Still-life of a creamery located across the street from where I had parked my van. Focusing is critical and rather difficult. This combo weighs a ton, is difficult to mount on the tripod (I feared dropping it more than once) but the result was interesting, showing the descriptive quality of this 67 lens. Automatic exposure in Av mode of 1/30 sec and f/8.

[boojum]

Richard, mon vieux, peur pas, I can swear in French Canadian just fine but I have never seen the words in Joual written out. I have only seen it in "school French." I workled a summer in a warehouse out by the old Bluebonnets track. It was all French Candian and one illegal immigrant, me. I was not supposed to be working on a student visa. Anyway, I learned the whole list of French Canadian swear words in that warehouse. IIRC it starts with Tabarnak! and works its way through various other religious references until it gets to "Sac*****t" and when you heard that one from the foreman, Tony, it was time to find a foxhole. And I guess you know that at one time CHOM in Montreal would spend one day a year using all the French-Canadian swearwords over the air. It was an anglophone station and the folks there thought it was great fun. I doubt it was much listened to at the north end of the island.

This was all during the time of Bill Vingt-deux and later Bill Un, along with "Je sais mes droits", etc. Times were tense and Levesque and the PQ almost took power. I have little doubt the US was involved in keeping the PQ out of power. Having the St. Lawrence controlled by a group of PO'ed French-Canadians would have been scary. And you are aware of the contretemps between the US and Canada in our shared history. It is unknown down here. About half this nation cannot even tell you where Canada is in relation to the US. No fooling. But you knew that, eh?

I had the good fortune of a loan of a nice Leica CL, the Minolta one, while in Montreal, actually Ville St. Laurent, and took a lot of pictures of the great murals which had only recently been put up. As you know, Montreal has a great art scene. And bagels on St. Viateur out on the Main. Le Roi des Frites is long gone from the Main. Should have been an historic site. Ben's smoked meat is gone, too. I suppose it is more French. And as they say out in Cartierville, "Ma faīt", Joual for "Je me fête" or "(I care so little) I sing about (celebrate) it." Learned that one along with the swear words.

And remember, "Peace, Order and Good Government" is not just a good idea, it is how to run a country. ;o)

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[Tonytee]

Having been born and raised in the Northeast (Boston) my friends and I every summer would travel up to to Montreal. There, McGill University would rent rooms out for only $2.00 a night and they

were very nice rooms. It was one way for the school to make some money while students were on vacation. At any rate, when morning came we all went looking for a decent restaurant and we

did not have a watch between the four of us. One friend spotted a lovely young lady, went over to her and asked if she had the time. Well, she showed him what time it was, with one finger. I will give you five guesses as to which finger it was, and the first four don't count. My guess is, she did not understand English and perhaps thought my friend was propositioning her. He wasn't.

Talk about language barriers and cultural shock, eh? Thanks for reading. Tonytee )

[RICHARD L.]

Once I had car trouble along Interstate-93 in Manchester, New Hampshire. I managed to leave the freeway, cross a bridge over the Merrimack River and drive to a house where I asked to make a phone call. A group of children came to check what was happening on their street (my parked car with the hood open) and they started to ask questions like "Where are you from ?". When I said I came from Quebec, they all showed a blank stare, they had no idea what or where Quebec was (although Quebec and New Hampshire share a common border). One of the kids said "Oh yeah, Kansas !" and from that moment on, I was "Kansas man" until my car was towed and repaired ... lol !


My uncle William spent most of his adult life in a suburb of Providence, Rhode Island (Pawtucket). You accessed his residence by taking Massachusetts Exit 2 on Interstate-95 (Attleboro, MA) and drove on to Pawtucket's Cottage Street (he is buried along with his wife and 2 sons at St Cecilia Church cemetery). I spent parts of my summers there between the ages of 14 and 21, discovering the American way of life, culture and the Atlantic Ocean. We traveled around a lot (from Cape Cod to Narragansett to New York City) and it's where my love for America developed in my teenage years.

Regards

[boojum]

I was appaled to learn that ~80% of the US population has no passport. OTOH, when you can drive ~3,000 miles in one direction and never leave the country a passport is not much thought of. I had some Egyptian francophone friends in Ville St. Laurent and their French, "school French", was excellent. And they could not understand why I did not keep up my French in the US. As you know folks who immigrate often try to shed their Old World connections and manners in a hurry. They want very much to be American.

In retrospect I find Canada more human, more humane than here in the US. And when those unemployed folks have the medical insurance lapse they will no doubt re-appraise the provincial health system in Canada and single-payer in general. The US has a lot to learn and hopefully will pick up a lot in the course of the coming blood bath. While I do not advocate for the SoCred solutions I do believe there are better ways to support the sick, hungry and homeless. But that is politics and lets stay out of that. The language wars are enough.

As for breaking down, we were heading south to the US right after I had taken my final fall exam. About thirty miles south of the city the car ran out of gas. She said she filled it before she left. Anyway, some old real French Canadian stopped in an ancient Chrysler Newport with four regular tires and a coathanger for an antenna. It was a blizzard dropping a foot an hour. It was snowing. I could not understand much of his Juoal but he understood my meager French, took me to a gas station, we got gas, he drove me back and refused anything other than a big "Merci!." Regular tires in a foot an hour blizzard. Bienvenue au Quebec.

While in McGill I had some Canadian History classes, for my own good. ;o) Did you know there were two Lords Duhram? Suppose some clerk in the Foreign Office put that letter to Durham in the wrong pigeon hole? Think about it. I loved Canadian History. No bad feelings. And. Amor de Cosmos, Jesus Murphy, Louis Riel, the great Sir John A. who built Canada with that railroad and who did kill D'Arcy McGee? It wasn't Whelan. As for the French-Canadians in New England, about a third of Quebec migrated south during the last Great Depression and they were the young, bright and motivated ones. It set back the province some.

Anyway, back to work here in Oregon, à la prochaine.

[RICHARD L.]

À la prochaine, my friend ! It was fun sharing these stories !

Regards