Off to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan this weekend for a week-long conference called the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which is the largest annual academic gathering in Canada.

I’m actually looking forward to visiting Saskatoon because I figure: “When will I ever get there otherwise?”

Saskatoon is Canada’s City of Nicknames. It’s known as Toontown, S’toon, the Hub City, POW City (for potash, oil and wheat), and the City of Bridges. Most oddly, though, it’s called the ‘Paris of the Prairies.’ Don’t know why, exactly… Do you think Parisians ever refer to their city as the Saskatoon of France?

Me neither.

I’m staying at the Delta Bessborough, which is supposedly “one of Canada’s legendary railway hotels. Canadian National built ‘the Bez’ in the early 1930s to resemble a Bavarian castle.”

Sounds like I should bring some Gothic novel to read. Is Transylvania anywhere near Bavaria?

See you in June!

– S.