Archive : January 2014

Happenings on the February calendar

Ponder this February assortment of events which perhaps you didn’t even know about or may have forgotten.  Some of these are historical, some are hysterical and a couple of them are undoubtedly hypothetical.   A...

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Many Canadian places named after people

Often, Canadian places echo Britain’s technique and describe or hint at surroundings, for example, Rocky Mountains, Lockport, Muddy Bay. Hundreds of others are direct lifts from Aboriginal languages. These include Manitoba, Saskatchew...

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Too cold for groundhogs

Personally, I think any groundhog with an urge for self-preservation would not emerge from its burrow on February 2 in Manitoba. The only groundhog actually straying from its burrow on the day  named in the furry mammal’s honour ...

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Opportunity to test your trivia knowledge

  Here’s another opportunity for you to demonstrate your tremendous trivia knowledge. Try this quiz on a potpourri of trivia and then dazzle all you friends with your unbelievable grasp of mundane information. Just inser...

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Origins of British place-names

  Onomastics (Onomotology), the science that studies names, has a geographic branch called “Toponomy.” Toponomy is important since place-names supply information regarding a society’s history, cu...

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Our own Caribbean escape?

  When the weather outside is frightful, Canadians look wistfully south and plan vacations in countries free of snow, ice and cold and blessed with bountiful heat. This winter has been particularly bad weather-wise in Manitoba...

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