than Canada Day by far. In most places in Quebec there isn't actually much going on on July 1 other than a lot of people moving. June 24 is the big day of the year.