Si Diane Tell pouvait bien chanter ''Manhattan Monotone'' impunément, jadis - vous allez bien tous me foutre la paix et me permettre cette soi-disante incartade dès le départ, ici - HEIN? Après tout - quoi d'autre pourrait-on bien titrer ce qui suit? Eh Bien VOILÀ...!
It has slowly become a bigger deal each year but, this year, it becomes official: this would-be metropolis that would speak French in North America (and loves to compare itself to Astérix's Gauls surrounded by the Roman Empire, for that matter) veers towards the darkness for not a single evening but for an entire three-day week-end ''festival'' that makes Halloween yet another ''event'' part of this year's celebrations surrounding the purported-to-be 375th anniversary of the birth of a colony - not merely of the city. But it is the metropolis' birth year that they celebrated in 2017, and this would then be a celebration of the first month of October it ever knew as ''Montréal'' - sort of. For the occasion, they made up an entire legend in a vain effort to make it ultra-special: ''la Trouble Fête'' - which is a pun, in poor taste as it often is, but somewhat effective one must admit. Loin de moi l'idée de vouloir jouer le trouble-fête ici, alors... Kidding. It is totally my idea, initiative and intention here! Et vlan! Let us proceed...!
''Vive'' - alors que celle-ci est la personnification de la Mort;
que c'est ironique tout ça...!
Et c'est encore plus évident - oserais-je écrire plus CRU -
en Anglais avec ''ALIVE'' - LOL
So, what if the event does not include the rather odd,
unattractive sub-title ''danse macabre'' per say...?
It will most certainly have tons and tons of them zombies
dancing the night away there... all over town, verily!
It fits. Live with it.
Three bad sources of inspiration come together for this new festival: first off, the annual tradition of a zombie parade, a march of the dead ripping off the Mexican Day of the Dead, no doubt... All-Hallows' Eve traditions themselves; mainly trick-or-treating but not only that... And to all that, this year, is attached some sort of re-valorisation of the witch, aided greatly by the time-honored fun had at costume parties throughout the ages that is, now, more and more frequently witnessed with all that ''cosplaying'' going on the whole year thru...! The zombies have walked these streets before, sure; and festivals such as Fantasia, Spasm, Stroboscopica and Malefycia(which has been going for three years now)are nothing new. Hell (!) we have seen this city's celebrations veer towards a decidedly heathen penchant before, on numerous occasions - absolutely. But this time, it is going a step further - a step beyond? The prevalent confusion of wiccan with devil-worshiping and other categories erroneously labeled as ''witches'' has come to this! What adds to the dismay this time out is the involvement of a notable shrine from Christendom now...!
Well, truth be told...
Viewed like this, from a certain parking lot there...
the shrine is very nearly reeking of morbidity too!
So the ORATORY (yes, that Oratory!) has dispatched its angelic choirboys - known worldwide, reputedly, as les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal - to be a part of this ghastly event... what is it called again... ''l'éveil des Morts'' - is it? The Rise of the Dead! Mercifully, it will be only for Day One of the three-day mini-festival that is guaranteed to be ''horrifiant'' - exactly what l'Oratoire likes, right? Something baroque, they said; a spectacle complete with a ''funeral march'' (nothing less) which is not exactly part of the repertoire of these little angels, usually - cherubs that are often not so little anymore as some are bordering on teenager age and measure up to six feet tall already! But it is beside the point here; they are only too happy to participate in this, surely. Obviously. It is ''fun'' and the sort of thing that appeals to the masses - indubitably! A spectacle centered around a single local artist and that is, apparently, haphazardly based upon this time of the year - the trick or treating part of it, that is - will be the reason for all this. An out-of-the-ordinary meeting of choirboys and modern artist (Yann Perreau, for those who know...) And they promise to send the little angels home early (10 pm) at which time another artist will pick up the slack, followed by a DJ named after a rooster...? The dead will surely stir and awaken to all this noise - for damn sure. Or they will simply toss, turn and roll in their graves! But that rooster-like DJ; maybe it hints at voodoo there - who knows!
Yeah I know- forget the rooster DJ - you've got much worse coming
your way in the shape of... a gigantic owl, apparently.
Looking at this from the venerable shrine's perspective though; how can we begin to explain? What an idea... hmm? Are we that desperate to attract the masses *back* to a shrine that is crumbling under not its age, not odd plans of modernization focused upon tourism more than anything else and not its maladroite administration that keeps trying all sorts of odd things in order to attract the attention back to what was -and supposedly still is- one of the top touristic attractions in the area. No. The shrine is crumbling, really, under the clumsily covered-up disgusting cases of abuse that have (allegedly) taken place in the halls of the college across the street, which is jointly administered by the very same congregation - and, therefore, by the Catholic Church in a sense. Children, young boys much like the youngest members of that choir of Petits Chanteurs, were (allegedly) molested there decades after the saintly man who walked those halls -and was no more than the doorman there- departed from this EARTH. Imagine that: the congregation wanted at one point to oust the doorman, seeing no worth to the individual that he was. That was before the miracles started happening, those miracles that eventually gave birth to an Oratory, a shrine of immense magnitude originally meant to be only a small tiny place of worship -as the name strongly implies- on but a portion of the real Mount Royal... They eventually recognized his worth, yes - but, years later, some of their higher-ups (as the doorman was never a man of the cloth of the utmost degree; he was a brother, not a clergyman) would (allegedly) do horrible things - in a place they claimed to have greater rights to be in than a HOLY MAN once did... That holy man was Brother André -le Frère André, born Alfred Bessette- and he never would have imagined such things happening on his mountain, his street, his college and his town. To dispatch the little choirboys to a three-day festival celebrating pagan rituals - after all that (again, allegedly) transpired at the foot of the mountain itself? It is the last drop, really - from a fundamentalist, hyper-Catholic but really overall Christian point of view! That this mini-festival of morbidity comes to be held at la Place des Festivals most identify with the Just For Laughs festival - and that the main guru behind that one (Gilbert!) is now accused by tons of women of (allegedly) being a molester, too, is just... well, priceless. Small world - smaller island. Add to that the other festivals and parades they have annually or every six months now: for example, the pride parade (and their disgraceful community representative that was, up until last month, the most successful rep they ever had: that one is Éric! And the scandal he is totally, completely destroyed by, now...) Une île, une ville - de vice. Vindication for all those who, at any point in time, likened Montréal and Laval to a French-speaking Sodom and Gomorrah in North America - tiens toiais...
It is difficult to collect a more gruesome assemblage, ever:
Parliament Hill may have come close when
Denis Coderre was there, with Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin et al.
Or that City Hall itself under either Pierre Bourque or the other guy...
But a blank-faced Death Incarnate Woman (Hela, elle l'a) ...
with Zombies... Witches and that Owl (Harfang des Neiges it is not!)
- it has not been this scary since the days
Montrealers feared the Y2J Bug... Badaboom
and the West Nile Virus Giant Mosquito of Doom!
Maybe the idea is to have the little cherubs from the mountain back up Yann Perreau in repelling the hordes of zombies that will follow, on la Place des Spectacles in a highly symbolic, allegoric way meant to cleanse the city of its degrading sins- but it is highly doubtful. More likely, they will all serve as lunch for the assembly of Living Dead (once again - allegorically) in what is being called ''the largest such march in the world'' - or on North American soil, at least! Whichever it is; here, it is brought to you by ''Les Productions M.A.L.'' - how fitting is that? They are just one ''du'' away from being perfectly christened there! Call Capitaine Bonhomme, somebody! He was good with ''du's'' and ''do's'' too... He will most likely be among the dead that will awaken this week-end... not. After the Petits Chanteurs and their Yann have fled, other victims will take over. Notable acts such as ''PUP'' and ''Duchess Says'' will then prolong the fun, as the best zombies will take center stage...!
Local hotels are hopeful they will rake in the big bucks
this time out - as it wasn't exactly the case with the ''FORMULA E''
fiasco, earlier on... EH. The events are all free this week-end (except
for a fee of 15$ for zombie make-up, if you neglected to...)
but it doesn't stop local businesses from hoping that these...
enthusiasts coming from afar will shell out some moolah!
Restaurants will not be serving brains, however -
they have none to offer... or spare.
Aye, folks; oyé, oyé - this is being heralded as a horrifying week-end that will be capped off with a parade of witches, too - le défilé de la sorcellerie! Hell, it's ''La grande fête de la sorcellerie'' -nothing less- this 375th year! The Great Wizardry Parade, or whatever it is called - but come on now; we all know what a wizard really is, don't we? Hmm? That guy in Oz didn't fool us; not did a tiny, weeny potty-trainer! However, the crux of this is elsewhere entirely: for to have this ''grande fête'' now for the first time (as far as one can tell) would mean that it is an intrinsic part of that 375th bash? It is as if saying that these were the rites upon which (witch?) this would-be metropolis was built: eh?!? Yikes! Feteceria... Brucheria... Stregoneria... celebrated in Montréal?!? Say it isn't so, Valérie...! (Valérie Plante, who wants to be the future mayor (mayoress?) of Montreal... Hmm... Maybe it's a bad idea to ask her that now - or ever! Let's just move on then...)
This is so troubling -indeed- that they can't seem to know
how to conjugate ''grande'' with ''fête'' anymore,
on their very own website...! #SAD...
All this will have actually been preceded by -and, therefore, very nearly coincided with- the visit of one who would fit right in within the triple context of these festivities *AND* the political context as well, overall... One often referred to by all sorts of derogatory terms (witch is certainly one of them) and, most persistently, by the unflattering and accusative nickname of ''KILLARY'' all across social media, predominantly - where she is, also, often seen looking like this:
Source: Facebook
The former First Lady and Secretary of State will be in town just before the hordes of zombies flock all over town (and when you think that she could have been President too, with power of life or death over millions via a single tiny little red button that would have turned all of these peeps into actual zombies indeed, isn't that apocalyptic, or what!) as she will come to the Palais des Congrès to promote a certain book about a certain election - and what the hell happened there...!
DeepOceanSky Entertainment was apparently holding a contest through which one could win a pair of tickets to hear Hillary, see her *live* and potentially buy her book (''Whatever Happened'' or something like that) and get it autographed - for free, maybe. Alas, upon accessing that deep ocean & sky site, no mention of any contest is seen anywhere. We must be too late - again. Damn.
Although the appearance of Mrs. Clinton in Montreal coming just before the proposed awakening of the dead event seems to be... ironic, to say the least (given both her unflattering appearance on that image, above, and the number of deaths which have occurred in the immediate entourage of the Clintons, over time...) it hardly is appealing to anyone who knows better. So what if it could come to mean, allegorically and cynically, the sort-of reawakening of these old delusions of grandeur for the woman who very nearly became POTUS...? This entire book tour she is on, the book that it promotes and all of her appearances ''live'' anywhere are all some bit of twisted. bitter bit of vindication out of a slightly vindictive woman indeed (Drumpf called her something worse than that: ''nasty'' was his choice of qualitative, was it not) who has all the right to feel as she does, absolutely - but to go about this way in order to tell *her truth* about it all? She is full of herself and she proudly shows it. The time is rife for that: women want to stop being viewed as second best for nearly every position there is - they want to stop being victims, too. And the man who ''stole'' her job is a moron; as Joy Behar states so eloquently in *her* own book! Aye, this vanity project is warranted - and its time is now, also. It wouldn't be good strategy to wait until ''the memoir years'' to pen it, no. Fine team she has surrounding her, Killary... sorry, Hillary. Fine team - provided they keep on breathing, that is. More on all that on the Literati Blog!
And then there is this rather perplexing idea... concept... for this ad that, out of the blue, le Barreau du Québec seemed to think it needed in order to... reach its potential customer-base, shall we say? It came about around the same time this whole 375th celebration (under all of its aspects) was being concocted - the idea being, perhaps, that all manners of youth would get into trouble (there is that word again!) during these activities...? And only The Lord Knows what these wayward youths are capable of causing once they've partied too hardy, got intoxicated, hopped into a car and drove off with absolute zero concern for pedestrians (even luminous pedestrians, like me) bikers or even those zombies who march in unison... Thus, they need to be reminded of their rights - all of them:
Oopsy-do... da! It appears like the Barreau du Cul-Bec... got cold feet? Their daring ad was pulled off the air (I don't see it on TV anymore - do you? Of course it doesn't help that I really don't watch TV anymore!) and, quite evidently, it was yanked off their YouTube channel too! (All that is left is 15-second bit of self-gratification - duh!) And yet... oddly enough... it is still viewable onVimeo! More about all on that other blog of ours -
here!
I don't know why, but its basic message evoked something... else entirely, for me - ''vous avez droit'' or ''le droit'' really; but this is le Québec - where they don't know how to speak nor write in their very own language, so... I don't know why, no; I cannot quite pinpoint le pourquoi de la chose, but it evoked, for me, this particular passage from a forgotten classic of that much-maligned art form (is it the eighth, is it the ninth; or was it, really, one of the first three in reality? Again... Who knows?) - j'ai nommé... la bande dessinée! Sequentialart, as it is done in Europe, on the old continent - where everything is done with greater... flair. Talent. Prestige! (Nothing to do with the Red Ketchups or other CROCs of this territory here - no!) And it is a passage from a very particular one too; a swell bande dessinée that I discovered accidentally in that very same territory - in Montréal! So it was in the French language, yes; its only flaw! But if it hadn't been, I would not be making this connection now, years later - this umpteenth luminous connection! And the forgotten classic would be even more forgotten... We were a bunch of kids and we were given to choose from a table of books, that day - there were enough there for *one per customer* only, really, so all of the kids rushed in... To get a crack at what they perceived as ''the best offerings'' on the table, literally so! And I, ever the wise one (little luminous me, eh) I stayed back - and waited! I saw the most popular titles available there: there were some Tarzan (!) and some super-heroes of renown! Those were all gone once I reached the table - there was only one oddball title left - ''Coccobill'' (or is it ''Cocco Bill'' really?)
To this day, I am so glad I waited to be LAST, on that day...!
Coccobill became MY FAVORITE READ of all, in those years...
surpassing Les Schtroumpfs... Astérix... Tintin... Gaston Lagaffe...
Benoît Brisefer... Boule Et Bill... even Lucky Luke!
The super-heroes (which were next on my reading list)
That's right, folks - you have the right to everything - but the only two things that are certain remain those: death - and taxes! Forget the taxes (for now) and you only have this certainty left: ''une place au cimetière'' as so eloquently put, there, by that hirsute henchman!
Le Barreau du Québec won't ever say it so... succinctly as that! The Montreal police will not read you your rights this way either. (They really shouldn't!) But as the (once merely de facto; now ''official'' depuis peu) metropolis of the province and the place where most crimes occur (at blogging time, they found another body...) this reminder has to be heard, too - here and now, more than ever!
So there you go, Montreal - your most unlikely spokesperson, COCCOBILL, has come back from the dead alright; indeed, he awoke (I woke him up!) he rose again (if only here, on my blog!) to haunt you and your Barreau in this way- but it is okay since you are so clearly open to being haunted, not only for this planned three-day horrifying week-end but all throughout the year - what else is such a thing as ''Cité Mémoire'' saying - really? Exactement!
The Classic Coccobill went as far as staging it this way:
it may explain why it is not as fondly remembered as it should be?
You may hold it against it, but this ''B.D.'' showed it like it was -
and it strangely echoes well, resonates perfectly through the years,
with the headlines of TODAY - as if nothing has truly changed
since the Far West days depicted cartoonly (and violently)
by Lattès - and the so-called ''modern'' world of 2017!
Weinstein, Rozon and so many more...
Think about that, folks!
Don't get us wrong, now - we are not saying that Montréal is so hopelessly behind the times, out of sync with reality and morbid to the point of being... ghastly and cold (all over this Luminous Journal of ours - nor all across our TLB Prime Network of blogs, websites and vlogs...!)
We acknowledge that we have a tendency to only criticize the place - its sports teams, its celebrities, its rules and bylaws... its sheer inept incompetence! But we never said it was completely beyond redemption and totally devoid of any worth whatsoever!
We cannot say that because we can repertoriate several instances in which ''MTL'' is deemed to be ''cool'' - yes... Not quite the way these other guys relentlessly do; but like this: style... It can be found to have style. How else would they come to this conclusion, otherwise, eh:
Source: Facebook again!
This self-proclaimed ''montrealstylist'' is
to be found on Facebook, yes...
The stylist makes excellent points, there!
And yes - Montreal is a fashion capital, too.
Montrèal, city of clods (Claudes, sure...) that will be electing a new mayor, very very soon... (We're betting on that Valérie broad, yes; at least she doesn't have a fraudulent little twerp of a son who orders things online and never pays up!) But politics are the same everywhere - a taste of power opens the doors to abuses of all sorts - what's to say any single one of those candidates, of either team, will not overstep his or her boundaries once the votes are in...?
But Montreal is a city like any other, of course - chock-full of skeletons... No matter what some say!
It is a multicultural metropolis by pure necessity just like its entire province and country - otherwise, what would the population rank as nowadays...? It is good that it is that way, otherwise it would have no personality whatsoever. As it is, it rates favorably high on those lists of European nostalgia-laden reviewers on travel websites across the web...! Cosmopolitan, diversified in the same way New York, but considerably smaller... safer... cleaner. Everybody loves that about the place...
Never mind (very nearly typoed that as Nervemind!) the fact that it can be downright obtuse in its application of the law, oftentimes - such as this latest case that came up just now, at blogging time...
Source: Sympatico.ca news service... in the subway!
Straight out of the ''Only In Montreal'' Files... LOL
The guy who was fined was singing ''everybody dance now''
behind the wheel; the officer who gave him the fine
must have thought one cannot drive and dance...
You might go hit a zombie or something... eh?
(All right - bad choice of humor - mea culpa)
And any driver would be ill-advised to invite others
to start dancing - while he is driving!
Je M'en Souviendrai de celle-là...
It is a modern city, in many ways; how else could it be called a metropolis otherwise? It has all the qualities and flaws of modern town: too many people, too many cars, air quality that is debatable at best... Hmm, we delineate only the flaws there, eh? Qu'à cela ne tienne - how about the cultural life? All sorts of cultural events, evidently - indubitably! This morbid one that was the main subject of this piece is but an example of that - the vastness of the offerings can only be summed up... well, by websites such La Vitrine.ca (let them do their job, then; why would I do anymore here?)
But someone like me -and every other sensible, educated, aware soul ever to be found in town- has a problem with this and any other city tempted to turn its back on tradition... real history... values... in order to veer towards laïcité, a secularization of society in order to move towards a so-called ''better'' future. That is not modernization, that is not ''better'' folks - that is death.
And, perhaps, that is the true subject of this piece right here... Hmm?
In the wake of the revelations coming out of Tinseltown (most of you call it Hollywood) a whole new movement has been born - the revolution of the victims. Victims of harassment, of abuse, over years and decades - in that industry but in virtually every industry there is. Yes, it can happen anywhere and, yes, all of the victims have been keeping quiet, completely mum about it. Why have they done that? They've done because of fear - of course. Fear, of losing the gig, the position, the job - fear of losing face too, fear of the scandal, of all the possible repercussions.
But now they are coming forth - in droves; in the case of the former head of the soon-to-be-renamed Weinstein Group, that is, they are. A similar case almost came to light about a certain batty actor, simultaneously - but that has quickly died down, as there wasn't much there to begin with. It was clearly not the same thing as with Harvey... We'll get back to it in a jiffy here...
But first - the movement. Or multiple movements, really; a French journalist came up with a hashtag for it, one that reeked of rudeness, rancor and worse sentiments still: #balancetonporc which means, literally, ''denounce the pig who did that to you'' in the present case. However, it can be interpreted in other ways too; for the verb ''balance'' can translate into ''bump'' in the sense of ''off him'' indeed... It can also translate as ''dismiss'' or ''ditch'' - but you see all the possible violent connotations there. That a female version (#balancetatruie) quickly saw the day, too, makes it even worse and ironically aggravates things ever more for the feminine cause - because, let's not deny it, the vast majority of the victims are female. Abuse of this sort happened to males too, but will then be horrendous cases of pedophilia and the victims are male but children also. It is a whole other world of hurt. There are female pedophiles out there, too, but the norm are male - hence rendering the ''truie'' (sow) even more obsolete here. The chase is therefore on strictly for pigs; the pigs who molest as if there was no tomorrow (and for many of them, there isn't - not once what they've done is finally known) and there are so many more than just Harvey...
But the campaign thought of by this Frenchie lass still boggles the mind - man, what a tart.
So glad I do not have to call you a ''colleague'' at all, madame - because the cyber divide keeps us separated: I am blogger and you claim to be the better one - the bonafide journalist. And yet, I could come up with better, far more well thought-of and planned hashtag campaigns in my sleep than you obviously can... pauvre poufiasse.
Now, the new campaign that quickly erased that major faux pas and rose to replace it is much, much better: #MeToo is the perfect thing to help the victim come forth. In just a few hours, I have seen it on Facebook and Twitter - actresses that I had no idea were ever victimized (some of them of a certain age now; some have become directors and authors) and they, too, have endured abuse of this nature. #MoiAussi... #EuTambem... #Anchio...tu vois, connasse, c'est pas si difficle que ça; si simple et si dénué de méchanceté que l'on peut distinguer la victime avec aise, sans le doute pernicieux que peut amener un ton aggressif... et sauvage.
Of course, it is entirely understandable to have a certain degree of hatred and contempt in your heart, even years after the fact; the residuals of having been so dishonored, so poorly treated... It is only human. You will want not justice - but vengeance.
The evidence of being higher than your abuser comes from there: you bring forth the facts, you divulge the truth - and you let justice come, without a belligerent tone. The swift punishment of truth coming to light will suffice; you do not have to be vulgar, mean or borderline vigilantist... But it has to be something cultural with the French; like it is with New Yorkers, for instance...
The actor we like to call ''Battaflack'' was, according to one of the accusers, entirely aware of Harvey's behaviour - only allegations, officially, at this point in time... And it didn't take long for the media to dig out some similar incidents about this thespian, too: that there had been some inappropriate gestures made in his past too. The sudden scrutiny intensified when the accuser - Rose McGowan- called out our actor here on lying about not knowing about Harvey's habits. And not only did the news hounds unearth an embarrassing lapse of judgement during an interview with Hilarie Burton almost a decade ago, it even went as far as relating the thoroughly disrespectful attitude he displayed, time and again, whenever he was being interviewed by one so-called journalist (her, too) named Anne-Marie Losique. She had to come to his defense, not to appear as a victim of abuse when she is not, by admitting that she was consenting and these shenanigans (always captured by her camera crew) were consensual...We would direct you to her official website, but it appears to have been hacked. We can only give you this link at blogging time; her own little spot on Wikipedia (she is the bimbo on the right, not the one on the left) because even the article which details her defense of Ben (you've guessed his identity by now - have you not) would not load - it is from yet another reputable haven of journalism everybody knows: dailymail.co.uk (yeah; them too.)
The truth of the matter is... it is apples and oranges. Harvey's dynamics vis-à-vis all of those actresses, the context and everything about it were totally different. Ben was either being interviewed - or openly flirting. And it was mutual flirting going on! Not with Losique though; no! Fool yourselves not into buying that: the truth about it is that she is a total floozie, a bubblehead, an airhead - a genuine blonde who happened to be born a brunette. And guys like Ben recognize that upon the first glance. He would openly mock her French ancestry (presumed; all of Quebec comes out of les Filles du Roy, right?) and would instantly switch from serious actor to playboy the moment he was alone with her - even though during an interview. He would sit her on his lap, for crying out loud; did you ever see Connie Chung, Barbara Walters or Meredith Vieira sitting on anybody's lap?!? (Okay; Meredith's locked lips with some of her guests - maybe she is not the best of examples after all? Still: Meredith, with her Portuguese ancestry and years of professionalism, is light years ahead of Anne-Marie - come on!)
Losique is a wannabee Mad Onna Ciccone, founder of ''Vanessa TV'' which aims to compete with both the Playboy Channel and YouPorn... She appears almost always out of it when she herself gives out interviews; well, cannabis is set to be legalized in her country soon... She is promiscuous to the utmost - of course she was consenting!!!
As were all the victims of the Harveys of the world... alas.
That is the saddest truth of all here: they made this conspiracy of silence work, them, the victims, not their abusers. If they had not been afraid to denounce immediately, it wouldn't have been this way - and who knows how many victims would have been spared the exact same disgusting experience, over the years...? We will never know.
Pigs and Sows - they're to be found on both sides. For some of the victims may turn out to be the same - if they haven't already.
The truth always comes to the surface though - eventually. One day...
But for the record - no... It is not ''me too'' in that sense; I was spared.
Because I was well-protected, by my parents. By my own good sense, too.
In the years in which I was ''appealing'' in that certain way - I was shielded.
And I did not expose myself to such dangers either.
One who risks nothing achieves nothing...? Is that what they say? They say a lot of things that aren't up to snuff once one looks it all over with greater care - now isn't that also true.
But the truth - with a capital T - always comes to the surface. And triumphs. Believe it, those who fear still. And the abusers can dread this - let them fear, for a change...
In-between the addresses and virulent rhetoric belched out by both the American and the Iranian presidents, there was one voice of wisdom: the Portuguese's. Antonio Guterres, elected into position at the United Nations some time ago, finally showed his worth and true colors - and it is a beautiful sight indeed, amidst all the unsightliness now spreading like a plague throughout world politics. Mr. Guterres warned not to speak too harshly, to avoid an escalation of regrettable utterances as well as possible accompanying actions. Has the world listened to his plea? Iran, North Korea, the United States, Russia, Japan, China, Israel, the entire middle-east (as usual) and the rest of the civilized world will decide of this - why are we just a tad nervous about their eventual joint decision?
Guterres showed guts that Kofi Annan,
his predecessor, simply never had -
in spite of all his good intentions...
ROYAL RENDEZ-VOUS
The Queen of England grants an audience to her newly-appointed representative, former astronaut Julie Payette. Julie has certain traits and backstories that may remind the Queen of Sarah Ferguson (remember her?) and Lady Di herself. There might even be a thing or two in common with Carmilla as well (whatever happened to her? We kind of lost sight of here, over time... She has still managed to do considerably better than all the other royal families of Europe combined...!) And what of Michaelle Jean...! Can the Queen live through another one of those usurpations, so-called representations in an archaic system that reeks of feudalism and perpetually relegates Canada back to its status of a mere ''colony of the British Empire''...?
She most certainly can!
The meetings are frequent for the Queen, of course;
this one with Julie wasn't as warm,
strangely enough,
as the one Q.E. II had with
the Portuguese president...!
Maybe the crown can revert back to Portugal now...?
FRONT-PAGE WORTHY:
how in the world does Justin Trudeau have time to go on so many gay parades... chit-chat with Melinda Gates (about gender equality, feminism, women)... AND follow-up the disastrous appearance of one Donald Trump at the U.N. with a very... inconsequential one?
A question all of Canada has been begging to ask, is this: who is running the country in his absence?!?
Most likely answer: a joint partnership of his beloved Sophie - and Mélanie Joly!
Province in Canada to be far more severe with cases of distracted driving
The Province of Ontario will raise the fines to the five-digit level, dish out sentences that revoke driving licences for up to five years and also mete out imprisonment of up to two years. Another former astronaut associated with the Justin Trudeau Liberal party and government - the minister of Transport no less, Marc Garneau - expressed his hope to see all of the provinces and territories that make up Canada come to adopt the exact same stern position Ontario is coming forth with. The ridicule that the current system in place has come under has made come to light the many times justice was simply not served. One case made it all explode, at last: that of a killed pedestrian and the driver pleading guilty through his lawyer, omitting to even dignify the court with his presence for the proceedings and getting away with a fine of 500$ to pay. The family of the victim felt betrayed by the judicial system there; and there were plenty more like that. Not anymore, says Ontario.
Why does one have the nagging feeling that
some reckless drivers will simply continue
to do as they've always done anyway...?
NATURE OUT OF CONTROL
Tropical storms and hurricanes quickly maturing and increasing in intensity one after the other; Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katia, Maria...
Volcanoes erupting, floods and landslides more frequent; just the weather patterns being all out of whack could be sufficient cause for concern - but it has gotten to be much worse than that...
A devastating earthquake in Mexico -a second one in less than a month, in fact- on the very day of commemoration of the most destructive and calamitous earthquake history ever recorded there. One bewildered news anchor asked, upon adding to all this the news story of a groundhog of 13 years of age finally dying somewhere in Ontario (where they also honor that tradition of Groundhog Day...) - ''is this the end of the world?''
Now would be the greatest of times to tell Mexicans
that you were merely joking about that WALL...
The strongest earthquake ever recorded in history to have ever hit Mexico - dozens of deaths... Three days of national mourning. How long will it take to rebuild...? And all this when the USA themselves are (well, yes, it's the Caribbeans mostly - but you know it will go as far as the Carolinas) threatened by hurricanes - tropical storms at the very least. FOUR OF THEM - in succession. Texas was hit hard - Florida is next. And the White House administration will maintain its insane stance towards its neighbor? It will still not believe in Climate Change? Yes - that is another story... And so is the nuking around with North Korea. LI swear, sometimes, it does seem like Drumpf's Agenda is to annihilate it ALL. Thankfully, The X-Presidents are still around...
Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katia... The Four Hurricanes of the Apocalypse? You better hope there is not a fifth one, Drumpf... because then it might be named after *me* - Hurricane Luciano! You won't like that one, Drumpf! You will come out of *that* ordeal a radically changed man! You and your fellow Americans... YOU WILL BELIEVE in Climate Change. For starters. (\ô/) Blogger's Note: they decided to go with something else when it came time to name a storm/hurricane with the letter ''L'' - result: it fizzled and did practically zero damage! The following one was named ''Maria'' -like my mother- and it sure did wreak havoc!
