iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 07/10/2026

Having trouble deciding which books to buy from Amazon during Prime Days? Try this: None, then go support an independent bookstore instead. 😌

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Effin' Birds @effinbirds.com · 04/10/2026

Preorders convince retailers to stock my stuff. They make a huge difference. Please consider visiting eatf.art and preordering one or all of my upcoming books and card sets.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

So, many of our friends were also new to Canada. Dad's besties were Chinese Canadian, either raised or actively in the restaurant biz; my uncles & auntie made sure we ate well. I grew up knowing food is an expression of love, that family & community expands with the table. What a grace to be given.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Lots of nostalgia/relatability watching this. My immigrant parents owned a business in a rural area; I worked in it, danced after hours, watched them wear themselves thin, too. We didn't stand out from the dominant culture, but lacking kin/bones in the ground, didn't fully belong to it. (con't)

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Restaurant Kids is about Chinese Canadian kids growing up in their family restaurants. My only quibble is, it would've been good to hear from adult kids who were told they had to or chose to do something else, because for better or worse, that's a pretty big deal. www.nfb.ca/film/restaur...

nfb.ca

Restaurant Kids

For many children of Halifax’s Chinese restaurateurs, the family restaurant was more than a business. It was a second home, a classroom and a workplace. Through intimate conversations …

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

It's much like the conversations I've had with so many friends over the years. How to feel our most authentic selves in the clothes we find or make, how we are seen vs. how we want to be seen (if we even want to be seen), the ways in which we defy expectations (even our own). Very cool show.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

If you're looking to watch stuff on Canadian platforms, the NFB is a great place to start. Here's a thread of shows I've enjoyed. There's the In The Closet series, wherein non-binary folks talk about what I wanna describe as the semiotics of clothes on a personal level. www.nfb.ca/series/in-th...

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

This is a grown man, who's been vocal about many issues, seemingly on the good side, who's seen the world, works with people who make clear statements. He's not naïve or uninformed. He weighed the risk vs. loss & chose to remain on that shaky fence. No man's land /= neutral territory.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Having the opportunity to speak to thousands of people, using that chance vs. choosing not to, siding with someone told not to speak vs. continuing to hold that platform... it's all about power. Decisions are made. There's no neutrality. Claiming to be neutral is at best naïve, uninformed.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Change happens when those who are messing up realise they have lost/are about to lose not just what they were trying to gain, but what they already had. Leaving a tour, returning a ticket, avoiding a stadium all seem like small things. But then someone else does it, too. And someone else.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

There IS such a thing as bad publicity. Those who are at risk of losing money, power, & prestige don't tend to like that. The best plan would be to sort themselves out, yet so many seem to make it worse entirely of their own volition. (The cancelling is coming from inside the house.)

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

People didn't always know who was flouting the apartheid boycott, back in the day. The internet/social media makes it a lot easier/faster now to find out where an artist stands, & if they're on that shaky fence or worse, to call them out, produce receipts, follow the money, & boycott their work.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hardly. Change happens because people take stands, bring attention to injustice, shine as big a light as possible on it, call for action, rally people to do the same. Performing artists on tour are perfectly positioned for that work. To wit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artists...

en.wikipedia.org

Artists United Against Apartheid - Wikipedia

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

That's a choice & a message about that person's mindset. Even if the neutrality stance was legit, as Desmond Tutu, who spoke truth to power about apartheid, said: If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. Too much to expect from a non-politician?

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Because yes, taking sides can be risky; so is being (or claiming to be) neutral. Someone can have at their fingertips all the information necessary to decide, friends & colleagues calling them out & walking away along with thousands of fans, yet still double down. That's not neutrality.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

...to say why they don't (yet). If someone shows themselves taking sides, then tries to claim political neutrality, it's hard to believe they're being sincere. This week we're getting a real-time demonstration of how that can turn out for someone. Which is why I've been pondering Mr. Switzerland.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

If he truly wasn't informed enough to know where he stood back then, he's had a long time to figure it out, & I'd like to hope he's made the effort. If he didn't hold jackass views, he had nothing to fear/lose by taking a stand. Of course, he didn't have, nor has now (AFAIK), a massive fanbase.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Mind you, if supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is genuinely the word folks in PEI are LEAST likely to know how to spell, I'd be inclined to think they're doing pretty damn well, otherwise. 😎

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

...it requires acceptance of variety, of difference of opportunity/situation/environment/upbringing/etc., and most of all, a willingness to admit you might need to learn something. That's what gives people who search for what they don't know an advantage over those who think they know everything.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

- I am still, & often, a language snob; sometimes I keep the snark to myself, not always; I have high standards personally & professionally. However. I'm not perfect, nobody is, & perfection is impossible. Giving & being given that grace requires more than just recognition of flaws... (con't)

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

- my family history is a treatise on why being picky about language is classist (discouragement of the Scots (not Gaelic) language, societal/cultural discrimination, the effect of parental aspirations on working class children, perceived traits of "the gentry"), which I won't get into now, but...

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Caveats: - I was so good at spelling in elementary school, they called me Dictionary (lastname), after the ever-popular Encyclopedia Brown books; it wasn't a compliment - majoring in English lit doesn't make me an expert on the English language; I have a fondness for those who defy its rules (con't)

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Even editors look up words with tricky spellings. In fact, editors will look in multiple places, consult with other editors, with writers, with linguists... If you know an editor, ask to see their bookshelves. (Then check out their biceps. The Oxford Canadian Dictionary ain't exactly wee.)

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It's unreasonable to expect everyone (even if it's their 1st language) to master the ability to spell, without reference, according to prescribed national usage. There's no shame in not knowing how to spell something, no matter how basic; the willingness to look it up or ask someone is commendable.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Often that's down to who they've got working with/for them who knows how to spell, of course. (Been there. Hated it. That said, I couldn't do THEIR job, so...💁‍♂️) Having another, (hopefully) more knowledgeable pair of eyes vet the work is good practice, & can be a learning experience.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

As for spelling being an important job skill... it depends on the job & the words. It's reasonable to expect someone in charge, writing contracts, articles, memoranda, etc. to know how to spell. But I can tell you from experience, a LOT of people in such roles don't, & are quite successful even so.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Also, obviously it's a search for English words (origin is a whole other discussion) using English search terms; it would be good to know things like % of users vs. population. And yes, this is an article on the CBC's Kids section; IMO that's more reason to take it seriously.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

If they'd allowed them, the list might be very different. February, Wednesday, any number of places, politicians... We've all got our own personal trip hazards; being judgemental (judgmental?) about it is kinda disingenuous. Autocorrect is a false friend; AI is worse, especially viz. search engines.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Some of the words are a wee bit ironic. BC's slogan is Beautiful British Columbia, it's on every license plate. As someone in Ontario, I will refrain from being snarky about people needing to look up the spelling of "teacher." The list has obviously excluded proper nouns (except Chihuahua).

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Jewellery is not a misspelling, of course, though it's pronounced differently; both are correct spelling in Canadian English, but different enough that looking it up is totally understandable. Also, you can't fault anyone for being confused about yogurt. our-languages.canada.ca/en/writing-t...

our-languages.canada.ca

yoghurt, yoghourt, yogourt, yogurt

A writing tip on the spellings yoghurt, yoghourt, yogourt and yogurt.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Many words are possibly there because of how they're commonly heard (depending on the area; the following are based on my own region). Interesting (intresting), restaurant (restraunt), laundry (laundery), schedule (skedule/shedule), jewelry (jewellery), definitely (definately), actually (akshuly).

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

(Aside: learning English is hard, never mind mastering its nuances. I'm by no means a master of it, as should be obvious. In NO WAY am I taking issue with anyone's usage, spelling, pronunciation, dialect, etc. That's part of what I love about it, & the ways in which it evolves, grows, & is adapted.)

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

People outside (or should I say, "ootside?"🙄) Canada often poke at a singular Canadian accent. If you live here, you know better. There isn't even a universal provincial accent. English has a ton of words that don't sound like they're spelled, without factoring in myriad regional differences.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Other results are more understandable. Thorough (though the longer list notes "through") is tricksy, granted. There's those "our" words, of course. I before E except after C has exceptions (weird). Then there's the difference between the way words sound vs. how they're spelled...

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

So, how many individuals didn't know how to spell these words, in particular? Was it just one kid, bored in class, searching for whatever in order to look like they're actually working? It's hard to believe a significant number of islanders went on a Mary Poppins kick from January to June.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It's based on 6mos of Google Search results where people were looking for the spelling of a word. According to this, "bougie" is the most misspelled word in Manitoba; "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in PEI. The population of Manitoba is about 1.5 million, of PEI less than 200 000.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

They note that in the article, but then go on to quote Professor Wells suggesting people play American games like Scrabble or Wordle to improve their spelling. Um... no. What's hilariously damning about the entire list (notably, the provincial words) is the methodology. If you can call it that.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Some issues are due to our proximity to the US/exposure to its media. Notable examples of difference: "our" words, S vs. Z, S vs. C, doubled vs. single consonants (L in particular) in words like travelled. We follow UK English in most cases, but errors can be easily attributed to this exposure.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Much of this is because English is influenced by/a conglomeration of other languages. Canadian English has its own unique usages; it's easy to get confused, or to misspell/misuse in Canadian English what's perfectly acceptable usage elsewhere. Examples in comments. www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/pos...

cbc.ca

PLAY — These are some of the most misspelled words in Canada

An analysis of Google Search data found some of Canada’s most commonly misspelled words. Play our game to see if you can spell some of them.

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Carnforth "Varied" Greville @anidada.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Considering how consistently Google Maps screws up *as a navigational assist* they definitely have more important things to attend to, AND YET.

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Liz Climo @lizclimo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

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Muad Dyb Dyb Dob Dob @thebitterguy.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

@kanopy.com has The Library that Dolly Built available to watch for no credits

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Muad Dyb Dyb Dob Dob @thebitterguy.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

@lindsayellis.bsky.social has released her doc on Dolly, which came out a week ago on Nebula, on YouTube.

youtu.be

Yes, Dolly was Actually That Great

YouTube video by Lindsay Ellis

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Chuck Tingle @chucktingle.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

dolly parton was many things, but what i think resonates so deeply is that she was kind. ACTIVELY kind. when i talk about proving love, this is what i mean. ACTIVE kindness. ACTIVE love. it can be easy to dismiss kindness, but i think the reaction to her passing shows it is not at all a placeholder

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Liz Climo @lizclimo.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

don’t dream it, be it

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rb @mostlyinane.quest · 26/08/2026

man, i'm so happy we get to mourn queer icons who died at 80 and lived long lives being themselves. i'm so grateful for the world they helped create and live and thrive in for as long as they did

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Jenny Lee Shee @jennyleeshee.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Alright, let’s get serious, Canada. Who’s going to start producing these again so I can add Canadian pencil crayons to my classroom?

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