For more than fifty years Hinterland Who’s Who kept Canadians supplied with little-known facts of interest.
THE PUMP JACK
The North American Pump Jack
is a type of the nodding donkey
also found
in Arabia.
The Pump Jack flourishes in
the Great Plains of America
and adjacent prairies of Canada.
It can be found in packs or alone,
feeding on fossil residue deep beneath its iron snout.
One habit of the Pump Jack is to die
standing with its head lowered,
as if at the end of a lifetime of bowing prayers.
Thus,
a metronome of industriousness
becomes
a monument to exhaustion.
For a more complete story of the Pump Jack,
why not contact the Canadian Wildlife Service
in Ottawa?
THE TALL POPPY
The Tall Poppy
is also called
the Great Northern Atwood
because of her ability to emit popular literature
from Toronto.
Poetry, every genre of fiction, economics, and lit crit
all provide good homes.
The conspicuous stature of the Tall Poppy
drops a sundial shadow across the Canadian hinterland.
Neighbouring poppies, disoriented
by one so like and unlike themselves,
complain
of the shade.
Accordingly,
they discharge a variety of parasites
to attack her attitude and reduce her altitude.
For a more complete story of the Tall Poppy,
why not quit grumbling about her persona
and actually read her books?
THE NFB DOCUMENTARY
The NFB Documentary
is the smallest member of the film family.
Once a populous species riding the Canadian airwaves,
it now hovers on the brink of extinction.
The NFB Documentary spends much of its time
gathering scraps of nationalist pride.
When the celluloid is full of itself,
it stores these scraps
in close-ups
or caches them
in its archives.
The call of the NFB Documentary
—and it has but one call in its repertoire—
has come to narrate the internal wilderness
of many Canadians with its stiff, stilted, and
hesitant quality.
For a more complete story,
why not contact the National Film Board
in Montreal?
