I, for one, welcome our American culture overlords

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

This thread... were you born yesterday or just wake up from a coma?

Neither. As far as I know. Today we were driving along Ottawa St. in Kitchener and the concentration of shitty chains with American references in them jumped out at me.

It got me to wondering if anyone else could produce a similar geographical location so packed to the brim with nonsensical American references.

[vid]

Asia and Australia are pretty similar. Bangkok has an entire shopping mall that's basically Americatown, it has a miniature Golden Gate bridge in it.

Also, doesn't Toronto have, like, an entire neighbourhood that's literally China??

[vid]

35,000 homeless people in this country and centrists are all "Boston Pizza is undermining our national identity!!!!"

There is a Thai restaurant in my neighbourhood called "Salween" like, what, are none of the Canadian rivers good enough to name yourself after????? Disgusting!

[vid]

Originally Posted by Pinus

I am in full agreement with you. But unfortunately, the majority of Canadians just don't care how Americanized they are. Take Vidlette's responses in this thread, for example. And lio45, who is clearly enamoured with American culture since he lives there much of the time. They are just a tiny subset of the example of how Canadians are just fine with having become America Jr.

I honestly don't know what it would take to wake people up to see how far down the rabbit hole they have crawled.

What do you think of Salisbury Grill?

[xzmattzx]

I always thought the name "Boston Pizza" was weird, as an American. Boston isn't known for pizza. If the chain was called Chicago Pizza or Manhattan Pizza or Brooklyn Pizza or something, that would make sense, even in Canada. It gives the impression that the food is as authentic as the place where the average person thinks the food is best. That's why it's called Buffalo Wild Wings and not Columbus Wild Wings.

On that note, the Chicago Pub & Billiards and Montana's make sense. It's not necessarily getting Canadians to be Americanized; it's getting Canadians to evoke romantic images of the establishment so as to entice them to come in. I have obviously never been to Chicago Pub & Billiards, but I can sure figure out what it's like inside: there's pool tables, TVs on the walls showing football or basketball, and there are guys switching between taking their turns in billiards, having a swig of beer, looking at the TV to see the score, and talking with their friends without the wives around. Likewise, I don't know Montana's menu, but I bet it's steak and game, like what you would expect to eat on a ranch in Montana.

It can go the other way, with some Canadian places being good branding tools. You can find places here and there in the US named Yukon something, evoking an image of the Wild West meets the conifer forests of the Great White North. You think of false-front buildings and gold rushes. You think of tough, gritty guys making a living in a hostile environment. Places that have Yukon in their name are going to be bars and steakhouses. They are not going to be fried chicken restaurants, or soul food, or hamburger stands, or seafood.

[vid]

The full name is Montana Steakhouse, and I think it's only called that because Alberta Steakhouse doesn't flow quite as nicely.

Popeye's Louisiana Chicken sells chicken and shrimp, with cajun seasoning. Chicken was actually a pretty big part of the diet in Louisiana so it's not unusual at all. As for New Orleans Pizza, it's the filling of a muffaletta sandwich on pizza dough instead of in a sandwich—olives, pickled cauliflower, ham, prosciutto, and provolone on a flatbread with olive oil instead of tomato sauce. Bit of a stretch to call it pizza, sure, but it's kind of a thing. It's more of a pizza than that crap Chicago calls a pizza, that's for sure.

[Denscity]

Its funny because BC and Alberta have everything Montana has. So we've imported the vibe instead of claiming our own.

[vid]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Its funny because BC and Alberta have everything Montana has. So we've imported the vibe instead of claiming our own.

It isn't imported, it's a Canadian company. They just took our own stuff and put Montana's name on it to make it sound exotic. No one is going to go to "British Columbia's".

Pinus: They are using American names to make the places sound unique and exotic.

Well I guess I do give more fuck than I thought but it's late now bye

[Denscity]

Ya I know they're Canadian. It's just lame because i live in log cabin country.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by vid

It isn't imported, it's a Canadian company. They just took our own stuff and put Montana's name on it to make it sound exotic. No one is going to go to "British Columbia's".

Pinus: They are using American names to make the places sound unique and exotic.

Well I guess I do give more fuck than I thought but it's late now bye

True, that. One could imagine a poutine chain in Louisiana called Pierre's Quebec Kitchen, but that name wouldn't work here. The point is to sound exotic. (Another plausible example would be a Yukon Bar & Grill in Montana, USA.)

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by vid

35,000 homeless people in this country and centrists are all "Boston Pizza is undermining our national identity!!!!"

There is a Thai restaurant in my neighbourhood called "Salween" like, what, are none of the Canadian rivers good enough to name yourself after????? Disgusting!

Should I mercilessly expose the shallowness of your political ideas by picking the incoherence of this post apart like a cat playing with a half-dead mouse, or should I just go back to concentrating on how much I hate the name Boston Pizza?

[vid]

What about Elephant and Castle? Doesn't serve elephant, not a castle. I feel ripped off tbqh.

Originally Posted by rousseau

Should I mercilessly expose the shallowness of your political ideas by picking the incoherence of this post apart like a cat playing with a half-dead mouse

Oh, please do. I can't wait to see what you come up with. I find it all very interesting.

[lio45]

Well, it's not like we have to choose only one between ending homelessness or ending Boston Pizza, so that dilemma is entirely fictional.

[vid]

Originally Posted by lio45

Well, it's not like we have to choose only one between ending homelessness or ending Boston Pizza, so that dilemma is entirely fictional.

So is the names of chain restaurants being a national identity crisis.

omg could you imagine if that was a dilemma that exists though?

Meanwhile in SSPLand:

Covenant House: "What if I told you there were 2,000 homeless youth on the streets of our city? Would you give a damn?"

Rousseau: "WHAT IF I TOLD YOU BOSTON PIZZA IS A STUPID NAME???? THEN WOULD YOU GIVE A DAMN??????"

Pinus: "WHAT IF I TOLD YOU AMERICANIZATION IS A LETHAL DISEASE???? THEN WOULD YOU GIVE A DAMN??????"

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Pinus

I am in full agreement with you. But unfortunately, the majority of Canadians just don't care how Americanized they are. Take Vidlette's responses in this thread, for example. And lio45, who is clearly enamoured with American culture since he lives there much of the time. They are just a tiny subset of the example of how Canadians are just fine with having become America Jr.

I honestly don't know what it would take to wake people up to see how far down the rabbit hole they have crawled.

I do spend most of the year living in Francophone Quebec though... which is probably the reason why the very subtle cultural differences between Ontario/Manitoba and the USA are not that noticeable to me. You have to be very immersed in such an environment to spot them; they won't be as visible to outsiders. (Similarly, someone arguing with a straight face that Bavaria and Austria are culturally nothing alike is almost certainly a born and bred Bavarian or Austrian, etc.)

[lio45]

One could argue that such a concentration of American names on Ottawa St in Kitchener constitutes a genocide of Canadian culture, or at least a genocide of Canadian-branded chains (since they'd be the ones occupying that space, instead). Thus, it's at least a moderately urgent crisis (the minimum level of urgency for genocides), I'd say.

[vid]

Originally Posted by lio45

One could argue that such a concentration of American names on Ottawa St in Kitchener constitutes a genocide of Canadian culture, or at least a genocide of Canadian-branded chains (since they'd be the ones occupying that space, instead). Thus, it's at least a moderately urgent crisis (the minimum level of urgency for genocides), I'd say.

It still doesn't change the fact that most Canadians are whiney, entitled people who continue to live in the past as helpless victims, including yourself.

I used to be an Canadian apologist, until I figured out that it isn't all the Yankees fault. Long before American-inspired chain restaurants arrived, your people were slaughtering each other, taking each others land, raping and pillaging each others villages. Where are your outcries for those autrocities? Or is that acceptable because they were your own people killing each other?

To, uh.. to quote a friend.

[Luisito]

"La Belle Province" is the best Canadian chain. Both for the food and the name.

[lio45]

Huh, interesting psychoanalysis of me you're doing there... honestly, I've never thought of myself as a victim. Do you think you could elaborate? I'm curious.

And since you're semi-famous by now as that one person who actually still takes genocides at least somewhat seriously, I knew I'd get your attention there! As you can see, I'm starting to know you!

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by lio45

Well, it's not like we have to choose only one between ending homelessness or ending Boston Pizza, so that dilemma is entirely fictional.

Looks like Lio did it for me.