Maple, eh?

Determining when to tip can be surprisingly complex.

At Starbucks it’s a must. At Tim Hortons, Canada’s bread-and-butter coffee joint, it’s not.

It’s considered fast food, so we don’t tip.

Tim Horton was a professional hockey player, sporting number 2 for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He then started a donut shop in Ontario, growing it to become Canada’s go-to coffee chain.

If you want your coffee “double-double” that’s not an ice hockey term. It’s double cream, double sugar. Perhaps double the chances of diabetes.

Travel reveals the subtle and stark differences from home. Tipping. Speed limits. Coyotes and deer roaming city parks. BIG trucks bought for status - Ram, GMC, Jeep. Being called a communist for disrupting the annual fireworks show in Calgary.

Cars can speed up to 110km/hour on the way to Calgary from Edmonton. Underneath the sign, it said “Air patrolled” - yes, it’s exactly what you’re thinking. PLANES flying over the highways to see how fast you’re driving. I wondered if they also drop bombs if you speed often. Americans probably recommended napalm for its effectiveness.

North American streets are full of contradictions.

My cousin and I noticed a striking difference - I only know of two people in my circle who are married and have kids. In hers, most people are married and have plans for kids in the next two years. They’re already buying clothes and making plans for babies that are years away. This reminded me of a 2008 essay by Paul Graham - Cities and Ambition.

When you talk about cities in the sense we are, what you’re really talking about is collections of people.

A city speaks to you mostly by accident — in things you see through windows, in conversations you overhear.

The message Paris sends now is: do things with style.

The message Berkeley sends is: you should live better.

Cambridge as a result feels like a town whose main industry is ideas, while New York’s is finance and Silicon Valley’s is startups.

As PG says, not all cities send a message. I didn’t sense a particular ambition in Calgary or Edmonton beyond the aspiration of a family-oriented suburban life.

…hipness seems particularly admired in London: it’s version 2 of the traditional English delight in obscure codes that only insiders understand.

Probably still true in 2023. All of these differences culminated in my thinking about the place where I want to live and the ambitions that I’m surrounded by, just as we were arriving in Calgary for a family weekend.

That night, my aunt recounted the day when she took me school and I had just mastered reading.

Do you want to see how I read?

I read every single number plate for the next 20 minutes.

This memory was as old as this car, which doesn’t have a registered number plate - an Albertan thing.

I still read the front plate out loud.