2013.03.27

Fine palate

The above critter seems quite fond of freeze-dried sage. Maybe it's Italian.

Playing silly games

That Kim Jong-un is one heck of a dangerous freak. You don't spread matches everywhere when you're sitting on a keg of powder. One day a stray and uncontrolled loose cannon on the deck could light one up and kaboom! He's also got a funny haircut. Maybe he's overheating in there and needs some kind of ventilation. Maybe his brain is too small. It's like with computers. If the CPU is too small, it can't handle the job and is always running with the pedal on the floor.

More Poperies

Pope Francis moving in his newly renovated appartments.

Cartoon © A-P Côté, Le Soleil

Catch-22

I went to see my family doctor this week. The last time was last summer, before I entered the hospital. She told me she was awfully glad to see me. Alive I mean. I had managed last month to have the hospital (the second one) send her a resumé of my medical file so she was aware of what I went through. She asked me if I was still taking alcohol, adding that in my condition stopping completely would be kind of mandatory, but the choice was mine. Of what I understand, not stopping completely would mean dying sooner, and stopping would mean dying later. Is this what they mean when they talk about "losing some quality of life"? Ah!... Decisions... Decisions...

Repeat

The large demonstration in Paris against gay marriage reminded me of what happened here last year. At first it was strictly about student tuition fees, but it soon became a funnel for all the anger and resentment towards the then government. François Hollande is not very popular these days (a euphemism) and there is a lot of discontent about the economic situation.

Gay marriage

I have not much to say that hasn't been already said, except that from all the arguments against it that I've heard, I'm still waiting for one that is rational and based on proveable facts.

Jazz

My friend who built that castle came to Montreal last week and paid me a visit. I had the TSR (Swiss) radio on and he mentioned a Jazz station in Paris called TSF Jazz and which I think he has playing as background music in the rooms of the castle (there a loudspeaker in each room which guests can turn on or off). Anyways, it's 24 hour jazz and blues and to my knowledge, there's no ads. At least not when I listen to it, which is in afternoons or evenings, but most importantly during night-time over there. Night music, so to speak. The French were always great jazz fans, and it shows on this radio. I didn't find any direct link to the player, probably because they offer many of them. The link to the site is http://www.tsfjazz.com/accueil.php# and once there click on "Ecouter TSF" (Listen to TSF) on the left then choose Flash or one of the other players.

Easter follies

The doorbell rang early this afternoon. It was a delivery man for a flower shop. Needless to say, I was surprised, no one having ever sent me flowers. It turned out it was flowers sent by my mother for Easter. . My first problem was to find something to put them in. I don't collect flower vases. Eventually I went to the nearby dollar store and bought one for 2$, a glass tubular one. The flowers in the arrangement are tulips. I don't know if it's because they were many hours without water, but they don't seem very vigorous. I'll see tomorrow if their spirits get better.

On my part, I went to Marché Jean-Talon this afternoon, foremost to buy some sausages and a jar of kumquat marmalade. Sign that I'm recovering and that I am still a food slut, I ended up with much more than that in my recyclable bag. I even ended up with a second bag. At Zinman who are my pusher as per sausages go, I bought a pack of chipolata and one of merguez. I also bought some hefty chicken drumsticks. They were in packs of six but the butcher offered me to repack them in three packages of two, which saved me the trouble to do it at home. However, there's a bunch of Italians working in that butcher shop, which sells many other items. For Easter, they had fancy panettones on display. They also had a woman there who was very convincing in enticing someone to buy one. I don't buy often large panettones since they are too much for me but she had smaller ones and this being that, I ended up with a Colomba di Pasqua (Easter dove) which she put in a fancy little bag with stylized flowers printed on it. Not to mention the other ones part of the panettone's wrapping. So all in all, today era il giorno dei fiori (was the day of flowers).

It's been a while since I made onion soup and for that I needed a piece of Swiss Gruyère, which I bought at Capitol. For munching (and protein) purposes, I also bought a piece of firm cheese and it ended up to be another Swiss one, a Vacherin Fribourgeois. Smelled good. And tastes good also.

There's a store at Marché Jean-Talon which sells St-Dalfour jams for a price that's a steal, 3,99$ while almost everywhere else it's about 5.50$. But more so, they have jams not often found elsewhere, like kumquat and mirabelle. Mirabelles are small yellowish prune grown in northern France. Kumquats are shrunk oranges.

Flower update:

The flowers have nothing wrong, finally. It's me who is not flower litterate. I spoke to my youngest brother today. He has worked at times as a helper in a flower shop near my mother's place and told me what I didn't know. Like for instance that those little vials the stems are stuck in at delivery time are used to keep the flowers alive until they are sold and must be removed before putting them in a vase. I stupidly thought they contained plant food and therefore should not be removed, furthermore that the water in the vase enters in them to water the plant. Well, it doesn't. Not a drop. The stems are very tightly inserted in the covers of those vials. No wonder those tulips looked like the were supporting on their shoulders all the sins of our current federal government. After removing the vials, cutting the ends bevel-edged and replacing them in the vase, it took only a few hours for the flowers to get all perky again. Too bad we can't get rid as easily of the forementioned government.

On a side note, I'm not that crazy about those vials. They remind me a lot about those they use to collect blood samples.

Da food section

Kind of an eclectic week as far as food goes....

Tuesday, I had that second eight of pizza from Motta. This pizza is their "campagnola" which means country-style but in this case it means essentially veggie. Since rapini (a variety of Italian broccoli) is delicious on a pizza with black olives and onions, and since I didn't have any rapini but did have lots of broccoli, I added my personal touch, along with a few sliced kalamata olives (it already had sliced black olives). I also add hot oil at service time. It's not hot because I heat it, it's hot because I take olive oil and let it simmer a while with whole habanero peppers in it. I can guarantee that hot here means HOT. A cupful of this oil will last me a long time, since for obvious reasons, it is only used sparsely at a time. This is the thick crust type of pizza and after eating a piece like this one, I'm full.

On Wednesday, I made some curried chicken. Normally the chicken parts are to be kept whole, but since I cannot cut meat once it's served or at least it's a pain, I try to cut it in smaller pieces before cooking. In this case, I have to use breasts instead of thighs or drumsticks. You will notice the absence of a glass of wine. This was on the day I had that [gentle] sermon given to me by my family doctor and I was still a little freaked out about it. I also did this meal at around 21h00, which was a dirty trick to play to my upstairs neighbors. When you prepare to go to sleep, the scents of curry and other spices is not necessary what you want to smell. Because besides the curry, there was also cinnamon (too much), allspice and garlic in there.

Friday afternoon, I noticed that my corner supermarket sold already cooked (on location) and sliced roast beef, and in small packages. That's one of the advantages of living in a big city where single people are a dime a dozen. You can get most everything in individual sizes. Anyways, there were many packages. Some were a bit rare, others well done. The rare ones were too thick for me so I chose a well-done one. I made a mushroom and Madeira flavored sauce to drape those slices and with a few vegetables, I called it a meal. This time around, having had no beer nor wine for two days, I permitted myself a sip of wine, which I measured to be about 70 ml. I'll ask my hepatologist in May where 70 ml stands in that scale between soon and later (see above). Anyhow, I didn't even finish it.

And of course... to all

Not a kumquat --->

2012.03.22

Go away, Winter

Last year at this time, it was around 24˚C. Right now (Friday 19h00) it's -4˚C. When I think that we were wearing summer clothes for that 200,000 strong march that kick-started the "Printemps érable" (above), and what I'm currently hearing outside are the plows and snowblowers removing the snow from the last storm on my street and sidewalks, it's almost to cry. I'm so fed up with winter...

Being informed

La Presse columnist Pierre Foglia is sending his current column from Baghdad. He was there a few times also before the invasion. How many American journalists, reporters, whatever, went to Baghdad for the 10th anniversary of this stupid invasion? I'm not talking about going around under the protection of their "troops", I'm talking about meeting and talking to ordinary people, in the streets, in their homes, in the schools, those who get-car bombed daily these days (all days since 2003, in fact) and also those who were showered with fancy American bombs back then. There was talk on a public affairs program a few days ago where some Canadian reporters were mentioning that they and other journalists from Europe were there, in the heart of Baghdad when Bush pushed the Go button, and were in the front seats to witness the carnage, and shared with the Baghdadis their bomb shelters. Meanwhile the Americans were all stashed with their troops, embedded as they said. Not one was seen in Baghdad. It's no wonder that ordinary Americans were not informed of what was really going on in Irak. Who would have told them? Today, we hear about all those civilians who died since 2003. What about all those thousands of children who died 'before' the invasion, because of the heavily supported by the U.S. embargo. Or that Irak was one if not the most heavily surveiled country in the world, including over its own territory, making it the most improbable "danger" in the area. Attacking Irak was like cutting butter with a hot knife, a cowardly gesture. Nothing heroic there.

Seeping imperialism

Today [Friday] I went to a local Dollarama store near my pad. Dollarama is a large Montreal-based Canadian dollar store chain. I was looking for plasticine or whatever is called that stuff you can mold in the shape you want. It's for exercising the fingers of my disabled hand. They didn't have what I wanted, but they also had close by something else I'll never want: a rubber ball with a map of the world printed on it. Over Canada and the United States, it was stamped in bold "North America". In smaller letters, over Canada it was stamped "Canada" and over the United States, it was stamped "America".

I don't know who is the person who elected to rename the United States into America on that map, but I do know that the middle finger or my other hand is still working very well thank you.

Da food section

Today, or was it yesterday, it came back to my mind that March 19 is St-Joseph's Day. Or, in Italy, giorno di San Giuseppe. And what comes with San Giuseppe? Zeppole, of course. I remembered from past years that they continued to sell them for some time passed March 19 so this afternoon [Saturday] I decided to go buy myself one at Motta's, next to Marché Jean-Talon. On my way I wanted to stop at Sabor Latino to buy a few cookies and stuff, and other stuff like eggs and tomatoes and Seville oranges (if they had any left) at the Marché itself. Since I knew my shopping bag would be heavy for the return trip, I had decided beforehand to come back by bus and had checked the schedule accordingly.

I am in a pastry/sweets craze these days. In the last week, I bought at my corner supermarket and ate a small but deep cherry pie (4 servings) and a large piece of date squares (good for about 6 decent squares). Yesterday, my sister who lives about two hours from here came to help me with some shopping here and there. I needed bed sheets, mats for the kitchen, and other stuff. She brought along with her a bunch of carrot cake squares (those topped with cheese). Hers are quite good, by he way. While I was at Sabor Latino, I got the cookies I was there for (wonderful late evening snacks) but got also tempted by a rack full of cinnamon rolls. I only bought one (I'm still in control, somewhat). I also bought one of those Mexican apple soda pops (Sidral Mundet) since I had one last evening with a luscious hot dog I had for supper. There are two varieties, golden and green apples. I needed the green one. If all this wasn't enough, there is a bread/pastry shop at the corner my street and Bélanger, owned and run by Latinos. I don't usually go there because they have many specialty breads, but not the kind I usually buy, not being, nor my innards, particularly fond of bread containing whole grains and the likes. However, yesterday, coming back from the Dollarama, I decided to hop in and check things out. Still the same type of breads. They also had quiches. I bought a small one, tomato and onion, and which I'll have for tonight's supper. I noticed almond squares and, surprisingly, natas, a Portuguese specialty. I took two of both, not expecting much. I ate one of the almond squares and not much is indeed what I got. I don't expect more with the natas. Those little things are filled with a crème pâtissière which is not that difficult to make. What differentiates a good natas from other ones is the crust. It has to be flaky and very ligtht, like a croissant, and that is hard to find.

On display below, sister's carrot squares and the zeppole, on the left. In the plate, up front, the remaining almond square and the two natas. In the back, the biscuits and the cinnamon roll. It was not dented when I bought it but it kind of found itself in the bottom of the bag at some point. I also always have some Oh Henry! chocolate bars on hand. When I left the hospital they told me I needed to eat proteins galore and these bars, the ones with peanut butter, are loaded with them. Next to the bottle of green Sidral, some black currant (cassis) beer. Quite delicious but to be opened when very cold. It was only lightly chilled when I opened it and it started to foam like crazy in the bottle. I had to quickly find a glass and the nearest one was the one I had used yesterday and not washed yet, hence the beer being flat in the glass. The red box behind it all does not contain anything edible. It's a pair of Chinese balls, which I also use to loosen up the fingers of my disabled hand. In the top left, my paper, otherwisee known as intellectual food. Rarely contains sweets these days.

Of course, you can't enter Motta's without also coming out with a piece of pizza. I took a Campagnola quarter pizza, which is essentially a veggie pizza, and good for two servings. I would have taken a smaller one (1/8) but the choice was not to my taste. I'll just put have of the pizza in the freezer, unless I have it two days in a row.

UPDATE:

The quiche was very good. I'm a fan of onions, and since it had plenty... The crust however, especially in the bottom, was still trying to match its name. Gone also last evening was the cinnamon (?) roll. The zeppole had its armageddon today, at breakfast time. If it weren't for the carrot squares, my stock of sweets would rapidly be getting dangerously low.

2013.03.19 - 19h04

Shock and Awe I

Today at 7h00 something, it was the yearly anniversary of the arrival of Sping. What we could see through the back door had more to do with shock than with Spring.

Shock and Awe II

Paul Wolfowitz (the guy who ran around with holes in his socks) showed up on tv yesterday. As if we cared to see his face, or his toes, again. Tony "The Queen" Blair did the same. He was still adamantly defending the invasion. He should see a neurologist. He seems to be suffering from post-traumatic something. No news from Richard Perle. Good move, Richard. No news either from that other dick, Cheney. I've heard that George "Job Done" Bush is now into painting. I wonder if he paints limbless Iraki kids. Maybe he's more into executed Texas convicts.

Benji Netanyahou is pissing more and more on Obama's leg. Or is it the other way around? Then again, maybe Obama just wants to hire Benji to walk his dog, so as to make that hysterical Republican woman happy. Anyways, this is all about the next invasion in Iran, so it can wait for now.

Just heard on TV that Obama will address the Israeli Youth tomorrow. Israeli Youth? Gee, sounds like another one from last century...

Shock and Awe III

If things continue on the same path, the "where" in "Where is Syria?" will become superfluous. Then again, if either Amadinejad or Netanyahou get their way, maybe it will be shorter to just ask "Where is [has gone] the Middle East?".

Irish immigrant workers were much involved in the widening of the Lachine Canal starting the mid 19th century

Poperies

So it will be a tango-loving White Latino Argentinian of Italian origin and who doesn't care for glamour. That could destabilize some old farts in the Vatican curia. I'm still wondering what the other cardinals had in mind by choosing him.

Passings I

One of my aunts died last Monday, at 92. She was my father's sister, who in turn was her favorite among her brothers and sisters. He would turn 90 this year had he not had the misfortune of dying along the way (with a little help from Gordon's Dry Gin). When I was born, my newly-wed parents were living at her place and maybe because of this, she also became my godmother. She had a store and was very generous with my family. I had promised myself to attend her funeral, especially since I was retired. She still lived in the Acadian Peninsula, back east. The funeral was held only this Saturday because they were waiting for the arrival of the youngest of the family who is a medical doctor now living in Lexington, Kentucky. For obvious health reasons, I could not attend. With my unable arm, I cannot even rent a car for any purpose. But my mother and sister did attend the funeral.

Passings II

I may soon be extinct. Well, sort of. Not me in fact, but my avatar. A nasty little critter called the Asian citrus fruit psylla attacks orange trees, forcing them to be cut. In Florida, orange production passed from 242 million crates in 2004 to 142 million in 2011. Bad weather conditions over the years also didn't help. What makes things worse is that producers, especially in Florida, then get in a situation where they are forced to sell the vacated orange tree lands to promoters, making it impossible to eventually renew production with new trees. Brazil would be the world's largest oranges producer (30%) followed by the U.S. Oranges rank fourth as the most cultivated fruit on the planet.

Niet!

Today March 17 is the tenth anniversary of Canada's historical NO to joining the U.S. in attacking Irak without a previous U.N. resolution to this effect. The then Prime-Minister, Jean Chrétien, regrets nothing, quite to the contrary, saying (my words) that the proof of Iraqi arms of mass destruction would not have convinced even the judge of the municipal court of his hometown, Shawinigan.

Excerpt of a forum entry by yours truly in March 2003, on a now defunct site:

«If military action proceeds without a new resolution of the Security Council, Canada will not participate.»
Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada, House of Commons, Ottawa, March 17, 2003.

I pride myself for being one of the 200 000 Montrealers (and of the 250 000 Quebecers) who marched once again, last Saturday, against this invasion. I would like to think that our sustained efforts were in part responsible for our government, to the surprise of many, not budging to American pressure. But then again, who else did, besides Bulgaria? To my knowledge, the US is the only country in the world (except maybe Kuwait but I'm not even sure) where the majority of the population is in favor of this insane invasion. And the next time Bush insults the rest of the world by saying that France is the only one responsible for his diplomatic disaster, I puke.

My "Bush fatwa" is still in effect.

St Patrick's Day I

repost from March 17, 2004 (in same previously mentioned deceased forum) :
---------------------------

« Can't let this day go without wishing all those Irish people out there a very happy St Patrick's day!

We have a lot of Irish descendants in Québec (it is said that 40% of Quebecers carry Irish blood) and Montreal hosts the longest-running St Patrick's Day parade in North America. It is an event enjoyed by all Montrealers. «Now in its 180th edition, the parade is the oldest and longest running Saint Patrick's Day Parade in North America, even rivaling the parade held in Dublin, Ireland. The first Saint Patrick's Day Parade ever held in Montreal took place in 1824 to the delight of the city's thriving Irish community. One hundred and seventy-eight years later, the parade is still going strong, attracting thousands of elated onlookers dressed up in green for the occasion. A few things have changed since then, with the Queen of the Parade presiding over the event in the very last float, in a tradition that began in 1956.» from http://english.montrealplus.ca/portal/feature/8114/5.jsp.

In fact, it is hundreds of thousands that line up Ste-Catherine Street each year in a very festive (and wet ) multi-cultural extravaganza. Hey, this year's Queen of the parade was half-Irish half-Nigerian, and Black! From another site: «She chose McGill University for her international development and economics studies in large part because it has a good lacrosse program - she's an avid player - and for Montreal, which she calls her favourite city in the world. "I love the fact that it's really multicultural, which it truly is, and so diverse," she said. "I find it's very accepting of people from everywhere." »

Montréal rocks! And Irish Montrealers are a big part of it! »

St Patrick's Day II

Probably as with the U.S., many of Québec's Irish came here during the great famine of 1845-1851, when the potato harvests were destroyed by mildew. Potatoes were the basic food of poor Irish people. There's a long historical story also behind these events, involving Great Britain, but I'm not familiar enough to talk about that.

Musical icing

To end this post, an excerpt from the concert Idir gave at the Paris Olympia this last February 2nd, accompanied by his daughter Tanina. Idir sings in the Kabyle language, his mother tongue. The Kabyle language is a Northern Berber language, part of the Afro-Asiatic family. Kabylie is in Algeria.

The first song is a well-known song in the anglo world, with Kabyle lyrics. The second is sung in French by Idir's daughter. The fourth and last song is an event all by itself: the two pairs of mothers and daughters dancing on stage, that weird and typical sound women make with their hand flapping in front of their mouth, and the general festive atmosphere in the hall, all combine to make one wanting to have been there. Full screen much recommended for this one.

By the way, Berbers are not Arabs.

Jewish girls on their way to the swimming pool - July 16 2012 - 14:56:04

Above

The red brick building where is the recyclables bin is a municipal swimming pool, whose entrance is on St-Hubert, where that alley way leads to. Many times, I saw mini buses dropping off or picking up groups of little girls like this one. I can tell they are Jewish by the way they look and by the way they act. First they are mostly all pale as if they suffered from acute anemia. Then, they dress like in the fifties, but in making also sure that no part of the body below the neck is left uncovered, even if it's quite hot outside. It's even more obvious looking at the two monitors.

There is a time lapse of only two seconds between the previous pic (last post's header) and this one. In the first one, the girls are having fun, loosely congregated around their monitors, except the one holding a blue floater balloon, who seems to be preoccupied with something on her right. The one with the pink shoulder bag seems also preoccupied by the same.

In the second pic, the object of their preoccupation appears. It's a lightly clad girl on a bicycle. The one with the blue balloon is now safely back with the others, who have stopped being playful and who watch the passing girl with a mix of curiosity and apprehension.

In both cases, you'll notice where the monitors are standing. A small version of crowd control.

O Papa é brasileiro

Although I have no stake in this, from what I've read about the papabile, my prediction goes to Brazilian Odilo Pedro Scherer. That's if the cardinals have guts. Otherwise, my take would be Italy's Angelo Scola.

Pearl Harbor II

Kim-Jong-Un says he'll nuclear bomb US territory, most likely Pacific islands, if the US and the others from the U.N. street gang continue messing around with his sandbox. The good news is that if ever we're short of stand-up comics, good ole Kim will be there to fill the void.

Looking for trouble
Photo © AFP Photo-KCNA via KNS

Best wishes

I wish good luck to those living in northern Europe and who are now drenched under snow. I know how it feels, and I'll feel less lonely when I talk about our own storms in the future.

Jewish girls on their way to the swimming pool - July 16 2012 - 14:56:02

Sociological issues

Civilization does not progress at the same rate for everyone. Included in the civilisation package is the ability to confront different ideas than one's own without going berserk. The discrepancy of such is clearly identifiable in some individuals' actions. These latest should also steer away from religions. They don't have the basic requirements to handle the thing.

Lahore, Pakistan - Photo © Adees Hassain, Reuters

ADD-ON - I should have mentioned that the above pic was accompanying an article about what happened very recently in Lahore, Pakistan, an incident based on a flimsy blasphemy accusation.

Beer gut

I read recently that beer guts were a myth. I can prove the contrary. After my 5½ months in hospitalia, I had lost 15 kilos, and much of my flair may I add. I have recovered 4 of those kilos (that's 10 pounds of butter for the kilo-curious). None of that heavy-protein-almost-beerless fat settled in the front region, nor in the back for that matter. Both sides were the winners in this. In other words, the perfect illustration of the famous "handles of love". And a smashing defeat for those espousing the forementioned theory. There won't be any pic substantiating this and you'll have to take my word for it.

Medical report

There's nothing nice to say about last week so case closed.

2013.02.28

Take 2

I'm returning to my Fall resort tomorrow afternoon, for a scheduled operation on Monday. Nothing new. It was planned for over two months. It's to get rid of a cancer spot on my liver, by the means of a procedure called chemoembolization. It is not related at all with the lung thing, aka it is not a metastasis. The procedure requires only local anesthesia. Afterwards, a few days under observation are mandatory (2 to 5) to make sure everything is ok, so unless something goes really wrong (that can't happen, can't it? ) I'll be on leave from this site for about a week.

Take none

Tonight is the tenth Montreal "Nuit Blanche". I cannot participate because I have to be fit for hospital tomorrow, and even then, I'm not in enough shape for such a city roaming exercise. It's quite disappointing because of what I know, it should be better than last year, which itself was better than the one before, and so on... Oh well, since the Mayas had it all wrong, there should be a 2014.