juicynewf

Conversations I Have Had on George Street This Week, Vol. 2:

"I had to tell Mother it was a softball injury and the tournament didn't even start until this morning!"
"I guess I didn't realize how attractive I found you until I had my mouth around your arm."

Actual Conversations I Have Had on George Street This Week, Vol. 1:

"I like you, you've got brains as well as... *insert hand gesture indicating admiration of figure* ...that."
"You're not much for subtlety, are you?"
"I'm only in port for the night, I don't have time to be subtle."

Where, oh where, did the Joementum go?

Re: Andrew Stark's "Embracing The Nation in Quebec" (17 July)

Far removed from the spectres of political ambiguity and opportunism that haunt his colleagues, Michael Ignatieff has embraced the notion that Quebec constitutes a civic nation, one that has the full capacity to engage itself in the workings of the larger framework of Canadian society.

It is patently illogical to suggest, as Andrew Stark has done, that someone whose life's work has sought to illuminate the threat to stability, the danger to life and the pathway to atrocity that has so often accompanied adherence to ethnic nationalism would fail to make this distinction.

Mr. Stark would do well to refresh his bibliography before making such a claim.

juicynewf
Montreal, QC

"CNN: The Most Trusted Name in AAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

I could care less about the superficial hipster rebranding of Ben Sherman (or should I say, branding minus the re-) - I just scored black BS cigarette tuxedo pants at the Lola and Emily vente de trottoir, to match the black BS skinny tuxedo jacket I eBayed a few months ago.

It's like whiskey-fuelled troublemaking's built right into those satin lapels.

replace "hippie" with "Liberal, and "Republican" with "former Progressive Conservative" and yeah... I heart PostSecret.

Intensifying years-old crush on Christiane Amanpour as the Colbert Report plays on.

Between her and Anna Maria Tremonti, I could just die happy listening to their voices and pronouncing their names.

Finally managed to find someone interested in seeing United 93 and made a night of it last night.  I'm not certain why I felt so inclined to have company, as I'm one of those people who actually enjoys going to films alone. 

Initially, when I first got wind of this film, I swore up and down that I'd never see it.  I chalked it up to another Holllywood/Washington propaganda project and didn't put too additional thought into it.  However, once I discovered that the man behind Bloody Sunday was also behind this, I pulled a Senate and began seriously thinking of seeing it.  Then, Tess, I read your review a few weeks ago, and was even more enthralled with seeing it.

I wasn't disappointed.

The tiny electronic blips representing the hijacked planes disappearing from the ACT radar screens in the blink of a eye, the fear-stricken eyes of hijackers and passengers alike, the moments of complete and utter silence in the offices when images from CNN flashed on the large screens, the whispered prayers in English and Arabic softly echoing through the plane... it was balanced, it had little agenda (outside of repeatedly pointing out the dearth of miliary comms that fateful morning), it haunted.

At times, I resorted to the age-old "it's only a movie, it's not real" refrain to ease my fear, but it was only after a few moments when I realized that for once, it wasn't simply a movie.  I can't fathom the fact that many of the film's major players acted as themselves.  Revisiting the events of that day, in their actual settings... that's some kind of courage and inner strength.

All too real.

Well done, Mr. Greengrass. 

We don’t weep for places, we don’t weep for people – we weep for memories, for moments passed, for words unspoken, for loss that weights your every movement with sorrow. 

I lived and died in that house, not as she did, but as only those of us familiar with that preternatural hurt do.  I lived what it is to love through family, that blood affords us all a crimson commonality.  

The quiet hum of the furnace kicking in, I often mistake the air conditioner’s frigid sighs for its aged machinations nowadays.  I wake up in a cold sweat, wondering through shivering limbs why I ever complained about the heat.

I sit in my window, watching life pass me by.  My world once shared the same walls as hers, our fears the locks on our doors.  I throw my curtains open now, with that same sweeping gesture.  They never quite hang properly afterwards, but I can’t bring myself to fix them.

The stairs to my apartment loom some nights, like the rocks hidden beneath the gentle waves of some beaconing harbour.  I hear her ragged breath pleading, but if I don’t climb them, I won’t have to say good-bye. 

Sunlight streaming as it did on those evenings.   Nothing strikes a chord of loneliness quite like those notes of triumph that lack an audience.  Like those furtive recordings of long ago piano recitals, if I commit it to memory, will she hear it one day?  I try to tell her now, but my words never come out right and I stumble over my tears.

Make-believe running out, laughter buried beneath a cemetery of wrinkles, hope left somewhere amid the boxes in the basement.  A tea bag left astray, a silver wrapping from a piece of Wrigley’s Spearmint gum, a pink foam curler nestled in a worn, white mesh bag. 

The places that we leave never leave us.   I don’t know if I will ever cross that threshold again.  Strangers have different veins than us, and I don’t speak their shared nostalgia.

 I am still holding her hand.

Rest softly, Toppo.  Your big white pear-shape will always be the other half of that chilla heart.

A passerby alerted us to two abandoned baby squirrels, who were a few blocks away from where we held our Small Victories Rodent Rescue benefit sale on Sunday.  They were chattering and crawling up the legs of him and his friends... thankfully, we saved them and they are soon off to one of our foster families, where they'll be rehabbed for re-release.  Small Victories, indeed!

Re: Lysiane Gagnon's "Two-man Liberal Race"

Dear Editor:

Ms. Gagnon's derision of politicians as consummately prone to lying and academics as wholly removed from reality is an insult to both professions.  Indeed, it rings true with much of the criticism that has been levelled at Mr. Ignatieff, claiming that his academic background provides him with little to no qualification for a political career.  Lacking a constituency whose views they must represent and to whom they must be ultimately be responsible, academics are mostly free to write with candor.  Mr. Ignatieff's views on international intervention, torture, anti-ballistic missile shields and the like are well-informed and well-argued.  However, these academic views were advanced without the necessary considerations of representative and electoral responsiblity that one would have to undertake in the political realm.  Neither removed from truth nor isolated in the ivory tower, Mr. Ignatieff remains a legitimate and worthy contender for the leadership of the Liberal Party.

juicynewf
Montreal, QC

On Christmas morning in St. Mary's, looking angelic in the crisp morning sunshine:


Pancaking between the fridge and the kitchen wall, Eva's favourite place to hide. 


Busted in the cupboard!


Getting the leash and going to the party:


"What, no more raisins?!"


Junk food courtesy of Poppy Dillon:


"Smelling" the flowers

• Jeffrey Simpson is my new best friend.  From calling the bluff on the mythical fiscal imbalance as little more than a consequence of the Québec Way (i.e. massive social spending  in order to subsidize the lowest tuition rates, Hydro rates, etc.) to recognizing before all other Anglophone journalists that the only myth comparable to that of the fiscal imbalance is that of Gerard Kennedy's bilingualism... his columns for the past few weeks have been right on, b'y.
• It is the biggest farce since Florida in 2000 that Chris was sent home last night on American Idol.  What precious little faith I have left in the American electorate can only be restored by the midterm elections.  Let's go, people.  Don't elect Elliot the Muppet.
• Capitals may be creeping back into my written speech.  A consequence of getting tired of switching between "Professional Caps" and "casual lower", to be sure.
• Three times in my life when I have been conscious of my age in a negative sense:  spending most of my 10th birthday party crying in my room over the fact that I had now crossed over into double-digits, hearing J's friends consistently refer to me as "Grandma" because I'm older than he is, and having to check the "25-34" box for the first time the day after my birthday last week. 
  
• I heart Iggy:

 

There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents ... and only one for birthday presents, you know.
[Lewis Carroll]

The next time you're writing a speech, Prime Minister . . .
J.D.M. STEWART

Globe and Mail

Prime Minister Stephen Harper likes to be in control -- look at the way
the media were kept at bay this week when the Canadian soldiers killed
in Afghanistan were brought home. So, he can't be pleased that last
week he credited Lester B. Pearson instead of Mackenzie King with
having said that Canada has too much geography and not enough history.

Still, he deserves credit for at least trying to bring a little
historical spice to his oratory. Therefore, to assist him (or his
speechwriters, if they haven't been fired), here is a selection of
quotations by his predecessors and when they might come in handy.

"Most Canadians, in fact, are born with skates on their feet rather
than with silver spoons in their mouths."

-- Lester B. Pearson

He could use this one to sell his daycare plan (Canadians need the
money) or his promised tax credit (spend the cash on kids' sport).

"We own it. Lock, stock and iceberg."

-- Brian Mulroney

The PM has already made a point of defending Canadian sovereignty over
the Arctic, so this gem ought to appear in some future speech. Other
Mulroney quotes have had too many f-bombs.

"When you come to Parliament on your first day, you wonder how you ever
got here. After that, you wonder how the other 263 members got here."

-- John Diefenbaker

It has been reported that Mr. Harper thinks he's the smartest guy in
the room, so it's not hard to imagine him being the smartest guy in the
House. Look for this one at the Press Gallery dinner.

"We must not forget that days may come when our patience, our endurance
and our fortitude will be tried to the utmost. In those days, let us
see to it that no heart grows faint and that no courage be found
wanting. . ."

-- Sir Robert Borden

This, from Canada's First World War leader, sounds far more prime
ministerial than "cutting and running is not your way. It's not my way.
And it's not the Canadian way," as Mr. Harper told the troops in
Afghanistan. If he wants to raise his game, he might look to a guy who
read Cicero -- in Latin -- before going to bed.

"When they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, they are no longer
honourable members, they are just nobodies."

--Pierre Trudeau

Conservative MPs probably have to ask Mr. Harper for permission just to
be more than 50 yards from the Hill. But change the figure to 50 feet,
and it would describe his feelings about the national media.

"Anybody may support me when I am right. What I want is someone that
will support me when I am wrong."

--Sir John A. Macdonald

A good quote, but it's hard to see Mr. Harper admitting to the second
part.

"You can't stand up for Canada with a banana for a backbone."

-- John Diefenbaker

The speechwriters will be salivating over this one because it (a)
includes the Tory campaign slogan, (b) comes from the lips of a Tory,
(c) is about the same length as many of the sentences they already put
into the PM's mouth.

"When a man has done me an evil turn once, I don't like to give him the
opportunity to do so twice."

--Sir John A. Macdonald

Mr. Harper has probably already used this one in private.

Prime ministers require "the hide of a rhinoceros, the morals of St.
Francis, the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of
Hercules, the leadership of Napoleon, the magnetism of a Beatle and the
subtlety of Machiavelli."

-- Lester B. Pearson

Quick: Which of the eight qualities does Mr. Harper lack?

"Fuddle-duddle."

--Pierre Trudeau

This one will have to be saved for a very special occasion. When the
children are not around.

J.D.M. Stewart teaches Canadian history at the Bishop Strachan School
in Toronto.