Thursday Thirteen #23

Continuing my Salute to Canada in honor of Canada Day, July 1st

THIRTEEN CANADIAN ACTORS

Oh sure, everybody knows Pamela Anderson, William Shatner, Jim Carrey and Mike Myers, but did you know THESE thirteen were born under the Maple Leaf?

1. Dan Acyroyd - SNL, The Blues Brothers
2. Conrad Bain - Mr. Drummond from Diff'rent Strokes
3. Raymond Burr - Ironside, Perry Mason
4. Kim Cattrall - Sex & the City
5. James Doohan - Star Trek
6. Matt Frewer - Max Headroom, Star Trek: NG
7. Joshua Jackson - Dawson's Creek
8. Matthew Perry - Friends
9. Jennifer & Meg Tilly - Sultry Jennifer is the better known sister, appearing in Bound, Bride of Chucky and Liar Liar. Meg, who left acting behind for a writing career (yeah, Meg!), is best known for her role in The Big Chill.
10. Christopher Plummer - this icon has been in more than 150 movies, but he'll always be known as Captain von Trapp from the Sound of Music
11. Jason Priestly - 90210
12. Keanu Reeves - Speed, Matrix
13. Shannon Tweed - can be seen weekly on Gene Simmons Family Jewels, but starred in quite a few erotic thrillers during and after her Playmate days.

I admit to not knowing 8 of them were Canucks. Did any surprise you?

Thursday Thirteen #22 - Inventions

With Canada Day fast approaching (July 1st), I thought I'd post some Canadiana. Here are

Thirteen Canadian Inventions

1. Electric Light Bulb – Henry Woodward invented an electric light bulb in 1874 and sold the patent to Thomas Edison
2. Garbage Bag (polyethylene) – invented by Harry Wasylyk in 1950
3. Heart Pacemaker – invented by Dr. John A. Hopps in 1950
4. IMAX Movie System – co-invented in 1968 by Grahame Ferguson, Roman Kroitor and Robert Kerr
5. Jetliner – the first commercial jetliner to fly in North America was designed by James Floyd in 1949. The first test flight of the AVRO Jetliner was on August 10, 1949 (if you don’t know anything about the AVRO ARROW, I urge you to Google it. The story is nothing less than fascinating)
6. Plexiglas – polymerized methyl methacrylate was invented by William Chalmers in 1931
7. Portable Film Developing System – invented by Arthur Williams McCurdy in 1890, but he foolishly sold the patent to George Eastman in 1903 (d’oh)
8. Robertson Screw – (and the Robertson screwdriver!) was invented in 1908 by Peter L. (you guessed it) Robertson.
9. Snowmobile – invented by Joseph-Armand Bombardier in 1958
10. Television Camera – invented by F.C.P. Henroteau in 1934
11. Trivial Pursuit – invented in 1979 by Chris Haney and Scott Abbott
12. Walkie-Talkie – invented by Donald L. Hings in 1942
13. Zipper – invented by Gideon Sundback in 1913

I found so many interesting inventions made by Canadians - I had no idea - and it was very hard to narrow this list to a mere 13. If your interested in seeing more, go HERE.
The one that shocked me most was the lightbulb.
Which one surprised you?