Month: March 2020

The sports world is full of terminology and slang that is used by its viewers and players of the game. Every sport has its own specific slang that references the sport its self, but I’m talking about basketball words that can be heard throughout world from lovers of the game. With that said words like “nasty” and “crossed” are used heavily all over the league (NBA). This is amplified when viewing on social media and networking platforms because words like those are littered in the captions of game highlights. For example “House of Highlights” a well known page on Instagram will post basketball highlights and under them may read along the lines of “_____ might have just done the nastiest play in sports!!”. Game commentators have used them when commentating but most tend to mock in a joking way due to their age, I would say all of them are over 40 but the basketball culture is so strong to where it makes it’s way to the past generation. When you hear someone using basketball specific slang you automatically have a base of relativity. Because it shows you care and have immersed yourself enough in ball culture to where you know you can talk anything to do with the league with them.

Reading Moon of the Crusted Snow was a suspenseful experience for me, and genuinely had me unable to put the book down at times. But that’s not what I found so intriguing about the novel, what played a big part in me not being able to put down the book was how the setting made me feel.

This story takes place on an isolated reserve up north, small and overall a tight knit community, as well as it being outdated on some everyday essentials people south are used to. Such as satellite signal and electric heating which Evan (the protagonist) mentioned is relatively new to them. Though they still rely on wood stoves, hunting, and other methods of living that the modern world would view as outdated. This resonated with me so well due to my family connection on my mother’s side who live in Pikangikum First Nation, a fly in reserve that is around 300km southeast of Winnipeg, a second home I visit annually. Having lived there till I was about five years old, it helped me visualize the setting to a point to where I was fully immersed. References to “The Northern” an all-purpose everyday store really drove home where it takes place for me, since the store is exclusive to communities such as the one in the story, and my own. Another point Evan had made is that they have banned alcohol use making it a “dry reserve”, but still people smuggled it in. A issue that occurs regularly in Pik to where they have screened vehicles coming in on Friday’s in an attempt to keep booze off the land. So I would say things are pretty similar.

With that said I enjoyed the story that much more since I found it so relatable, and for a far northern reserve it lived up to my expectations.