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Coolopolis has learned that what many consider to be the best fish and chips shop in town will soon be demolished for a condo project that will also be built over the adjacent parking lot on Church Street just north of Verdun Avenue. The joint was owned by the Maison Egg Roll folks, one of whom was married to Alex Hilton, with the usual bedlam resulting from that association. Apparently those in the know, such as Newfoundlanders, considered this place to have the greasiest, fattest - aka the most delicious - batter in town. Not long ago Red Lobster shut down its operations here as well, as did the large Desjardins seafood restaurant on Mackay.Where are you going to get your fish and chips now?
Coolopolis started out in the front row of the cheering section of Yolande James, West Island (Kirkland, Point Claire, Senneville) Liberal MNA for the 53,000 residents of the Nelligan riding. We liked her even though some thought she cut ahead of others with more seniority to become the successor of Russell Williams and Clifford Lincoln.
It's such a safe Liberal seat that all the opposition parties combined score only about half the Liberal total. Heads were also scratched all over when the newcomer James was named to the provincial cabinet while longtime standout Geoff Kelley was given the boot.And then people within the black community soon learned that James - an anglo who went to school in French - has a bizarre habit of speaking only in French to groups of English-speaking people. Audiences simply wouldn't know what she was saying. Once heavily in demand in the anglo black community to cut ribbons and give speeches, the limousine-riding James saw her invitations dwindle.And now James - the only anglo in the Liberal provincial government - has fronted a radical and depressingly 1984ish plan to force new immigrants to sign a contract committing them to the Quebecois way of life (abortion? divorce? poutine?) complete with a heavyhanded implicit threat to compel them into speaking French. Some suspect that her safe seat could be nabbed by an upstart, as happened during the Equality Party days. One small party, Affiliation Quebec, has been interviewing potential candidates to run against James in the upcoming provincial election, expected in December, but apparently haven't settled on anybody yet.
High powered lawyer Brent Tyler will strut his stuff in front of a different type of judge starting next week as he and a gang of other amateurs offer their take on Neil Simon's Rumors play. The troupe is led by noted real estate human hurricane Peggy Hopkins who, not only apparently sells a lot of condos down in lowerland, but is bringing culture to the area as well. The plays are held in the living room of noted architecture professor Peter Sijpkes in his home - a former bank - at 1900 Wellington in the Point. Cost is $7 and the action takes place at 8 p.m Nov 7-9 and 13-16, as well as a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. Email 'em to reserve.
Sergio Momesso is a great guy. Local hockey hero, solid citizen. But he's not important in your world and never has been. He has never had any ability to change your life in any way. He cannot alter any rules in your world. He has never introduced an initiative, floated an interesting public proopsal, threatened you with fines over your manner of disposing your garbage or walking your dog. He has no influence, importance or control.Yet he's been mentioned over a thousand times in the local English language daily newspaper.Let's compare that to some city politicians, people who actually do things that affect you in many important ways.What are they up to? Are we getting regular news on the various new bylaws and initiatives that will govern our lives?Some elected municipal representatives get mentioned regularly in the newspaper, perhaps because they actively seek the attention, are considered to be involved in important issues or want to float ideas around. Others rarely get mentioned, whether it's because the journalists aren't paying attention or perhaps because the city rep avoids publicity. Coolopolis has done a study to analyze this.Have a look at these numbers. The English newspaper will, understandably, attempt to provide coverage of the areas where its core readership lives, but even then many of these numbers defy logic.NDG/CDN and the Plateau get much lavish attention, while Park Extension gets relatively good coverage while Verdun gets virtually zero mentions for its borough politics as does the rest of the Southwest.The most successful politicians court attention. Marvin Rotrand, Mary Deros, Marcel Tremblay, and so forth. Being mentioned in the paper is clearly a good thing, as it leads to a heightened profile and eventually spots on the lucrative city committees. Thus, why any city councillor wouldn't be pitching ideas to newspapers remains unclear.Please feel free to help deconstruct these numbers in the comments box.---Ahuntsic Cartierville. Marie-Andrée Beaudoin was elected borough mayor in 2005 and has been mentioned in four articles.Councillor Jocelyn-Ann Campbell- 10 mentions since 1985, although none about her role as a city councillor.Noushig Eloyan - 110 mentions since 1994.Jean-François St-Onge 2 mentions since 2002, both unflattering.Hasmig Belleli - 18 mentions since 1996.Anjou Mayor Luis Miranda - 48 since 1995.Andrée Henault - 5 since 2001NDG/CDNMayor Michael Applebaum - 473 since 1995 (several dozen of those were of a namesake).Warren Allmand - 60 since 2005 when he entered city politics.Marvin Rotrand 613 since 1985 (there would surely be more if the databank went back further)Francine Senecal - 57 since 2001Marcel Tremblay - 362 since mid - 80s.Saulie Zajdel - 157 since June 1986 - the first criticized him for getting co-religionists to jam the polls for him [Lily Pearson] said: "I heard a woman ask her husband, 'what's the MCM?' He said: 'I don't know, we're voting for Saulie.'Ile BizardMayor Richard Belanger - 13 since 1994.Lachine Mayor Claude Dauphin 263 since the mid 80s (many dealt with his job as a Liberal provincial politician) 214 since 2001.Jane Cowell-Poitras 40 mentions since 1988.LasalleMayor Manon Barbe - 11 mentions since 2003Richard Deschamps - 2 over the last 10 years.Alvaro Farinacci - 4 since 1985Plateau Mont RoyalMayor Helen Fotopulos - 272 since 1987 plus another 16 with the misspelling of her name as Fotopoulos.Richard Bergeron - around 111 since 2005Michel Labrecque approx. 30.Michel Prescott - 290 since the mid 80s but only 1 within the last two years.Southwest BoroughMayor Jacqueline Montpetit - about 19 since 2003Jean-Yves Cartier - 2 since 2005.Line Hamel - 4 since 2005.Mercier-Hochelaga MaisonneuveLyn Thériault - about 6 since 2005Laurent Blanchard - 2 since 2006Richer Dompierre - 3 since 2001Gaëtan Primeau - zero.Claire Saint-Arnaud - 4 since 1995Montreal NorthMarcel Parent Mayor - about 10 since 2002,Jean-Marc Gibeau - 1 since 2007James V. Infantino - 2 since 2002OutremontMayor Marie Cinq-Mars - 11 since 2001 Pierrefonds RoxboroMonique Worth,Mayor 62 since 1990Christian G. Dubois 4 since 2007Bertrand A. Ward 5 since 94Rivière-des-Prairies—Pointe-aux-TremblesMayor Cosmo Maciocia 67 since 1985 (about a dozen pressers in there)André Bélisle - unclear - he shares a name with a well-known environmentalist.Joe Magri - 1 in passing in a society columnNicolas Montmorency 2 since 2005 (he's the youngest)Rosemont—La Petite–PatrieMayor André Lavallée - 175 since 1987Carle Bernier-Genest 3 since 2005Carole Du Sault zero.Gilles Grondin zero François Purcell 16 since 2005Saint Laurent borough Mayor Alan DeSousa 263 since 1986Patricia Bittar 4 since 2004Laval Demers 5 since 2004St Leonard Mayor Michel Bissonnet, recently elected, just a couple.Yvette Bissonnet 9 since 1986Dominic Perri 52 since 1985 (only nine aren't school board tho)
Town of Mount Royal
Mayor Vera Danuluk-304 (about 20 over the last three years)
Erin Kennedy - zero
Faouad Sahyoun - one
Minh-Diem Le Thi - zero
Melpa Kamateros - 24 (almost all to do with her charity fund raising career)
John Miller - 10
Phillipe Roy - zero
VerdunMayor Claude Trudel (94 since mid 80s but almost all have to do either with transportation, his days in provincial politics).Ginette Marotte zero - just two paid press releases.Alain Tasse - zero (some mentions about his previous dabblings in provincial politics)Ville MarieMayor Benoit Labonté - 220 since 99 but about half are press releases.Sammy Forcillo - 169 since 86Catherine Sévigny - zero (some pressers and others to do with her as a charity fund raiser)Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-ExtensionMayor Anie Samson - 23 since 95Mary Deros - 55 since 98Sylvain Lachance - 17 since 96Soraya Martinez - 9 since 2005Frank Venneri - 23 since 87WestmountMayor Karin Marks 82 since 94
Montreal's Jerome Abramovitch (left), takes a helluva photo and tosses a helluva party, which ne'er fail to disappoint. He's a pro photographer with an interest in bike couriers - a job he used to do, he's an artist with an impressive eye for a wild pic and he's even a sweetheart, to boot. Meanwhile his circle of friends includes some of the biggest fashion underground freakazoids in the city. That's why we're highly recommending you get to Foufounes for his vernissage Friday from 6 pm. One day when he's an international icon you'll brag that you shook his hand. (Don't get me started about his hand though). 
The city was once dotted with unofficial dog runs. As a kid growing up halfway up the hill in Westmount, we'd drag our half-poodle-half-chihuahua Snowy to the Villa Maria to frolic leash-free among the apple trees, very rarely getting scolded for the univited visit.
One of those rare surviving dog-free urban places is Percy Walters Park which was originally bequeathed to the city under certain stipuations, mainly that it be kept as a place for kids. But dog owners have made it their unofficial turf and it's a pretty nice place to bring a dog. The city now wants to give part of it over to the kids though and the dog owners are crying foul. As a result there's a City of Montreal Public Consultation taking place tonight at 6:30pm at the Concordia EV building (room EV 1.605). The purpose of the consultation is to present the proposed plans for the "réamènagement" of Percy-Walters Park making it more accessible to the general population of the area.
Apparently spirits are running high and some passionate rhetoric is expected.
Personally I'm a lot more keen on children than I am on dogs, so I won't bore you with my point of view other than to say that I'm glad that Justin and Sasha Trudeau might get a public playground for their young children. More info: Facebook group: The friends of Percy Walters Facebook group: Montreal Downtown Families Craigslist montreal, pets section http://montreal.en.craigslist.ca/pet/
Here's the story of how that beautiful postcard-worthy row of houses between 2020 and 2092 Jeanne Mance between Sherbrooke and President Kennedy was saved from the wrecking ball in the 70s.During those dark years it seemed that half the city's most glorious architecture was being gleefully demolished while the other half was being burnt to the ground by crazy - or perhaps not so crazy - firebugs.So when real estate speculators purchased the greystones just north of the Place des Arts metro and left them semi-abandoned with the express intention of demolishing the gorgeous row of homes, things looked bleak. Only three of the buildings were relatively safely in the hands of small private owners.The speculators applied to the city to demolish everything on the block and to evict the tenants.Architect Michael Fish heard about the situation because he taught a tenant, a blond girl Liz, in a course on conservation at Sir George Williams of Concordia. She asked Fish to help her try to save the buildings. He agreed.Fish then invited the James MacGregor group at the University Settlement which included Peter Sijpkes and John Gardiner to help as architects-organizers but they declined, so Fish took on the role.Coincidently, as part the Save Montreal Group, Fish and others had previously visited Minister of Cities and Towns, Victor Goldbloom, to ask him to pass a law giving cities and towns six months to study demolition permits before issuing them. The intention was to allow time to consider alterantives to demolition. Goldbloom agreed.The Jeanne Mance group - represented by lawyer Michael Berger, who had also handled the Van Horne Mansion case - asked for a legal injunction to stop the demolitions on Jeanne Mance. With Goldbloom's law in hand, the group went to visit Yvon Lamarre of the City of Montreal, who agreed to use Goldbloom's new law to delay the demolition.The group then offered to buy the houses for $900,000. Fish put down $1,000 as a downpayment. The group then had six months to get a mortgage and buy the buildings.The province gradually came around to classifying the façades on the street under the orders of Minister L’Allier as well as one of the buildings (2066 Jeanne Mance) in its entirety, inside and out.The group then spent three years submitting different feasibility studies to CHMC to approve mortgages, all of which included a variety of ownership models for the various buildings.Each successive scheme included suggestions for improvements as suggested by CMHC officials. But after the local CMHC rejected each submission, the group was reduced to intensive lobbying. They were turned down time everywhere.After several months, with the only victory having been in obtaining an extension on the option to buy, the sun finally shined on the conservationists. Richard Cannings, a former journalist from Channel 12 and a close friend of Fish, phoned Fish to ask if he wanted the ear of André Ouellette.Cannings had become close to Ouellette for whom he worked as a political attaché. Ouellette was the federal cabinet minister responsible for the CMHC. Fish asked Cannings to explain to Ouellette the merits of the project. Cannings managed to persuade Oullette and soon the CMHC HQ gave the green light to the Jeanne Mance Project.The CMHC then purchased the properties for $700,000 cash and the project was finally in gear.But the CMHC local office - apparently not thrilled to have been ordered from above to reverse its refusal - argued that the group's projected budget was unrealistic.After the group did the working drawings for the whole block of 13 buildings, CMHC told the group to do all of the drawings over, focusing on only two buildings. They also ordered the group to redraft to have each building in separate drawings. After another year the drawings were done and the first two buildings were completed on budget.The next year the CMHC greenlighted five more buildings. They also came in on budget and the next year the remainder were done.By the end, however, co-op residents had taken over control from the professionals. The residents were originally run by a young blonde woman, then a Russian student and then by Esmond Choueke, another recent commerce graduate.Choueke and Ian Fairlie were removed from the residents committe and a new executive oversaw the work on the last group of buidings.The residents sought a deal to allow the last five buildings be given a more lavish treatment. Several mysterious money shortages ensued, as more than 11 agencies, federal, provincial and municipal contributed to the project and none knew or wanted to know what the others were doing. The surfeit of cash from so many sources opened the door to some confused bookkeeping by the residents committee.In spite of the problems at the end, the project was considered a massive success. The contractors and architects received medals and certificates of excellence from the Governor-General in Toronto. The positive outcome allowed several other similar projects in the city to be realized, the most important of which was the Milton Park Project.Choeke stayed in the house of which he was the only occupant. The executive of the co-op tried to move him out of his house and expel him from the co-op and made his life miserable with heavy lawsuits for years. He lost every case except when matters were decided in his entire favour by the Supreme Court of Canada. He still lives there quite happily and has extensive records on the history of the property.
(if anybody wants to contribute some pix pls send them to megaforce@gmail.com)
Nobody can sing in quite the same magnificent manner as NDG - born William Shatner.
Montreal needs Captain Kirk to boldly go where he has never gone before and sing the national anthems before at least one game this season prior to a Canadiens hockey game here in Montreal.
Coolopolis and its interns feel so strongly about this issue that we've launched a petition to urge team management to hire Captain Kirk to do deed. Please click here to sign the petition.
For 44 or so years, this spot on Upper Lachine near Girouard was a paint and hardware store run by an Italian named Simone (see link for photos) whose wife took over after he had a stroke. They put the joint up on the market and although it took a while, it eventually sold and will become a trendy bag store called hamburgsyle.com as soon as the studly young guy gets the finishing touches done. hamburgstyle.com eh?... I don't recall Simone's having a website.
Much muttering in Verdun about the boroughs strict enforcement of a bylaw from 2001 that makes it nearly impossible to put up a sign outside a store without undermining your business plan. The small shopkeepers of the area - who happen to be largely visible minority immigrants - are forced to fill out a demand for the right to put up a sign outside their business. If the store does not promise a sign that costs in the range of $5,000 or $10,000, the borough will refuse it without comment, simply citing a two page document in bureaucratese. An architecture committee, known technically as a CCU, which includes some professionals, some normal citizens and is chaired by an elected rep, supposed reviews these demands case by case, but in practice they simply refuse anything that doesnt cost a lot of money at the sign store. 
As a result, Verdun has a lot of unhappy small store owners that simply cannot put up a sign of any sort. One small survey of a tiny stretch of Church Street between Verdun an Evelyn (where these photos were taken) show that of 13 commercial businesses, 7 had no sign whatsoever. Several others had old signs which are exempt from punishment because they were put up in another era. One Caribbean hair products store, attracted lovely fines from Verduns inspectors costing the owner $400. So she simply reversed her sign, making it a useless, unreadable eyesore (above).The bylaw discourages shopowners from updating their signs because they know that any such attempt to upgrade will land them in Verdun sign bureaucracy hell. Only large chains seem able to navigate the signage restrictions, which suggests that Verdun wants only established chains to settle in the area, good luck with that. Most places are small mom and pop businesses that can neither pay for an expensive fine or unreasonable fines.
Some stores with perfectly nice signs, such as this one, would not be allowed to put up such a sign today, as the sign does not fit the required criteria, which are incomprehensible, vague and written in bureaucratese gobbledigoop. (I ll provide a copy to anybody upon demand). The Mayor of Verdun, Trudel, is generally too busy chairing the transportation committee to worry about any of this, meanwhile Tremblay team councillors Alain Tasse and Ginette Marotte have shown little sensitivity to the plight of the local shopkeepers.
Everybody's got a preference when it comes to appreciating the beauty surrounding Montreal. Some like the rolling hills of the Eastern Townships, which has long had a star appeal due to the presence of New Brunswick actor Donald Sutherland, (whatever happened to those rumours from 1988 that Sylvester Stallone had a secret place there?)Others like the rugged pine-scented beauty of the Laurentians, north of the city.But now Halle Berry has bought a 62 acre joint out in Saint Hippolyte in the Laurentians we've got to concede that the star power might have shifted northward. Or maybe. Up to now, Saint Hippolyte hasn't been known for much except for its occasional bear invasions and as the spot where serial killer William Fyfe was living until he was nailed in 2001.
Send yer stalkerazzi snaps this way when you grab 'em on your cell phone.
It's not always easy being a tard. Tardiness is like a disease. These three are co-winners of Coolopolis' Tards of the week. They are, from left to right, Marie Eve Dean's sister, Marie Eve Dean's mom and Marie Eve Dean. Dean is suddenly famous for phoning 911 10,000 times without any reason. Prosecutor and her lawyer both agreed on a 9 month suspended sentence for the pregnant 23 year old but the judge nixed it, saying she needs some therapy instead.
If you had to have a job, and surely you're not one of those people who actually work - you might think about putting away the motheaten cardigan and headin' over to the World Center for Excellence of Destinations (the CED) to drop off your resume.
They've been around for a year and a half and have the difficult task of rating tourist places. I guess this means that employees get to lounge around on sunny beaches measuring how fast the hired help runs to fetch them refills when their agents tinkle their ice cubes.
Having this group here, which works with the poshy Madrid-based UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) gives Montreal an advantage, for example one year ago today we were the first city to sign National Geographic Society's Geotourism Charter.
Well now the CED has hit its first taste of controversy.
Since last summer, the CED, led by André Vallerand, started banging together something called the System for Measuring Excellence in Destinations. The descriptions of the criteria seem a bit vague but presumably they want to know if you can drink from the water supply without getting sick and whether snakes are going to jump out from under your bed, those sorts of little travel details.
This weekend at a UNWTO conference chaired by Indian Tourism Minister Ambika Soni in Madrid, India denounced the initiative and decided that it would not take part in it. France, Brazil, Iran, Costa Rica, Ghana and Spain also opposed the tourism measurement tool, which one report said might use crtieria that would put Toronto over the Taj as a destination point.
Other countries have embraced the scale, such as Mexico, so it's unclear whether the SMED has been scuttled, as one paper put it, or will carry on nonetheless.
Here's a photo from La Patrie of a meeting of early biker gang leaders from February 1969 (click for the full article). Cops ordered them to have a sit down after a top Devil's Disciple named Fidel was killed by 
Popeyes after 50 DD's blocked the Jacques Cartier bridge while seven Popeyes were trying to cross. Fidel got cocky and one of the Pop's killed him in self defence. At least that's the explanation provided by the not-yet-famous Yves Trudeau.
The Disciples attended the meeting & were represented by Jose Martin, surely the same Jose Martindale involved in the 1974 Montreal meth war documented on Coolopolis.
At the meeting the DDs and Popeyes vowed to keep their war going.
Soon after, Yves "Apache" Trudeau 
committed the first of his 43 murders the next year, offing Jean-Marie Viel, who stole a bike from the Popeyes. Trudeau's most famous murder might've been in exploding the McGurnahanmobile in Westmount on orders of Dooney Ryan. He also beat an old lady to death, taking care of her kids soon after. He was only 5'6" but the other biker leaders look even smaller in comparison. Proving that biker teen smoking stunts growth. Trudeau became an informant but was sent back to jail for having gay sex wtih an underaged male. He is now free and expected to die of cancer soon.The biker problem was considered a youth issue. The provincial government gave $3,000 to form the Anges de la Route, which consisted of eight clubs, five of 'em in St. Henry. The Road Angels was run by a council of seven which gave fledgling bikers aged 14-18 activities, such as fund raising for charity.
In April 1969 police chief Jean-Paul Gilbert forced all bikers to unite into something called the Motocyclists Unis de Quebec. British Petroleum donated a site at 9000 Henri Bourassa where the bikers could practice riding maneuvers. Even cops were members of the Anges de la Route, as proven by the bottom photo of officers John Detzell (Delzell?).
It is, as police photo veteran Harold R. predictably replied, Jacques Saint-Mars, head of the legendary Night Patrol that reigned from the late 60s to around February 1977. They were based in the cop shop in Old Mtl near City Hall but a reorganization led to their demise, although some believe that an incident in which the lads beat savagely on a buncha Dubois gang boys led to their dismemberment. I have a few old articles about the patrol but none are as interesting as they set out to be. The one I wrote might be the best. Saint-Mars was featured in a couple of Trevor Ferguson novels and was good with the media. I have a theory that Montreal's police have lost their good reputation with the public ever since they silenced the one or two guys on the squad who would speak their minds to journalists (including Steve Roberts and John Parker) but I'll unveil that some other time.
Montreal's World's Fair of 1967, aka, Expo 67, was recycled into an annual event called Man and His World from 1968 to 1981. According to one official guide, the attractions included an LSD pavilion where the New York State pavilion had stood. One day some fools stole the LSD (as indicated in the newspaper clipping below). Here's more descriptions from the official guide:LSD/Pot:"Drugs in contemporary North American society are the theme of this pavilion on Ile Sainte-Helene. The history of drugs is highlighted and the pavilion's objective is to inform and educate, rather than to preach. In a psychedelic atmosphere created through the use of light, sound, and music, visitors observe displays of hallucinogenic drugs and such administering equipment as syringes and pipes. In one of the cells, visitors participate in a simulated drug 'trip'. Legal, medical, and educational approaches to drug use and misuse are explored."Cryogenics: "... in the last room, a film vividly describes the emotions
of a man who awakes sometime in the future after having been frozen for a long period." Spectrafonia: "Sound becomes visible in this pavilion....a final room, the 'return to calm is provided to help bridge the gap between the experience and the world outside."
Space: ."The visitor is given a look at the future,
through scientific data on mars and prototypes of new space vehicles and life support systems. The 'trip through space' culminates in a room of mirrors where images flash around the visitor from all directions to convey psychedelically the infinity of worlds yet to be discovered."
Science Fiction:. "...in the last section, a chill, silent world of metal, the bewildered visitor is directed toward the exit by aluminum robots."
Strange, Strange World: "The strange, yet fascinating phenomena of the universe -- mysteries as bizarre as UFOs, voodoo dolls, and the Loch Ness Monster -- provide a bewitching presentation on the second floor of this pavilion...the unusual is the rule."
This is indeed a photo of the Lower Main, specifically in front of Cafe Cleopatra. I believe Cleopatra opened around 1976. It had been called Cafe Canastra prior to that for many decades. It was supposedly named Cleopatra as a tribute to Elizabeth's Taylor's stunning performance in that historical role. The owner Johnny the Greek was married to the owner's daughter and took it over when he died. This photo portrays a morality squad cop cleaning a hooker off the street during an ambitious street sweep in May 1979. Presumably the man in the background is the doorman of the nightclub.
We mentioned how 27 died in a gas leak explosion in Lasalle in 1965, another part of that story is the generosity that Montrealers displayed towards the victims of this accident.(source: Mike Gutwillig, From the Heart, pg 71-72)
It's confirmed. This is indeed pub owner Ziggy Eichenbaum. His eponymously named booze hole is staffed by a team of peroxide users. It's on Crescent.
Answer: Yep. Google don't know Westmount Park. They've pegged it as the small sloping lawn downwind of the arena. Trivial perhaps, but it's never good karma to mess with Montreal's tastiest slice of urban utopia.
Poor little Cazelais street in the northwest corner of St. Henry is semi-up for demolition as part of the project to reroute the Turcotte expressway, which as you can see - is in the immediate background in this photo. The North side is apparently slated for the wrecking ball. The house has some sort of semi-illegible sign bemoaning the sad fate of the doomed homes. The residents have apparently been running some sort of campaign to save the area which they have somewhat unconvincingly dubbed Tannery Village, but it seems rather poorly run, as a street festival protest thingy fell right under everybody's radar a few weeks ago, sadly, nobody seems to know much or care about saving this historic little area.
Brooklyn scent guru Christopher Brosius - a revered global master of all thingz olfactory - (don't get carried away now - Chimples) was asked by CBC national radio to name his favourite smells and mentioned such things as snow and wet pavement, and then started raving about an ice cider made by a company owned by Michael Fish's inlaws. He then remarked how Montreal was great because it's the only city he knows which doesn't have unpleasant odours hitting you at every turn. "It's such a clean place," he told the world via radio.
More than usual seats filled with more than usual amount of younger looking faces for Wajdi Mouwad's translated Scorched, a family mystery now on at the Centaur. Most left looking satisfied after three fast-paced hours which blew by thanks to a solid story in an exotic locale. The tale ships off with the adult twins sitting with the mom's friend, the fast-talking spoonerism-spouting notary who reads her will. Mom had not spoken to anybody for a five years prior to her death. Mom simply clammed up after watching some court case. Mom wants them to make a couple of difficult mail deliverites. The twins ignore the letters out of disdain for their incommunicative mom but the will asks them to deliver the epistolatory efforts, one to their father and one to her son. Eventually the daughter twin relents, quits her math teaching job to take up the task and ends up finding that her mom is revered in far-off former desert war zones. Far from being the crazy old crabby lady everybody assumed, mom was a valiant hero in a war in the middle east, as portayed by the three actors take on the role of the mom in her various ages. The young mom is upset when her love child is taken away in the mid east village for adoption. She vows to find the child. The mother character evolves into a politically-involved agent who bravely faces many dangerous situations and earns the nickname of the Woman Who Sings. The twins slowly learn these stories and by the end the puzzle is solved with some shocking truths. The nine actors on stage are all up to the task but it's the story that propels the play along across a stage laden only with a few piles of sand and an office desk. Two or three moments display some pithy writing although the notary with his malapropisms - "I see the train at the end of the tunnel" gets tired fast. Linda Gaboriau's translating is solid except for a sequence where a penis and vagina are are referred to as "his sex" and "her sex" which is hardly anglo vernacular. Not as good as the mindbending Seuls playing on St. Denis but good entertainment nonetheless.
Who was this former Habs coach and why would his two kids have likely felt a massive sense of undeserved guilt?
We have another bright viewer out there. This is indeed legendary Montreal Maroon (7 years including on the cup winning team of 1926) & Hab (3 years at the tail of his career) Babe Siebert, the Flying Dutchman as he was called, perhaps to hide the possibly less popular fact that he was of German, not Dutch ancestory. He was from Zurich, Ontario, near Kitchener. His wife (Babe's babe?) was confined to a wheelchair due to a birthing mishap which occured when she bore one of their two daughters. Babe was a consummate gentleman, bringing his wife to the Maroons games at the Forum, personally carrying her from her wheelchair to her seat. He was also a great swimmer, which makes the incident of his death all that sadder. On August 25, 1939 Babe was 
fetching a rubber dinghy for his daughter and was likely caught by the wickened undertow that hits that part of Lake Huron. Many combed the lake for his body and only found it three days later and it had no obvious sign of the cause of his drowning. I haven't found the names of his daughters but they are likely still alive, one living in the States, one nearby in Kitchener Ontario. There's still some Babe Siebert memorobilia in the Kitchener area but much of it disappeared suddenly when the caretaker of the rink suddenly took off. It is said that some Babe Siebert memorobilia was seen in a bar in Toronto. This information is from a chat I had with Ruth Siebert, who is married to Babe's brother's son. His brothers Frank Siebert, William Siebert and Edward Siebert hauled his casket along with three brothers in law.
Babe was named coach of the Habs but died in the summer so his career record remained 0 wins and 0 losses, making him the only undefeated coach in NHL history.
Bernie Ecclestone has decided that Montreal will not be on the F1 racing circuit due to a contractual detail, which amounts to about a $80 million blow to the local economy plus another chip at the city's already diminished international profile. Since Gerald Tremblay was elected Mayor, we've lost the Expos, the F1 and dozens of baseball fields in various local parks. On the positive side, we had a swimming contest and the gay games. Coolopolis is thinking that Tremblay might need a lesson in the value of sport. For the record, Montrealers aren't the only ones shattered at the newest piece of bad news.
The writers union of Montreal's English language daily newspaper, for which I occasionally freelance local stories, is going on strike Friday. There are negotiations between now and then but they are doomed to fail as the gulf between Canwest's offerings and the demands of the union are massive. The paper is slated to continue publishing with editors and wire copy as well as the contributions of any freelancer who dares to suffer the displeasure of the union by writing for the paper during the strike.
One hundred years ago Tuesday restauranteur Emile Deslisle had a bet with Emile Trudel as to whose horse could get to the eastern tip of the island and back faster. They left early that morning from St. Dominique and La Gauchetiere and Deslisle returned about 2 hours later to win the $2,000 bet. Trudel's horse was wheezing and bleeding when it showed up 45 minutes later. Anybody up for a recreaction of this historical even Wednesday? Maybe on bikes or unicycles or rollerblades or sumpin?
Y'll recall how cigarette pusher... err.. pharmacist Jean Coutu (pronounced Gene Kootoo) chose to buy an American chain of pharmacies in 2001 rather than help save the Expos and build a downtown stadium? Well this moning it was announced that this summer Coutu lost $39 million over a three month period thanks to that American expansion. D'ya think the Expos would have been a worse investment?
Answer, it's Martha Adams, from the cover of her 1972 autobiog. To paraphrase from an earlier Coolopolis. In the fall of 1971 Martha Adams was accused of running a house of prostitution. In March 1972 she was found not guilty. She pens her memoirs and then runs for the federal seat in St. Hyacinthe against Claude Wagner, an intense defender of law and order. She gets a few hundred votes. At the end of the year she faces another charge of pimping and is found guilty. Five years later on Quebec TV she claims that she only ran against Wagner because she was promised that her sentence would be one year, instead of five is she ran against him. She was was last heard from a decade ago, then aged 66, still arguing that brothels should be legal.
You'll recall a local news story about a 16 year old Ile Bizard kid who in February 2001 jammed websites through his father's Totalnet internet account and was ultimately sent to juvie for eight months for vandalizing Yahoo, CNN, E-Bay, Dell, Amazon and other websites. Mafiaboy has co- written a book about his mis-indeedies a mere seven and a half years later (So I'm not the only slow typist in Montreal ...- Chimples). The book is co-authored by some guy whose hair is a lot less impressive than this kid in front of a unconvincingly blue sky. A recent newspaper article in the local English language daily refused to provide the 24 year old author's name because his crimes were committed when he was a minor, but we're gathering that his 
name is Michael Calce because that's what's written everywhere else. If the trend of bookerizing every minor local news story keeps up, within six years we'll see a tell-all book Raphael, the ankle skater who snuck into Canadiens practice and took a shot on Jose Theodore in 2006 (anybody else notice that Theodore was never the same after that stunt?)
In case you're wondering... the Mtl photo at left has nothing to do with this news item but should serve as an important reminder - whenever you're in times of trouble, just fire up that funky rodeo chicken dance.
You can read everything ever written about Burt Bacharach, how his dad was a newspaper columnist from Kansas City, how Burt went to McGill, etc,etc ...but one story seems forever shrouded in mist. What happened to Burty at McGill? Did he, as the legend has it, get the boot from our music school for playing songs in 3/4 time - the very sambariffic formula that would pave his way to fame and San Jose? This is perhaps the great untold Montreal story. Burt was in town tonight to perform and we sent Chimples down to interview him but the new GPS function in his brain implant failed so we had to drive around in the Alfa Romeo until we found him in Morgan Park. Burt's McGill mystery lives on.
Ok. Answer Time. It's a real old picture. Some sorta promo for a newspaper hockey contest that the guys are apparently studying. That's about all I knowz.
If I wuz one of them viral marketing types promoting an event I'd try to create a buzz around it by putting up a phantom ad on Craigslist offering a ton of money for a ticket. Not saying that this offer of $100 per ticket to a play called Seuls is phoney but... well, come to think of it, having seen the play last night, (in French) I can see why it's a hot ticket. The local Lebanese-born Wajdi Mouawad (pronounced Whitey Moved) made a rep for himself here with some splashy over- the - top fare and then went off to Europe for a bit and is now doing his own one-man play on St. Denis. It starts as a story of a frustrated doctoral student trying to get an interview with Robert Lepage so he can finish the conclusion of his thesis. But then it turns into a twisted abstract and colorful - literally colorful- romp through his subconscious. The first hour has a couple of nifty special effects but only in the last 45 or so minutes does it take some twisted and unforgettable turns. There are several how'd- they- do that? moments and the staging proceeds to a conclusion that's like a kaleidoscope sky through a foggy tornado. Another one of Whitey M's plays is on next week, in English, at the Centaur. I'll let you know how that one goes as well.
Clue: enma (unjumble that word and you'll figure it out).
We have a correct wild stab in the dark! The hulking 6'6" Corey Hart (at left) is a star slugging outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers. He was born and presumably named just months prior to Montreal's Corey Hart had his first (and only-- Chimples) hit.
Coolopolis has learned that what many consider to be the best fish and chips shop in town will soon be demolished for a condo project that will also be built over the adjacent parking lot on Church Street just north of Verdun Avenue. The joint was owned by the Maison Egg Roll folks, one of whom was married to Alex Hilton, with the usual bedlam resulting from that association. 
