Nuit Blanche is next weekend and the metro will be open all night.
Updates from February, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Sunday I was in a café in Villeray, but not one of my regular spots, where I noticed they had notched the price of a double espresso up from the local standard $3.75 to a flat $4. Paid with a $5 and got a loonie back, so asked the barista politely for “des trente sous” instead, intending to leave 50 or 75 cents as tip.
She gave me back 30 cents.
I laughed and switched to English and explained I’d asked her for quarters, not thirty cents. Turned out she and her colleague were both anglos and had never heard the Quebec expression for a quarter.
Or was I wrong? Has that expression gone out of style?
steph
I think the abandoned French currency went out of style with the Euro. Back in the mid 19th century we had 1 pound (British) = 240 pence (British) = 480 sous (French) = 4 dollars (Canadian) = 400 cents (Canadian)
. With that 25 cents = 30 sous. Maybe the CAQ will bring the abandoned currency for the pure laine.bob
From the Canadian Encyclopedia: “Shinplasters, 25-cent Dominion government notes that were first issued in 1870 as a temporary measure to counteract the effects of an excess of American silver coinage circulating in Canada. Shinplasters were popular and were reissued in 1900 and 1923. Over 5 million were in circulation in 1929, but in 1935 the new BANK OF CANADA began recalling them. The term may have been used initially in American revolutionary times by soldiers who used similar bills to pad their shoes.”
Tee Owe
1 pound = 240 pence = 20 shillings (12 pence to a shilling) = 4 crowns (5 shillings to a crown) – all gone now, it’s 100 pence to a pound, no shillings any more. I didn’t know about 480 sous = 4 dollars. And shinplasters – fascinating, thank you!
jeather
My grandfather had a pile of shinplasters and often called quarters that. I haven’t thought of those in years.
Kate
Likewise, I remember my mother mentioning shinplasters, but that was a long time ago.
I wasn’t really asking about the history of “trente sous” but whether anyone hears it said any more as meaning a quarter. I asked at another café today where some folks were chatting casually around, and one of the dudes said he understood it, but it was new to some of the others.
JohnS
I’ve lived here 32 years. Never heard the term before today.
jeather
I hadn’t heard it before, and so I appreciated the little history lesson.
Ian
Same!
Anyone still say “two bits”?
dhomas
I went to grade school in French, and so was immersed in Quebecois culture (M. Lego would be proud!). “Un trent’ sous” was still pretty common when I was growing up in the 80s, but mostly with the older generation like my teachers or the folks who ran the dépanneur. I don’t think my generation used it very commonly anymore, though we knew what it was. So, I think Quebecois Boomers would still use the term, Gen X would know of it and Millenials and younger might start to not be aware of it.
Ian
Back to the original situation, I bet they raised the price because everyone was just tipping a quarter.
My rule is if there’s table service, tip at least a dollar regardless of the total cost, and beyond that, 20%. I won’t tip counter service because they aren’t getting the extra low tip-earner’s wage and on-site tax.
Kate
Another angle here is that my dad learned his French in Hochelaga decades ago, refining it in various taverns around town. He was inclined to scoff at the French I was learning in English school, and taught me useful phrases like “m’a te donner une claque su’l’gueule” instead of “comment allez-vous?”
So I may have picked up “un trent’sous” from him.
Ephraim
I would have specifically said quatre trente sous
Clément
“Échanger 4 trente sous pour une piasse” is a colloquial expression that’s still heard quite often. It means you’re trading 4 quarters for 1 dollar. The English equivalent might be “”swapping six for half a dozen.”
Kate
“it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other”.
Does anyone say “piasse” any more? Long time since we used piastres here…
Kevin
I hear “piasses” all the time… and trente sous from the older francophones at the grocery store.
carswell
The staff at the neighbourhood dep, mainly a mix of 20- to 40-something Lebanese immigrants and Québécois college and university students, understand piasse and trente sous, though it may be only the latter group that actively uses the coinage.
EmilyG
I’d never heard the expression before (anglophone, though I also speak French. Raised in the West Island. Had French immersion in school. I’ve learned a lot of Québécois expressions, but maybe I just never happened to have heard that one before.)
Phil
Yup, trente sous and piastre is still pretty much in use in many parts of Quebec that I frequent.
Ian
You stillhear “piasses” from the old-timey guys in the SW, oddly enough mostly from old anglos speaking French (in my experience)
MarcG
I’m a language/culture mutt and I’ll say “deux piasses” for sure. Maybe it depends how much of your French was learned and practiced at depanneurs and grocery stores?
Kate
Ian, I haven’t heard “two bits” in a long time.
My father used to refer to a $5 as a fin, haven’t heard that either for ages.
Kevin
Kate
I miss when bank machines used to hand out sawbucks.dwgs
…in those days nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them…
Kate
…gimme five bees for a quarter, we’d say…
Tee Owe
I also know ‘piasses’ and ‘2 bits’ also 2 dollar bills and a fin, not so sure about sawbucks or bees for a quarter – depends who you hang out with I suppose.
Kate
watch out for when you miss bank machines 🙂Kate
Tee Owe, dwgs and I were quoting Grandpa Simpson.
Ian
https://youtu.be/yujF8AumiQo?si=fXfP3MAhR_oePyFP
The classics never die.
JaneyB
Fascinating discussion. I know ‘2 bits’ and ‘piasses’ is pretty common but ‘trente sous’ and the others are new to me.
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Kate
Armed crime was down in 2023, but incidents of other crimes were up – assaults, thefts, fraud and mischief.
Ian
Food for thought:
“Montreal police spending keeps surging over budget. What are we paying for?
Politicians are afraid to say no to the police, say criminologists and a former mayor”https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-police-budget-canadian-cities-1.7062604
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Kate
An access to information request by La Presse shows that the federal government wants to wash its hands of the Bonaventure Autoroute and pass responsibility to the city for its transformation. Presumably they were controlling it because it’s part of the link between the two major bridges.
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Kate
A woman was stabbed in her apartment in Montreal North overnight, and a man has been arrested. This is not expected to be a homicide.
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Kate
Temperatures likely to break records are in the forecast to mark the end of February, but a high of 15° Wednesday is expected to be followed by a high of –8° Thursday, meaning an icy day.
Mark Côté
Predicted low of -14° Wednesday night, so an almost 30-degree swing in less than 24 hours. Totally fine and normal….
Anyone else’s kids feeling anxiety around the climate? My daughter brings it up when there are unseasonable spells of warm weather like this.
SMD
Same here, @Mark. My child cried a couple of nights ago thinking about how she might not be able to skate outside in a few more winters.
Kate
On the other side of the coin, I’m occasionally relieved not to have put any kids into the position of coping with climate change and all its consequences.
azrhey
Some of us that work/used to work in mental health and suicide prevention, had extra training in Eco-Anxiety , which is totally a thing and hard to help with, because mental health is caused either my inner or outer factors ( duh ) and one of the approaches for dealing with outer factors is to mitigate or help remove the stress factor…and climate change isn’t going anywhere and can’t be thought out of ( Like homelessness or abuse or any other thing where you ask “can you imagine or visualize a situation where the problem isn’t there, how would you feel?”can’t do that for climate change…. ( and couple of other things to… but Climate change is really the only one that “get me off this planet”isn’t an option )
Ian
My kids are more concerned about equity, knowing the intersectionality around class, race, nationalism, capitalism, and climate. They’re teenagers, though.
I see kids getting super into climate as a great introduction to the big picture. For my generation it was a fear of nuclear war. Whatever lets you see the cracks in the structure and start hammering away, finding like-minded folks and seeing the commonalities in your struggle.
MarcG
Remember when we stopped capitalisming full-bore at the beginning of the (ongoing) pandemic and nature visibly started healing almost immediately? I wonder what kind of impact that brief exposure to another possible world had on children.
Ian
I miss the brazen Mile End porch turkeys.
Kate
Turkeys are in the news Wednesday. A man was caught on video in Louiseville being chased by a wild turkey that had been lurking near his house.
Ian
In warmer weather I see big gangs of them when I’m driving to work in Sainte Anne, around the Morgan exit from the 40. I wonder where they go in the winter.
carswell 20:17 on 2024-02-26 Permalink
On January 1, 2024, I had to be at the Berri-UQAM station at around quarter past midnight in order to be sure of catching the last westbound blue line train at from Jean-Talon because, with surge pricing in effect for ride-hailing apps, no traditional taxis findable and all-night buses so crowded they skip stops where passengers don’t get off, there was no other option besides walking. And that’s for a celebration involving many more people on a night when most revellers have been drinking, often heavily and for hours, and shouldn’t be driving.
So they can’t keep it open on New Year’s Eve but can for this much less significant event? Not sure I understand the reasoning, politics or optics.
carswell 20:26 on 2024-02-26 Permalink
Also, per the REM’s Xwitter feed, “Le REM sera ouvert toute la nuit du 2 au 3 mars, au tarif habituel. Vous pouvez vous procurer un titre ‘soirée illimitée’ et vous informer sur les horaires habituels des services d’autobus afin de bien planifier à l’avance vos déplacements.”
Chris 21:14 on 2024-02-26 Permalink
Maybe the event organizers are paying the STM?
DeWolf 21:29 on 2024-02-26 Permalink
Maybe it’s just me but I think Nuit blanche is much more significant than New Year’s Eve, given that it involves a multitude of all-ages activities running not just until midnight but almost until dawn.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the STM should offer all-night service on NYE too, but if budget constraints mean choosing between the two, I think Nuit blanche is the right choice.
carswell 21:55 on 2024-02-26 Permalink
NYE hardly stops at midnight. In earlier years, the orange line was crowded on January 1 at 2 or 3 a.m. and even a dozen or so riders would disembark with me at UdeM station in the wee hours.
Can taxis and ride-shares be affordably and conveniently had during Nuit Blanche? And would there be a lot of drunk drivers on the roads if the metro weren’t open all night?
Would be interesting to see the hourly transit traffic figures for the events in the years they both had all-night metro service.
I’d argue that NYE celebrations take place all across the city as opposed to mostly within a few clusters (pôles as they call them, even in English), likely involve much more drinking and many more people and almost surely have fewer non-metro transit alternatives. Then again, I expect to go to my grave never having attended a Nuit Blanche event.
walkerp 22:10 on 2024-02-26 Permalink
Also easier to get workers for Nuit Blanche then for New Years.
JP 00:44 on 2024-02-27 Permalink
I’m with Carswell on this one. Would be interested in knowing how Nuit Blanche made it happen.
CE 09:04 on 2024-02-27 Permalink
The STM is a major sponsor of Nuit Blanche.
Chris 11:25 on 2024-02-27 Permalink
The answer to most things is: money. I’d wager it’s the answer here, we just don’t know the details.
jeather 12:01 on 2024-02-27 Permalink
I bet it costs more and is harder to get enough employees to work all night NYE than some random weekend in March.
Nicholas 12:23 on 2024-02-27 Permalink
I’ve heard, though never seen in confirmed, that the collective agreement limits extra work, meaning extra service. Even if allowed it would be very expensive. One advantage of the REM is they need very little staff to run service (mostly just a few people in the control room). The metros already run on auto pilot, so if we could fully automate the system we could make it easier and much cheaper to run more service during these special events (and in general).
Uatu 11:24 on 2024-02-28 Permalink
The REM saves money on drivers but has more security. More than the metro. The overtime expenses would probably be from that.
carswell 12:58 on 2024-02-28 Permalink
The STM provided seamless all-night metro service on several New Year’s Eves before and maybe once or twice during the pandemic. They should be able to do so post pandemic.
Funding is surely an issue these days. Hence a modest proposal: that a consortium headed by the SAQ, the SQDC and, why the hell not, Loto-Québec (all rolling-in-it government corporations that tout their social responsibility credentials, including mitigating the adverse effects of the products they sell) and involving other NYE stakeholders, such as breweries, distilleries, the SAAQ, wine/spirits agencies and bar/restaurant owners’ associations, step up and provide it — maybe with some government assistance thrown in — to keep the metro running overnight or at least until 3 a.m. and the entire transit system free of charge from, say, 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 till closing or 8 a.m. on January 1. Help cover the costs by announcing and following through on strict DUI enforcement and add a tip jar at the metro stations and online as a way of thanking the STM employees working the overnight holiday shift.