Kukla's Korner Hockey
The Socially Graceful Canadian
by Paul on 02/25/10 at 05:54 PM ET
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from Adam Gopnik at the New Yorker,
As one who has lived among them for most of his life—even in New York, still connected by family and in-laws—I can assure you that Canadians are not nice. They are just socially graceful, which gives them the appearance of niceness while actually covering over considerable reserves of disgust and disapproval, particularly at those who lack the sensitivity Canadians possess by national training. The tone of the best Canadian literature is rather snappish and sardonic, even vinegary—think of Robertson Davies—and that is the tone Canadians assume again in private after you have left the party and they have seen you off warmly at the door. Inside that Canadian woman, smiling nicely as she fends off drunken confidences and heads off one more obvious American social faux pas at the pass, is the soul of a Canadian defenseman, imagining knocking you senseless in retaliation. (I once heard the great Alice Munro, being feted in New York, respond to a series of sincere but Americanly overdone complimentary toasts with a simple, deflating, body-crushing “Well…!” Chris Pronger couldn’t have hit harder.)
read on for a look at the Canada/Russia game and other purely Canadian notes…
thanks to a KK reader for the pointer
Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, International Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Team+Canada,
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