Many ships played important roles in the HBC history. They maintained order and carried on trade with Alaska. On the West Coast those most familiar were the steamer Beaver and the schooner Cadboro, both armed with cannon.

No matter whether a society operates at arm's length or cheek-to-jowl, the women look at each other more and stand a bit closer than do the men.

Instructors are hoping that he won't go off and train with some other teacher of a McDojo where producing masses of black belts (but the quality and standard is poor) is the norm.

Lastly there's an intriguing linguistic pocket in the easternmost Dolomites town of Sappada where Plodarisch, an old Bavarian-Tyrolean dialect, is spoken.