On the road again: World Fantasy Con, day 6

As I wind my way home--I’m writing this on the plane from DFW to RDU--I thought I’d share with you the top five things I learned while in Calgary.

5. Fig compote has a strange allure to Canadian chefs.

Most of the restaurants in which we ate featured it in some way. Maybe it reminds Canadians of warmer places, places with large bodies of water, places folks staring at a prairie winter might want to be.

4. The Hyatt staff knows how to arrange your life.

I’ve explained this already, but the degree to which they would move around and order my possessions was higher than I’ve ever seen. I said you should fear them, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe you should embrace their leadership. Maybe I should.

3. Canadian television runs as many stupid shows as ours.

I like the Barenaked Ladies, and I like Ed Robertson, one of its lead singers. But, does he really need a show in which they put him in a different job each week? From talk shows to reality shows, from bad comedy sketches to overwrought news anchors, at least in my flip-speed surveys of Canada’s TV offerings, it was dumb American TV re-broadcast or original Canadian content that looked for all the world like reheated bad American TV.

2. As much as they might try to deny it, Canadians really are nice.

One commented, “No, we’re not; we’re just sneaky when we’re not nice.” I didn’t and don’t believe him. All of my experiences with Canadians support their essential niceness. In queues, holding doors, bumping into one another on the street--over and over, people behaved politely and nicely. I wish we could transfuse that trait into more Americans.

1. Even the Canadians know Barack Obama should be the next President of the United States.

They’re right; he should. I voted for him last week. I hope to be celebrating for him tomorrow night. I strongly believe he’s the best candidate to lead our country forward, and I think he even has a little bit of his soul left--which is quite an achievement for anyone playing in politics at his level.

UPDATE: I wrote the above, walked into the other room to unpack, and immediately felt guilty. I'm unfairly picking on the Canadians. Of course the Canadians know Obama should be President; most people outside the U.S. do. I'm hoping the majority of us within its borders prove tomorrow to share that knowledge.