January 21, 2006 Archives
Once in a while, interesting documentaries. But this must be the most interesting new radio concept to me: famous Quebec personalities interviewing each other. Already, this is the second series of interviews (last summer, you had, like, Pierre Foglia vs. Pierre Falardeau). The link to the first series was deleted or edited over, that's not very professional. :/
Hung out with governorgeneral, who was in town for his interview today. And as the weather allowed (Montreal was melting, even though ice and the gravel left from Wednesday's disastrous weather remained dominant), we walked all the way from the Duff, on the McGill campus, to the restaurant, which is located in the upper St-Laurent (4388), 'tween Marie-Anne and Mont-Royal (and to digest - walked from there, back to ... Lionel-Groulx).
The restaurant is the Club Espagnol. The Club Espagnol is the restaurant. Perhaps it is what it is: a social club for Spanish people, with one giant screen, and at least three TVs, showing futbol, but also has the RDS feed, with sangria being the standard group drink (which, 10 years ago when I came with family, we had, I recall). But certainly they have a very good paella. I had the one with squid ink, which is a standard paella - shellfish, chicken, peppers, rice in olive oil, first cooked on the fire for 5 mins, and I believe 5-10 more minutes in the oven - and squid ink to give the resulting dish its grey tinge. An extremely tasty meal, and more than enough, especially with fried ika, I mean, calamari, as an entree/tapas. A full array of tapas, but we stayed put, and what a chance. The squid ink paella was 20$, and the fried calamari, 7-8$, with taxes included (which makes it not that bad after all - remember it is seafood at a restaurant, that you are eating!).
The Club Espagnol was featured on last week's edition of Radio-Canada's darling epicurean affairs show, L'Épicerie.
Well well. I have meant to throw in some election predictions. Earlier this week, I commented this: 10 Liberals, 5 Cons, the rest of it, Bloc.
Now, I do not have my electoral map in front of me (for some reason, the Javascript is screwy on my machine...). I am guessing that the Libs are going to make huge losses, but will conserve most of its English-speaking Montreal ridings, including the one I'm living in, Lac-Saint-Louis. A few elections ago, when Brian Mulroney was PM, we were part of Vaudreuil-Soulanges, with a Conservative MP I believe (who was even a cabinet minister). This riding went to the Liberals, after 1993, and was a surprise loss in 2004, to the Bloc. Would it fall back to the Conservatives? I have not heard of the regional polls, and it's a race to follow, with former astronaut Marc Garneau as the running Liberal (and who campaigned with politically weird declarations à l'emporte-pièce).
Liza Frulla's Jeanne-Le-Ber could be a Liberal loss, in the popular district of Pointe-Saint-Charles. Idem for a bunch of ministers, like Pierre Pettigrew's Papineau. Stéphane Dion's Saint-Laurent-Cartierville is safe, so is Lucienne Robillard's Westmount. (It seems that every downtown Montreal riding is either a minister or PM) Some far-fetched reports are saying that Paul Martin could lose Lasalle-Ville-Émard, but if it were to happen, that would be, plainly said, vraiment poche.
It would be a night full of surprises, and that is enough thrills for an end-of-January political faceoff. Love the blood.
A Conservative minority, short of a few from majority. Landslide Annie, hold on tight! Anything like the 1993 debacle would be a surprise, perhaps not a pleasant one.