Data show that REM downtimes closely followed the temperature last winter.
Updates from April, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The RCMP have uncovered a plot cooked up by two men at Montreal’s ICAO headquarters to traffic Chinese war materiel to Libya. Sounds like a background plot for a bad action movie.
Ian
Bon Cop, Bad Cop 3
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Kate
Quebec is putting up $7.8 million for housing offices and municipalities in advance of moving day, meant to help people in a jam looking for a new place to live that they can afford.
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Kate
Mayor Plante says it’s inutile to say “Hi” after “Bonjour” and merchants should speak French to customers.
Incidentally, Bernard Drainville is blaming the rise in English spoken in French schools on asylum seekers. Note that it isn’t a question any more of languages other than French – there must be some kids speaking Arabic or Spanish, for example – it’s English, that wickedest temptress among languages.
Ian
Multiculturalism is an English plot to destroy French, didn’t you hear?
It’s just a variation on white replacement theory.Blork
Is it only anglos who understand that the “hi” is code for “I won’t judge you or be harsh with you if you happen to speak English?”
Ian
I still think âllo/’allo would be an ideal solution. But yeah, like Blork said, French first & let people know they can switch if they want. If it was signage it would follow OQLF rules – English second, and half as important.
MarcG
Maybe it needs to be whispered so it’s half the volume.
Kate
Blork, they know, and they don’t want that option to be offered.
Ian
Well, therein lies the rub. It’s not that French isn’t represented, or even dominant; it’s that it’s not exclusive.
Kate
How will this square with summer’s tourism season? Are we really meant to stick stubbornly to French when asked directions by an American or British tourist?
Ian
I guess like in Europe people would simply say “do you speak English” but I’m sure once the bonjour/hi problem has been resolved, speaking any language in public other than French … oh wait
Uatu
I thought this was resolved 4yrs ago with “bonjour – ho!” Lol
jeather
I actually saw a sign saying Bonjour Ho! somewhere in the past year or so, it made me laugh.
Ian
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Kate
The Guardian reports on Céline Dion’s struggle with stiff person syndrome, essentially rewording a piece (in English) in Vogue France, photographed wearing some very odd clothes.
qatzelok
The clothing in the Vogue article appear to be therapeutic so a kinesiologist might be required to explain them to civilians.
Ian
Or perhaps an upholsterer.
Blork
walkerp
I didn’t realize she was only 55! That’s really sad and sucks for her. Anglos like to joke about her because we can’t deal with sincerity but she has always struck me as a fundamentally decent person who never allowed her celebrity to overcome her humanity. I attribute a lot of that to her Quebec background.
JP
It’s a great interview. I’m glad she is doing better. My two favourite blogs rarely overlap but today both have a post about Celine’s interview!
Unlike a lot of celebrities, Celine buys all her designer clothes: “I have always bought everything myself. I didn’t want to borrow. It’s a form of respect. People pay to come and hear me sing, so I pay to buy myself clothes by designers.”
Ian
@walkerp many Francophones mock her, too. For one, you should hear my belle-mère (mother-in-law, not stepmother) go on a tear, she even does impressions.
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Kate
Gilbert Rozon is in La Presse Tuesday blaming everyone except himself for the downfall of Just For Laughs. His letter to the paper is reproduced in full.
Blork
Side note: welcome to the new Longueuil Comique Fest! https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/humour/2024-04-23/longueuil-comique-fest/un-nouveau-festival-d-humour-sur-la-rive-sud.php
PatrickC
The article says there were four sisters of Rozon’s among the “hauts dirigeants” of the company. That’s a lot of nepo. That said, some of his criticisms of the way media capitalism works sound plausible to me.
Kate
I’ve mentioned before, I think, that I worked there in the graphic design department in summer 2009. His twin sisters would show up occasionally and we gave them precedence over anything else going on. They used to run a twins parade that sort of hung off the main festival and was their pet project. I don’t think it made any money.
CE
I never understood why JFL had a twin parade. Like, what is funny about twins? It always seemed to have echos of old fashioned circus freak shows. I guess this explains it.
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Kate
The RCMP is taking over investigation of a bomb scare at the Museum of Fine Arts on April 7. The caller made other threats, a young person has been questioned, and his apparent motives seem to have alerted the Mounties.
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Kate
Four cars were torched early Tuesday at a repair garage in Hochelaga. This incident follows other vehicle arsons over the weekend.
Ian 09:13 on 2024-04-24 Permalink
…and it wasn’t even that cold a winter. It didn’t seem to like wind much, either.
Blork 15:33 on 2024-04-24 Permalink
And y’all didn’t believe me when I said this would happen over a year ago: https://mtlcityweblog.com/2023/01/11/freezing-rain-causes-rem-stoppage/