Tim Hortons

Warning:  This blog post contains no physical science.  It does, however, contain a bit of psychology and a discussion on doughnuts!

This past weekend my family and I traveled to Ontario, Canada for a wedding.  I've traveled to Canada on 3 other occasions for work, but this was the first international trip for both my wife and daughters.  While there I made sure to take them to a Tim Hortons.  If you've never been to a Tim Hortons, you need to find time to go.  They are everywhere in Canada, but there are a few in Michigan.  We stopped at one in London, Ontario for breakfast on our way home.  You're probably asking, why was I so excited to take my family to a Tim Hortons?  At Tim Horton's they sell chili AND donuts.  I don't know why I find this so funny, but something about eating a bowl of chili and a doughnut at the same time is funny!

Despite this being funny to me, Tim Hortons is obviously very successful.  It seemed like there was one located off every interstate exit.  Determining the right food combos is important in creating a successful restaurant.

Enough about eating chili with donuts.  Now for the doughnut hole story.  Whenever we go out for doughnuts my daughters both want doughnut holes.  At Tim Hortons they are called Timbits, but I assumed that doughnut hole was a common term.  I was wrong.  When ordering I asked for a few doughnut holes for each of my daughters.  After paying I noticed the employee was boxing up regular doughnuts.  I got her attention and let her know that I wanted the doughnut holes.  She looked at me kind of odd, pointed to the hole in the doughnut and said "yes, doughnut holes".  It was then that I realized the phrase 'doughnut hole' is not used in Canada, or at the very least, not used at this restaurant.

The employees there were very nice and fixed MY mistake without getting grumpy.  This was another difference we noticed between people in Canada and the U.S.  People in Canada are generally much nicer and more patient than people in the U.S.  Everyone was very polite while there.  

So despite the lack of science in this blog post, I learned a few things to pass along to my daughters.  Some phrases have different meanings in different countries.  In addition, Canada was a good lesson in politeness.