Casselmania: More Wacky Canadian Words and Sayings

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Canada has a new hobby, “text tourist,” that is soaring in
popularity. As the subtitle suggests, Casselman has been here before,
poking though our language, scavenging neglected words and sayings from
the back of grandmother’s closet and behind regional falsefronts.

This is a language lesson with an attitude. If it is irreverent,
off-color, outrageous, or funny and can in some way be linked to
English-as-she-is-spoken in Canada, Casselman’s got a hold on it. A
self-proclaimed “word nut,” he goes after our language with the
passionate mania of a collector; like so many rare butterflies, our
words are pinned through the heart in Casselman’s display case.

This second volume of Canadian linguistic absurdities features “The
Canadian National Museum of Bafflegab and Gobbledygook,” a hilarious
look at the use of euphemisms, “weasel terms,” “verbal weeds,”
“twaddle,” and other strategies for noncommunication. There are
essays on regional words, the trademarking of words, folk sayings and
insults, surnames, the tooney, eh, weather rhymes, greetings, and other
uniquely Canadian communications. All this is delivered in a light,
irreverent style that keeps the reader jumping ahead to spot the
funniest bits. Witty, sometimes self-consciously precious, a joy for
trivia collectors, and, overall, very entertaining, this book takes no
prisoners. Readers will be “happy as a clam at high tide.”