I wasn't saying that Boston's and Canada's accents are similar, just that they're different from a flat midwestern accent or a southeastern US accent, largely in vowel pronunciation. (I don't think that there's a good way to say one is the standard that others are variants of, because that would have to be British English, and that's just not a good standard to base off of for North America.) I've never been to Toronto, but I have been in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI, and they definitely do talk like that there. Or at least the rural folks do. I suppose I should have said ``southeastern Canada''. No offense intended. (That Jamie Sale figure skater girl has an accent to me, as does Wayne Gretzky. Maybe they don't to you because of what you're used to? Just a guess.)

(In reality, the very first time I was up there, after I crossed the border from Maine, I almost immediately got lost, and stopped at a gas station. I had assumed that you were right in that there really wasn't that thick an accent. But when I told this guy that I was lost, the first thing that come out of his mouth was ``Well, weere ya goin' to, eh?'' I swear to God. It took a lot of effort not to laugh in his face, not because it was that inherently funny, but because it caught me totally off guard.)

New York could have easily been included in that list (or Chicago or Minnesota), except there are so many different accents in NYC. But that's kinda my point. These are just accents. Even if you have a thick accent, if you pronounce a word incorrectly, you're pronouncing it incorrectly. For example, you can pronounce ``forget about it'' with a thick Brooklyn accent and still be pronouncing it properly. But saying ``fuggeddaboudit'', with or without such an accent is wrong. (I'm inclined to say that Brooklyintes are saying the first, really, but you get my point.)

(And I assume you meant ``pronunciation with flair''. )

Which point does it go against? I don't think it does, but I could be totally wrong. (And, come on, ``ass-podium''? What kind of half-assed attempt was that? You could have at least called me a ``know-it-all bastard''. At least that would have been true. )

Also, pride over ignorance does not seem to be a good thing to me. I don't think that anyone should ever be proud about not knowing something. It's just that there's not necessarily any shame in not knowing certain things.