sur Papineau, on s’imagine parfois qu’il suffit d’avoir un slogan pour que les affaires fonctionnent. les mots qui tuent.
on papineau, some think that a slogan is magic. here: “mattress, the genius of confort”. those are words that kill…

We were getting worried but, after an absence of two weeks, our organic dandelion control system has finally returned.

Howdy!

In another life, I edit Instant Coffee, an email list for arts and arts related things. Here is an abreviated version in case you have some spare time.

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CONFERENCE – Pour la po

It’s fun to see how people freak out when it rains. I was on my bike while the sun was out and there were a whole lot of people outside, then the rain came for 30 minutes and the streets were empty. It’s just water. I was there soaking wet. The few people who stayed outside under the rain were either soaked like me or they looked like this woman on this photo with a plastic bag on their head.

So, apparently, the weather people were wrong for the weekend that just ended. Saturday morning when I left the house, it was still wet outside and there was a hint of a sun. But you know, nature speaks to us all the time. When I heard all those birds chipping as I was walking through a park, there were no doubts that there was going to be a beautiful weather for a long time. The weather predicts good weather until next week. I confirm that.

I’m fairly intuitive, but I could be totally wrong.

I love it when the weather people get it wrong like that, especially since we were led to expect yet another crappy weekend.

I have been to the cross and the Camilien Houde viewpoint but, I’m ashamed to admit, before today I had never been to the other parts of the Mont Royal park. For those of you who are not familiar with Montreal’s geography, it’s like living in Manhattan for ten years without once visiting Central Park.

At least I will have no difficulties in feeding the photoblog this week.

I saw something quite unusual this morning, the parking lot of the St-Joseph Oratory was absolutely packed with Harleys and other motocycles. A quick Google search told me that the event is called a Toy Run, or a blessing of the Harleys.

I would have gladly stopped to take pictures but I was coming back from a very fruitful visit of Mont Royal (more on that later) and my xD card was full. Hopefully they will still be around (and the clouds will be gone) in a few hours. By then I should have better light with the afternoon sun illuminating the church.

[update]
Darn! When I returned two hours later they were almost all gone. Talk about fleeting urban wildlife. I can’t really blame them, it’s a gorgeous day to be on the road.

Now that Nathalie Simard has provided details of her years of sexual abuse by her former manager and mentor, I am left to wonder if Guy Cloutier’s ultra-rich neighbors will be happy to see him return home at the end of his “short” 42 months prison sentence. Personally, as the father of two teenage daughters, I hope that he will be welcomed with as much consideration and forgiveness as Karla Homolka can expect from NDG residents.

If his luck holds, his second victim will finally heed Nathalie’s advice and go public…one week before his release.

The program of the Just For Laughs festival is now online. Most of the outdoor activities will take place from July 14 to 24 although you will be able to catch some of the shows during the preceding and following weeks.

Some of the participants include Stephen Colbert and Samantha Bee, correspondents from the always brilliant Daily Show, the purple haired Dame Edna and Jim Belushi. The French component, Juste pour rire, will feature St