20 January 2006

Everything's always better in Canada. Sigh.

I admit it: I struggle to get the plastic stay-fresh seal off the top of Starbucks "frappuccino coffee drinks" like those pictured here. Those damned seals! They're shrink-wrapped on or something, so that you have to bite or cut them to get them off. Since I get my frappuccinos for free, I confess that this still seems worth it to me; the annoyance is a small price to pay for a smooth chocolatey milk-filled fake-coffee drink. Nonetheless, I hate those plastic seals. They are one of those small annoyances in life that really make a bad day seem horrid. They vindicate the idea that the human race is, on occasion, idiotic.

This brings me to my second point. In Canada, Starbucks frappuccino coffee drinks look very much the same as their US counterparts (except for the fact that they feature French on the label as well as English, at least sometimes). One might therefore overlook the most impressive feature of the Canadian frappe: perforation. As I recall from my lengthy trip to Alaska last summer, Canadian Starbucks stay-fresh seals are perforated. This, needless to say, makes it far easier to remove them in order to enjoy one's caffeine, which in turn makes it far easier to continue to drive to Alaska (or whatever).

The patriot in me says: Those Canadian wusses! They need perforation in order to open the seal! They must have very little tooth-strength.
The rationalist in me says: Why would this be? We must have a law that specifies that it can't be too easy to break this seal. Perhaps this is a reasonable law in order to ensure freshness and untampered goodness. Perhaps.
The disgruntled idealist in me says: Mountains! Manners! Gun laws! Hockey! Immigration agents! Niagara Falls! Beaches! Winter! And especially plastic bottle seals! Everything's better in Canada. Sigh.

3 Comments:

At 8:10 PM, Blogger Ezra F. said...

Are Canadian beaches really better than American ones? The arctic beach on the Beaufort Sea which we visited was pretty awesome; and American. Remeber the fantastic driftwood? Also, another description of the same Alaska-bound road trip can be found here.

 
At 12:32 PM, Blogger Skay said...

Thanks for the other link, Ezra. I'm thinking the beaches of British Columbia, with their grand rocks and trapped anemones, and the windswept beaches of Nova Scotia. I grant that there may be similar awesomeness in America, but not in the Florida that I'm used to.

It's true, John, they do pay me. Still, you don't seem to be doing half badly for yourself. Grin.

 
At 2:17 PM, Blogger blackcrag said...

"Everything's always better in Canada."

I couldn't agree more. Thank-you for noticing.

 

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