Answers to True North Quiz

I am a Penguins fan because the team captain, Sidney Crosby, hails from my town. Good guess, though, Lucinda!

Here are my answers to the quiz in the last post, but not all of them are definitive answers, as you will see. Thanks to all who shared their knowledge and guesses in the comments!

1. The fashion victim in the photo will be laughed at. It is not cool to be helpless in the winter because of your shoes, or fashion generally. And who would ruin a good pair of heels like that!

This is the going look:

2. Yes, they are ice cleats that you wear over your boots to provide extra traction, like this:

These are a light-duty version.

3. It is an ice chopper for breaking up ice in your driveway (caused by freezing rain, or by snow melting and then refreezing). You can also use a metal garden shovel, an actual ice pick, or (like me) an axe!

4. The blue thing is a ring for ringette, Canada’s other national sport! It was started up in the 60s when girls didn’t play hockey, but it has survived through the days of girls’ and women’s hockey teams because it is a good sport in its own right:

And they are always blue!

5. You guessed it, mitten clips, although it’s true there is also an extended version for keeping your pant legs inside your boots:

6. Some drivers leave their wipers up when it snows or it’s icy so that the wiper blades don’t freeze to the windshield and peel off. Did you know there are summer and winter wiper blades?

7. In my opinion, the minimum number of snow shovels you need is one per person in the household (as Holly noted), or else you will have a very grumpy solo shoveller. Ideally you want a lightweight shovel that can hold as much snow as you are able to lift and throw, that also has a tough edge for scraping. I stick with the basics!

8. Yep, it’s a hockey bag – a fancy Hockey Tower. As if the actual hockey gear itself doesn’t cost enough!

9. These are All Season tires, so you could use them in the light snow that is pictured, but nothing heavier. If you drive a truck or SUV with 4-Wheel/All-Wheel Drive, then All Seasons may be OK. But the rest of us buy snow tires and use them ~5 months a year. Check out the tread design:

Where I live, studded tires or tire chains are viewed as being only for the mountains.

10. It’s a low-cost plastic slider for sledding/tobogganing, one step up from a flattened cardboard box! They used to go by the brand name Krazy Karpets.

11. An auger for drilling holes in the ice for ice fishing. Can also be used to test the ice to see if it’s thick enough to skate on. Or you could just chop a hole with your axe!

12. You can hire a company to steam the ice from your roof gutters so you don’t break them by chipping at them with…an axe! But if your house is designed well, you shouldn’t get ice dams. FYI, you can hire people to shovel the snow from your roof so the weight of it doesn’t cause damage. You have to shovel your deck regularly too.

13. I am impressed that Fiona and Lucinda realized this was from a moose crash. Hitting a moose on the highway totals your car, kills the moose, and often you too. I spared you a photo of a dead moose in the windshield. It is also possible for chunks of ice to fall from buildings onto your car, or for a tree to come down in an ice storm.

Looks like an alpaca crossing here!

14. The tread marks show it was done by a sidewalk plow, the “child” version of a snow plow.

15. Yes, it’s a skate trainer. Watch this 30-second video!

I just spotted these for the first time: awesome!

It is typical to start kids skating when they’re 2.

16. It’s B, the UK, of course – what a “nightmare”! Not to trivialize the actual Arctic fronts when they do come through.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/355056/Britain-set-to-freeze-in-long-Arctic-winter

Of course this is how I really like to spend my winters:

Book, blanket, cat. Just add a latte!

Kudos to Gill, Cat, Holly and Asian Pear who are True Northerners, to Fiona and Lucinda for giving it a good try despite the lack of context, and everyone else who chipped in!