Two things you don't mess with in Vancouver

There's an old saying that you learn something new everyday. That old adage is doubly true when you are a stranger in a new city that also happens to be in another country. I have learned that there are two things you don't mess with in this city. The first: Tim Horton's.
You can say racist things, you can say sexist things, you can curse, you can spray off color commentary all over the place around here but if you say something bad about Tim Horton's (like for instance making fun of the fact that they call donut holes Timbits) the average Canadian will be ready to drop the gloves in a hot second.
The other thing you don't mess with is Canucks' hockey. I found this out while trying to find some place that might have the Pistons playoff game starting two hours before the Canucks game seven. I don't have that many sports channels at my place so I miss most Pistons games. I called one sports bar and the guy that answered the phone seemed mad that I asked. I'm sure he was wondering how anyone could even consider watching another game when one of the last surviving scions of Canadian hockey's fate was balanced on the precarious perch of a single game.
I remember how we used to circle the wagons for game sevens in Detroit. So its not that I don't understand the feeling that has come alive in this city. It's just that I don't care.
Although little by little its sinking in. I do love sports and I wonder from time to time what it would be like to hit a big slapshot, or streak down the ice on a breakaway trying to beat the opposing goalie with the game on the line.
Then I remember that I'm a 6' 6'' half-black man that was born in Detroit, and raised on Pistons basketball. Talk aboot and identity crisis.
Anyway I was wandering home from the dairy queen and I saw a screen in the window of a restaurant called Moxie's. I stopped and squinted. Where those basketball players? Yes, they were! And wearing white jersey's trimmed in red and Pistons blue? Was it possible? Then I saw number 22 loping down the court with that peculiar gate that could only belong to Tayshaun Prince, the 6' 9" forward with the 7' 2" wingspan. It was the Pistons! Moxie's indeed. It took a considerable amount that particular trait to display American basketball in a city whose mind's and hearts always have and probably always will belong to Ice Hockey.
So I was able to catch at least part of the Pistons' game, more than half actually before the impending game seven blew nervous Canucks fans in like a sudden squall and drove me back to the relative safety of the shelter of my home. Now I'm reduced to an internet ticker that tells me that the Pistons are currently leading 73 to 63 while I listen to a crowd booing the American national anthem at the beginning of the Canucks' game. You learn something new everyday. Today I learned two things. 1. You don't mess with Canucks' hockey and 2. You can buck even the strongest trends with a little Moxie.