“Sometimes, ee had a sharp tongue.”
. . .
“Ee’s dead now.”
“I know.”
A long second passed.
“’Twas me dad killed ’im.”
“I know.”
Catherine didn’t want to say too much, preferring to let Chico tell his story his way.
“If I’d’a bin der, I might ’ave bin able to stop ’im . . .”
“You think so?”
Catherine had answered calmly, but she was shaken to hear Chico talk so candidly about such a shattering event.
“One time, I stopped dem. Granny was bawlin’, so I startin’ in yellin’.”
. . .
“When me dad saw me, ee trew de knife down an’ run off.”
Catherine imagined the scene, and felt herself trapped between the awkwardness of the moment and her own emotions. But Chico did not give her time to react:
“’Ere dey come!”
1446.115.10
Catherine and Chico
In the U.S.A., Chapter 11 is the equivalent of a company declaring bankruptcy. Personal bankruptcies are relegated to Chapter 7.
1447.21.8
More or Less Useful Details
“How come you’s puttin’ dat piece of metal in de hole o’ dat udder piece o’ metal, Grandad?”
“On account of dat’s de way we fools nature, so de porch’ll be keepin’ straight.”
“I knows nature.”
“Awh, do ya now?”
“Yes. Nature, dat’s everytin’ dat we can’t be inventin’.”
The old man was impressed:
“Yah, I suppose dat’s one way you could be sayin’ it.”
And to prolong the conversation a little, the grandfather added:
“I wonders wot de bronze fly would say.”
“Who’s fly, Grandad?”
“De bronze fly. You doesn’t know de bronze fly?”
1448.127.7
Tactics
The shards of shattered vase lie at the bottom of the pail containing broken glass, not to be mixed in with other recyclable trash, so as not to injure the sorters.
1449.42.9
Sorting
With lightning speed, Chico closed his hand and drew his arm out of the water. When he opened his fingers, a minnow wiggled twice and fell back into the water. Catherine was amazed.
“You got one!”
Still stunned by the surprise, Chico gazed at his open hand where the minnow had appeared and then disappeared.
“You caught one! That’s so rare!”
Chico liked the fact that he’d succeeded in doing something rare.
1450.115.11
Catherine and Chico
Clumsily scribbled on a page of Terry’s notebook:
Yellow Breton
95 euros
19 × 32
susanjonesart.com
Paypal
1451.118.10
Concerning Yellow
“Houses, houses, houses. Lovely houses, ugly houses, a house where people’re dyin’ of AIDS, even doh dey don’t look sick, another house where I’s dyin’ of AIDS meself an’ I’m not really sick at all. Sidaware. Another house, small, all alone in a parking lot. Houses along the road. Houses you have to climb ladders to get into. Houses with cellars, houses without cellars. Houses with doors too small for me to get in. Houses, houses, houses.
“Wot do you mean by sidaware?”
“I don’t know. It just seemed to fit der. Have you ever heard that word?”
“No.”
“Me neither. Could be I just invented it.”
1452.109.12
Dreams
Odd fact, the helical thread of screws was invented long before the screw. In fact, almost 4,000 years separate the invention of the thread and its application to the screw.
1453.79.5
Oddities
Before heading back, Catherine suggested they pick some blueberries he could take to his granny.
“You says granny, too?”
“Sure. ’Round here, we said granny.”
Leaving the path, they discovered a clearing where blueberries were large and abundant. Their harvesting went quickly.
“Are you gonna be marryin’ Zed, den?”
The question made Catherine smile.
“I don’t know. He’s awfully nice . . .”
“Does you tink ee’s good lookin’?”
Catherine couldn’t help but laugh:
“Yes!”
. . .
. . .
. . .
“What do you think — should I marry him?”
“Yes.”
1454.115.12
Catherine and Chico
wee girl saw nothing
neither mean games nor fighting
eyes nose mouth down on the ground
snowman on every side
going, gone, Patti? Patti?
1455.75.3
Tankas
“Der’s sometin’ goin’ on wid de lofts.”
“Wot’re you on about?”
“Lionel an’ Sylvia were in to see Zed yesterday in de afternoon. Looked right serious.”
“Dat’s it?”
“I don’t know, I’s got a queer feeling.”
. . .
“Dey’s sayin’ ee lost a whole lot o’ money in ’is companies overseas.”
“Been, wot, ten years folks bin sayin’ dat?”
“Der’s sometin’ goin’ on, dat’s all I’s sayin’.”
1456.108.5
Rumours
In the domain of torsion, the fastener is said to be female when the thread is inside the structure, as in the common nut. The fastener is said to be male when the thread is external to the structure, for example in the basic screw. Experience leads one to conclude that our complex world would not have held together for 10 seconds without the sexualization of this elementary machine.
1457.125.10
Sexuality
“Dad, wot’re you plannin’ on doin’ wid dose old pennies?”
“Don’t know yet. Why’s dat?”
Étienne shrugged his shoulders.
“Yer tinkin’ you’d like to ’ave dem fer yer collections; is dat it?”
Étienne nodded.
Terry stretched out his arm, grabbed hold of the glass jar on the topmost of the corner shelves.
“Der you go. A gift.”
Étienne jumped for joy.
“Now don’t go wastin’ dem on candies at de store. When I has a bit o’ time, I’ll tell you wot’s special ’bout dem dat makes dem wort’ keepin’. An’ we’ll separate out dem dat’re real special from dose dat’re not all dat special. So as to make sure you don’t go spendin’ dose dat’re really wort’ keepin’.”
But Étienne was already in his room putting his new acquisition in his drawer of treasures.
“Did ya ’ear wot I’s sayin’?”
“Yes, Dad.”
1458.113.12
Collections
Examination question for Machine Design II course (GMEC 4223): design a production line in which at least one of the components is responsible for detecting any problems on said line. Also integrate mechanisms designed to remedy the different categories of problems (ref: Glassnolt scale of errors) and explain why these subtle errors must absolutely be avoided (ref: Voltgass scale of errors).
1459.70.11
Errors
“You never eat any yourself?”
“Sometimes I bring some home, but most of the time I put them back. The hook goes in just on the corner of the lip, w
here the flesh is pretty resistant, so it doesn’t do much damage.”
. . .
“The most important thing is not to damage the ears, not to make them bleed. Sometimes you have to use pliers, if the hook is in too deep.”
. . .
“To release it, you hold the trout under the water in both your hands, in the direction of the current, and wait until it recovers. When she starts to move, you know she’s ready.”
. . .
“The releasing is as moving as the catching. It’s a powerful feeling to be in contact with the trout at that instant.”
1460.18.4
A Place for Folks
On February 25, 1980, on rue des Écoles in Paris, a van struck the critic, semiologist and professor Roland Barthes, who died a month later of his injuries. He was 65 years old.
1461.78.1
Accidents
“Me, ’twas every time I goes to tee off. Der was all de time a tree or a shockin’ big branch in me way. I had no way to take any kind o’ swing, dat tree was all de time in my way.”
1462.109.2
Dreams
“Me, ’tis when I goes to plant de tee! I couldn’t get ’er in de ground! I’s after pushin’ down on ’er, over ’ere and der, and den over a ways off, only dat damn ting wouldn’t go in. Can’t tell ya ’ow many times I’s ’avin’ dat dream!”
At times you need a rule(r).
1463.132.12
Malapropism
Terry was especially proud of his gratin Dauphinois, and its perfect crust, exactly like the one he’d eaten in Lyon.
“Hey! Me recipe’s disappeared! She were right ’ere only a minute ago!”
Terry and Étienne had seen Marianne commit her larceny, but they wanted to humour her.
“Étienne, did you take me recipe, boy?”
“Wot recipe?”
“Me recipe fer gratin Dauphinois! I ’ad it right eer under me nose not ten seconds ago!
Hiding behind the cupboard and out of Terry’s sight, Marianne was giggling. Étienne, who could see her plainly, could also tell that she’d soon be needing to urinate.
“Maybe it fell on de floor.”
Terry shuffled a few things on the counter to pretend he was searching. Marianne was ecstatic.
“De page was right der on de corner o’ de table!”
Terry pretended to look some more, opened and closed several drawers and cupboard doors.
“An’ where’s Marianne, I wonder?”
Étienne played innocent:
“Well, I don’t know, do I, Dad.”
Terry went to look for her in her bedroom.
1464.23.11
Potatoes
“Marianne?”
By now she had put both plump little hands over her mouth to smother the laughter that was coming out of her eyes.
Simple tactic modelled on simple machines: to keep mum.
1465.127.3
Tactics
Zed asked Chico and Catherine how they’d spent the day.
“Chico had never seen a covered bridge, so I took him to see one.”
“Is dat right? Where?”
“By the Weisner.”
Zed was not so easily fooled:
“An’ dat’s wot’s got de boat of you laughin’?”
Now Chico and Catherine openly flaunted their complicity.
“We’re not laughing. We’re just in a good mood.”
“I caught a barbel wid me hands!”
“Wow!”
“Only ee fell back in de water.”
“Still! Dat’s terrible hard to catch a fish wid yer hands! ’Ow did you manage dat?”
Chico could tell that Zed was really impressed; he was happy to add:
“An’ we picked blueberries fer Granny.”
“Is dat right? Dat’s right nice!”
Zed opened the fridge door:
“Are der some fer us, den?”
1466.36.9
Strawberries
Then there are errors of naming. Stag, deer, buck, elk, reindeer, moose, caribou, Alaskan elk, wapiti? The American elk is called orignal in French, from the Basque oregna meaning “stag.” Just as America takes its name from Amerigo Vespucci, who was not actually its first European visitor. Columbus (1492) and Cabot (1497) had set foot on the territory before him. But — another example of the unpredictable consequences of writing — the discovery was attibuted to him because he was the first to write down, in a 32-page letter, what he’d seen and experienced during his four voyages betweeen 1497 and 1504. For it is through writing and the art of storytelling that the discovery of the New World spread throughout the old country.
1467.59.2
Knowledge
“Mum, I don’t understand the story of Saint Louis. Dad explained it to me, only I still doesn’t understand.”
Carmen had no idea what story Terry might have told.
“You know yer Dad, sometimes he says things dat you’d have to be in his head to understand.”
“How come?”
“Well, ee doesn’t do it on purpose, it’s just the way it happens.”
Étienne considered this for a moment, then:
“Wot colour is it in yer ’ead, Mum?”
To please her son, Carmen looked inside her head:
“Mmm . . . it’s not a bad bit nice, ’tis all shades of green. Like a beautiful forest. You?”
“Me, der’s times ’tis orange, den sometimes blue almost black.”
“Orange is nice.”
“Yes, only ’tis far. A far orange.”
“Awh?”
“Yes. Only you’d ’ave to be in me ’ead.”
“Hey, yer like yer dad!”
“Well, Mum, you just said de same ting I was tinkin’!”
1468.41.10
Lives of the Saints
Fly fishing for salmon is already such an incredible experience that it takes on ecstatic proportions when the catch is made with a fly of your own fabrication.
1469.129.12
Fantasies
“Cory Melanson? I wouldn’t be wastin’ so much as a match on Cory Melanson.”
“What about Kyle, den?”
“Kyle Richard?”
“No, Kyle Léger.”
“Ti-Kyle! Him, I’d maybe give ’im a tootpick if he asked me fer one, only it’d have to be at arm’s lengt’. An’ don’t ferget, I said maybe.”
“An’ Jamie?”
“Jamie Bourque? What about Jamie Bourque?”
“Well, you know . . .”
“You wants to know if he really went an’ poured de light, sweet crude down de drain afore de cops arrived?”
. . .
“Well, if dat’s wot you wants to know, go find yerself a plumber.”
1470.103.11
Disappearances
By means of an ingenuous combination of the wheel and the lever, the Chinese invented the wheelbarrow more than 2,000 years ago, and kept it a secret for more than 100 years. The wheelbarrow had a major impact on warfare and construction.
1471.114.8
Inventions
“Mum, do you have saints you like a whole lot like Dad has?”
“Hmm . . . I’d have to think about it . . .”
“Dad likes Saint Christopher, who lives in a cabin by de bridge.”
“That’s right. Ee wears his medallion.”
“An’ Saint Bernadette Spirou, who gaddered a turn of whits.”
“Of what?”
Étienne was taken aback; he didn’t think he’d used an English word.
“That’s how Grandad Thibodeau says it.”
“It mus
t be an old word, say it again.”
“Whits.”
“No, I’ve never heard that word.”
“Mum, yer only sayin’ that!”
“No! It’s true!”
1472.41.5
Lives of the Saints
“But, Mum! It’s the wee branches you pick up to start the fire!”
“Well, it’s a new word for me. That’s normal, you know. A person can’t be knowing all the words.”
A river.
1473.121.10
Things to Want
“Well, come to think of it, I did like Saint Francis.”
“On account of?”
“Because he loved nature. Especially birds.”
As she spoke, Carmen had dug her nails into Étienne’s back and scratched him slightly, instead of simply lightly grazing over his skin the way she’d been doing while they talked.
1474.123.11
Carmen and Étienne
“Awh, dat feels good, Mum.”
Carmen did it again.
“’Twas better the first time.”
Why not the string, the ladder, and even the needle, while we’re at it?
1475.92.7
Questions without Answers
“There are a lot o’ saints with de same names. Me, I like the Saint Francis dat walked barefoot.”
“In de snow, as well?”
“I don’t think dey had snow over there.”
“Where was it den?”
“In Italy.”
“Wot else was ee doin’?”
“Ee talked to the trees.”
Étienne was not all that surprised.
“Wot was ee sayin’?”
“Saint Francis thought that God was everywhere, in nature, in the animals, in the plants. So, for him, it was normal to talk to trees an’ animals an’ plants. It was as though he was talkin’ to God.”
“Well, wot was ee sayin’ to de tree?”
“Once he asked an almond tree — that’s a tree that yields almonds — he asked the almond tree to prove that it could hear him, as doh it was ’is brudder speakin’.”
Étienne raised his head to look at Carmen; this story was something out of the ordinary.”
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