Next to each other on Radio-Canada, a warning about the UK Covid variant which could hit us in a big wave if we’re not very careful, and a piece on businesspeople wanting a deconfined summer including a return to crowded festivals.
Updates from March, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
CTV talks to a veterinarian who’s now giving Covid shots to people. I’d be fine with that, although not in the scruff of the neck, please.
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Kate
Not directly a Montreal story, but following on the heels of the news of high demand on food banks is a piece about how much food Canadians waste with the allegation that much of the waste is at the household level, with 79 kg (175 lbs) being thrown out per person annually.
That’s fairly staggering. I put stuff in the composting, yes – peels and eggshells and other inedible trimmings. But per year, actual once-edible food? Maybe a few past-due salad greens. How can people lose track of so much food?
MarcG
That’s 216g a day. I had to toss a moldy squash a few weeks ago, that was probably 1kg right there. I was under the impression food waste was, like most things, more egregious at the commercial/industrial level, and that seems to be confirmed by the info on this government page: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-reducing-waste/food-loss-waste/taking-stock.html
MarcG
However, the report the article links to seems interesting and more up-to-date than the link I posted above.
Kate
Didn’t mean to sound righteous, there. I realize that people with more complex households can easily lose track of food. It’s much simpler cooking for oneself, to know exactly what’s in the fridge and how quickly it has to be used up not to go to waste.
Blork
I suspect much (perhaps most) of that domestic waste is in the form of leftovers that creep their way to the back of the fridge until they’re just too disgusting to eat and are then tossed. Many people are very disorganized about how they feed themselves, so I think this happens a lot.
In my case, over the course of many years of suburban domestication I have gotten food down to a science so it’s almost unheard of to throw away leftovers or to have food go off before you have a chance to eat it. In fact I factor leftovers into my meal planning.
I can’t say I was very good at it in my younger years (my 30s) when I lived alone and couldn’t tell you from one day to the next what tonight’s dinner would be or where it would come from. (Home? Girlfriend’s place? Bar? Restaurant? We’ll find out when it happens!)
That said, tonight I threw out two roma tomatoes and four avocados. The tomato loss is unusual; I can always find a use for a tomato but the past week or so just had no call for them and I hadn’t noticed how gnarly they were getting. The avocado situation is also unusual. In fact I’ve sort of cracked the code on avocados and almost never loose any (and I buy a bag almost every week) but yesterday I was distracted at the store and chose badly, and when I looked at them today they were all overripe and some spoiled. 🙁
Bill Binns
I probably throw away about half the avocados I buy since they tend to go from hard as rock and not ready to black and mushy with wild unpredictability. A lot of the leftovers and other stuff that goes in the freezer eventually gets thrown out during semi-annual freezer clean outs but overall, I would give myself pretty high marks for avoiding waste.
My wife can’t stand to waste food and has lots of tricks to prevent it. If we have half a loaf of bread that’s just starting to go stale, she puts it in the freezer and we use it to make toast by throwing the frozen slices right into the toaster. This actually makes better toast than fresh bread imo.
Blork
Here’s the trick with avocados. It takes a bit of practice and planning but once you’re in the groove it comes naturally.
First, buy a bag of avocados that are about a week away from ripe. Not rock-hard green, but showing some black yet far from ready. When you get home, put the ripest ones in the fridge and keep the others on the counter. (If they’re all very green let them ripen for a few days before you divide them.) In a couple of days time, swap. Another day or two and the ones that started in the fridge and moved to the counter will be ready to eat. You have maybe a two day window. Once they’re gone, get the other ones out of the fridge and eat those over the next two days.
So basically it’s a matter of letting them get almost ripe, then slowing the ripening by putting in the fridge, then get out again to finish ripening.
BTW, for my freezer I label and date-stamp everything that goes in there. I also record it in a note in my phone. So when I’m planning meals for the week I check what’s in the freezer (by looking at my phone) as part of the plan. I rarely throw frozen stuff away. (Exception: recently tossed a couple of bags of shrimp because they had thawed during a power outage last summer and when they re-froze they became a block of freezer-burned ice.)
Kate
What, no QR codes, Blork?
Ant6n
Imo fridges and avocados don’t mix well
Blork
They don’t mix well if you leave them in there too long, or after they’re fully ripe. But I haven’t found much problem using the fridge to stunt the ripening process for a few days, then letting it finish at room temp.
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Kate
Fifty years ago, March 4, 1971, Montreal experienced what’s since been called the storm of the century.
We’ve had a few snowfalls since the millennium that equalled or beat the storm’s ~43 cm (figures vary) but that winter had already accumulated nearly 4 meters of snow. There were also 110 km/h winds, and the storm was followed by another snowfall on March 7. The city shut down for a week and the metro ran all night for the first time.
That city archive feature, first posted in 2015, has a video accompanied by a text and photos. Wikipedia has some comparative statistics. Metro talks to a climatologist who says it will happen again and not just because of climate change: the dice will roll that way again some year.
Added later: Radio-Canada, TVA, CTV and the Gazette all compiled some memories of the storm.
Danny
I was a month shy of turning 11 and remember that storm well. The first floor of our house was about 15 feet above ground level, and there was a little balcony overlooking the small side yard. My 7 year-old brother and I kept ascending the balcony steps, climbing over the railing, and then jumping into the snow piled below. Then my mother realized we had no milk in he house and sent me to the store two blocks away on my cross-country skis. Great memories!
Kate
Three most memorable weather events here: this 1971 snowstorm, the massive rain of 1987, and the ice storm of 1998. Has this century produced anything to compare?
CE
I remember a pretty big storm about 10 years ago that was close to surpassing the 1971 record, although it was in December and wasn’t much snow on the ground. It was the most snow I had ever seen from a single storm. I remember it taking over a week before the first pass by a sidewalk plow in front of my house.
Kate
I remember that too, CE. I think it was toward the end of 2015. The storm intersected with the holidays, and it took ages for my sidewalk to be cleared – it was a goat path for more than a week.
dhomas
The March 15th, 2017, storm that saw drivers stuck on Highway 13, maybe?
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/pq-calls-for-independent-inquiry-into-highway-13-fiasco-after-montreal-stormKate
dhomas, that was a memorable one too. But I’d forgotten it was so late in the season.
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Kate
A young man walking his dog was killed by a train Wednesday evening in Pointe-aux-Trembles. The CP story clarifies that the dog died too.
Meezly
I was trying to remember a young woman was hit by a train in Montreal a few years ago – she was wearing headphones. I tried to google it, but came across many similar train accidents all over the world where the unfortunate victim was wearing headphones.
Bert
I seem to remember something in Point-St-Chales. Though in that case I seem to remember that she was cutting through a rail yard – https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/sarah-stott-looking-to-the-future-after-devastating-train-accident
This comment can be extended to yesterday’s report on a deadly car accident…. In both cases there were barriers and lights (assuming working equipment). Anyone who crosses tracks (or a crosswalk) and doesn’t also check visually are just not using their head.
dwgs
The young woman from the accident in the Point unfortunately committed suicide a little while after, the whole story was tragic.
Kate
The woman from the 2014 incident in the Point was not only hit by a train and severely injured, she also wasn’t seen for some hours because it happened after midnight in the winter, so she also suffered from frostbite. She faced a grim future after that. It really was tragic, dwgs.
But I don’t recall that she was wearing headphones. It may seem obvious to sense that a train is coming, but depending on the acoustics of the particular spot, it may not be. Another incident that comes back to me is the three young guys who were killed by a train at 3 a.m. in 2010 while painting graffiti in the Turcot yards. Somehow, although they were in a group and must have been talking and not wearing phones, and vehicle traffic above them would’ve been fairly sparse at that hour, they didn’t hear the train.
Blork
There was a case of someone getting hit while wearing headphones a few years ago, but I don’t remember the details. If I recall correctly, the case WRT the woman in the Point involved her walking alongside a parked train and when she came to the end of it she crossed in front of it and then onto the parallel tracks, where the moving train was. One of those situations where there was probably a low rumbling sound but it wasn’t clear where it was coming from (more like a background hum). A really sad story that one.
Kate
There was also a woman who clambered over a train halted in the Old Port, and got hurt when it started to move unexpectedly.
Blork, I can’t find a reference to Sarah Stott, the woman in the Point, wearing phones. She was a barmaid and was walking home very late, and I don’t think most women would choose not to hear what’s going on around them while walking alone at that hour.
Blork
I don’t think she was wearing headphones. I was saying there was another case around the same time of someone (a teenage boy I think) getting hit by a train while wearing headphones.
Blork
It was 2018, so a few years after Sarah Stott. BTW if you Google “teenager struck by train while wearing headphones” you get more than 4 million hits.
Bert
What is with the headphone fixation? Anyone who doesn’t visually verify before crossing train tracks (both ways) is just ignorant.
Meezly
Sorry I went on a tangent. Back when I was commuting via mass transit, I’d wear headphones all the time. I try to look alive but sometimes your mind wanders, y’know? It’s awful to hear about these accidents, and this one with a dog.. so sometimes I wonder if it could happen to me…?
Bert
I too did the headphones during commutes. But always with safety in mind. Walking around I would usually have only one earpiece in, so I could still hear some of the outside world. Some people plug in their earphones and unplug their brains.
Any accident is awful, particularly for innocent bystanders, like the dog, the train driver and anyone who may have possibly witnessed the accident.
Alex
We live next to the train track that cuts the Plateau off from Rosemont, there are lot of people that walk and ski between the rails at all hours of the day, I am surprised fatalities don’t happen more often
Ant6n
I’d say the accident is particularly awful for those who get killed. Being inattentive doesn’t mean you’re somehow “guilty” and deserve death.
Kevin 23:34 on 2021-03-04 Permalink
Hahaha I’m not going anywhere or seeing anyone this summer.
Nobody knows if they are going to be the person that spends months in hospital, or keeps having relapses months after “recovering.”
dmdiem 01:04 on 2021-03-05 Permalink
I’m keeping an eye on Texas. Even though they’re 100% open now, I’m curious to see if they’re going to go back to 100% normal. A lot of business concerns seem to be under the impression that if the big bad government stopped being so oppressive, that everyone will flock to sit down dining, movie theatres and festivals. That tourists will flood the city with all their cashy money. I’m not so sure about that. I’m with Kevin. Wake me up when it’s time for the vet to tell me I’m a “good boy” then we’ll talk about going to a festival.
NotSafeYet 08:36 on 2021-03-05 Permalink
I’m with you folks. It’s simply not safe otherwise. And after the UK variant, I anticipate the Tuvalu and Timbuktu variants will wreak havoc.
In fact, going forward, I will wear multiple layers of high-thread-count face coverings, dig myself a hole in the ground and ask my neighbour to bury me in it.
There’s no risk of contracting the virus if I’m not breathing.
dhomas 09:33 on 2021-03-05 Permalink
@NotSafeYet the government agencies calling for us to be prudent have no reason to keep us isolated other than our own benefit. In fact, I’m sure the government (as we can see from other parts of it) would love nothing more than to get us out spending money.
The businesses calling for deconfinement, on the other hand, have only one motivation. I’ll give you a hint, it’s not because they care about your health or well-being. They want revenue to come in, damn the consequences.
Just thought I’d call out the obvious ad absurdum argument posted above.
Kate 10:35 on 2021-03-05 Permalink
Good sense as usual from most of my readers.
Kevin 11:10 on 2021-03-05 Permalink
@NotSafeYet
As someone with a chronic health condition I’m acutely aware there are fates worse than death.
Bizarre Covid effects include amputations, a giant tongue that no longer fits in your mouth, not being able to climb stairs 3 months after having the virus, chronic fatigue, brain fog, blood clots in your brain, etc….
mare 12:04 on 2021-03-05 Permalink
Business also want to keep their employees employed. I’m dealing with a couple of retail business that, with their current revenue, can barely afford to keep their shops open and pay their rent and employees salaries. If they have to close that not only affects their staff, but also their vendors, and the employees of their vendors etc. Those have their a reduced income, or no income at all, and will spent less money. The trickle down effect is real, albeit maybe not in the way that right wing politicians claim it will bring prosperity to the masses after they implement corporate tax cuts.
Not all business can successfully sell their wares online, or execute their services that involve meeting people face-to-face, or working in their homes. For many products you have to compete with global vendors who can charge lower prices because they make their products in countries with lower wages, rents and safety laws, to name a few. And many products you have to touch, feel and try, not possible in online shops, and small companies can’t afford to offer free returns including shipping.
Other companies or self-employed people offer services that can’t be performed without being with clients in interior situations, and involve an increased risk. (Many other employees are forced to do work in close contact without having a choice
I’m self-employed, hardly work at the moment and I’m worried. Worried about catching the virus and about my financial situation. Despite that I do support the lockdown and I’m not at ease with the current relaxation of the rules.
Is complicated.
Joey 12:14 on 2021-03-05 Permalink
I’d wager that most of us reading this blog will have received a first dose of the vaccine by mid-summer. Given how low new case numbers were last year (notwithstanding variants) and the fact that all the elderly and frontline workers will be vaccinated relatively soon, I expect the current measures to be relaxed significantly. Something like “back to normal” with masks and moderate distancing.
DeWolf 13:59 on 2021-03-05 Permalink
Given the number of vaccines that are on their way, and how quickly the vaccination of 70+ people is going, I’m optimistic. We’re on track for every adult to have received their first dose by July, which should cause a massive drop in cases and — more importantly — hospitalizations and deaths.
Look at what’s happening in the UK: since the peak of their variant-fuelled second wave, new cases are down 90% and deaths are down 80%. They had a lockdown, which obviously helped, but the vaccines are having a big effect too.
That said, I think anyone who thinks we’ll have big festivals this summer is deluding themselves. All the public health experts are saying that we will be wearing masks and keeping distance until the end of the year, at least. That’s compatible with having a beer on a terrasse or having a distanced picnic, but not packing into a music festival.
Joey 12:18 on 2021-03-06 Permalink
Interesting to note that the official in charge of the vaccination campaign in Ontario (Rick Hillier) says he expects every adult who wants one to receive their first dose before the first day of summer.