The botanical garden’s Agave guiengola is flowering, something it only does after 20 years of existence, whereupon it dies. Not sure the Espace pour la vie is fair in describing the sight as “once in a lifetime”: most of us have hopes of seeing a few 20-year cycles before we too expire.
Updates from January, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Radio-Canada has been investigating the early links of the Saputo family with the Bonanno family from New York, and connections with the Rizzutos here. English version on the CBC side. Lino Saputo published a memoir last year in which he denied any links to the mob. (I bet John Parisella has a few anecdotes from ghosting that book.)
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Kate
Céline Dion’s mother has died at 92. Besides being the mother of 13 kids, including an international star, Thérèse Dion became a media star in her own right and established a charitable foundation. Her husband Adhémar died in 2003.
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Kate
The Journal has a preview of downtown’s third food hall to open within a year, Le Cathcart in Place Ville-Marie.
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Kate
It’s being reported around that city hall opposition doesn’t like Bird or Lime scooters. Again, why is this news? The correct response is “That’s nice, dear.”
(By the way, technically, does a city council even have an “official opposition” the way a full-scale Westminster-style parliament does? Or is it just journalists inflating the role of the second-largest party?)
Uatu
Probably because lime has been recently been pulling out of some markets and laying off staff. Maybe they’re trying to ride the wave of disapproval to get rid of them. Which is no big loss. The scooters are just sidewalk obstacles that are transported from place to place.
Blork
I doubt this opposition has anything to do with Lime’s pulling out of other cities (why would Mtl’s opposition give AF about that?). More likely just the standard griping about anything that’s not “business as usual circa 1970.”
Ephraim
As a pedestrian… hate them. Probably wouldn’t if they would follow the law and stay off the sidewalk. But I still don’t understand who takes these things… expensive like heck and dangerous and do they really get you anywhere quickly?
Blork
I too am annoyed by seeing them splayed all over the sidewalks. That said, I can see their appeal because I’m sure they’re fun to ride and it’s potentially a good way to cover a relatively short distance quickly.
For example, let’s say you’re coming out of Brutopia on Crescent and you get a text that your buddies are all over at one of the Ramen shops on Ste-Catherine near St-Marc. Hey, there’s a Lime scooter, so you jump on and zip over there in about four minutes, knocking over only three or four pedestrians and causing hardly any cars to swerve to avoid you. And that would cost what, three bucks? Less than the cost of each of the four lattes you had today, so cheap. And since you’re a millennial you’re used to spending money that way because your GenX/Boomer parents RUINED EVERYTHING and therefore you are convinced that you will NEVER HAVE ANYTHING since those older fuckers took everything and left nothing for you.
So yeah, that’s fun.
jeather
Taking some cues from qatzi about weird screeds?
qatzelok
While I also don’t like tripping over them, we do need every alternative to Giant, killer trucks and SUVs.
Ian
More battery operated toys isn’t the answer, especially as we know lithium batteries are a resource that is gathered in a way that exploits workers.
I mostly see these clustered around McGill or in clubland, these are toys. Blork’s rant aside they do truly only seem to appeal to a certain category of consumers in very specific contexts.qatzelok
I look at them like toys.. .that you can also get around on. Sort of like Mustangs, Jeep CJs and other “lifestyle” vehicles. All of the large, gasl-burning or electric battery toy cars consume more and destroy at lower speeds than those poor little Limes.
Raymond Lutz
Lithium, source of workers exploitation. And war? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/morales-claims-orchestrated-coup-tap-bolivia-lithium-191225053622809.html (à prendre avec un grain de sel…de lithium?)
Faiz imam
I’ve gotten into Li-ion battery recycling, and the packs in scooters are pretty great. Those scooters are quite easy to break up for parts when their life ends.
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Kate
A man in the Gaspé who received a parking ticket from Montreal has had it cancelled. I’m not even sure why this is news, except for the mild ludicrousness of the mistake.
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Kate
It’s not clear from this account or this one why, after a few students claimed to have seen a gun in someone’s hand somewhere outside the school – Global says it was a BB gun – Lester B. Pearson school was locked down Thursday afternoon. The presumed owner of the alleged gun was never on the premises.
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Kate
A man was stabbed in an apartment St-Laurent overnight and police are investigating.
mare 16:05 on 2020-01-17 Permalink
Time to get an Access Montreal pass.
Dumb question: Could they just plant a few, every 5 years or so?
Kate 19:44 on 2020-01-17 Permalink
I’m sure they could, but I don’t know whether they’d choose to devote that much space to one species of plant.
It would be interesting in these times to start a “long now” greenhouse with plants that grow slowly and only flower over long periods. I was reading about bristlecone pines recently, for example. But we don’t really have a social mechanism for that kind of long-term planning.
I wonder whether our botanical garden is making any plans to help the biome handle climate change over time. Someone should go ask them and write an article.
Mark Côté 23:48 on 2020-01-17 Permalink
“once in a lifetime” could be a sort of tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that the bloom is only once in a lifetime for the plant…