The police is asking for your help to identify the idiots who have sullied our city’s reputation all over the continent. Several movies and photographs of the rioters have been posted on the SPVM website along with contact information should you recognize any of them and are feeling in a vindictive mood.

After you’re done, check out Fagstein’s excellent listing of various Habs riot myths.

• Game on!
• The Bruins are playing much much better than last time.
• The throwing of the puck behind the blue line, it displeases us.
• Now we are pleased. 1-0 Mtl.
• Don Cherry’s vest, it burns, it burns us!
• I like this second period much better that the first one. Now 2-0 Mtl.
• @laurentlasalle @JeromeParadis Price is certainly a prime candidate for the first star of the night.
• Gotta make sure that the families of our cherished Russian players remain gainfully employed…more vodka.
• Bad defensive play, they never should have had that return. 2-1 Mtl.
• Even though the Habs were one man down, Kovalev got some one-on-one quality time with the Bruin’s goalie…just before Boston tied it 2-2.
• Somebody slip some Valium to Kovalev, he almost caused us to miss out on another power play.
• Kostopoulos got hit on the face…and we have blood. At least we’ll end the game in a power play.
• We hit the goal post with 0.1 sec remaining…overtime!
• @laurentlasalle Nope, just saw the rerun, 0.1 sec.
• For those of you who can’t see the abomination that is Don Cherry’s vest.
• YYYEEEAAAHHHH! We win it 3-2. I just could not believe that we could spend 6 min in power play without nailing one.

Right now words fail me.

As “luck” would have it, we were scheduled for a Saturday family lunch at my brother-in-law’s condo near the Plaines d’Abraham. We had just learned about the explosion and fire at the Quebec city Armoury so, after an excellent meal, we decided to walk over to survey the damage.

It was so much worse than we expected.

I was raised in Quebec city and it just breaks my heart so see such a notable landmark dissapear just like that. While the North wall seems to have survived pretty well (stone isn’t a very good combustible), most of the building has been completely gutted.

You can see more pictures on Flickr.

Debbie: Having broken up, then going back with my ex. I learned and kicked him out of my life!
Jean-Luc: Avoir internet!
Pluche: Avoir decide d’aller chercher de l’eau, loin de la tente a 10h PM du soir, au milieu du parc de Jasper en Alberta. Un ours brun en liberte c’est l’fun dans Yogi mais pas dans la vrai vie.
Emile: Ecrire ce que j’ai en tete, a ce moment precis, serait - je crois - ma pire erreur, ever!!
Karo: Ne pas partir faire un voyage backpack en Afrique quand j’avais le temps et l’argent.
Chris Baum: Took a full-time job when I had a great contract with the best firm out there. My path remains the same, but took some detours.
Fred: Ne pas avoir tente l’aventure aux USA qunad j’etais plus jeune.
Tanya: Not going to more Yulblog events.
Frederic: Growing old.
Mikel: Moving from a perfectly nice house in Montreal…to Ottawa! Came back 2 years later.
Zeke: Walking out of the LMMC concert on March 4th.
Le lapin blanc: Avoir une vie sociale au cegep!
Steve (Fagstein): Not asking Chez Nadia out on a date. Wait a second, she’s right here! Nadia, do you want to go out some time?
Vero: Refuser l’invitation de Guy A pour aller a “Tout le monde en parle”.
Carl: Avoir force mon coloc a faire jouer une piece d’Annie Major Matte un peu trop souvent.
Max: Avoir laisse une fille qui presentait une magnifique disparitee.
Martine: Getting my third facelift.
Ed: Falling for Frank H.’s April Fool’s blog post (three years in a row!).
Laurent: J’ai insulte la mere d’un ami sans savoir que c’etait sa mere.
Long: J’ai dit un gros mensoge mais ca m’a rapporte $10,000.
J. Ruttan: Coming here.
Eric D. : That condom that time…
Patrick: De ne pas avoir achete de condo en arrivant a Montreal en 1999.
Maggie: (Written by Chris before he wa sknown as Zeke: It happened on May 4th 1995)…and it involved a pair of galoches and an Elvis Costello Concert.
Nadia: Fagstein.
Etudiant Alpha: J’ai rit d’une leucemique de 6 ans sans savoir qu’elle etait malade.
As for me, I took the fucking blue pill which explains why I’m still here.

Évacuation d’urgence, le vendredi 14 mars 2008 - Compte tenu de l’accumulation de neige, à titre de mesure préventive, la CSDM procède actuellement à l’évacuation de tous ses établissements scolaires. Les endroits où les élèves ont été déplacés seront indiqués sur chacune des portes des établissements. Une chaîne téléphonique a été déclenchée pour joindre tous les parents. Tous les établissements scolaires seront donc fermés jusqu’au lundi 17 mars inclusivement.

High school students are being sent home while the evacuation points for younger students are listed on the doors of their respective schools. This decision came as a result of inspections that were ordered after a snow-induced roof collapse killed three workers in Morin Heights.

Schools from the Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, which covers most of the West Island, are not considered to be at risk and classes will continue this afternoon.

A lot of planets needed to be aligned for this shot to happen: A new steadier tripod, a clear sky, no wind, great visibility, new HDR software and, especially, no teenage daughters urgently asking for a lift on this Saturday evening. My sister commented that it almost looks like these images of a vibrant and futuristic Tokyo that you often see in anime movies.

The image above is only a small part of a much larger photograph. Click on the image to see the original version, and, if you’re blessed with a large-enough screen, check out this link for the full panoramic version.

They represent architectural icons that form a major part of their home city’s identity, something that Montreal clearly does not have.

To get a proper icon, two conditions are absolutely required (1) it has to be architecturally unique and (2) it has to be either visible from the city core or located in a centralized location. Other redeeming factors include (3) a close association with a major geographical feature, (4) a high symbolic/historical value and (5) the willingness of its host city to use it for its own marketing.

Building architectural icons is a challenge, for instance architectural originality cannot please everyone, that’s why it’s original. The other significant factor is cost, while there will always be hungry people in the streets, the benefits of an appropriate icon are harder to quantify. How to you precisely measure its impact on tourism or even something as theoretical as increased civic pride?

While Montreal has a lot of worthy geographical and architectural landmarks none of these really qualify as an icon that would be recognized the world’s over. The closest thing that we have is the Olympic Stadium but it fails miserably when it comes to location. Other candidates include the St-Joseph Oratory and the cross on Mont Royal but they don’t have that “visual punch” that would make them instantly recognizable.

In fact, the one building that could have made it is the Biosphere. It is indeed very original, visible from afar, centrally located, closely associated with the St-Laurence River and it was built during an important period in our history. Unfortunately its problem is one of marketing. As my wife aptly commented “there is nothing to do there”. That may not be entirely accurate but its current role as an environment museum simply isn’t cutting it.

[update] Metroblogging Kuala Lumpur argues that residents and non-residents often have a different view of what exactly constitutes an icon.