Let's adorably freeze to death!
December 7, 2013 5:52 AM   Subscribe

Canadian couple blows bubbles in 45 below weather

via Tastefully Offensive, Laughing Squid, and Gawker
posted by angrycat (77 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Direct link to the uploader's account on youtube is here.
posted by kavasa at 5:55 AM on December 7, 2013 [7 favorites]


Oh so cute! Thanks for making me smile.
posted by saucysault at 6:01 AM on December 7, 2013




That is one patient woman.
posted by Houstonian at 6:07 AM on December 7, 2013 [16 favorites]


when I first saw this I thought that they were blowing bubbles AND eating ice cream in basically the atmosphere of pluto, and boy was I impressed with the ice cream
posted by angrycat at 6:12 AM on December 7, 2013 [4 favorites]


Oh my god I love them. -15 is my too cold, the point where eyelashes and nose hairs freeze. I couldn't believe it when I saw her without a hat, but then him without a coat. Crazy Canucks.
posted by Cuke at 6:16 AM on December 7, 2013 [2 favorites]


The man in the video could almost pass for Stu Leonard.
posted by Smart Dalek at 6:17 AM on December 7, 2013


The best thing about this is that you don't have to specify C or F, because the temperature is where C and F are almost the same!

Also, because you could replace "45 below" with "basically absolute 0" with no loss
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike at 6:23 AM on December 7, 2013 [4 favorites]


Yea, uh, I think their thermometer is broken.
posted by ZaneJ. at 6:23 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Puts some gloves on!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:38 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Yep, you know it's cold when the snow crunches under foot like that.
posted by NoMich at 6:44 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


I live in Canada, and that's the most Canadian-sounding voice I've ever heard.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:49 AM on December 7, 2013 [50 favorites]


It must be a fake... nobody actually talks like that.
posted by petrilli at 6:49 AM on December 7, 2013


Puts some gloves on!

And the lotion on its skin!

Seriously, you're going to need it.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:56 AM on December 7, 2013 [4 favorites]


That accent: It sounds like a cross between Marge Gunderson and David Lynch.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:57 AM on December 7, 2013 [7 favorites]


> There is no way the temperature in that video is -45 C, which is -49 F. Look how they are dressed? Face exposed. Ears exposed. No gloves. He isn't even wearing a jacket!

One day when the temperature in southeast Michigan hit the -20° F range, I spent most of the day out walking. Wasn't bundled up heavily, and didn't wear anything to cover my face except a scarf, which I ended up just hanging around my neck after a while.

As long as the air is still and it's daylight out, the temperature is perfectly tolerable. Just keep moving. The slightest wind will slice you like razors, though.
posted by ardgedee at 6:59 AM on December 7, 2013 [23 favorites]


Damned fine ushanka, mister.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:03 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Dat accent!
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 7:06 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Yeah, their thermometer was clearly broken. The historical weather records for Thompson, Manitoba say it never went below -44 degrees that year!

(Hamburger. The graph also says March 11 was particularly cold, and the temperature at a particular location may vary considerably from the official temperature measured at a weather station.)
posted by Curious Artificer at 7:15 AM on December 7, 2013 [6 favorites]


How cold does everyone think it actually was? The water was doing funny things!
posted by zscore at 7:37 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Growing up in Duluth, MN, the coldest I ever remember it getting growing up was -60. If it's not windy and you're dry and somewhere fairly safe, like your back yard or whatever, you can withstand those sorts of temperatures while being fairly exposed for 20-30 minutes before you have to start worrying about actual tissue damage. Below about -20, it all feels about the same. If they ran outside with all their stuff and turned the camera on, they'd be good for another 10-15 minutes or so.

And he's right about the hat helping a lot. That is a serious fur hat he's wearing, so he's not going to be bleeding a lot of heat that way.
posted by GameDesignerBen at 7:39 AM on December 7, 2013 [6 favorites]


I LOVE blowing bubbles in the freezing cold. If you smoke, you can take a drag on a cigarette (don't inhale, just hold it in your mouth) and then blow bubbles. The smoke-filled bubbles will slowly drift to the ground and then *poof* explode like little bombs.

It's -18 right now where I live. Gamedesignerben is right, after a while it just all feels the same.
posted by Elly Vortex at 7:43 AM on December 7, 2013 [3 favorites]


The coldest temperature I've ever been in was -27º F with a stiff breeze. It hurt to breathe.
posted by double block and bleed at 7:58 AM on December 7, 2013


Oh yeah, once there's any wind, even 10 below is horrid. I think it's sort of like the Leidenfrost effect; in still air you develop a thin bubble of warmer air around your skin, but even a little bit of wind will blow it away and expose you to the real temperature.

Also those two are adorable and I want them for my neighbors. But I'm not moving to Manitoba.
posted by echo target at 8:11 AM on December 7, 2013 [5 favorites]


Showoffs - no gloves, no jacket. My feeling is that if it's below 0F, you shouldn't have to leave the house, except maybe to get more wood for the stove. It's got to be pretty cold for liquid to flash freeze that way. Bright sun helps, but for anybody not acclimated to sub-zero temps, it doesn't take long to get in big trouble.
posted by theora55 at 8:28 AM on December 7, 2013


It says the low that day was -41 degrees. You folks are busting this nice couple's chops over a little local variation?
posted by Bistle at 8:33 AM on December 7, 2013 [14 favorites]


Dat accent!

I know Ted and Mary. They're southern Manitoba Mennonites and earnest as the day is ... cold. Well, at lead Ted is earnest. Mary is, I think, just trying to slow him down enough to catch her breath. They've worked most of their lives in northern Manitoba communities in small churches and bible camps. I've worked with him up in Cranberry Portage, in the days when I thought bible camps and small evangelical church plants were the best way to change the world for the better. I thought time might slow Ted down, but it looks like he's still got enough energy to stay ahead of a bunch of 11 year old campers. They are awesome folks though (in moderate doses), and they would not knowingly deceive anyone.
posted by kneecapped at 8:34 AM on December 7, 2013 [87 favorites]


That was delightful! I hope I will stay as playful as I grow as well. But I really did shiver when I saw that neither one of them was wearing gloves!
posted by Hopeful and Cynical at 8:45 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


the way I dressed for the weather changed dramatically after I purchased a laser thermometer. A thirty degree day with sun can feel like 50 as evidenced by taking a laser thermometer to a sunny sidewalk as opposed to the shade. Now when dressing for the elements I pay much more attention to the sun and wind than allowing myself to be betrayed by the number in the corner of my computer screen.
posted by any major dude at 8:46 AM on December 7, 2013


It must be a fake... nobody actually talks like that.

This seems to be the week of the rural Canadian accent.
posted by maudlin at 8:53 AM on December 7, 2013


Via the Gawker comments: accent plus cold plus AWESOME.
posted by maudlin at 9:00 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


They are impossibly adorable.

And now that I'm shivering here in San Francisco where it's a brutal 43 degrees Fahrenheit, I'm nostalgic for my younger, New England-living self, who thought that 20F was just kinda chilly, and it didn't really count as "cold" until it got down to the single digits.
posted by rtha at 9:13 AM on December 7, 2013


I took my dog out last night, it was -30 (supposedly -40c with wind chill), and I was wearing pyjamas.

We do things differently here in Canada.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:13 AM on December 7, 2013 [6 favorites]


Love 'em both.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:14 AM on December 7, 2013


If you don't drink, this is probably the most interesting way to spend one's time in Thompson.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:35 AM on December 7, 2013


My dad grew up on a farm in Northern MN during the Depression (yeah, he never let us forget it, either), and he talked a lot about working outside during the winter, where everyone would start out bundled up, and, as you started getting warm, you shed layers, until pretty much everyone was working in their undershirts. The trick was to not start sweating much I gather. And I have been out at about -30, and it's not too bad, even at night, as long as you keep moving and there's no wind.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:35 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


blue_beetle: "I took my dog out last night, it was -30 (supposedly -40c with wind chill), and I was wearing pyjamas.

We do things differently here in Canada.
"

Yes you do, here a couple thousand miles south of manitoba, it was a balmy -13c with a 15mph north wind gusting to 25 last night. Despite the hat, scarf, woolen socks, extra base layer, and coat, it was still cold. Not too cold, but cold.

Had the wind been calm, most of the clothing would have been unnecessary for only a few minutes in the cold. Ironically, I was complaning rather bitterly about -5c a couple of days ago, but that may be because it was almost 70F 5 days ago.
posted by wierdo at 9:51 AM on December 7, 2013


I live in Canada, and that's the most Canadian-sounding voice I've ever heard.

The variations among regional accents in this country are subtle, but can sometimes be surprisingly distinctive. Because, as someone from Alberta, I can honestly say that I have never heard an accent like that and thought: "Canada."

I'm mostly familiar with Albertan and Ontarian accents, though.
posted by asnider at 10:11 AM on December 7, 2013


The water trick is fun, and should work at a balmy -20C. The part they didn't mention is that the water should be boiling when you throw it.
posted by peppermind at 10:52 AM on December 7, 2013


Seymour Zamboni knows of the windchill. Windchill is what kills you in the cold. For example, right now it's about -28C, but with windchill they're saying it feels like -41C on exposed skin.
posted by asnider at 11:02 AM on December 7, 2013


Aw, it's like people don't realize that there are warm places to live. Bless their hearts.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:13 AM on December 7, 2013 [3 favorites]


It's -22 C here right now, but -30 with windchill, so I'm a little grumpy about cold weather at the moment, but this video was great! They're cute and hilarious. It's true that after about -25 C it all kind of feels similar, unless there's wind. Still, -45...that's when I just basically stay indoors.

However, I'm tempted to try the boiling-water-into-snow trick the next time it hits -40.

The first thing I said when I watched the video was WHERE ARE HER MITTS followed by WHERE IS HIS COAT?? I suppose I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I did pop outside without a coat or mitts the other night to take the garbage can to the curb, and it was below -20. (Sometimes I get tired of putting on my wintertime spacesuit for a 30 second trip outside.) My eyes were a little bugged out by the time I came back inside, though.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:28 AM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Overall adorable, but I swear that lurking behind "umm, excuse me? I would like to go inside now..." was a thinly veiled "I AM GOING INSIDE WHERE IT IS A SURVIVABLE TEMPERATURE AT THIS TIME AND I WILL THRUST THIS CAMERA UP YOUR BEHIND IF YOU DO THE FRIKKIN WATER TRICK AGAIN"
posted by kitarra at 11:56 AM on December 7, 2013 [4 favorites]


Our highs are in the 40s, starting 2 days ago (3 days ago it was in the 70s). You guys are crazy.
posted by Houstonian at 11:57 AM on December 7, 2013


Yeah, but your highs in not-winter are 95F with a billion percent humidity and every second you're outside approximately three million horrifyingly huge insects try to lay their eggs in your eyeballs.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:06 PM on December 7, 2013 [10 favorites]


I’m nostalgic for my younger, New England-living self, who thought that 20F was just kinda chilly, and it didn't really count as 'cold' until it got down to the single digits.

Some of us up here, younger no more, still feel that way. Below 20°, put on a jacket. (And seriously, Ted and Mary, you need some gloves.) My NY sister-in-law, however, complained once during a visit about the weather guy on the radio saying the temperature that day was "warming into the teens."
posted by LeLiLo at 12:07 PM on December 7, 2013


As a hearty man of the north, I tell you all: -45 degrees and no wind is pleasantly bracing. -45 degrees and any wind at all is hell.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:10 PM on December 7, 2013 [8 favorites]


I am actually further north than them, by latitude (Thompson, Manitoba is 55.75 degrees north; I live at 55.95 degrees north.) Right now we are having a chilly, wet December evening which is nonetheless MORE THAN NINETY DEGREES FAHRENHEIT warmer than that.

Please excuse me while I go out and hug the Gulf Stream for awhile.
posted by kyrademon at 12:16 PM on December 7, 2013 [2 favorites]


I...I love them.
posted by whimsicalnymph at 12:20 PM on December 7, 2013 [2 favorites]


Oddly enough at 1:45 he starts looking like BUBBLES from Trailer Park Boys.
posted by crapmatic at 12:22 PM on December 7, 2013 [2 favorites]


@Seymour: The weather log for that day in Thompson does show it got down to -41F. Those $5 thermometers don't perform well at all at those temperatures, but still, given the time of morning it's probably a good bet it was indeed -35 to -40F.
posted by crapmatic at 12:25 PM on December 7, 2013


I can't even begin to comprehend what that temperature would feel like, with or without wind. But I do love the video. I'm around 90 degrees south of them and it's currently about 80C warmer. Much more my kind of temperature.
posted by jontyjago at 12:27 PM on December 7, 2013


I live in Canada, and that's the most Canadian-sounding voice I've ever heard.


I live in Canada, and that's basically a guy from the bar down the street.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:03 PM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


My NY sister-in-law, however, complained once during a visit about the weather guy on the radio saying the temperature that day was "warming into the teens."

There is a curious relativity about low-teens temperatures. Around these parts, the first time it drops to the low teens in the daytime in maybe September or October, it feels frigid. The esuing March or April, when we reach twelve or thirteen degrees on the way up, it is balmy.

I also enjoy that day in the springtime when the weather is first around twelve and sunny: at any given bus stop, you will see people side by side -- some forward-looking types in sunglasses and T-shirts and sandals; others still in parkas and scarves and heavy boots. Each thinks the other is daft.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:10 PM on December 7, 2013 [2 favorites]


Here's a video from last winter of a guy in Siberia throwing boiling water out of the balcony of his apartment while it's -41 degrees outside.
posted by ceribus peribus at 1:25 PM on December 7, 2013 [3 favorites]


This seems to be the week of the rural Canadian accent.

That one's easy to find: Start in Toronto, and travel in any direction; beyond the point where the suburbs turn into farmland, just about every male (including all my mother's brothers) talks like that. (It is a predominantly male accent, for whatever reason.)
posted by Sys Rq at 1:35 PM on December 7, 2013


What version of Canada are you people talking about? Do I live in a different country?
posted by asnider at 2:26 PM on December 7, 2013


For more accent and cold try Angry Ontario Snowmobiler
posted by phoque at 3:04 PM on December 7, 2013 [4 favorites]


NSFW
Now this says it's from Ontario, but that accent sound's east coast to me, in particular, south shore Nova Scotia, and the first time I heard this, it was attributed to a cable company in Yarmouth.
Guy calling about his cable being out.
posted by SpannerX at 3:26 PM on December 7, 2013


Since this seems to be the time to share Canadian Accents + Winter, please enjoy this moose walking up an icy driveway in Cape Breton.

What a sin, Jamie!
posted by erlking at 3:52 PM on December 7, 2013 [9 favorites]




It was like having razor blades thrown at you at a high rate of speed.

That's exactly the way it's been here the last couple days. Absolutely miserable, even thought it's a balmy 25F. But a 25mph wind cuts through just about any amount of layers you can put on. My best bet is the canvas Carhartt jacket on the outside. I'm pretty cold tolerant, but in a wind like this, there's always one place or another when you're moving that will get exposed--hat or scarf slips--back of the neck. Socks slide down--down inside or above the boots. Gloves slip--wrists cold. After 2-3 hours, then I come inside, and 65 feels like a tropical jungle as I'm desperately peeling off coat, vest, sweater and down to the turtleneck. Eventually even that has to go, and I'm sitting at the kitchen table in a tank top, drinking ice water. Everybody who hasn't been outside is still in double-triple layers and complaining.
posted by BlueHorse at 4:04 PM on December 7, 2013


My best bet is the canvas Carhartt jacket on the outside.

I'm not usually a brand loyalty kind of guy, but Carhartt makes reliably durable, strong, warm clothes. I've never regretted anything I've bought from them.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:14 PM on December 7, 2013 [2 favorites]


Now this says it's from Ontario, but that accent sound's east coast to me, in particular, south shore Nova Scotia, and the first time I heard this, it was attributed to a cable company in Yarmouth.
Guy calling about his cable being out.



That's basically Jim Lahey complaining about his cable being out. I'm surprised the term "shit panther" wasn't used during any of those messages.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:04 PM on December 7, 2013 [3 favorites]


Guy calling about his cable being out.

That's definitely a Nova Scotian, yeah. Sounds like my old boss at the Sobeys in Lower Sackville. (And I wouldn't be at all surprised if it actually were him.)
posted by Sys Rq at 5:19 PM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


Russell Peters on the white Canadian accent and mannerisms.

There are little things in Russell Peters' act that, if you've watched a lot of Canadian TV, you know where those bits sprang from.

I am 100% sure that when he does the bit you linked, he's doing an imitation of a particular white Canadian, fellow comedian Derek Edwards. (There might be some Harland Williams in there, too.)

Also, his Hong Kong accent ("sounds like they're cutting vegetables with their words") is obviously Stephen Yan.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:30 PM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


I have to tell you, where you live matters when it comes to cold. I have froze my buns off here in NC when it is cold and humid-but when I visited Iowa one winter many years ago, as long as I was dressed appropriately for conditions it wasn't that bad at all. And I can tell you 13 degrees just outside of Denver is WAY more comfortable than 13 degrees here in the Old North State.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:41 PM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


So does the word "balmy" have any meaning left in the English language besides "really freakin' cold, lemme tell ya"?
posted by darksasami at 6:39 PM on December 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


That was wonderful, and added to my list of why I love Canadians so much.
posted by Catch at 8:43 PM on December 7, 2013


We've got a minus forty wind chill here right now with very little wind. I've been out in actual temps of minus forty or worse. Wind really is the killer. It steals your breath, freezes your skin, cuts through your clothes like razors.

We had a couple Texans outside of town that put up a BBQ stand using a couple big army tents and figuring the smoker would keep them warm against the North Dakota winter. They packed up the last week of November and high-tailed it south. This is not weather for those born below even the South Dakota border.
posted by Ber at 9:30 PM on December 7, 2013


The - 30C we've had in Calgary the past few days have been bracing,with a light wind enough to take it down to - 38C. That said, it's not too bad although maybe the #2 haircut I had this afternoon was a mistake *places cat on head*.
posted by arcticseal at 10:41 PM on December 7, 2013 [2 favorites]


Grew up in Northern Ontario in a community smaller then Thompson. Cold just feels different up there. The damp winter weather down south here (still pretty north for most Americans) kills me. I can handle the -30C sunny & DRY / wind free winter weather but the endlessly overcast damp -5C here is a real drag. And yeah there were times while tobagganing that I'd strip down to my shirt sleeves, maybe keeping the toque on, on sunny frigid days.

Regarding accents, yes there is definitely regional variations in Canada (yes even Toronto has an accent) but this couple has what to my ears is a Manitoba accent and I would have guessed Mennonite. So many of my inlaws have that accent. The Manitoba French accent sounds, to my French Canadian ears, a lot like the accent we have in the Ontario North.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:31 AM on December 8, 2013


Aw, it's like people don't realize that there are warm places to live. Bless their hearts.

This comes up every year when winter starts here (Toronto). But moving south of the border for warmth to a country without a decent healthcare system is one of the definitions of insanity.

Watching this video I was reminded of SCTV.
posted by juiceCake at 8:04 AM on December 8, 2013


Wow, I am Canadian but those people are CANADIAN.
posted by raider at 9:06 AM on December 8, 2013 [2 favorites]


I thought it was spelled "CANAJAN".
posted by benito.strauss at 8:48 AM on December 9, 2013




I wonder if they used the block heater to start it.
posted by arcticseal at 2:30 PM on January 2, 2014


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