This was supposed to be posted yesterday but Xanga was on the party or something... anyways it was playing dead.
Turkey!
Happy Thanksgiving (belated Day and ongoing Weekend to all Americans!
Back to work
I resumed showing my face at work on Tuesday. I was still feeling all crooked on Monday, but after two working days of sick leave, it becomes more complicated (management can be more picky before allowing more) and since I didn't care to open that can of worms, especially that they are a litte nervous about H1N1, I decided to give it a go on Tuesday, hoping for the best. I knew I didn’t have H1N1 since I had had no fever, but I didn’t have the usual cold symptoms like congestion, runny nose or eyes, etc. Only cough, muscle soreness and funny digestion. It went well on Tuesday so it was a good move.
Needles
Wednesday, they started giving the H1N1 vaccine to the general public in Montreal, a little earlier than previously announced (was to be Dec 7). Before, they were prioritizing those who needed it the most. They do this at several locations around the city (including the Olympic stadium) but one of the largest was right in the Palais des Congrès so I went after work since it was on my way and contrary to those line-ups they had earlier on in the vaccination program, it went pretty smooth and I wasn’t there more than ¾ of an hour, including the 15 minute waiting period after the shot itself. They show you a little video beforehand explaining what it’s about, possible side-effects, and such. It was pretty well handled. So now I have to wait the 10 to 14 days it takes to be totally immunized.
Kickin'
To get it over with medical stuff, I went to see my doctor this morning for the results of last month's blood tests and ECG. Looks like there's nothing there to wake up a sleeping concern. So if science can't figure out why I feel like my legs are failing on me after climbing 10-step stairs in the metro going to work in the morning, who will? When I got out, the bus had just left so I decided to walk uphill until the next one passed, and use this time to reflect on the matter. Uphill is here to be understood as Avenue du Parc, on the eastern slopes of Mount Royal. Very calm this morning, with the fog. (header).
Confessions
On Tuesday was the last episode of a fall series broadcasted on Radio-Canada Television and of which I hadn’t watched a single episode, although I had seen it hailed here and there in the media. I went on the Radio-Canada site and was surprised to see that all twelve one-hour episodes were available for viewing, formatted each into five segments of about 10 minutes. Not having much to do, and being the curious person I am, I thought to myself Hey! why not give a look at that show which so many critics were having good words for. I ended up going to bed at about 1 AM, after having watched in line the whole first four episodes (out of 12). Then episodes 5 to 8 on Wednesday evening.
Can I risk the word hooked?
More to come.
(Oh, I forgot. The series' title is "Aveux" (Confessions).
Still feeling too wretched to go to work, especially the incessant coughing. I didn't need this. Not missing work, who cares. But feeling generally miserable.
Fine (?) export
Apparently there is a four-page report about Québec's poutine in the November 23rd issue of the New Yorker. They mention it's a Canadian dish but do stress it is foremost a Quebec one, where it was invented in the 50s (this they didn't mention, it's just an extra I add for free). They also mention that we contend that our smoked meat is not pastrami, and surprisingly they seem to question this. Pastrami is an Italian word so therefore it comes originally from Italy. Italians being a dime a dozen in New York, this would not be surprising at all, would it? Our smoked meat, on the other hand, was brought here by Jewish immigrants from Central Europe, the most famous being the one made and sold by the Schwartz family on boulevard St-Laurent. It obviously has no connections with Italy. It may look like pastrami, but it isn't pastrami. They also mention that we share with New York the honor of being a bagel mecca. This time, they do mention that ours are different than the New York ones, more sugary they say.
The article is not available online but it can be listened to through a podcast on on this other site.
Faithful readers of course already know all what is to know about the Montreal bagel and the Montreal smoked meat. But since memory has this tendency to park souvenirs in long term storage bins when they are not brought back to mind often, these links will help recover these in a jfffy, as fresh as they were at about this time of year, in 2006: the Montreal bagel souvenir and the Montreal smoked meat souvenir.
Linguistic bonus: In French, "poutine" is pronounced like the English "put" + "tin" (short in both cases - there's no pronounced accent in French). For some reason, the anglos prefer to use "poo" + "teen", with even more stress on the "teen". I don't know why since they can very well pronounce it using the original. I'd understand if it was written putine, the French (and German) "u" being out of bounds for most English speaking people, as is also the case with Latinos for that matter.
In the wake of the Quartier des spectacles uplifting, the streets and public places behind and at the east of Place des Arts are ripped open for a major overhaul, not to mention the new Symphony orchestra hall under construction on the Place des Arts premises itself. It's a traffic nightmare. Someone told me they expected to finish most of the street work for December 1st. We'll see.
In the pic below, Avenue du Président Kennedy is the street upfront where one lane is being used temporarily to house the Boul. de Maisonneuve bike path while De Maisonneuve is being redone. De Maisonneuve at that point runs parallel to Kennedy and it's where there's the sand colored car on St-Urbain (or the person with sand-colored pants). The public place under construction south of De Maisonneuve will face directly the new orchestra hall. The steeple on the left is the UQAM building which I talked about before and where "that" student video was taken.
I'm stuck with another of those colds which makes one miserable so I'm staying home today. No fever though. That's somewhat good news since fever these days lifts the alert flag for the H1thingamagig.
Foaming at the mouth
Algerians beat Egypt and qualified for the next Mundial, yesterday in Sudan. For those not reading the news, the previous match in Cairo had given way beforehand to a very disgraceful event when Egyptians threw rocks at the bus carrying the Algerian team, injuring three of their players. Luckily the match, where police almost outnumbered spectators, ended up even, explaining the need for this third one which was held in a somewhat neutral territory for both countries.
There are a lot of North Africans in Montreal, a lot from Algeria and Morocco. There is apparently a concentration of them a little eastbound on Jean-Talon, an area which is called "Le petit Magreb". I didn't know about this. Yesterday evening, there would have been around 5000 of them celebrating by hitting Jean-Talon street which had to be closed for a stretch of about one kilometer. No incident was reported.
Some years ago, I mentioned something about football (soccer) being a much less violent of a sport than hockey and how I was pleased by many parks now harboring soccer fields. At the time, Lausanne_guy cooled down my enthusiasm mentioning that in the case of soccer, violence is just as there, except it's among the supporters. I have to say he's been proven right ever since. Now I'm stuck with a dilemma: what is better, having parents and spectators yelling at hockey players (including kids) "kill him! kill him!" or soccer fans actually taking matters in their own hands by punching the faces of the other team's supporters. I'm not a big fan of organized sports. I don't like the barbarian odors that emanate from them at times. Or rather that they serve as a haven for the barbarians of this world and the non-barbarians, for some reason, pretending they don't see anything of it.
Accessorily, I always wondered why Sarah Palin calling herself a "hockey mom" was an asset during the elections (which she isn't at all by the way - that was an insult to all "real" hockey moms). Then again, thinking about whom she was trying to get the votes from, they'd probably be the type to yell "Kill him! Kill him!" at their kids on the ice, starting with the bimbo herself.
Addendum: I had barely finished editing the above when a favorite woman journalist of mine was a guest on a radio show and said that the only reason people were still talking about Palin today is that she is a sexy woman, that if she had been disfigured in an accident after the elections, she' d be long forgotten.
A success story
Not everything goes bad these days. The BIXI is now closing shop for winter, bikes and stations are slowly being removed until November 30th. The stations were designed to be removable very easily, considering our climate conditions. This way, they could be put directly into the streets in densely populated areas, occupying former parking spaces, and lengthened or shortened according to the needs. They come in segments of six, I think four (I checked). Not long ago, the BIXI crossed the one million trips landmark. And this in its first season. Needless to say, it was a huge success. The vandalism which took place in the first weeks seems to have vanished. Maybe it was just a small gang who got caught, or those who did it got tired of the novelty, or citizens seeing it done blasted thost people out, but who cares, if it has stopped. It made me mad initially, but after reading what happens in other cities having this type of bicycle loan program, we're are apparently a bike heaven in comparison.
Here, in the Old Port (Sept 9).
Even more positiveness
The libdub video some communications students of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) made and had posted on YouTube in early September has now topped the two million six hundred thousand views mark. Hey! Reading the comments from all over the world, I think maybe they should be recognized with some award by the Quebec government for outstanding performance in projecting a positive image of Quebec and more so of Quebecers.
Adddendum: I just found out they released a making of three days ago. Nice views from both the outside and the inside of the church... er I mean the building.
Since we're on the auto-congratulations mode...
A small Montreal publicity and design firm made this cute video about Montreal. It goes fast but there is in there a lot of locations I've posted or talked about before. I had to view it more than once to identifiy them all.
Locations featured in the video, in order of appearance: Quartier des spectacles Five Roses flour plant (in old port) Marché Bonsecours Juste pour rire (Just for Laughs Museum) Maurice Richard arena (on Olympic complex) Théâtre du nouveau monde (theatre company near Place des Arts) Restaurant Schwartz's (famous smoked meats) Parc Maisonneuve Chinatown Olympic pool Percival Molson stadium (football on McGill University grounds) Métro Beaudry running carpet (in Gay village) Musique Plus (music channel) Théâtre Jean Duceppe Place des arts de Montréal Le Belgo art gallery Centennial place La Grande Bibliothèque de Montréal L'Opéra de Montréal Radio-Canada Biodôme Fine Arts Museum Mount-Royal Biosphère Montreal Sciences Center (in old port) Design Centre Design School UQAM BIXI Montreal International Jazz Festival Cinéma l'Impérial Les Foufs (Foufounes électriques bar) Les Alouettes de Montréal (football team) Pizza Sipan McGill University Habitat 67 UQAM McCord History Museum Olympic Stadium Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (car race circuit, Ile Notre-Dame)
The music is by the group The Unicorns, a Montreal indie group now disbanded.
Lifetime
Uphill is here to be understood as Avenue du Parc, on the eastern slopes of Mount Royal. Very calm this morning, with the fog. (header).
Reading the comments from all over the world, I think maybe they should be recognized with some award by the Quebec government for outstanding performance in projecting a positive image of Quebec and more so of Quebecers. 