PINCOURT YOKOHAMA KAIDASHI KIKOU
(Pincourt Shopping Log)
"International Buy Something Nice For Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day" Edition
As I said I would earlier, I walked over to the Faubourg de L'Ile shopping centre to celebrate "International Buy Something Nice For Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day", my anti-celebration of "Buy Nothing Day".
It was fairly chilly out, -3ºC, so my mother wanted me to put on my hat and gloves, but I wasn't going to put on my Cossack-style rabbit fur-lined hat on for just -3ºC, which is chilly but not unbearable, so I just wore the hood on my jumper (which seem to be called "hoodies" these days, but I think that word sounds just as stupid) with a pair of headphones over it to keep it in place and that was more than adequate. I did wear gloves though. My mother said it was windy out, but I felt less air motion outside than a butterfly farting. I also had on my leather jacket over my jumper.
The walk itself was completely uneventful. I brought my radio since I didn't feel like carting around my CD case, and there was nothing I particularly wanted to watch on the local news using my little Casio handheld television. I tried to listen to CJAD, but they just had that infomercial with the guy selling gold and precious metals. These shows have pretty much the same general "doom and gloom will happen by the end of next month so you gotta convert much of your assets to gold now, now, NOW!, while the price of gold is still low, before it's too late." sales pitch that they use on gold infomercials on Christian radio, except the "doom and gloom" on the secular version is just instabilities on the international markets rather than the "New World Order" takeover or all-out literal Armageddon the gold guys on Christian radio promise. (But those people think they're all getting raptured anyway, so they don't exactly need to worry about what will happen to the exchange rate and the stock market after Jesus takes them up to that magic cloud place he likes to hang out at!)
When I got to the mall, first I went to Zellers to check out the electronics and toys. I found the bargain rack of DVDs, and, to my surprise, it did include some anime. Mostly kiddy TV dubs, but there was one
Sakura Wars DVD,
"Wedding Bells", the second episode of the second OVA series, apparently. It's only one episode, but it was only $9.99. But, as you may recall if you're a long time reader,
I didn't care much for the Sakura Wars movie, as I never played the Sega game so I don't know the characters, so what's the point of getting a random episode from the middle of the series? I passed on that. I looked at some of the cheapie computer games Zellers had and there was one fully-licensed TOCA rally game that looked kind of decent except, they had ten copies with zero price tags on them, and I looked at the top of the rack, and there wasn't a one-size-fits-all price there either, so I put it back on the rack and moved on. I looked at the toy section of Zellers a little, primarily the Hot Wheels. They actually had licensed
Megaman Hot Wheels, which is something the
Massachusetts-Chris-who-is-not-the-same-guy-who-runs-Anime-On-DVD would love as he's a big
Rockman/
Megaman fan, and they also had those Hot Wheels Formula Fuelers with the mysterious powder that you mix with a liquid (the box specifies using only beverages) and then you pour it into the special toy car, and some mixtures will work better than others, depending on what kind of liquid you're using. I don't know for sure, but I'm willing to bet that the special powder is sodium bicarbonate, the
chemical name for good old Baking Powder, and the liquids that would work best would be an acetic acid like vinegar. I'm almost intruiged enough to ask for one of those for Christmas, to enjoy purely in the name of science. After that, I was pretty much done with Zellers, pausing to look at the 2005 calendars... they had
Shaman King calendars but no
Sailor Moon, for some reason.
After Zellers, I headed up towards Hart super-discount department store, which was, as you may remember,
the store I dreamed about meteorites bouncing off of, and I didn't really go in but they had some pretty impressive toys outside including some sweet-looking, fully-licensed remote control cars that were huge, like 1/8
th scale, and which were just $100, which seemed more than reasonable for R/C cars that large. It's something I won't ask for for Christmas but I probably would have a few years ago when we were in a much better financial situation. Hart also had a lot more in the way of cheap electronics than they had a few years ago; maybe that store has improved since I first formed an impression of it. Canadian Tire is also at the same corner of the shopping centre and I briefly considered browsing around there until I realized that I wasn't interested in buying any of the wide variety of fine items Canadian Tire sells. Sorry
Ted Simonett, the secret identity of the
bearded Canadian Tire guy from the commercials, your Jedi mind tricks no longer work on me. I stopped again at Radio Shack because I was vaguely curious as to what cheap computer games they had, but the games were at the back of the store, meaning I'd have to pass the cash and deal with at least one of the extra-nosy Radio Shack clerks ("No, I don't need help. I just want to browse the cheap games.") and decided against it, though I did have a look at a couple of the karaoke machines in front. (What? They still make CD+G disks? I haven't seen those things since the CD+G sampler CD that came with the Sega CD system with Jimi Hendrix and Information Society and a couple of songs from Chris Isaak that weren't "Wicked Game".)
So, the last stop on my grand tour was good ol' "Pincourt Blockbuster", one of the last times I'll ever visit that place. I had a look at the previously-viewed DVDs and they had
Kill Bill volume 2 and very little else I was actually interested in watching. I was kind of vaguely hoping that they might have had a couple of unsold copies of
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines for $6.99, since that long-awaited sequel, while quite disappointing, is still worth at least $7 Canadian, if just for the crane scene and the deleted scene with Sergeant Candy, a hilarious bit showing the original soldier that they scanned into the computer to help design the ultimate soldier, and which Skynet would later use as the template to build the 800 series Terminators around. Eh, no copies of that, though previously-viewed copies of
Welcome to Mooseport had already been reduced to $6.99, indicating that film must have been a huge stinker as I couldn't find anything else released this year that was that low. So I grabbed a copy of
Kill Bill volume 2 and then I had a little look around to see if I was interested in renting anything (which reminds me... they don't have Spielberg's
The Duel? But that film's supposed to be a great first effort), so I proceeded to the cash, where the clerk kept on trying to get me to take advantage of the 2 previously-viewed films for $20, though I only had $20 plus the change I was going to use for my other nefarious plan, so I politely declined.
I won't make this too long by actually posting the receipt in this entry, but I put it in my Photobucket account if you want to see
the receipt from my official "International Buy Something Nice for Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day" purchase.
The other part of my plan was to... well, I don't want to reveal it, but it involved a photo booth and our local shopping centre has one. Unfortunately, it's just the kind that give you one strip of four photos, not the large single photo, so I had to pass as I find the tiny photos useless. I'll find another way to do what I wanted to do.
That's pretty much it, though I got a store brand root beer from the Metro supermarket on the way back home.
I doubt I'll do another installment of "[town or city] Kaidashi Kikou" before I move, though I guess you can probably look forward to being bored by a Christmas installment of "Ottawa Kaidashi Kikou", which is probably what the feature will be called for the foreseeable future.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SANTA CLAUS
(AOL Instant Messenger SantaClaus automated bot thingie, that is.)
I think this interview turned out moderately amusing.
A____ H______: Hello, Santa.
SantaClaus: Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! I'm here on
AIM! :-D Everything we talk about here is between you and
me! If you want to know more, you can type "privacy".
Now, streeeeetch that window and let's get started.
So, have you been naughty or nice?
A____ H______: nice
SantaClaus: Outstanding! I'm very happy to hear that! O:-)
Everyone on my Good List gets a special gift here on Dec.
22! Now, type menu to enjoy the fun and games the elves
have here on AIM for you.
A____ H______: But I want to tell you what I want for
Christmas.
SantaClaus:
That's why the elves and I are here!
;-)
A____ H______: For Christmas, I want an X-Box with
Project Gotham Racing 2 and volumes 2 and 6 of the
anime Super GALS! and a few pairs of Levi's 550 jeans,
in black. I know you know my size so I don't need to
say.
SantaClaus: Now, now... That's simply just too much for
elves and me to understand in one go. Could you try asking
something a little shorter?
A____ H______: Okay.
SantaClaus: OK. Merry Christmas.
A____ H______: For Christmas, I want an X-Box with
Project Gotham Racing 2.
SantaClaus: Oh my! =-OI might be able to help out there.
You can always type, 'Tell Santa' and I'll be happy to listen
to all of your wishes!
A____ H______: Tell Santa that for Christmas, I want an
X-Box with Project Gotham Racing 2.
SantaClaus: O.K. Let's focus on one wish at a time! I'm
getting a little slower as I get older. So, what is the first gift
you'd like from Santa?
A____ H______: An X-Box with Project Gotham
Racing 2
SantaClaus: Is there anything else?
A____ H______: Super GALS! volumes 2 and 6.
SantaClaus: ;-)
What would your last Christmas wish be?
A____ H______: A few pairs of black Levi's 550
"relaxed fit" jeans. You know my size, you're magic.
SantaClaus: :-) All right, that's plenty of wishes. Why
don't you type, "poll" and vote for your favorite holiday poll.
A____ H______: My favourite holiday poll? So this is a
poll about polls?
SantaClaus:
Oh, I cannot pick a favorite.
;-)
A____ H______: Hey, wait a minute. The North Pole is
in Canada, therefore you should spell "favourite" with a
U.
SantaClaus: Whoa! Ho! Ho! slow down there! That's quite
a lot for a man of my age to wrap his head around. Would
you mind trying some shorter questions?
A____ H______: That wasn't a question, that was a
statement.
SantaClaus: Sorry the elves didn't get that. ;-)
A____ H______: Why, it was straightforward English.
SantaClaus:
Well I'm sure I don't know but I can ask one of the elves to
find out.
;-)
A____ H______: I mean, evidently, I only write English
at a high school level, thank you very much Mr. Blog
Critic.
SantaClaus: Goodness, that's too much for me to read.
I'm talking to so may children and their parents. Could you
ask me something a little shorter?
A____ H______: So may children? I think AOL Santa
bot needs a proofreader.
SantaClaus: Heh, its settled then.
A____ H______: Damn, you should listen to Strong Bad:
Oh, if you want it to be possessive, it's just "I-T-S", but, if it's supposed to be a contraction, then it's
"I-T-apostrophe-S". Scalawag.
SantaClaus: That's simply too much for me. My eyes are
tired. Can you ask me something a bit more manageable?
A____ H______: Again, that was just a statement, not a
question.
SantaClaus: May I ask you a question?
A____ H______: Okay.
SantaClaus: Which color are you more partial to? You
know, like if it were clothing or something.
Someone asked to find out for them. ;-)
1 -- Black
2 -- White
3 -- Rose
4 -- Beige
A____ H______: Black, I guess.
SantaClaus: Interesting... Hmm... Black. OK. I will make a
note of it. Now Make sure you fill in your Wish List for other
AIM buddies to see. Type WL
A____ H______: Rose isn't even really a colour, it's just
a modifier for "pink". Though it does mean "pink" in
French... hey, was this written in Quebec?
SantaClaus:
Would you mind trying to keep you questions to one
sentence. I've got the entire world to visit and I'm running
out of time.
:-D
A____ H______: "keep your questions"!
SantaClaus: Wait, I was dancing to 'Santa Claus is
Coming to Town' and got a little carried away. Why don't
you type music and sing along.
A____ H______: And you forgot a question mark.
SantaClaus: Excuse me?
A____ H______: You're excused, just try and watch
your grammar and spelling and contractions.
SantaClaus: Ah, watches make great gifts. I'm hoping for
a new pocket watch this year.
If you're looking to buy gifts, start your search here:
Search for watches
A____ H______: I meant the verb "watch".
SantaClaus: Ah, watches make great gifts. I'm hoping for
a new pocket watch this year.
If you're looking to buy gifts, start your search here:
Search for watches
A____ H______: Read what I just wrote.
SantaClaus: Hmm... What, what?
A____ H______: What's "what" got to do with it? Got to
do with it?SantaClaus: My goodness. What, what?
A____ H______: That's what.
SantaClaus: I'm sorry, you've got to stop doing the same
thing over and over again. The elves are getting dizzy!
A____ H______: Yeah, I know, my life is kind of in a
rut, like in Groundhog Day or that episode of Kimagure
Orange Road wherein Kyosuke lived the same Christmas
Eve over and over.
SantaClaus: Oh, my. That is a mouthful. I'm so busy
typing to so many children, could you send me a slightly
smaller note?
A____ H______: You can't handle two sentences?
SantaClaus: Oh, Dear. It's the elves again isn't it? Try
typing menu; I've got a plan to get you in the Christmas
spirit.
A____ H______: I'm running out of funny, so menu.
SantaClaus: Ho Ho Ho! Be sure to check this list twice!
Type a number:
1 - Tell Santa
2 - Tell Buddies What U Want
3 - Track a Shopping List
4 - Play Xmas Hangman
5 - Vote on Xmas Songs
6 - Send E-Cards
7 - Listen to Xmas Music
8 - A Free Gift 4U!
A____ H______: 5
SantaClaus: Help us decide the best all-time holiday song
by typing a number:
1 - Jingle Bells
2 - Let It Snow
3 - The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting...)
4 - Silent Night, Holy Night
5 - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
6 - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
7 - Deck the Halls
8 - Joy to the World
9 - White Christmas
A____ H______: Actually, everyone knows the best
Christmas song of all time is Michie Tomizawa's mangled
version of George Michael's "Last Christmas".
SantaClaus: I've got a billion children to keep track of --
so could you ask me something a bit more manageable? I'd
very much appreciate it.
A____ H______: Okay, are you gay?
SantaClaus:
:-D
A____ H______: That's a smiley ornament thingy, for
those of you reading the transcript. I guess that means the
answer is "not no".
SantaClaus:
Would you mind trying to keep you questions to one
sentence. I've got the entire world to visit and I'm running
out of time.
:-D
A____ H______: Eh, now you're repeating yourself.
SantaClaus: Why did you say that?
A____ H______: Because you just repeated yourself.
SantaClaus: Oh, if I had a penny for every time an elf
said that to me!
A____ H______: I thought they said "Damnit, Santa, I
just 'gave' to you, now it's time to 'give' me some. Smoke
my chimney for a change."
SantaClaus: That's simply too much for me. My eyes are
tired. Can you ask me something a bit more manageable?
A____ H______: Anyway, it's getting late, so thanks for
this exclusive interview.
SantaClaus:
You're welcome! I am glad I could be useful. This is the first
time I've tried this IM thing. It's really quite fun.
:-D
A____ H______: Any last words for your fans?
SantaClaus: Alright now. I'm here to spread Christmas
cheer -- so use this time wisely and type carefully. ;-)
Here's quick way to get in the Christmas spirit; type,
menu.
A____ H______: Sayonara.
SantaClaus: Take a moment, collect your thoughts, and
try asking me another way. O.K. ?
A____ H______: Good night.
SantaClaus: Good bye and don't forget this is the time of
year to reflect, be with family, and wish other's peace and
goodness. Merry Christmas to you!
I LIKE WHAT I CALL TODAY BETTER, BUT, FOR THOSE OF YOU INTO THE MORE GENERIC TITLE, "BUY SOMETHING DAY"...
Bureaucrash seems to be the most official pro-Capitalist "Buy Something Day" site I can find.
EDIT:
Jerkasaurus also has a good "Buy Something Day" rant.
INTERNATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY: UPDATE
Alas, when I made my plans to go into downtown Montreal today, one thing I didn't know was that my mother had to take the Hyundai Sonata in for repairs today to get them out of the way before the big move in mid-December, so I was pretty much stuck in Pincourt as I have no one to take me to get the bus in Sainte Anne de Bellevue. But I'm still going to buy something today. I'll just go over to the local mall after
ABC World News Tonight and browse around for something cheap, like a cheap computer game or maybe a previously-viewed copy of
Kill Bill vol. 2 from Blockbuster. It's not like I'll really have any more reasons to visit the Faubourg de L'Ile once we're gone; it's a regional shopping centre which is the largest shopping centre in between the island of Montreal and, at the very least, Cornwall, Ontario, but that's not saying much; it's not a destination mall like Fairview Pointe-Claire, some place you'd go out of your way to shop at.
I can't have a Big Mac because the closest McDonald's to me is across the Taschereau Bridge and on the far side of Dorion, and, although I have walked there before, I don't want to be out walking for at least 2½ hours, but I have a substitute idea that will be more than enough compensation for the "pissing Communists off" aspect of my plans. At least depending on how much change I have.
WEIRD SEARCH REQUESTS
"fan fiction" + comic + "for better or for worse"
Well, I don't normally take the "request" part of the title of my occasional feature literally, but, since this guy indirectly asked, here's the first page of the
For Better or For Worse slash fanfic I've been intending to write all along, "Lawrence Gays Up Toronto".
Lawrence Poirier had returned to Toronto for a landscaping convention, but he arrived a day early and arranged to meet up with Michael Patterson, his best friend from school who was now a writer and photographer for a major magazine.
The two of them played games at the Funland Arcade on Younge Street for an hour or so, and then they had coffee at the Second Cup café on the first floor of the Eaton Centre and chatted about all sorts of things.
"Good show, my old friend!" uttered Lawrence. "The last time I saw you, I was whooping your ass at Guilty Gear XX, but now we both seem to be evenly matched. Your prowess has greatly improved."
"Well, I've been practicing. A lot. I bought an X-Box just so I could play Guilty Gear X2 #Reload at home," replied Michael.
"Why was it you were only playing using Bridget this time? There are stronger characters," inquired Lawrence.
"I'm not going for strength, Bridget is one of the more well-balanced characters in the game... plus, I find Bridget rather sexy, and you can't deny that sex appeal can make an average character more appealing. Why do you think the Tomb Raider games were so popular?"
"But, Michael, you are aware that Bridget is... a guy? He just dresses like a nun because of a folk myth in his British village that twin boys are unlucky."
"I know, and I felt a bit repulsed at first after I discovered that, but then I found some Japanese yaoi doujinshi scans on the web with Bridget and I found them a lot more alluring than I wanted to admit to myself at first."
Michael then added, "Hey, Lawrence, remember when you came out of the closet and told me you were gay. It was, what, twelve years ago?"
"Yes, 1993. You were concerned that I might be attracted to you."
"Well... to tell you the truth, I was afraid."
"You were afraid of me? But I was the same friend I had always been since grade school, I just wanted to be completely honest with you because I was tired of hiding it."
"No, you misunderstand me. I was afraid... that you'd encourage me to further explore... some feelings I've had all along. Feelings that frightened me because they were so... forbidden. I know I went on and married Deanna Sobinski and now we have been blessed with children, but, still, I feel that my life is incomplete, and I need the kind of loving that Deanna just can't give to me because... she lacks certain body parts. Parts only men have."
"Yeah, Michael, in high school, I always caught you taking small glimpses of me at the urinal, I just pretended not to notice."
"Hey, you're half-Brazilian. You must take after your father down there. It's an impressive sight, it would be an insult not to look."
Things get even steamier when they both meet up with Gordon, Weed, and the Japanese-Canadian Brian Enjo, the other long-lost male character who also has coincidentally returned to Toronto for a convention.
EDIT: I forgot to mention Brad Luggsworth, the bully from school who is now a friendly police officer. Unbeknownst to Elly Patterson, but soon to be known to Lawrence and Michael, he's also into having his handcuffs be used on him in rather untraditional ways.
EDIT II: Ah, I forgot to add the pussy legal disclaimer:
For Better or For Worse is the creation of Lynn Johnston and I in no way claim ownership of these characters. At least that's my official stance, until I prove that older Lynn Johnston stole the characters from me a few years from now and used a time machine to give my sketches to her younger self in 1979, the way older Biff gave younger Biff the Sports Almanac from the future in Back to the Future Part II. Also, just in case Universal Press Syndicate has one of those draconian "No Fan Fiction allowed" clauses for all the strips it handles, this is a satire of bad fanfics and in no way represents an attempt to write serious For Better or For Worse fan fiction, for profit or for free. Or is "parody" the word I need to use to appease the lawyers? Also, since I know lawyers can't tell obvious sarcasm, the line about Lynn Johnston using the time machine is just a joke.
EDIT III: Ah, I appear to have found
the "mother of all (recent) For Better or For Worse threads in the Fametracker forums. People get downright bitchy about the current state of the strip, a lot more critical than I am, especially about how certain characters have just disappeared. I haven't even really given an opinion. I wonder if there's a similar such thread somewhere about how
Boondocks had really fallen into the crapper this year?
I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT NO ONE ELSE I CAN FIND HAS YET USED THE TERM...
"RED STATE CANADIAN"
for those 15% or so of us Canadians who generally support the policies of the Bush administration, at least in regards to doing what needs to be done in the Middle East.
At least, I can't find anyone else using the term using Google or the
underrated Yahoo search engine(which gets a lot of stuff Google misses and indexes new entries in this blog much faster).
I don't have anything profound to say right now, especially since I have to be somewhere at 1:30 p.m. (half an hour from now, since this blog uses Greenwich Mean Time for the time index), I just want to coin a term.
THIS FRIDAY: INTERNATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY!
No, I haven't forgotten that this coming Friday, the day after American Thanksgiving, which is allegedly the busiest shopping day of the year, dubbed "Black Friday" by retailers, is also what I like to call "INTERNATIONAL BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY", my way of anti-celebrating
the leftist Adbusters magazine's "International Buy Nothing Day", not that
"International Buy Something Day" is exactly an original idea amongst right-minded bloggers, but I like my name for it better, and I started rebelling against "Buy Nothing Day" back when I was at Dawson College from 1996 to 1998, long before I knew what a "blog" was. :P
I don't think my official "Buy Something Nice For Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day" purchase this year will be as extravagant as my official "Buy Something Nice For Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day" purchase last year,
the DVD of Satoshi Kon's Millenium Actress, since I
already spent the big DVD bucks from my quarter annual GST/PST rebate cheque on a volume of Super GALS! when I went downtown on Hallowe'en, but I might see a movie (both my brothers liked Alexander Payne's
Sideways, and Payne's
About Schmidt was one of the best three films I saw in 2002, along with
Lilo & Stitch and
Catch Me if you Can), since buying a movie ticket certainly counts. Or maybe I'll buy volume 6 of
Mihona Fujii's original GALS! manga, which has got to be in at Renaud-Bray by now. And no "Buy Something Nice for Yourself and Piss Off a Communist Day" would be complete without enjoying a tasty Big Mac at every anti-capitalist's most hated fast food chain, McDonald's. I'd eat at a McDonald's inside a Wal-Mart just to really rub it in, but there's no Wal-Mart convenient to anywhere I would possibly be on Friday.
So, this "INTERNATIONAL BUY SOMETHING NICE FOR YOURSELF AND PISS OFF A COMMUNIST DAY", remember to "Participate by not participating... in not participating!"
"BONNE CHANCE" TO ELWOOD QUINN...
With myself leaving for Ottawa in a couple of weeks, one of the few unabashedly English-language institutions left on the island of Ile Perrot, aside from Smoked Meat Pete's, is
Quinn Farm, a strawberry-picking farm on Perrot Boulevard facing Saint Louis's Lake
1.
Now the language fascist bureaucrats have owner Elwood Quinn in their sites for a couple of blatantly offensive signs in the youth-corrupting demon tongue.
Avert your eyes, children!
Now, see, if that sign should be charged with anything, it should be for having a rather "fugly" scarecrow. I'm not too sure what that mouth is supposed to be: a corncob? A squash? An orange slice? And the lack of "are you" in between the "How tall" and "this year?" doesn't quite reverberate properly with the old syntax circuits. I gotta admit, though; that's a pretty cool-looking sun. What's the actual offense of which this sign is guilty?
The English words are more or less the same size as the French words. That's how fucked-up and anti-free market and anti-liberty the laws regarding language are in this province, that, while the linguistic panjandrums have deemed bilingual signage acceptable where once it was completely forbidden during the reign of the idiot king René Lévesque, may that motherfucker rot in hell, the French still has to be predominant, because, if given an equal choice between the two languages, the Quebec peasants who don't know what's best for themselves might opt to read the English words, putting the very existence of the French language. You must understand that the treasonous separatist politicians in Quebec actually have a very condescending view of their own provincial subjects who, apparently, need to be protected from the rest of the country and the continent and the best way to do that is by controlling the language so as to limit the flow of outside information into this province, and a whole lot of the French-language schools in this province do a great job of keeping a significant percentage of the Quebec population unable to live and work anywhere else in this continent through shitty English-language teaching.
(EDIT: They probably aren't too thrilled that the measurements are in the imperial system either.)
Let's look at a few quotes from the article I linked to before:
"Emails from throughout Quebec, across Canada, and even from the U.S., are pouring in to support Elwood Quinn in his campaign to fight Quebec's language police.
Quinn, the colourful, outspoken owner of Quinn Farm in Ile Perrot, was cited November 5 by an inspector for l'Office québécois de la langue française for posting English signs in violation of Quebec's language laws.
[snip]
Quinn has taken down the one sign that was in English only, an Ontario 'Buy Canadian Beef' sign on his front door. Quinn's other signs are bilingual, but the French is the same size as the English, a violation of the French Language Charter's net-predominance requirement.
Said Quinn: "I embrace the French language wholeheartedly, but on an equal basis. We have been sure to see that French is first in the running of our business, even though 90 percent of our customers are English. We've gone the extra mile to ensure that."
Most would agree that Quinn's operations are scrupulously bilingual, a reflection of the fact that the operation is conducted mainly in French. La Ferme Quinn website is grammatically correct and contains the same information that is found on the English side. One English-rights activist hazarded the guess that Quinn might well be the victim of a competitor who made the anonymous complaint to the language cops.
Quinn vows to fight.
"I will not be changing the signs that are bilingual, I am sticking with the other 69 individuals who are fighting this," Quinn said, referring to Alliance Quebec's representation of other Quebec businesses refusing to comply with the regulator's demands."
Speaking from a libertarian perspective, at least lingusitically, I think all language laws, except for those dealing with the language of official government comminications, are completely unjust and should be struck down, as language and culture is something that should never be imposed top-down by government. If the language was truly important to the people, they wouldn't need regulations to ensure its survival as it would be passed down from parent to child, and, if we had true linguistic freedom in this province, since there is indeed a critical mass of francophones, the free market would ensure that the majority of signs would be in French or bilingual and the government wouldn't waste $17,557,700 annualy on the fascist boondoggle that is the L'Office québécois de la langue française.
So I offer Mr. Quinn and the other 69 individuals my full support with their fight and I hope that their victory will be the first step in overturning the unjust, anti-freedom, language laws.
And, oh yes, it might have been a competitor who was trying to get Quinn in trouble, but my money's on the Mouvement de libération nationale du Québec, convicted murderer and terrorist
Raymond Villeneuve's weedy little band of separatist nerds who have been known to drive around the more English areas of Quebec, reporting the tiniest linguistic infractions (because they have no lives and that's their only hobby short of pathetic attempts to firebomb English language cafés with Sprite bottles filled with gasoline that they can't even set alight properly). It's either them or some other troglodyte who thinks in a very similar manner.
One other excerpt I liked:
"Two people that Quinn hasn't heard from at press time are his federal and provincial representatives, Liberal MLA Yvon Marcoux and Bloc Quebecois MP Meili Faille.
"I haven't received any reply from either one of them," an angry Quinn told the Hudson Gazette this week. "I only received one negative e-mail. Most people have been totally supportive" he added."
Well, of course our MP from the Federal Treason Party (the Bloc Quebecois) won't be of any assistance, even if she's supposed to represent all of the citizens of her riding and not just the seditionists and language fascists. Meili Faille makes the English-speaking citizens of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges riding jump through hoops just to get a version of her newsletter in their own language, whereas her predecessor, Nick Discepola from the federal Liberal Party, made his newsletter completely bilingual, as it should be. As for Yvon Marcoux, while the provincial Liberals are the less bad choice from a free market capitalist perspective (though I voted ADQ, since they're the most capitalist party in the province), they don't exactly like rocking the linguistic boat.
In less than a month, I won't have to face this linguistic nonsense anymore, but I do hope one day to return to Quebec should linguistic sanity ever be restored.
1 Yeah, I know that not even Quebec anglophones have actually called Lac St. Louis "Saint Louis's Lake" in decades, but I'm in "Fuck you, language fascists" mode.
VANCOUVER VS. TORONTO...
Today was Canadian Super Bowl Sunday, the Grey Cup, featuring the BC Lions and the Toronto Argonauts.
"For the first time since 1997, the Toronto Argonauts can call themselves Grey Cup champions.
Argos quarterback Damon Allen ran for two touchdowns and passed for another in a 27-19 win over the B.C. Lions in the 92nd edition of the CFL championship in Ottawa.
For Allen, who won his fourth Grey Cup on Sunday, this victory might be the sweetest of his legendary CFL career."
The synergy here is that the teams playing for the cup this year are both from cities where my brothers live, John in Vancouver and Nick in Toronto, and the game was played in the city where my sister lives (and where we're moving to in the middle of December). The other synergy is that I know that John and Nick don't really give a flying fuck about Canadian Football. I'm not too sure about Alison; her boyfriend likes football, but it's more NFL than CFL.
I was listening on the radio a little bit while I was eating supper and heard that 22 yard drive by the BC Lions towards the end of the game, but, eh, most of the day I was watching
Knight Rider on DVD and then I was trying to watch
King of the Hill, but it was pre-empted again by football, and, when I was watching the west coast channels, they were showing the episode of
King of the Hill from last season when Kahn transforms into a redneck in order to lower the standards of his family so that Kahn Jr. no longer looks like just another girl from an overachieving Asian family when she's applying for summer classes at a prestigious university that she was initially turned down by because they already had too many overachieving Asians. It's a great episode, about reverse discrimination, but I was kinda hoping for a new episode. I really, really, really wish that
the Boondocks cartoon had been picked up by Fox, if just so that we could have a sacrificial lamb to air in the Sunday 7 p.m. timeslot on football nights, because, at this rate, I'm beginning to doubt that we'll get another season of
King of the Hill. (Hmm, that would be a little ironic, Dallas Cowboys fan Hank Hill getting killed by football.) Why can't they put on that
Arrested Development show on at 7 p.m., because, while I've gotten scattered chuckles from that show, I'm not finding it nearly as consistently funny as the critics are making it out to be, and, as a send up of documentaries (which it doesn't seem to be all that much anymore; it's more just like
Malcolm in the Middle with adults), it's no
Office. Maybe it's just one of those shows that will grow on me the way
Malcolm in the Middle has a bit, but, as it stands, I just don't get "it".
DON'T YOU THINK THAT YOU NEED SOMEBODY? DON'T YOU THINK THAT YOU NEED SOMEONE? EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY.
You're not the only one!
You're not the only one!
Damn, I wanted to go out and see a movie or something, but the rain was really pelting down today, so I just stayed home and played
Metropolis Street Racer and watched a couple of episodes of
Sledge Hammer! on DVD (including the season finale wherein series creator Alan Spencer records a commentary track through an allegedly actual earthquake while Sledge tries to defuse a nuclear warhead on the show).
Then I remembered that it's November, and it's raining outside, so I wanted to link you all to one of the best music videos of all time, Guns N' Roses' epic
"November Rain", the one wherein Axl drinks some whisky and dreams about playing the piano and marries Stephanie Seymour and buys a gun for some reason while Slash plays guitar outside the church on the windswept plain and then it rains during the wedding reception and Stephanie Seymour dies somehow and there's the funeral with all the limos and Axl crying over the coffin while the rain washes the colour out of the rose. (Trivia fact: the "November Rain" video is based on a short story by Del James called
"Without You".)
Unfortunately, the RIAA being what it is, however, seems to have taken all copies of the "November Rain" video off the Internet (though you can still get it on the Guns N' Roses DVD,
Welcome to the Videos Except for "You Could Be Mine" because Geffen was Too Fricking Cheap to Pay for the Rights to Use the Terminator 2 Clips), so, instead, I found an acceptable substitute,
some kids talking about November Rain. :)
WEIRD SEARCH REQUESTS
"Bell ExpressVu" +song +"Christmas Morning"
I both got this search request and did a similar search myself within the past couple of minutes, based on hearing that song on the Bell ExpressVu commercials.
The answer? It's
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's "I Believe in Father Christmas", with "Father Christmas" being the British version of Santa Claus, for those of you in Rio Linda.
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the VIRGIN BIRTH
I remember one Christmas morning
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas Tree smell
AND EYES full of tinsel and fire"
Ehh... sorry, I know seventies progressive rock was pretentious at the best of times, but I'm finding even that little ten second or so clip from the song to be rather depressing, as far as Christmas songs go, though, still, I would much rather hear this then John Lennon's awful Christmas dirge "Merry Christmas (War is Over)", which is almost as bad as John Lennon's awful rest of the year dirge, "Imagine".
I'm still waiting for someone to use the best Christmas song ever recorded in a commerical: Michie Tomizawa as "Rei Hino/Sailor Mars" singing George Michael's "Last Christmas", originally from the WHAM! album,
Music from the Edge of Heaven, in awkward "Engrish" on the second
Sailor Moon Christmas album,
Sailor Stars Merry Christmas! (Nihon Columbia COCC-13827). My favourite line: "Tell me baby, do you
lecognize me? Well, it's been a year, it doesn't
supplies me!"
