Seagulls also drool, especially when eating pepperoni

January 27, 2023 10:53 AM

In March of 2018, 18 years after being banned from the Empress Hotel in British Columbia, Novia Scotia resident Nick Burchill wrote them a letter and asked for forgiveness. In October of 2022, Benedict Cumberbatch did a dramatic reading of the letter.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (20 comments total)

I watched this just the other day. It's truly an astonishing tale. Crumberbun does a great job reading it, too.
posted by hippybear at 11:01 AM on January 27, 2023

Was the ban rescinded? We need to know
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 11:03 AM on January 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is such a fantastic story. I did come across a follow-up radio piece on this and to the question "Was the ban rescinded?" I think the best response is.. well, there is certainly closure to the story. It's kind of worth hearing the radio piece, I will try and dig it up.

Brothers pepperoni is exactly the sort of thing you'd transport across the country in a suitcase, it's pretty good stuff. Same with Dave's Hot Sauce out of Dartmouth.
posted by elkevelvet at 11:08 AM on January 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

The YouTube link says the ban was rescinded three days after the letter was received.
posted by dlugoczaj at 11:09 AM on January 27, 2023

Was the ban rescinded? We need to know

Yes. Hopefully he brought some donair sauce as well for them.
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:18 AM on January 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Previously: Seagulls, Tourists, Pepperoni and eventually, Redemption. A Dartmouth, Nova Scotia man gets his ban from the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria lifted after 17 years.

I'm glad the letter got the dramatic reading it truly deserved!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:35 AM on January 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

It's kind of worth hearing the radio piece, I will try and dig it up.

Can't find the audio at the moment, but here's the transcript:

Carol Off: But wasn't there also a hotel towel you heaved out the window?

Nick Burchill: That was the last seagull, yes. I was trying to catch it. It had a piece of pepperoni and it was jumping around the room and it was a fairly large room. I went into the washroom, I grabbed a large bath towel and I jumped the seagull and I threw it out the window. The only thing is seagulls can't fly if they're wrapped in a towel. And it also plummeted into this group of tourists. So, I didn't know about the tourists at the time. I'm just trying to you know regain control of the room. So that was the last seagull.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:43 AM on January 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

Crumberbun does a great job reading it, too.

Good thing there were no pengwings in it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:44 AM on January 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

He is good on the Canadian accent .

I love Taika Waititi's reading of a letter regarding a speeding ticket.
posted by Thella at 1:32 PM on January 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

This feels painfully close to a Vinyl Cafe episode. Rest in peace Stuart McLean.
posted by brachiopod at 4:13 PM on January 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

This performance comes to us from Letters Live, a terrific ongoing theater project. Some amazing readers (and some amazing letters) have been featured over the years. Love this one especially.
posted by tzikeh at 4:43 PM on January 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Good thing there were no pengwings in it.

I believe it was Stephen Fry who had such issues with the word.

Also, it continually surprises me that window screens are not more of a generally standard practice. Insects, birds, and rodents are such universal pests and so little is needed to prevent their ingress to a room.
posted by ananci at 6:40 PM on January 27, 2023

It was in fact Cumberbatch with the penguin issues.
posted by amk at 6:50 PM on January 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

The inestimable Mr Fry had issues saying the phrase "Harry pocketed it" whilst reading the Harry Potter audiobooks.
posted by ninazer0 at 2:19 AM on January 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

The inestimable Mr Fry had issues saying the phrase "Harry pocketed it" whilst reading the Harry Potter audiobooks.

And Fry also famously had issues with the phrase "they say of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is...."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:33 AM on January 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

This was a beautiful way to start the weekend. I laughed so hard I cried. Thank you.
posted by eirias at 6:41 AM on January 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

I have stayed at that fine hotel and eaten that fine sausage and been in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve... so somehow this feels like a familiar if totally alien story :)
posted by cirhosis at 10:51 AM on January 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

What, are we lead to believe that there was no Ground Fault Interrupt on bathroom outlets 18 years ago?
posted by The genius who rejected Anno's budget proposal. at 5:24 AM on January 29, 2023

He is good on the Canadian accent .

Mostly, save for distractingly carrying a UK pronunciation of “room,” which to these Canadian ears have him discussing being moved from his rum to a much smaller rum.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:06 PM on February 1, 2023

Generally there is no requirement that electrical infrastructure be updated as rules change and The Empress is old, predating the modern Hubbel receptacle. So even though it had been renovated over the years the mandate for GFCI protection in bathrooms was less than 20 years old at the time Burchill's stay and it is possible the receptacles had never been updated. Less likely but possible is GFCI breakers are providing protection instead of receptacles.

Or may be the hair dryer merely shorted out rather than leaking current to ground in which case a gfci device wouldn't trip. Many hair dryers are double insulated rather than having grounded cases which makes this easier.

There are also setups where room lighting may be fed from the load side of a GFCI receptacle in which case the GFCI tripping would take out the room lights too which could be misinterpreted as power to the whole room going out.
posted by Mitheral at 2:54 AM on February 2, 2023