# Question for twickster on the Toronto Maple Leafs **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 7, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305 "2012-12-07T16:03:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/61 "2012-12-13T18:35:39Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > That’s funny. 😛 > > _GO STEELERS!_ Clearly you never lived there otherwise you would have said “GO STILLERS” n’nat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/62 "2012-12-13T18:50:51Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > If I ever find a team named the Old Glories, Bald Eagles or Declarations of Independencies (sic?), I’ll have to ask. OK - we got the Senators. But considering the average American couldn’t name 5 Senators (hockey and political combined) they hardly could as a National symbol. > > Like funky bacon, I’m betting the national symbol thingy is all yours. New York Yankees, New England Patriots, Dallas Stars (a reference to Texas’s star, but a “national” symbol in that sense) Washington Nationals, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Columbus Blue Jackets, and I won’t even try to list them all in big time NCAA sports. Is Maple Leafs really worse than “76ers”? Come on. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/63 "2012-12-14T01:05:16Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Clearly you never lived there otherwise you would have said “GO STILLERS” n’nat. > > 😃 :rolleyes: yinzers 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/64 "2012-12-14T17:28:09Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Is Maple Leafs really worse than “76ers”? Come on. That is my point - no worse but no better as well. And equally open to ridicule and abuse. It was LEAFFAN who tried, in a manner of speaking, to claim otherwise. If - and its a big “if” - the Maple Leafs were actually named for the Canadian flag as he asserts the equivalent to us would be “Old Glories” or possibly “Stars and Stripes” and I can’t find in a fast google even a high school team so named. As for the various “national symbols” you list, I fall back on my “Senators Defense” – get some average people across the country to name 5 Patriots or Texican founders. Those are no more National Symbols than Steelers, Iron Men, Indians, Talbots or whatever. One of the main reasons teams can get away with claiming them as their local symbols. And claim the team itself as a national symbol (IE - Dallas being “Americas Team”) ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/65 "2012-12-14T17:30:20Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > :rolleyes: yinzers 😉 Or as a coworker just said - “lunchtime - jeet jet?” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/66 "2012-12-14T17:32:03Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > It was LEAFFAN who tried, in a manner of speaking, to claim otherwise. If - and its a big “if” - the Maple Leafs were actually named for the Canadian flag as he asserts … I never said that. The Leafs were founded decades before the flag. > [@](#): > > [According to many historians, the maple leaf began to serve as a Canadian symbol as early as 1700.](http://www.pch.gc.ca/pgm/ceem-cced/symbl/o3-eng.cfm) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/67 "2012-12-14T18:07:48Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > That is my point - no worse but no better as well. And equally open to ridicule and abuse. It was LEAFFAN who tried, in a manner of speaking, to claim otherwise. If - and its a big “if” - the Maple Leafs were actually named for the Canadian flag as he asserts the equivalent to us would be “Old Glories” or possibly “Stars and Stripes” and I can’t find in a fast google even a high school team so named. As a national symbol, the maple leaf is pretty lame. Not as bad as Wales using the leek but still pretty bad. If the US picked the turkey as our national bird and we had a team called The Turkeys I’d expect that they would be ridiculed. BTW to be pedantic, octopus is false Latin. The plural is octopodes. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/68 "2012-12-14T18:50:19Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > And my apologies to Twickster and others as well but given the way the Philadelphia Eagles usually play, are we 100% sure they aren’t representing Poland? 😉 Hey, I know this dates me, but I still remember the battles of the [North Pole](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Jaworski) and the [South Pole](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bartkowski) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305/69 "2012-12-14T19:05:45Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > BTW to be pedantic, octopus is false Latin. The plural is octopodes. Not exactly, “octopus” is from Greek and the Greek plural is “octopodes”. In English, the most commonly accepted pluralization is “octopuses”. The OED lists octopuses(common), octopi(false latin), octopodes(rare) If, for arguments sake, octopus was from Latin it would be octopes with the plural octopedes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-twickster-on-the-toronto-maple-leafs/643305.md?page=3)