Hello sparklers, and welcome! This Friday Open Thread, we’re here to celebrate Canada Day! The Fourth of July can come too.
This is my first Canada Day living outside of Canada and it’s a weird one. My Canada Day celebrations usually take place in a sort of peaceful, semi-apologetic ambiance, with a soft red and white back drop, maybe some fireworks in the distance, and the secure knowledge that Canada is probably the best country. But today I’m having some people over and we might order the closest thing Los Angeles has to poutine and if anyone writes anything down I will politely ask them to use Canadian spellings. (Sounds like a hot party, am I right?) (It will actually be very hot, my air conditioning is not great.)
Not sure how to celebrate Canada Day? Here are the top ten ways to do it for non-Canadians, 9 queer Canadian poets and 24 kickass queer Canadians to check out, 50 pictures of Ellen Page, and some traditional Canadian cuisine to sample at home (spoiler it’s fries, but with gravy and cheese). Or just hang out and watch Heritage Minutes. Sunburn is also a time-honoured (spelled with a “u,” you’re welcome) Canada Day tradition.
This weekend is also my first fourth of July as a (permanent!) resident in America, so I wanna hear all about how you celebrate (or don’t). Do you do fireworks? Fairs? Day drinking? Eating hot dogs or definitely not eating hotdogs? Flag-based outfits? Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful”? Is the fourth of July ironic or sincere? How do you tell?
Another thing, not about nationalism: last Saturday night after watching some roller derby I brought a tiny filthy stinky kitten that had been meowing under a car home with me, named him Dirtbag and then Dirtbag Henry when he just looked like a Henry, and fell in love despite also having a puppy and a partner whose allergies are beyond even Cee’s cat allergy advice post. Then someone from the internet came to visit him and she fell in love, so hopefully she’ll get approved by the small animal rescue that patched him up in the next few days and he’ll go home with her forever. I’m not crying you’re crying. (In the meantime, all I want in the world is a photo of him playing with my puppy.)
Let’s talk about anything and everything! How are you? How was your week? How’s your dog/cat/lizard/fish? How did you keep it weird? What are you reading? What’d you make to snack on just now and can we see a photo? Has anything new happened with that one girl you were talking about? Where’d you go hiking? How was/is your Pride? Have you figured out Snapchat yet? Did you know your hair looks really good today? LET’S CHILL.
How To Post A Photo In The Comments:
1. Find a photo! This is the easy part. Find a photo on the web, right click (on a Mac, control+click), hit “Copy Image URL,” and then…
2. Code it in to your comment! Use the following code, and use a DIRECT LINK to the image. Your image link should end in .JPG or .GIF or .PNG or .CallMeWhateverYouWant even. I don’t care, but it should be an image suffix!
<img src=”http://imageurlgoeshere.jpg”>
If you need to upload the photo you love from your computer, try using imgur. To learn more, check out Ali’s step-by-step guide.
How To Post A Video In The Comments, Too:
1. Find a video on YouTube or Vimeo or WHATEVER and click “embed.” Copy that code, but first make sure it’s for 640px wide or less. If your player is too large, it will not display properly.
2. Copy the code and paste it directly into your comment.
3. Go forth and jam.
