The Northwest Passage is open for business

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:34 pm

The North-West Passage – the sea route running along the Arctic coastline of North America, normally perilously clogged with thick ice – is nearly ice-free for the first time since records began.

For just one time I would take the Northwest passage,
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea,
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage,
And make a Northwest passage to the sea.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:24 pm

Good for bidniss.

djm

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:54 pm

Really. I hope the people who are excited about having some new cargo routes realize that there could eventually be some problems with cargoes---like people might start having trouble growing what they are used to growing or making what they used to make or even living where they used to live. It could take awhile to sort it all out.

Lake Superior is down by a foot. I guess it's the lowest in 88-years. That's a lot of water that isn't there.

Scott McCallister · Post by **Scott McCallister** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:41 pm

It's a good thing this "global warming" stuff is just a myth. A report like this would make me nervous if it was all true.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 3:52 pm

A shame that Stan Rogers didn't live long enough to see it.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:26 pm

Book passage before it re-ices. Because it will.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:15 pm

Does any country, other than Canada, have as an unofficial national anthem, a song about how exciting and heroic it would be to find a way for tourists to avoid passing through it?

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:18 pm

The Weekenders wrote:Book passage before it re-ices. Because it will.

I truly hope you are right!

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:53 pm

at least for a few more years

s1m0n · Post by **s1m0n** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:31 pm

Wombat wrote:Does any country, other than Canada, have as an unofficial national anthem, a song about how exciting and heroic it would be to find a way for tourists to avoid passing through it?

:P

That's only the first verse. The second is about crossing Canada overland, or at least over river.

Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.
And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.

I'm writing this from about three miles upriver from the spot where the Fraser meets the sea.

It really ought to be our anthem, you know. It's miles better than Oh Canada. It would be really cool to have an anthem with a chorus built to be harmonised.

Incidentally, in my lifetime, they've changed the official lyrics to Oh Canada about three times, and never once have the ever fixed what's really wrong with it--the [s]dirge[/s] melody.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:33 am

s1m0n wrote:
Wombat wrote:Does any country, other than Canada, have as an unofficial national anthem, a song about how exciting and heroic it would be to find a way for tourists to avoid passing through it?

That's only the first verse. The second is about crossing Canada overland, or at least over river.

Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.
And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.
I'm writing this from about three miles upriver from the spot where the Fraser meets the sea.

It really ought to be our anthem, you know. It's miles better than Oh Canada. It would be really cool to have an anthem with a chorus built to be harmonised.

Incidentally, in my lifetime, they've changed the official lyrics to Oh Canada about three times, and never once have the ever fixed what's really wrong with it--the [s]dirge[/s] melody.

I feel your pain s1m0n. 'Advance Australia Fair' is so dorky. And those who learn the words wish they hadn't. 'Our land is girt by sea.' Oh wow; that's impressive. Better than being girt by ... eh .. something else.

Actually 'North West Passage' is a great song and Rogers' version of it really stirring.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 3:04 am

Wombat wrote: I feel your pain s1m0n. 'Advance Australia Fair' is so dorky. And those who learn the words wish they hadn't. 'Our land is girt by sea.' Oh wow; that's impressive. Better than being girt by ... eh .. something else.

The American anthem has these memorable lines:

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave

springrobin · Post by **springrobin** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 6:56 am

The American anthem has these memorable lines:

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave

[/quote]

I could never understand why so many people were opposed to changing the US anthem to America the Beutiful. Maybe they've never experienced the "amber waves of grain" or "purple mountain's majesty"

djm · Post by **djm** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:05 am

springrobin wrote:I could never understand why so many people were opposed to changing the US anthem to America the Beutiful.

Ay, mun, wud ees wrong wid "José, can djew see", mun? Anyway, ees no my chob.

djm

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:05 pm

Scott McCallister wrote:It's a good thing this "global warming" stuff is just a myth. A report like this would make me nervous if it was all true.

I don't question that the Earth is warming up. It is just the interminable insistence by everyone that is is solely MAN that is causing the warming.

Bullocks.

Cynth wrote:
The Weekenders wrote:Book passage before it re-ices. Because it will.
I truly hope you are right!

Been there, done that, likely MANY times.