I'll be home for Christmas -
just not *that* home.
Good morning friend,
When I planned on being home for Christmas this year, I didn’t mean in the house I own in Toronto. I didn’t mean any of the places that feel like home to me, either. I wasn’t going to Vancouver or Bella Coola or Melbs. I had tickets booked to be with my family in Prince George. I was going to meet my nephew, play make-believe with my niece and take full advantage of my brother and sister-in-law’s hot tub in the snow.
My parents opted out of the holidays first, noting that it would be a kind of shitty thing to do to leave Grandma alone on Christmas. As we got closer to the day, I was getting more and more anxious. I had told my brother, ‘if the flights are going, we’ll be there.’ But as I watched Trudeau give the directive ‘maybe don’t’ to social excursions, I felt a little bit angry. In March, it felt like people were on board and we knew there’d be fines or consequences if we didn’t do the things we were supposed to do. Now, it just feels very vague and like no one in charge wants to be the bad guy.
I cancelled my flights, but I’d be very curious to know how many people out there are going for it anyway. There must be other people out there thinking that if it were really bad, they’d put a proper inter-province travel ban in place, and extrapolating from that that it’s fine to travel. There are a lot of daily deaths in Toronto these days, and it looks like the rest of the country is catching up in a bad way. A nice Christmas gift this year from our government might be some Dan Andrews style leadership. Do it right, so we can get on the beers.
Anyway, all that to say I’ll be in Toronto for Christmas, and am available for gentle video calls with friends.
Home for Christmas Recommendations
Home for Christmas, the pining sad song by Maria Mena
Home for Christmas, or Hjem till Jul, the absolute cracker of a Norwegian Christmas show on Netflix. (Season two coming out next week - highly recommend)
Last Holiday, the 2006 Queen Latifah rom com Christmas classic feat. LL Cool J on Netflix.
I’m reading
All about coups from people who’ve been to that rodeo a few times. “If our world didn’t have people with special needs and these vulnerabilities,” she asked, “would we be missing a part of our humanity?” The things we post and don’t post on social media anymore. China denies the use of forced labour in this industrial park, but won’t let reporters visit. The Globe and Mail snuck in anyway and found that the prison-like Lop County Hair Product Industrial Park complex is using the region’s Muslim minority as an industrial work force and allegedly committing human-rights abuses.
The (incidentally Canadian) good stuff
It had to be Letterkenny. Season nine is almost here, and Jared Keeso and co. have blessed us with a shit talking cold open:
For the uninitiated, Letterkenny started as a cheeky anonymous Twitter account, Listowel Problems in 2013, which spawned the CanCon Youtube sensation, Letterkenny Problems:
Which by some miracle got picked up and turned into an honest to goodness TV show that shows a side of Canadian daily life that’s a little more par for the course for some of us than your big ol’ city shows. (I should note, it’s a bit problematic at times and I do roll my eyes while watching it, but it hits the nostalgia serotonin button in my brain and it makes me happy to see rural Canada get any sort of mass media loving.)
Anyway, it’s on Crave, Comedy Network Canada and Hulu. Pitter patter let’s get at ‘er.
Until next time, have a great weekend. If you have a friend who you think might not hate this, why not forward it to them?
- Trish, at this particular home in Toronto.