And in the spirit of Rambo

Today: summer in Montreal, silly side projects/networking, and why make babies.

Have a great stay at home!

I have a million more things to say about Paris but (1) my last post was rather text heavy and (2) rather than going detail by detail I've thrown together some photo highlights with commentary. The long history: The food/drinks which, like any major world city, were

Of Cats and Communards

Half way through our visit we moved to a hotel in the famous Montmartre district. Montmarte is known for: * Its elevation - beautiful views and strategic position * Its former independence from Paris (made into the 14th Arrondissement late) * Its radicalism - most evident with the Paris Commune * Gypsum mining, which,

Bumming a cigarette to a French child outside the horse butcher

There are some massively fucked up people who get very worked up over declining birthrates. Most of these people, like Elon Musk, are of course concerned principally with the birthrate of specific kinds of people. [[1]] The New Yorker recently wrote on the topic. They accurately point out that birthrates

Four Republiques Deep and He Gives You This Look

Two things that Paris impresses upon you immediately is that it is (1) an old city and (2) a world city. The former I intend to talk about at some length next post, but the latter becomes apparent just walking down the street. On your way elsewhere, you will find

Innovating New Accents to Annoy Parisians

FrenchBee is a funny name for a company. I prefer it over the original name, FrenchBlue, that they were called before JetBlue complained to the FAA. Both are sadly inferior to the temporary name the chose in the interregnum - just “French”. Anyway a huge amount of the branding persists

Chute libre of a magical deal

I don't really have anything to add about the economic turmoil we are currently engulfed in [[1]]. Whether you are reading this on a day when the market is up or, as French speakers might say, chute libre, is less important than America's most valuable export

The Full Megillah and another time the US tried to invade Canada

We went to a Purim party with the local leftist Jewish group my partner found when we arrived. It was held in a a building that made up part of the first (and until recently, largest) hospital complex in Montréal: Cité des Hospitalières. The original hospital was the product of

Uncomfortably Numb

I'm back in Fayetteville, Arkansas again. I don't think I really have the capacity right now to talk about my father, his life, and our loss in a manner that I would feel proud or happy about. It is still too soon. The collective mood is

Soon in your neighborhood

I've started writing four posts in the last two weeks, never managing to finish them because other events have barged into our collective mental space. Those posts were: * One titled "Hindenburg v2", a retrospective on Joseph Biden * Another about the new Star Trek movie, Section 51,

2024 est terminé

What I've done This year started with finishing the first of four French courses, moving on from Substack [[1]], and wistfully considering alternative futures. As spring rolled in, we started going out a little more - the highlights being a drag brunch Megillah reading (Purim), the first heatwave

Battery Chicken Improv

A key activity in the final 8 weeks of my french course is improv. The Quebecois fucking love improv and, admittedly, it's a pretty good way to move from "think something, translate it in your head, and then speak" to "just say what you are

Francisissy Hypno November

While the inclination to keep this blog more of a personal thing - for letting friends know how we are doing, experiences foreign and familiar, etc - remains strong, unfortunately the United States is very important and powerful and unreasonably close geographically to Canada, so there is no avoiding talking

Best Season by a Large Marge

Montreal autumn is a strong contender for "best season in the world" next to Seattle summers. It's beautiful and, occasionally, warm as heck. As opposed to the summer - which I frankly found a bit too hot for my liking - and winter, the variability of

Profit Boyz and Spider Skeletons

So Canada has a different day for Thanksgiving, or L'action de grâce. And also they kinda don't. You could rack it up with like President's Day or MLK Day in the sense that there isn't like a bunch of decorations or major

Good Things To Use Computers For

So, against my general intentions with this blog as a fun way to keep in touch with folks and have something nice to look back on every once in a while, I feel it is necessary to address an issue I've been asked about a couple of times

I'm Scrutin' Here!

This post is quite late! In the last few weeks I have encountered a series of maladies. I won't tire folks with a lot of details, since none of it ended up being serious, but the first thing had the semblance of being serious which means I was

DR MRS VANDERTRAMPP

I have not posted in a while! French classes started back up and I've been quite occupied with it. One big change in the last month or so is that I can finally really understand (some) television/comedy. Not all of it, not all the time, but actually

Fierté Montréal: Sex Garage and F.A.G.S

In Montreal, Pride (or Fierté) falls on the first week of August and was, like Pride in the United States, originally inspired by a violent police raid and subsequent cop riots. While in the 1970s, violent raids and harassment by vice squads - including outing people by publishing their names

2316 Naughtical Miles Away

The start of my trip back to visit Seattle did not start off well! Half way through a painfully long drive to the airport I realized I had forgotten my passport. My partner had to take another car to drop it off to me. The trip was a whirlwind of

No Pasarán

The last bit of class was a rush. I was considerably more worried about this, the second of four sessions [[1]], than the first one. A metric fuckton more grammar and there was less oral practice than the first session. You are expected to be competent at passé composé ("

Government Weed Poutine Sauce

It's been a hot minute since I posted, and I mean that both figuratively and literally: But let's start at the top. My partner is back finally from their long trip to Peru and that is among the reasons I haven't posted recently. They

The French Contributions to Garbage Innovations

(Reminder! I'll be in Seattle July 20-30th. Please drop me a line if you want to hang out as my schedule is filling up quite fast) The government run French classes come in all shapes and sizes - fully remote, part time, night classes, and of course the

Tomber et Revenir

(Update: I'll be in Seattle from July 20-30. If you are reading this, there is a pretty good chance you have a means of getting hold of me and would love to hang out. If somehow you don't have a way to contact me, you can