Warning: long, long rant ahead…
The time has come to pack up some boxes and start nudging the orbit back towards southern California. But if you have a few large boxes you want to stash somewhere in the city, you need a means of transporting them.… [Read More]
It seems that when you live in a certain place, you become the default consultants for tourism in that place. People contact you, sometimes on behalf of people you don’t even know, wanting to hear about the best restaurants or most exciting local experiences or whether the weather is weathering, etc.… [Read More]
Manon and I have a weekly ritual to bike over to the Jardin Botanique where we wander around, admire the seasonal plantings, look at wildlife, and have a coffee or lunch in the café.… [Read More]
In 1926, in far-off California, some dude by the name of Julius Freed opened up an orange juice stand. According to Wikipedia, in ’29, an associate named Bill Hamlin came up with a recipe that added ice, sweetener, milk, vanilla flavoring, and egg white to make the beverage tastier and less acidic.… [Read More]
Sylvain and I went to the MTL Pride parade yesterday; it was a homegrown affair but with abundant color and music and smiles.
Here are a few photos and three short videos of an Irish-dancing rainbow, two-stepping white hats, and a good ol’ cheer squad going to town.… [Read More]
Last weekend, our niblings “Felix” and “Jenesse” came up to visit, coinciding with another canicule. It was ludicrously hot and humid, and yet we managed to fit in a lot of good activities.… [Read More]
I’ll get back to Becky deMarie and pretendian issues soon, but in the meantime I want to tell you a true story about a girl and a strawberry.
I’m the girl.… [Read More]
I read the news in French every morning to build my vocabulary and keep apprised of local goings-on.
As a result of this article (it’s in French only, sorry) about a cyclist who was injured after sliding on a newly-painted pedestrian crossing, today I learned the term dos d’ânes, or “donkey backs.”… [Read More]
Canicule = “heat wave” to you and me. Also vague de chaleur. Either way–much, much hot.
Temps are going to be “dangerously high” this week in Montreal and Ontario: 30C-35C, with humidex values of up to 45.… [Read More]
A subtle cultural layer you discover in a new city is the locally-sourced humor, i.e. the local problems that are joked about by the people who live there. Per my post yesterday about the Grand Prix, Dan Ramos Comedy posted the above graphic on Reddit with the headline, “I Fixed the F1 Poster.”… [Read More]
