“I’m a politician, I’m not above taking credit for the Canadian funding that helped you share this story with the world,” Carney said. “I greenlit this thing. I stood up to the Americans.”

And an article here with a bit more information.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Soft power scholars can get in on this too.
bsky.app/profile/nest...

16. A poster for an AI Chatbot for a supermarket in Seoul, part of the AI #LinguisticLandscape of Korea . . .

A couple of nights ago at dinner, me and a friend here in Seoul talked about Minneapolis, and the information you share here was a big part of that conversation, so thank you for that, and it certainly seems to me you are helping the world see what is happening in Minneapolis, for what that is worth

"The Korea-specific approach has already begun to bear fruit, with some Korea-developed products, such as city-themed items inspired by Montreal and Victoria, now adopted in overseas markets."

Lots of articles coming from this press conference.
m.koreaherald.com/article/1066...

"the brand is aiming to create the image of an idealistic Canadian cafe that people 'imagine and yearn for' — an experience that comes with a premium price"

A bit of a different and more detailed take on the state of Tim Hortons in Korea

koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2026-01...

Oh yes, talk of entering the cool zone is a sign of entering the cool zone, I suspect, and I am very sympathetic to those who would like to live in less interesting times

Would like to know more, and learn what people have to say about "may you live in interesting times" and Lenin's "weeks where decades happen" too. All interesting ways of talking about the various terrible things happen around the world.

I actually don't remember it much from my corona days, but have definitely seen it used in the context of Greenland discussions, and I am not sure how much it might have migrated out of leftie spaces to more center-oriented international relations folks, but I really REALLY don't know . . . .

Yes! Lots of great potential and projects in that vein, I think. This is my favorite example of something like that I know
lingscape.app

The cool zone entry seems to be very well done! I've seen more use these days so I would be curious about how people are using it these days, but yeah, very good work here, I think.

Both are very interesting and a sign of our terrible times, which collectively is the more important issue of course, but how people talk about these things is important, so yeah, hope someone takes a good long look at all this language.