You Americans crack me up.

I thought this was a joke when I first heard about it, until I found it online:

This is about crossing the border with a Kinder Surprise Egg.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/pointofview/2011/...the-border.html

And some people think that the nanny state is North of the border.

Interesting. Never knew there was a specific ban on having non edible items inside food. Somehow McDonalds is exempt from this :-)

That's ridiculous.

Kinder Eggs are age 3+ - with regards to that US finding in 2008.

I guess no one in the US does any Christmas cakes with a prize inside them either.

There are a lot of other food items banned in the US which are commonly brought over, nearly all to do with food colourings banned in the US, so UK items like Irn Bru, Lucozade and Smarties (before the change to natural colours) are banned, even though I'm sure they are brought in a lot.

At least they did the right thing and just threw it any and didn’t fine her. I know I get nervous crossing the border just because I’m sure I don’t know all the stupid rules like this and I’m probably breaking the law somehow.

Every branch of the government seems to be doing nothing but constantly putting stupid laws in place.

It would be nice if for every law that was put in place one would be taken away.

No inedible items inside edible ones? What about olives and other fruits (with pits/seeds), meat (with bones), or even popsicles (with sticks)?

Don't be giving them any ideas Dan!

For the first two, I'm guessing that they wouldn't be recommended - or at least marketed and sold - to kids. For the last one, I'd guess that it's okay because the stick is the handle and not a small piece inside that can easily be swallowed.

Don't get me wrong, I've always thought it was weird that Kinder eggs were hard to find here (you can get them in some specialty shops, at least in my area), but really, some of those toys inside are pretty damn small and intricate. I certainly thought they were cool when I was a kid travelling to Italy, though!

We've brought Kinder eggs into the US countless times. My wife misses them from her childhood in Puerto Rico, so we always pick up a half dozen or so when we're out of the country to give to all the nieces and nephews (and sneak a couple for ourselves.) I feel so naughty now

Yes, I actually "grew up" with Kinder eggs, which is not too good given the poor chocolate quality, I am told.
But I had hundreds of their toys and they are indeed small and intricated. You would often lose parts in the effort to mount them. Over time, I guess this became a legal issue because they increase the parts size considerably.

Still, I too think it is a bit excessive to forbid them. Also because the inside toy comes in a fairly big yellow plasitc container (egg-shaped, sort of), which all kids would end up putting in their mouths, at some point. I did so, so so many times, and you definitely cannot swallow those things I think. I hope.

A lot of fun memories with Kinder Eggs...

I remember that the first time that I arrived in New York, in the 70's, at a time when rather than computers, border staff had volumes of photos of undesirables comparable to Brittanica, ahead of me in the queue was an Indian in nothing but a loin cloth, holding a cricket bat - don't ask me why. All the booths stopped and the queues got longer and longer whilst a circle of border staff debated what to do: Eventually he was led away to somewhere behind the scenes - a strip search would have taken 30 seconds!

You Canadians crack me up.

(Of course I recognize that America does plenty of silly censorship as well -- in fact, I'm really just posting this because it seems decidedly un-Canadian to ban (or force the censorship of) a song that's been on the radio for 25 years due to the use of a derogatory word by a character in a song.)

Yes, that's absolutely ridiculous. Good catch. Theres a big difference between a word and the usage of the word. Unfortunately someone in government, and the listener who complained, don't get it.

If I were the band, I'd record an alternate version and replace the offending word with the word "cocksucker" instead. That way it has nothing to do with sexual orientation.

None of the above examples tops this.

tanstaafl.

About now we in New Orleans start getting inundated with King Cakes. They typically have a small plastic baby inserted when they are sold. MOST manufacturers actually put the baby in. Some leave it on the side for you to put in yourself. The idea is, it's a communal cake, but whoever gets the baby has to buy the next one and bring it in and the process begins anew.

That's the same custom in Portugal (same name too). And specifically what I had in mind when I previously mentioned cakes. Didn't know they were customary in Louisiana as well.

The is an Irish Halloween tradition based around putting things in cakes:


I also recall having apple tarts as a child with coins (wrapper in tinfoil) in them.

As for the Kinder eggs....don't boarder guards have bigger concerns?

I've certainly neer been asked if I'm bringing any Kinder eggs into the country, but according to that article they've seized quite a number of them over the past year. Was it 25k? Wow.

Specially trained Kinder sniffing dogs!

A salesman I know had all his product demo tapes confiscated by the Canadian customs, because they said "Omnithruster" on the label.

The Omnithruster is a vibratory parts feeder...

Omnithruster is my porn screen name.

=D

The Canadian customs folks are looking for you...

To extend my derail a bit, I rather liked this post about the "Money for Nothing" fiasco.

Over here, a faggot is a kind of meatball, are we sure that's not what Dire Straits were on about, after all, they are a British group? A pity that Canada, with its UK connections, couldn't take in to account the other meaning!
For many years, a number of silver sixpences were put in Christmas cakes in Britain - I think the tradition faded out with decimilisation in the 70's.
If border guards can come up with such illogicality, I wouldn't try crossing borders with a Kindle, you might be misheard!

Canada doesn't mind it at all -- it's our worst government in history, with their Republican-wannabe leanings, that is taking offence.

Same idea here, too, though more common in birthday cakes.

Cheers

I thought it was a cigarette. (Though it's clear from context that that's not what he's talking about. It's also clear that's he's singing in the character of a terrible, terrible, person.)

That's a "fag" here, I don't think its ever been a "faggot". Fag also refers to a british public school tradition of junior boys acting as servants for seniors.
oops "seniors" is also an abbreviation of "Senior Service" a very strong cigarette, marketed as having naval connections!

I hesitate to admit this given the tone of the thread, but I've always assumed that song was edited for air play (I hardly ever listen to the radio, but I have the CD).

To be honest, I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to censor it. It's a pretty offensive term, even if the context of the song makes it clear that the speaker is not someone the listener is intended to respect. I assume it wasn't censored originally because people weren't as sensitive about gay rights in the mid 80s?

Either way, for people who are concerned about what their kids or grandma might hear while listening to public airwaves, I could see this song causing discomfort.

In Canada? Who knows, for sure. I've heard the f-bomb regularly go un-edited in songs (think Tool's "Sober"), but it depends on the region, and the radio station. Back in the '80s in southern Alberta, Quiet Riot's girls rocked their boys. When I lived in Ottawa, one of the radio stations I listened to aired this show, which could get very explicit. We did, however, manage to be nationally embarrassed by Ashley McIsaac's antics.