Don’t forget that the big Yulblog 7th anniversary party will be taking place tonight. Just click on the logo for all of the details, including the official release of three books by fellow Yulbloggers.

Many have asked if I plan to compile a list of the participants, like I do at the monthly meetings. The answer is yes, but I won’t be running around with my Moleskine trying to get everybody to sign it. Instead, a note pad will be left at an obvious place and you will be invited to put in your name, blog address as well as your answer to the question of the night…If you were writing a book, what would be its title?

Finally, I’ve been mulling about the possibility of making a series of better quality portraits of local bloggers, although I don’t know if this particular venue will have enough space for that. I you happen to have reflectors or programmable flash units, could you please bring them along? You never know and this could be a lot of fun.

There was some crazy fog happening yesterday, wasn’t there? My husband tried to go out last night to visit a friend and ended up turning back because he was driving at 10km/hr and he still didn’t feel comfortable because you couldn’t see anyone else if they were more than a few feet away. It was crazy. Even during the day it was really foggy and I made him stop the car so I could get out and snap a few shots. This one almost looks like Mary Poppins was drifting by to pick the kids up from school and the fog made her crash land in the fence.

I love fog, as long as I don’t have to be driving in it when it’s as thick as last night!

If you meet the conditions, then it’s possibly an offer that would be difficult to refuse. It’s an example of what is now described by the buzz phrase, Social Media Marketing (SMM). I thought it so novel that I wrote a little piece on the Volvo S80 and SMM. Now Jesse Ship of Matchstick.ca tells me they’re still looking for more volunteers here in Montreal. Might you be who they’re looking for!

Today’s date is 3/14. So some are calling this Pi Day. As far as I can tell, there are no celebrations of this momentous day in Montreal. I hope the comments will prove me wrong.

For those who wonder what all the fuss is about, you can read more on Pi for everyone! from one of the non-Montreal SMM’s.

Check out Cyberpresse and tell me if this isn’t the ugliest ad placement ever. I this a new era for CSS ads?

[update] And just like that it’s gone. For a while, the side blue borders were replaced with a huge ad from the veal meat industry. It was garish.

Noam Chomsky called sports, or more pointedly, spectator sports as “Irrational Jingoism”. When Chomsky was in high school he came to the conclusion that his high school’s football team’s winning record had no bearing whatsoever on his life.

Chomsky also felt that our press was not free. He feels that various filters, 5 in fact, impede the flow of a free press. See Manufacturing Consent for more on this. Heading back to last week when the entire Kovalev affair hit the press, both of these statements by Chomsky came to mind.

LaPresse was lambasted during the week by readers and the screws turned on them by Les Canadiens. As I alluded to in last week’s post, Les Canadiens control the sports media. They do so by having a legion of journalists and commentators that they can count on to produce comments in the paper that are favorable to their position. They wield this control by choosing which players are available for comments and how often. What makes one journalist more successful then another is often the access he gets to certain players.

The entire team played a massive game of denial and circled in among themselves to help blow this story over. In the end, they were very successful. The story is dead. But what I took away from the entire affair is how incredibly unfree sports journalism is. How the guys working the beat are at the complete mercy of the team they follow. How if a paper steps out of line from the official line how a legion of writers descend upon that paper for having the nerve to actually write something that approaches real journalism.

The Habs are now in 11nth and will have to play like Gods to make the playoffs.

Josh Freed in the Montreal Gazette is always worth reading with his humorous take on living in Montreal. He’s apparently delighted that we’ll all Spring Forward three weeks earlier this year. Hopefully all our electronic equipment will keep in step too.

He is particularly delighted that all the early birds, who supposedly are against this Daylight Summer Time thingy, will have to share their beautiful sun rises with even more people who will be up and about. As a late riser, he just can’t stand those types and is delighted that they’re losing out.

It’s all very confusing with this question of whether you’re gaining an hour or losing an hour. At least as far as adjusting the clock goes, the ‘Spring Forward, Fall Back‘ is an easy way of remembering what to do. It just wouldn’t make sense to ‘Spring Back, Fall Forward’.

What Josh Freed seems to have forgotten is that this DST process is a clever way of getting him and all his fellow couche-tards to jump out of bed an hour earlier during the summer. I really don’t understand why he’s happy.

It’s really somewhat surprising to see the advertisements that Elections Quebec puts out. You can get a taste of them at their other site Mon Vote. All we see are people jumping into the air and making a huge X. It’s not meant to get us all to jump into the air, but rather to encourage us to put our X on the ballot paper when the time comes.

The slogan seems a little exaggerated to say the least. “I express who I am” or in French “J’exprime ce que je suis.” Given the events of the week, it might appear that some of the candidates have taken those slogans a little too much to heart.

So I, like 75,000 other households in Montreal, recieved letters recently notifying us that our tap water contained levels of lead higher than the acceptable provincial standard. The letters were aimed at pregnant women and parents of children under 6 years of age in particular as this was bolded and printed in large letters.

My first beef, was that the letter was entirely in French. Now, don’t get me wrong. I read, speak, understand, and function in French everyday even though it’s just one of three languages that I have to juggle between. But for other citizens of Montreal, allophones or anglophones, how were they supposed to know what this letter was about? It was addressed to the “occupant” and I nearly discarded it, thinking that it was just another piece of unwanted junk mail that I get by the bac-loads every week. The letter has one line at the bottom saying that an english version is available on request. Montreal being a bilingual city, and this notice being of such gravity, you would think that the administration could send out a bilingual notice.

Beef no.2, if as reported in the media, this problem is not really as serious as it sounds, why send letters to 75,000 households and create the mass hysteria? The city is saying that lead levels under the old provincial standards would have been acceptable but not with the new lowered standards. Yet they do not foresee replacing city pipes completely until 2026 and until then, we should all just drink filtered water. Um…. is this supposed to make me feel reassured in some way? I’m presuming it’s not a great idea to wash my fresh produce with tap water or brush my teeth with it in that case. So you’re telling me that the water quality is sub-par but that I should just live with it as best as I can and keep accumulating low levels of lead in my body until the year 2026. Yeah, right. I feel much better now. What was the purpose of this letter? I just don’t get it.

Beef no. 3, if everyone is now running out and buying filters and bottled water like there’s no tomorrow, what is the city administration doing to compensate people? That adds up to a lot of filters from now until 2026 if I have to replace them every 3 months. I keep hearing about how the city is going to offer a “deal” to homeowners who want to replace their home pipes at the same time that the city replaces the city pipes. But why is this information so vague? How much money are people going to have to put aside to deal with this? I’m not made of money and taxes keep rising every year. Show me the money I say! I’ve heard rumors of a class action law suit against the city being filed…Maybe it’s time to “parcavenue” the city. Again.

Another first Wednesday and another well-attended Yulblog meeting…and this time I know that I missed a lot of people. After 40-something signatures, I ran out of steam, the whole thing became a blur and I forgot who signed and who didn’t.

Fortunately Jean-Luc was there to give me a hand. I also want to give an extra thank to those of you who showed up to sign the book without waiting for me to hunt you down. That way you’re signing on to dozen of referrals from new and eager readers and I can spend more time talking to my fellow Yulbloggers.

Without further bitching here is the question of the month:

You find yourself shipwrecked on a desert island and the only thing that made it to the beach along with you is a wooden crate. What’s the worst thing that you could find in the crate?

Jean-Luc: Mon ex…of course
Marc: Ma professeur de physique en Sec. 5, La Soeur Dufour (surnommee LSD, bien sur)
Daniele la panthere rousse: La bacterie mangeuse de chair
Marko: A collection of Penthouse magazines covers with all of the pages removed
Marie-Zen: Une copie de moi-meme
Petite Genny: Des araignees
Debbie: Des tomates! Beurk!
Laurence: Aucun pots de creme solaire
Samuel: Un CD d’abonnement a Sympatico 56k
Joanie: Des reptiles et des araignees
Christelle: I wouldn’t want to find a cellphone which would allow me to call for help…Forever on a desert island sounds good!
Sof: L’ex de mon chum!!
Victoria: Ma mere
Stephane: De la neige
Pluche: Un vibrateur
Nathalie: Ne pas y trouver de vibrateur
Stephane: Mon boss!
Vanou: If there’s nothing je serais vraiment decue!!!
Eric B: Une affiche electorale
Renee: Un joournal qui parle des elections qu Quebec
Julie: Un unijambiste roux et muet
Josee: Un ballon de plage troue
Genevieve: Un roman qui a pris l’eau durant le voyage
David: A Jack in the box
Marie-Zen: Une copie de moi-meme
Jay: Richard Simmons
Mare: A FedEx box with a DVD of Castaway
Alston: Snakes in the motherfucking box!
Zura: The network guy from the company I work at
Vila H.: That’s easy, my thesis
Andrea: (Vila stole my answer) My interns (?), I want that thing far away from me. First prize for worst handwriting
A.J.: A DVD set of “Lost
Steve: A sexually charged Ben Mulroney (Ew!! – Zura)
Eric D. : Les castors de Bell
Marie-Douce (angie22): Mon ex
Jean-Marc: Des problemes sans solutions et des gens qui gardent leurs idees (you can fit a lot of those in a wooden crate – Andre)
Jeff D.: Une grenouille morte
Michel: Un vide
Philippe: Mon ex!!
Magenta: Un paquet de cossins medievals
Disco: Des bottes de cowboy
Caroline: Des bas
Claude: Un CD de musique western
Bengi: SAWYER!
Laurent: Ma mere! Je t’adore, mais je ne pourrais rester sur une ile avec toi
Daniel P”: L’envers du miroir (la folie)
Alexandre: A Bud Light
Fred Rappaz: Une moissoneuse-batteuse
Komtois: Un panier de produits de beaute
Kevin: Un rat mort!
Francois: Un Tyrannosaure affame
Dale: Gas for a chainsaw (Maniac Mansion fans only)
Cahterine G.G.: Une autre fille
Francois: One milion dollar…and nowhere to spend it
Artemisia: Mon ordinausaure poche ou, des lampes a huile
Vero: Rien du tout
Fannie: Des CDs de Celine Dion
Feloisa: Not finding an iPod
And me: Having nothing to eat than a crate full of jars of mustard

Sorry for the delay, I was teaching this morning and I then had to wait for the Yulblog7 banner. It was worth it though, check it out. At least I had enough time to validate all but one of the addresses. For those of you that we missed, please add a comment.