I have a new article up today on comment magazine‘s website, about my favorite (or as they say in Canadian, favourite) fruit, the mangosteen. The catch to my favoritism: I’ve never actually tasted one.
Posts tagged canada
video 
Winnipeg Drummer Boy
Winnipeg Drummer Boy
Sean Quigley - Little Drummer Boy, 30 November 2011 :: thanks @MichaelMeinema!
I have to admit, “Little Drummer Boy” is one of my absolute least favorite Christmas songs. You’d think a gleefully amateur music video of it would be low on my list. Instead this exuberant take on the song made my day with its celebration of Winnipeg, snow, drumming, friends, and Jesus. Enjoy, and celebrate.
Andy: 
excerpt 
Not all thumbs
Not all thumbs
This is from a study published in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. How do I love a journal with a title like that? Let me count the ways ...
Nate: 
Nicoladis and colleagues studied one and two-hand counting gestures and cultural differences between Germans and French and English Canadians. While the majority of Germans use their thumb to begin to sequentially count, the majority of Canadians, both French and English, use their index finger as the numerical kick-off point when counting with their hands.
However, Nicoladis noted that some French Canadians also displayed anomalous differences from their Canadian or even their German counterparts.
“They show a lot more variation in what they are willing to use in terms of gestures, suggesting there might be some influence from the European French manner of gesturing (whose gestures are identical to the Germans’), or possibly other cultures too,” she said. “This association suggests that there are some cultural artifacts left over from these older French gestures and that they have been replaced because of the cultural contact with English Canadians.”
image 
Heart of palm
Heart of palm
"Eugeisona tristis (detail)," from Historia Naturalis Palmarum (The Natural History of Palms by Karl Friedrich Phillipp von Maritus, 1823–50 :: via BibliOdyssey
I love how this careful schematic cross-section of a palm stem calls to mind, of all things, Indian/First Nations art from the Pacific Northwest—about as un-palmy a place as you can go to. About the palm: "Large, ascending leaves to about 6 m (20 ft.) tall, with glossy green leaflets, spiny leafstalks and a mostly underground, clustering trunk characterize this unusual palm from the Malay Peninsula. It is found in disturbed, open areas in rainforests between sea level and 800 m (2700 ft.). The large, scaly fruit are edible when unripe and the leaves make excellent thatch. About the man: "The author of over 150 botanical titles, including the great flora of Brazil, Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius also wrote the still-definitive three-volume treatise on the palm family, one of the first plant monographs. He developed his life-long fascination with palms during an expedition through Brazil from 1817 to 1820, and he worked nearly 30 years to prepare this grand summation, including palms found only as fossils."
Nate:
There’s a cheap/free good music convergence happening at Amazon.com’s mp3 store this week: Emmylou Harris’s splendid, splendid album “Wrecking Ball”, a brilliant sonic reinvention of songs by Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Neil Young, Jimi Hindrix, and Daniel Lanois, is on sale for just $2.99 for the full download.
And as if that weren’t enough, they’ve got a dozen or so world music sampler albums available for free download, including this eight-song compliation from the always-inspiring Soweto Gospel Choir. Did I mention it’s free?