Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

They did have separate entrances at some point. Male entrance may have been through the bar, which was considered a male territory.

Perhaps in 2070 people will be trying to figure out why the heck we had gender-segregated swim hours.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Interesting. I had no idea.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

less than 50 years for men to evolve that far? Not blooming likely

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

I had a beer or 2 at the American. There used to be Gentlemen, and Ladies and Escorts entrances to pubs in Canada. There were 2 separate rooms. The last one I was in may have been in Vancouver, but I suspect it was the Marina in Thunder Bay, probably in 1973. That was a fairly salty place.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Interesting, I had no idea, never crossed my mind until I saw that photo and was perplexed as to why the sign was like that, it also took me the longest time when I first arrived in BC to figured out what licensed on signs meant, I was like so if places don't have that they are not licensed and just operating under the radar, then finally someone told me it was about booze.

California places that sell booze have licenses but they don't advertise it, but then basically any food place, 7/11, gas station, Target, Wal-Mart, grocery stores all sell booze so I guess there is no need to advertise it, and booze in California can be sold 20 hours per day, still crazy how restrictive booze sales are in BC and elsewhere in Canada, but from 2am to 6am, your out of luck, California is a dry state for those 4 hours. :rofl:

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

They should teach this in realtor 101- probably wont gather up many if any potential buyers or sellers annoying people at 6pm at night who live in subsidized housing, not really the demographic who can afford 500,000+ homes.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

A single lady, or a lady and a man could go into Ladies and Escorts, and the single men had to go in the Gentlemen section. In the Marina I managed to get over in the other part anyway. :egyptian: A few years later there were places that still had the signs up but didn't enforce it. I'm not sure what year the law changed, or if it was provincial.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Out with Capital One and in with CIBC.

Costco credit card will move over to CIBC early next year.

CIBC will also acquire the entire Costco credit card portfolio from Capital One which has $3 billion in outstanding balances.

CIBC did not disclose terms of the acquisition.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/cibc-buy...-one-1.1647127

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

I well remember those days ......... but if I remember correctly, it was beer parlours and only beer was served in both areas. The beer was almost literally slung at you, and if one person at a table ordered another beer or jug, everyone else got one. There were only wood tables and tables, often very scarred and scraped/

We went to the Fraser Arms one time after a softball game, must have been around 1970, and I ended up with 6 full glasses lined up in front of me. I hadn't even finished my first glass of beer when the others started asking for another and another.

There were only a couple of places that I knew of which had what might called a lounge bar ............. the Sylvia Hotel on English had (still does so far as I know) a lovely bar looking out to the Bay, comfortable chairs, and nice atmosphere. The other was the bar at the Faculty Club out on UBC campus. I don't know about te Hotel Vancouver or other hotels ........... we only ate in them ............... but the Granville strip was full of beer parlours.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

In the Marina the tables were bolted to the floor. Those old beer parlours shared a characteristic smell, the same way trains and railroad hotel back stairs smelled the same. I couldn't get over that; the south side entrance to the Hotel Saskatchewan smelled just like getting on the passenger train.

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Sylvia Hotel, I always liked the Virginia creeper on the outside, was planted there by a Mrs. Kenvyn after WW2

From their website:

Opened as apartments in 1913 and named Sylvia Court Apartment, for affluent tenants, and including dumb elevators in every unit.

Apparently at time of opening it was the tallest building in Vancouver.

July 2, 1954 they opened Vancouver's first cocktail lounge.

Doesn't say when it was converted from apartments to a hotel though, edit I missed it, looks like by the end of the 1950's the permanent residents were gone and it became a full-time hotel.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

In Scotland you used to get some bars that were pretty much men-only establishments. I can certainly think of at least one bar that didn't even have a ladies toilet until relatively recently. Then there were larger pubs which had 2 bars with distinct entrances - a "public bar" for the men, which was basic and utilitarian, and the "lounge bar" which was a bit fancier and was where the men went when they took their wives out. Drinks were always slightly more expensive in the lounge bar than the public bar to reflect the extra comfort, and that price difference was a regular source of grumbling among some of the men.

I remember as a child being sent into a pub to pass a message to my grandad because neither my grandmother nor mother would go into a pub by themselves.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

In the Australian summer of 2020, a group of magnificent Canadian firefighters came to our aid and helped us through a devastating fire season.
In 2021, Australian firefighters were able help our Canadian friends. I think the bears came as a bit of a shock though :lol:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-...nada/100432860

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Upside to Canada's dangerous critters is they are mostly large and fairly easy to see and avoid, where you have all those little dangerous critters hard to see and avoid that can kill with just one bite in a bite and run.

Spring and fall are when bears are most aggressive generally, spring with new babies, and in fall they get hangry as they marathon eat to pack on the pounds for their winter siesta.

Now if you visit Vancouver, its the coyotes in Stanley Park you got to watch out for, they have been attacking humans quite often in the past couple years, there will be a coyote cull though as the attacks are becoming way too common and brazen, these are urban human habituated coyotes so they don't have the fear of humans that their non-urban counterparts have, human habituated bears are most dangerous as well.

Re: Random stuff - the anything else thread
 

Nothing in Oz scares me as much as bears, not that I've ever seen one :lol: