2013/05/22

  • A Photo
    Tunnel Champ-de-Mars – ­2013.05.14

    Scènes de Montréal – Montreal Scenes

    Above

    Beginning of the pedestrian tunnel joining the Champ-de-Mars metro station (the one with a stained glass artwork) to the actual Champ-de-Mars behind City Hall. It passes under Autoroute Ville-Marie (720) and rue St-Antoine (for which there is an exit mid-way into the tunnel).

    Lack of something…

    Gee, no post since May 12. I’m not sick or anything. I’m just tired all the time and occupied by other stuff which I always put off to later which in turn stresses and tires me. It’s what we call here the Hygrade syndrome, a wiener sausage tv ad slogan which incrusted itself in everybody’s mind: More people eat them because they are more fresh; they are more fresh because more people eat them. That can be applied to just about anything. Found in an article from my paper on the net: More people leave Montréal because taxes are too high. Taxes are too high because more people leave Montreal.

    I have no idea if this slogan was used and settled as a popular expression in English Canada, but in Québec, anyone over 25 or 30 knows what you are talking about when you mention the “syndrome Hygrade”. Maybe some of the younger ones too.

    UPDATE: I found a video of one of the ads, from 1982.

    Reminder

    It’s mentioned in the header, but just in case, I’ll remind that the pics I take with my camera are available in a larger version than the one displayed. Being way too large, I start by saving them in half their original format. This takes less bandwidth for those with slower connections. This new format still the same remains large enough to fill an average screen so I post it in a smaller display. The larger one remains available by clicking on the picture, once, or twice if a (+) is then displayed. I mention all this in case one would like to see parts of a pic in more detail and didn’t know the above.

    Incongruity

    A former city on the island of Montreal and now one of its boroughs since 2002, Verdun, issued a permit last week for the opening of a beer outlet, some kind of pub producing its own beer. Yeah, so? Verdun was a dry city. No bars whatsoever, and since like forever. Something quite strange for a city located at a stone’s throw from downtown Montreal which during the American prohibition was the mecca for those of them who were thirsty of both alcohol and skimpy dressed girls. It is even more strange for me that in Wikipedia they say that Verdun harbors the largest concentration of “Madelinots”, that is people coming from the Iles-de-la-Madeleine (Magdalen Islands) located in the Gulf of St-Laurent (Lawrence). For having had some of them as classmates in university and having been there myself a couple of times, I can say without the shadow of a doubt that, as most islanders, they have no stiffness whatsoever in the elbow as far as alcoholic beverages go.

    By the way, Verdun has nothing to do with the 1916 Verdun Battle (WWI). It was named such in 1671 by Zacharie Dupuis who was conceded a bit of territory which he named Verdun in remembrance of his native town of Saverdun, in the Ariège region of southern France.

    Dry city – Take 2

    Two-thirds of those living on the island of Montreal, roughly 1,3 million people, learned this morning that for at least 24 hours they had to boil their tap water for one minute before drinking it. That is for those where the water was still clear. For example, in forementioned Verdun, it was looking more like liquid mud. The thing is, they did this morning some major upgrade work on one of the two main Montreal pumping stations, which incidentally is located in Verdun. They were supposed to lower the water level in one large reservoir but something (or someone) screwed-up and the basin was emptied much more than it should and all the crap (they call these ‘deposits’ ) lying in the bottom was granted a new life, so to speak. Needless to say, it didn’t take long before finding bottled water in a store became a space oddity. Hospitals, child care centers and the likes didn’t find it funny.

    Defacedbook

    After going at the hospital for blood samples last week, since it was very nice outside, I elected to go for a stroll in Old Montreal rather than returning home. I stumbled on an ex-colleague who was outside for his afternoon break. He’s got a Twitter and a Facebook account. I checked his Twitter. Opened in 2010. Same trajectory as a North Korean rocket. Smashing start, one tweet after the other, then slow fall down until early 2013 with a single tweet a month. None yet in May. I read somewhere a few days ago that Facebook stock market shares are still valued at 31% less than their start value. Some people must be biting their nails (I won’t cry). I don’t understand those companies that spend lots of dough to open and manage a Facebook account while neglecting the corporate website approach. I’m convinced Facebook is doomed sooner or later. Teeny boppers who posted pics of their asses for the world to see have now grown and realize that what they posted back then, and now, is in Facebook’s hands for eternity. They will leave. Advertisers will also flock to better pastures when they find out that most of the new potential users work for a dollar a day in Bangladesh. On the other hand, Twitter of what I hear and read, would have a promising future, for different reasons.

    Monkeying with Twitter

    Somebody knows what happened to Justin Bieber’s monkey?

    note: this section is Twitter compatible [55 characters]. Hey, I’m practicing…

    Alexandre [le Bienheureux] is back

    Somebody heard about that Sardinian postman who had 400 kg of undelivered mail stashed in his garage? People of his village of Mores in northern Sardinia don’t think he’s a bad person:

    «He is a good person. Even if at times he came back late and drank a little too much» told Fidel, owner of an hotel in Mores. And, according to the village’s hairdresser, the postman was not trying to control their lives: «I think that he is simply lazy.»

    I like people who put their priorities at the right place.

    AFP story (en français) here.

    Another freak

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/18/pete-santilli-hillary-clinton_n_3299247.html

    Some days I think that American-style democracy SHOULD NOT be exported. There are limits to free speech.

    Georges Moustaki 1934 – 2013 – In Memoriam

    image photo


    © Uncredited in Youtube – Video however was shot on Ile Ste-Hélène facing Montreal.

    IL Y AVAIT UN JARDIN (There was a garden).
    Georges Moustaki

    This is a song for children
    Born and living between steel
    And bitumen between concrete and asphalt
    And who may never know
    That Earth was a garden

    There was a garden we called Earth
    It shone in the sun like a forbidden fruit
    No it was not paradise or hell
    Or anything already seen or heard

    There was a garden, a house, trees
    With a bed of moss to make love
    And a small stream running without a wave
    Came to cool it before pursuing its course.

    There was a garden large as a valley
    Where we could find food in all seasons
    On the burning ground or the frozen grass
    And discover flowers that had no name.

    There was a garden called Earth
    It was large enough for thousands of children
    It was once inhabited by our grandfathers
    Who themselves got it from their grandparents.

    Where is it this garden where we could have been born
    Where we could have lived carefree and naked
    Where is that house all doors open
    Which I’m still looking for and find no more.

Comments (8)

  • I linked to that huffington headline and closed down immediatley. That kind of thing hurts my stomach. Meanwhile, I love the attitude of the people of lazy postman’s village. Of course it is annoying but why go over the line over the inconsequential. If it is important you would not send it in the mail? Right?

  • Are horses supposed to cross there too? I like the painting of the horses. They give energy to the place.
    Tomorrow i’ll do; it is the Spanish way …and my way too. Keep postponing, and one day you realize the time flew away. Not a bad thing: time goes whatever you do or you don’t.
    Never heard of this Higrade syndrome. I’m afraid (me too I’m afraid of many things) this will not work with the taxes: they will put more taxes if people leave Montréal, but they will rise the taxes if more people come into Montréal. The taxes always go up whatever happens.
    Sardinians are weird people. I don’t think this postman is lazy, perhaps he was not delivering post that people really didn’t want to receive. like bills. Four years and 400 kg of mail before they found out? a village of 2000 people? He had properly filed in his garage, by the way.
    you must be part of this village to know the truth. No wonder they forgive him. Who wants to receive the bills?
    Il postino (the mail man)is a great film too.

  • 4 quintaux, c ‘ est lourd et la Sardaigne est montagneuse . On devrait payer à cet infortuné facteur un mulet ou mieux, un cheval comme le tien au début de ton entrée .
    Champ de Mars -Verdun , on se croirait sur la Voix Sacrée via Bar le Duc en 1917 . Mais c’ était une sinistre chanson à ce moment-là .

    Facebook , j’ en fus mais j’ ai vite abandonné .Cela a phagocyté une grande partie de Xanga .
    Le hygrade syndrome me fait penser à la paralysie qu’on éprouve en hésitant entre ce qu’on aurait envie de faire et ce qu’on devrait faire . C’ est épuisant! Dans ce cas là mieux vaut aller faire un tour en ville .
     A propos d ‘Hilary!! Ils n’ y vont pas de main morte ses opposants . En France elle est plutôt appréciée . On la trouve courageuse .

      Amitiés

    Michel

  • I’m still enjoying Twitter but I find FaceBook to be kind of dreary. Xanga is the best of all. I’m glad that there’s an Iles-de-la-Madeleine.

  • FaceBook is way overrated and should drop off the face of the Earth, IMO. The Verdun of the Great War figured prominently in one of my favorite porn movies.

  • J ‘ appris la mort de Moustaki hier .Encore un monument de la poésie et de la musique qui nous quite!

  • Very cool song

  • Now I’m intrigued …

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