George Mathewson Some highlights and lowlights from the Aug.
George Mathewson
Some highlights and lowlights from the Aug. 21 Port Huron Float Down, when a colourful armada of inflatable rings and rafts carrying 1,500 bathing-suited Americans washed ashore between Sarnia Bay and Corunna:
* The story was picked up by the major news networks, and internationally on CNN and BBC. Best quote award goes to Peter Garapick of the Canadian Coast Guard. Describing the windblown hoards he told the CBC: “There were Americans everywhere.”
* Mayor Mike Bradley had a good view from his Front Street apartment, and appreciated the light-handed way emergency responders handled a potentially volatile international incident. At one point, he said, an OPP officer working the waterfront got on a loudspeaker and asked a group of the undocumented, illegal aliens: “You guys aren’t voting for Trump, are you?”
* Fished from the river at Lochiel Street by emergency responders and helpful bystanders, one dripping group of intoxicated floaters showed their appreciation by chanting, “USA! USA! USA!
* A Marysville, Michigan man launched a GoFundMe page to repay the nearly $9,000 it cost Sarnia for rescue and cleanup.
“ Thanks for bringing my silly neighbors back home safe, Canada!” a $20 donor said in a typical comment.
“I read about this delightful event in the NY Times. Thank you to the Canadians!” said another.
The effort and response confirmed that despite the hardening of the border since 9-11, regular folk on both sides of the river still are – as they’ve always been – good friends and neighbours.
Arrangements are being made to present Sarnia with a cheque. Personally, I think our response should be: “Thanks guys, but this round’s on us.”
Speaking of speech
We recently told you about Sarnia’s Michael Iannozzi, a graduate student at Western researching the ways Southwestern Ontarians speak a different dialect.
When I interviewed Michael, he mentioned an unusual expression that’s burst into standard Canadian English – the use of “yeah-no.”
For example, someone might ask, “You didn’t see it, did you?” and the reply becomes, “Yeah, no, I did see it.”
The earliest citation Iannozzi could find for the use of “yeah-no” was 2002 in Australia.
“So it’s really new,” he said. “And my grandma who is 84 now says it all the time.”
He believes Canadians – polite to a fault – have taken to “yeah-no” because it offers a soft response to a direct question.
Iannozzi described a presentation he gave in Ottawa in which he mentioned the ubiquity of “yeah-no.” A professor there called him on it, saying he’d never heard the phrase before.
“I said, ‘Well, you know, there are people that use it.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, no, but I don’t think anyone here does.’
“Everyone in the room stopped and said, whaaat? It’s one of those things that people don’t realize they are using.”
