Library offers services of public writer
The Mordecai Richler library is experimenting with offering a new service, that of a public writer, who will help people draft letters, CVs and the like.
The item mentions the prevalence of the tradition in France. The Wall Street Journal had a piece ten years ago about it (the first 4 paragraphs are accessible). French Wikipedia has an entry as well as examples from literature and movies.
PatrickC 16:39 on 2021-04-18 Permalink
There have been three seasons of a Quebec TV series called L’écrivain public, featuring a character who does just those things.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5477376/
Kate 19:11 on 2021-04-18 Permalink
Well there you go. I don’t watch TV, not just TV in French, TV at all. I don’t even know how you go about getting a TV and plugging it in, now.
I sometimes think I owe the blog the effort to get a TV and watch it, but you know how it is – you get a TV, then you have to get a sofa (don’t have one of those either), then a coffee table, and the next thing you know, you’re living in Brossard…
steph 21:59 on 2021-04-18 Permalink
Good luck buying a house in Brossard in this market. Koodos on the ‘no tv life’.
ant6n 03:58 on 2021-04-19 Permalink
Wait, no sofa?
Kate 09:39 on 2021-04-19 Permalink
Why would I need a sofa if I don’t have a TV?
jeather 11:59 on 2021-04-19 Permalink
To nap on with the cat? I like having them when there was such a thing as “visitors”.
Kate 14:09 on 2021-04-19 Permalink
Several real reasons. I like my apartment, but it doesn’t have any space corresponding to a living room in the classic sense. In normal times, I socialize with friends elsewhere, meeting in a café or resto, going someplace together, or visiting them if it’s agreeable.
Also, I’ve seen how people, especially women, especially as they get older, start living on their sofa. Watching TV, eating, sleeping on the sofa. It’s a passive form of life I don’t intend to adopt.
Tee Owe 14:46 on 2021-04-19 Permalink
Yeah right Kate, men never lie on sofas, not with their cats, not even while typing replies to Mtlcityweblog – I’m with Jeather on this one
jeather 15:24 on 2021-04-19 Permalink
I’ve known a bunch of elderly women who have couches and none of them who were mobile ended up doing that (the ones who spent time on their couch didn’t do it until they lost mobility either). Not that I think you need to have a couch if you don’t want one.