A black cat with a glass eye

Last Friday, I treated myself with fish and chips purchased from the local chips shop. As the wait had been very long, being Friday night and all, the woman at the till gave me two cods, not merely one. I walked back home with my price, stinking of fish, of oil, of malt vinegar and salt. As I was walking in the entrance, a black cat came out of the bushes, looking at me. I wondered if he was not that antisocial black cat I used to see around here from time to time. But I saw he had a glass eye in his left socket, something the other black cat did not have, or not at the time I was seeing him around. He may have lost it afterwards. In any case, I felt quite sad noticing it. It could easily be a different black cat, after all they look alike. This black cat was not one bit antisocial, he rubbed against me with what I could easily identify as a hungry expression. I was tempted to give her a piece of cod. I don't know why I did not.

Eurêka! (À propos de la photo du mois)

Le thème de la photo du mois de mai est "l'eau". Je me demandais quoi faire, pas parce que je n'avais pas de photo qui ferait l'affair, mais parce que toutes les photos en questions sont sur un vieil ordinateur que je n'utilise plus du tout et qui ne semble même pas fonctionner. Je sais, j'ai essayé pas plus tard qu'hier de l'ouvrir. Il va falloir que j'essaie à nouveau, parce qu'il y a beaucoup de souvenirs en photos à l'intérieur: des images du Lake District, de Vancouver, de Québec, de Montréal... Mais bref, calamité, l'ordi semble kaput. Alors je suis allé aujourd'hui me promener et j'ai soudainement eu une inspiration. Je n'en dirai pas plus, mais j'ai trouvé ma photo du mois. Ce ne sera pas très original, mais ça me sauve du silence pour le 15...

The Detective Tales cover for May

This is now the time for another upload of a cover from Detective Tales. It is getting more and more challenging to find an original cover and something new to say every month. This is the cover from May 1949. I chose a simpler one this time. The quality of the picture is not as good: the colours are worn out. I do think however that it is part of its charm. It looks appropriately retro. The setting is interesting: a private detective's office, or rather its inside and its outside, separated by a window broken by guns. The action is of course a gun fight. It is a bit confusing: who is the villain, who is the good guy? Is the man inside the office an intruder taking hostage the blonde, or is he pushing her away, trying to protect her from the outside assailant. As neither men have clear features identifying them as the good guy and the villain, it is difficult to tell. If the man outside the private detective, why is he outside? All we know for sure is that the blonde in the red dress is a damsel in distress. That said, in spite or because of this confusion, I love this cover.

La chanson de Jacky

Je viens de me rendre compte que je n'ai pas téléchargé de chanson de Jacques Brel depuis bientôt deux ans. C'est inacceptable et inexcusable. Alors ce soir, je télécharge La chanson de Jacky. Il faut bien brelliser un peu Vraie Fiction. Je l'ai déjà connue par coeur, je la chantais les soirs de beuveries (pour un public amical et italien). Alors voilà...

A criminal great unknown line

Sometimes these days, for part of my journey to work, I chat with a former colleague of mine, who now works in a different company and takes the train from the station after mine. She is half-Italian half-British and knows a bit of French. I was reading this book yesterday (the original French version that is), and she asked to have a look at it. She was happy she could easily understand the words. I said: "If you want when I finish it you can borrow it." She answered: "No, that's ok, I can switch on Italian news and that's the same." I thought it was funny, and it deserves to be a great unknown line. I was glad, as I was not being serious offering her to borrow my book. I don't like to lend books to people, they tend never to return them. I guess I do the same. Anyway, I found this line interesting, as it shows how Italian Montreal can be, in its most unpleasant ways.

Sommes-nous bien en mai?

Je ne veux pas faire des billets météorologiques trop souvent, mais parfois je me sens comme obligé par les circonstances. Il ne fait absolument pas un temps de printemps aujourd'hui, en tout cas pas un temps de mai. On gèle, ciboire! Il vente à écorner les boeufs, il pleut, on se sent plus en automne. J'étais candide: je croyais que, puisqu'il avait fait beau et chaud depuis le début de mai, que l'on aurait enfin un printemps qui se transforme en été. J'ai parlé trop vite. Je m'attendais qu'il pleuve éventuellement, bien entendu, mais pas qu'il fasse froid en plus. Heureusement que je n'ai pas remisé mes gilets chauds. Tout de même, ça a quelque chose de désespérant...

Authentic Turkish Delights

This picture was taken... at work, from my cell phone.It is, obviously, a box of Turkish delights. Authentic ones, as the box says. It was from my colleagues who asks me to translate things, she got back from a trip in Turkey and had a translation for me. The sweets were not exactly a bribe like for the chocolates, as I had to share the box with everyone in the office. but I had the privilege to eat the first ones. I was surprised actually, I never thought authentic Turkish delights could be that good. The pistachios certainly gave it an interesting flavor. When I was asked if I liked Turkish delight, I thought it was this one. I am kind of glad it was the authentic stuff. I had a few anyway, but left most of them to my colleagues. It was not quite a sugar epiphany I guess. Now if it had been baklavas, I wouldn't have shared with anyone.

Question existentielle (183)

Inspiré de mon billet de lundi dernier, voici une question existentielle:

-Quelles devraient idéalement être les couleurs de l'orchidée créée pour le 175e anniversaire du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean?

R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen

My brother PJ gave me the news via Facebook, the great Ray Harryhausen died today. It is a bit late, so I will be brief: I LOVE Ray Harryhausen movies, especially Clash of the Titans which made me discover him. Harryhausen was a true artist, as he was a creator, a craftsman. His creatures got me into Greek mythology. I once uploaded on Vraie Fiction a short movie of him, you can find it here. But there are so many movies he worked on to enjoy, some I have only discovered recently, some I will in the near future. I am uploading a video taken from a documentary when he explains how he made some of his creations. It gives an idea of his gift.

Une image de mon alma mater

Cette photo je l'ai trouvée sur la page Facebook de l'Université de Montréal. Elle a été publiée pour souhaiter une bonne fin de session aux étudiants. On ne voit pas grand-chose de l'U de M, ce sont les fleurs qui sont en premier plan, la tour en arrière, cela dit elle est très distincte (et devinez le surnom qu'elle a). Je la télécharge sur Vraie Fiction parce que mai ressemble de plus en plus à ça, d'abord, à ce printemps qui se transforme en été. Ensuite, parce que ça me rappelle que mai, c'était la fin de l'année au cégep et à l'université. À l'université, c'était en fait déjà terminé début mai, au cégep ça durait un peu plus longtemps. Donc, les vacances étaient longues, ce qui était bien si mai était estival, comme c'est le cas présentement. Alors voilà, en regardant cette photo ça me rappelle ce temps de ma vie.

What to read next

I finished yesterday The Sweet Forever by George Pelecanos. it took me too long to read, embarrassingly so. But I was reading, I am reading, many things at once, so I guess I have an excuse. It was a great book anyway, I should come back to it on this blog. Now I need to choose what to read next. I do not always alternate between genres, although sometimes I try, so it is possible that I read something else than crime fiction. I do try, as much as possible, to alternate between English and French. So until I choose my next book, I will try to finish Mafia Inc, which I have also kept on reading for way too long. What is even more embarrassing is that an updated edition has already been published. There is barely a few pages left of the one I have. Similar read, therefore, but from crime fiction to real crime history, and more precisely Montreal's crime history, which has nothing to envy to the one of Washington D.C. brilliantly depicted in the novels of Pelecanos. Sadly, we do not have a writer like Pelecanos.

Une orchidée saguenéenne

J'ai appris la nouvelle d'un de mes amis sur Facebook, lequel la tient de LBR, le cyberjournal du Saguenay: une orchidée a été créée en l'honneur du 175e anniversaire du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. À ne pas confondre avec celle créée l'année dernière. Celle du 175e, elle n'a pas encore de nom. Cette nouvelle me fait plaisir pour plusieurs raisons: 1)ça commémore un anniversaire de manière originale, 2)cela montre que l'on peut encore être créatif dans la région, 3)cela me rappelle que nous célèbrerons donc le 175e anniversaire de la région, 4)les orchidées sont une passion de mon père, lequel est encore je crois membre du Club des Orchidophiles du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. Je vais lui demander s'il peut m'envoyer des photos de l'orchidée en question. Je me demande si elle n'aura pas un peu la couleur du bleuet. Ce serait trop peu subtil?

Jump up

I have uploaded the book cover of Dr No somewhat arbitrarily, as this topic is only peripheral to the novel (great novel though, although not my favorite of the Bond novels). But it is a great book cover, like most of the Penguin book cover for Bond novels. It has been feeling summery today, with warmer days, temperature staying reasonably warm at night. And it is a bank holiday, on top of this. I feel like watching Bond movies (those set in tropical locations), read Bond novels (although I read all of the original Fleming ones) and listen to summery music, or a little bit of all of this.

Which leads me to, well, this song I am going to upload. It is from the movie Dr No.I particularly love the soundtrack of the movie, which is very atmospheric and worth a watch in itself. So as to give a bit of atmosphere to this blog, and to share the mood, I have uploaded Jump up here.

Le retour (?) de l'accent chantant

Hier au marché français, l'un des marchands m'a reconnu comme un Québécois. Ce qui n'est pas nouveau. On me l'a dit par le passé et je l'ai mentionné sur ce blogue. Cela dit, ça faisait un bout de temps que je ne l'avais pas entendu. Je ne trouve pas mon accent particulièrement chantant, je me demande par ailleurs et surtout ce que ça veut bien vouloir dire. Quelqu'un peut me donner une idée?

Colonel Mustard (and why)

This post is a rewrite of a post I wrote in French a year ago. Yes, I am recycling old posts. Shamelessly. I was thinking about it after I blogged about board games yesterday. I was wondering if there others here that are (or were) into Clue/Cluedo. Back when I was a child, it was maybe my favorite board game. I always played Colonel Mustard. On the left, you can see a portrait (well, his suspect card) from the 1986 edition, the one we had (and have still, actually). The character, like all the others, changed a lot since the game was first released, but this is how I imagined him.

I played him for many reasons, some strategic, some sentimental. First, it has something to do with his pawn color and the name. I preferred the yellow color as a child and I always used yellow pawns when I could. I also loved and still love mustard. It was enough for me to choose Mustard, it was silly like that. And there was also his rank, he was an army officer. He had a certain status that the other characters did not have. More strategically, he was rolling second after Miss Scarlet, the first male character to roll. So this is why I played Colonel Mustard. For those who played, which character in Cluedo did you prefer to have?

Une paella (sur vidéo)

Voici un court billet estival, parce qu'on a une fin de semaine de trois jours (yé!), qu'il fait une température quasi-estivale et qu'il y a un French market en ville. On y vend de la paella, ce que j'achète chaque année.  Je vais la manger avec un vin rouge en accompagnement. Enfin bref, parce que c'est le temps de la paella, j'ai pensé télécharger une recette de paella sur vidéo. La vidéo en question a été filmée par mon père, elle montre la paella faite sur son big green egg (photo à droite). Je n'ai jamais mangé la paella faite par la famille, ce qui est presque tragique, car elle semble délicieuse.Deux observations à propos de la paella familiale: 1)mes parents n'y vont pas de main morte. C'est une paella riche en pas mal d'affaires qu'ils ont fait. Celle que je vais acheter aujourd'hui, elle ne sera pas aussi bonne. 2)les barbacues sont pas mal plus sophistiqués de nos jours.

Call me Ishmael.

I know, I already used the first sentence of Moby Dick for the title of a post. All the same, I am using it here, because I don't think I gave it proper thought on this blog. I wrote it on my Facebook wall, my old friends from cégep all liked it (I am barely exaggerating). We read it in second year, although I had already read it at... 12. In French of course, but still.  Moby Dick (or Moby-Dick or The Whale as it was originally titled), may be the greatest novel in English language. It might also have the greatest first sentence in English literature history. I am serious. It is an intriguing one. "Call me Ishmael". Not "My name is Ishmael". From the first sentence (although it is not quite the first sentence of the novel), you know the narrator is giving you an alias. He is telling you it is an alias. One asks himself: why is he not giving me his real name? Why is he saying his name is not his real one? Is Ishmael hiding something with this pseudonym, or is it an alias that reveals something about him? I think his real name is unimportant, even to himself. But what his name means, and why Ishmael, I am still wondering about it.

Les jeux de société oubliés

Photo prise il y a quelques années déjà, dans ma chambre, le 7 juillet 2007 pour être plus précis.Ma mère voulait savoir quels jeux on voulait garderet quels jeux on voulait donner à la charité (si la charité en voulait). Ah les trucs qu'on amasse durant les années! Il y a là des jeux de société qu'on pensait aimer: Detectice Murphy (je n'ai jamais pu comprendre les règles), Pyramidis, notamment. D'autres qu'on a cessé de jouer avec le temps: Pari-Manie (je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais on jouait à celui-là souvent), Prof-Géo, Don't Wake the Dragon, Défi du Hockey (!), Scrabble pour Juniors (et je déteste le scrabble)... Fais-moi un Dessin, c'était un cadeau, je ne crois pas qu'on y ait joué trè souvent. Ce que je voulais qu'on garde, ce sont les murder partys d'Une soirée de meurtre. Pour la valeur nostalgique, parce qu'on les a déjà joués, les murder partys. Morale de l'histoire: on en ramasse des cossins. Je sais, je l'ai déjà dit. Tout de même, quelqu'un se rappelle de certains de ces jeux?

Gremlins

Recently, I had a run of bad luck with my technological devices: my cell phone (or mobile as they say here in the UK) and my iPod mainly. The iPod would log off at any moment, whichever app I am using, but that's ok, I seldom use the iPod. The problems with the mobile are more of a pain: some apps ceased to function properly and wouldn't download again. I wasted ages calling a Support line with an employee who could not understand my accent. And she was from England, not India or Bangladesh! I said "safe mode", she heard "safe mould". It was painful. I think she was plain thick. I don't know how I managed to stay polite. She barely was. Anyway, in the end, she could not help me. So I am stuck with my technical woes. Since I do not live in the Bermuda Triangle and never been any near it, I have started blaming gremlins. I know they were supposed to sabotage aircrafts, originally that is, but I'm sure they now are tempted by computers, phones and other pieces of modernity. Or do I trust technology too much and cannot accept its fallibility, or my own weakness as a human being? Surely, I cannot mishandle it like that! It must be gremlins.

Mai, mai, mai

C'est le premier jour de mai (well, duh!) et je voulais le souligner, bien que je ne sache pas trop comment. En général, je souligne les changements de mois. Cela dit, je ne crois pas le faire aussi bien que l'année dernière. Je n'ai même pas de photo pour commencer le mois. Et mon titre de billet est un peu bête, je ne l'ai pas cherché loin. Mais enfin bref... Le temps est enfin printanier, du moins partiellement, mais il fait les nuits et les matins sont froids. Alors je porte plus d'une épaisseur de vêtements le matin. C'est le temps de l'habillement en pelures d'oignons. Je commence à avoir hâte que le printemps ressemble un peu plus au printemps.