Holiday Cheer!

Something amusing I found on the Wiki regarding Santa Claus and the mail he receives via the Canadian Postal Service. Anyone else think it's awesome?

Santa Claus

In 1974, staff at Canada Post's Montreal office were noticing a considerable amount of letters addressed to Santa Claus coming into the postal system, and those letters were being treated as undeliverable. Since those employees did not want the writers, mostly young children, to be disappointed at the lack of response, they started answering the letters themselves. The amount of mail sent to Santa Claus increased every Christmas, up to the point that Canada Post decided to start an official Santa Claus letter-response program in 1983. Approximately one million letters come in to Santa Claus each Christmas, including from outside of Canada, and all of them are answered, in the same languages in which they are written. Canada Post introduced a special address for mail to Santa Claus, complete with its own postal code:

SANTA CLAUS

NORTH POLE H0H 0H0

CANADA

In French, Santa's name translates as "Father Christmas", addressed as:

PÈRE NOËL

PÔLE NORD H0H 0H0

CANADA

H0H 0H0 was chosen for this special seasonal use as it reads as "Ho ho ho".

As the H0- prefix would normally signify a rural area in Montreal, this portion of the postal code allocation is otherwise relatively empty. H0M, assigned to the Akwesane
Indian reserve, is the only other H0- postal code in active use.

Thursday Morning in Toronto

My activities of late have centered around painting several rooms of our flat. To that end, I've been inside a lot and haven't taken use of the car during the day in a week or two. With my brush strokes finished for the time being, I decided to drive my partner to work and despite not really needing the car, to have use of it to distance myself from home. 

Coffee... 

...I love the stuff. I have to give a tip o' the toque (a shake of the fist?) to my former room mate and good friend John C., who, every morning for the year he lived with me, faithfully brewed a full pot o' joe. I am now as addicted as anyone, thankyouverymuch - though I do have to say the machine gets a good amount of rest since I discovered Tea, Earl Grey, hot. A future blog posting for sure...

So, this morning I drove my Eric to work and then headed to the Starbuck's on Laird in Leaside to read the Toronto Star and enjoy a cup of coffee and an apple fritter. I like this particular shop because there is a small parking lot. This means I don't have to feed the parking meter.

I arrived and parked. There was a car in the next space with its hood up.  A woman was quenching her very needy vehicle's thirst for windshild wiper fluid - an activity I had recently done with my own. Have you ever driven with an insanely dirty windscreen? I remarked on my way into the coffee house how much more pleasant driving home for her would be and small talk ensued regarding my gas-electric hybrid SUV and, also, what has "lovingly" been described by my former auto mechanic as "idiot" lights -dashboard icons that illuminate after something breaks or fails on your car.

Anyway, she had very nice energy and I enjoyed the interaction. I also enjoyed the coffee and fritter that she spontaneously bought for me inside when we both reached the counter. How thoughtful. Moments later she said, "goodbye," left, and drove away. It could've happened anywhere at any time; I know. But it happened here in Toronto. And, since my partner and I moved to T.O. from California four and a half months ago, we have had many other similar interactions with random folk here in our new land. Is it all about (aboot?) a more polite, considerate Canadian culture? Hmmmmm.

Looking Better Every Day...

Direct to Consumer Marketing of Medicine is prohibited in Canada...and according to my reading only allowed in the U.S.A. and New Zealand. I am going to add this to the many reasons why I am drawn to live north.

• Abortion rights. Women's rights over their own bodies
• Legal same-gender marriage
• Gun control. The Firearms Act. No Second Amendment gun ownership rights
• Medicare. Universal Health Care
• No Capital punishment
• No DTCA of medicine
• Several viable political parties
  

Are there additional aspects which I've momentarily forgotten? Let me know. I will continue to add to the list.