Vive la République.

La France va célébrer, le 6 juin, l'anniversaire du débarquement en Normandie qui, en 1944, marqua le début de la fin du IIIe Reich. Pour l'occasion, M. Sarkosy a invité le président des États Unis d'Amérique, M. Barak Obama et le premier ministre britannique, M. Gordon Brown. Le président français a irrité les britanniques en n'invitant pas la reine Élizabeth II. L'Élysée a expliqué timidement que la Grande-Bretagne avait été invitée en la personne de son premier ministre. Pauvre M. Sarkosy qui ignore que le premier ministre de Grande-Bretagne n'est pas le chef d'état de la Grande-Bretagne, contrairement à lui-même et à M. Obama dans leur pays respectif.
En même temps, la France semble avoir oublié l'importante contribution canadienne et australienne au débarquement de Normandie M. Sarkosy et compagnie devraient peut-être suivre un petit cours d'histoire et de politique? Que vous en semble?

the perils of blogging

Well the first annual international Aunty Day has come and gone. The whole family was there and the Aunties were duly honored...and thouroughly enjoyed it. Of course the whole thing was to be a surprise.
However, yesterday my beloved daughters went to a lady friend of theirs. Now Sylvie is fond of the Internet and blogging in particular. Proud of their father they told Sylvie about my blog...so Sylvie promptly found it and the secret also. They told us only when the whole thing was over. The surprise was ours.
Morality: don't put a secret on your blog.

Auntie Day

Tomorrow, the Costopoulos family launches a new tradition: Aunts Day. Henceforth the last Sunday in May will be Aunt Day. We have Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparents Day and all manners of Days...but no one has thought about aunts. Yet when I look at my spinster daughters doting over their nephew and niece, the love and devotion they have for those kids, I say it is high time to do something to honor that aspect of familyhood. So tomorrow we wil have the Aunts Special Dinner, Alexis (13) will produce a special card for the occasion, Arianne (3) will be , hopefully, on her best behaviour and mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law will pitch toghether to get them the DVDs of a TV series they loved. Which one? My son is on it so I can't tell at this very moment. Pass the word around, spinster aunties are af orgotten and neglected part of our society. Let's right the wrong.

Où allons-nous?

J'ai beaucoup réfléchi ces derniers jours. Chaque printemps ramène les mêmes préoccupations: la fête de la reine vs la fête des Patriotes, la Fête nationale, autrefois la St-Jean-Baptiste, vs la Fête du Canada, les manifestations souverainistes vs les professions de foi envers le Canada. La défense de la langue française vs les revendications légitimes des québécois de langue anglaise.
À l'instar des plantes qui bourgeonnent, nos vieilles querelles ressurgissent et, comme l'herbe-à-poux et l'herbe-à-puce, viennent nous empoisonner la vie.
Pourquoi, habitants d'un pays envié partout dans le monde, devons-nous tout faire pour nous rendre la vie désagréable? Au cours des dernières 6 années nous avons réussi à détruire l'image de travailleur pour la paix que nous avions chèrement acquis à travers les missions de gardien de la paix de nos soldats et de ressource fiables de médiation par les prises de positions de notre gouvernement minoritaire conservateur.
Nous n'avons jamais été un pays totalement uni...mais nous avons toujours trouvé un compromis permettant de passer au travers des crises. Pourquoi cela devient-il si difficile maintenant?
Anybody out there with a suitable answer?

Tagged

Rosaria tagged me today. Reminds me of my youth: tag, you're it.
So six unimportant things which make me happy:
1) Chatting with my grandson;
2) The smile, not frequent, of my granddaughter;
3) A black-headed grosbeak couple at my backyard feeder;
4) A ride in my beloved Laurentian Hills, we call them mountains but the Rockies' folks figure it's a gross exaggeration;
5) Meeting old friends;
6) Crossword puzzles.

Six blogs to play along:
1) The Commentator;
2) Marc-Aurele;
3) Neil McKenty;
4) Tony Kondaks;
5) Chimera;
6) Barbara.
Hope I did it right.

Company

This morning I felt nobody was reading this blog. Tonight, I have three members. Of course, from the onset, Rosaria was kind enough to comment on my bread making; it helped a lot. Then The Commentator wrote: "A face to the man", so he had been on the blog.
I must admit that I am still testing the ground. I have many ideas about which I would like to write or comment, problem is organizing them...and documenting them. One that I have been toying with: how canada went from peace keeper to warmonger? Lestr B. Pearson then our foreign affairs minister won the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1957, for inventing the U.N. Peacekeepers. Then we went into Afghanistan under a U.N. mandate...but stayed under NATO and became an occupation force disguised as a nation building mission???
Well I'll keep working on it. (To be continued...I hope)

Happinesss

I just got back from a trip, with a small group of M.I.L.R. people, to le Musée ferroviaire canadien in Delson, about 35 minutes from Lomgueuil. We had lunch, visited the old streetcars and locomotives and shared fond memories. All very friendly and hearth warming.
As I opened my computer, I surveyed the blogs I follow and had an added pleasure. I saw that a blogger friend who recently got the news that her husband came up with type 2 diabetes and she could be next, had seemingly come out of the gloom and was back to her former warm and charming self.
Sickness is not the enemy, our attitude towards it is. François Rabelais, a 15th century french doctor, treated his patients through laughter, he even wrote books to make them laugh because he felt morale was the main remedy and laughing helped it.
So keep smiling and your health will not deteriorate...so fast.