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Monday, April 07, 2008
Today I got into some conversations about just how Canadian Toronto is (or Canada, for that matter). It made me recall a chat I had with Jeffrey Eisenberg a couple of weeks ago, wandering up Spadina (rhymes with "diner" not "Gina") Ave.; in his opinion this is the most American of Canadian cities.
Be that as it may, I got a note from a Boston-based friend asking for a translation of this:
I need a Canadian interpreter for the following sentence: "We recently bought a large semi in Little Italy." What is a "semi" in this context?
So I was not aware that "semi" to represent "semi-detached residence, specifically half of a duplex" was not commonly known to be the same as "duplex" (or the half of a duplex you own). Semi=duplex (one side). Duplex here = duplex (both sides).
It went on to say that he made his semi into "three units," meaning three rentable apartments, no doubt possible because it was a large semi.
Little Italy is the trendy area around College and Clinton in Toronto, with bars, cafes, and apparently, large semis that are sometimes income properties, but for the fortunate, single-owner dwellings.
And to round out the translation session: the "pot lights" the gentleman was installing have nothing to do with more liberal laws in Canada.
My friend is originally from Ohio, which may or may not explain anything.
Labels: canada
Posted by
Andrew Goodman
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D'oh!
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