On Wed, 25 Oct 2000, Andrea Leistra wrote:
>
> So, no, you can't blame this on bookstores in the US, fashionable as it
> may be to attribute all the ills of the world to Barnes and Noble.
>
Not ALL of them? Whew. And I was just about to. Wow, I'm so glad you
spared me from that embarassing faux pas! *wink*
Speaking of weird blaming, though, and this is really why I'm
replying . . and yes I know this is an extreme case!!! But
interesting . . . The chain at which my friends have elected to have our
little coffee meeting has recently been targeted by some um, quesitonable
fellow, (ie. ex-FLQ terrorist bomb-totin' guy, say the newspapers)
who apparently bombed several locations of the coffeshop in Montreal.
Why?
Because it has an English-only name.
Check it out:
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/10/21/secondcup001021
Am currently reading the interesting if old book Jihad vs. McWorld, and I
have to admit I laughed veryhard when the author actually used the word "dangerous" to
describe Quebec
separatism... and this hasn't changed my mind much on that topic
. . . even the most separatist Quebecers I've met have been as peaceful as
I am. But it's funny where some people (in peacetime, the crazed
. . . in crises, the masses as well, it seems) can position the nexuses of
blame and the resistance. A FRIGGIN Coffeeshop!!!! :) I can think of much
smarter places to bomb, if you want to make symbolic resistance to
defiant/entrenched anglophonism in Montreal. The Westmount Library,
anyone? (Upperclass heavily Anglo area just a little ways from downtown,
but like a different city -- and technically it really IS a different
city, resisting the initiative to merge the whole island into one single
metropolitan unit. Etc. etc.)
Then again, my (French) boss was surprised how much I dislike ol'
Stockwell Day. Brrrr. I see a nasty slick well-coiffed luxurious
RightWing world a'comin' . . . ah well, at least I will have something to
rail against. :)
G(o)rrrrrrrrrr(d).
