The BBC has a short piece on Montreal: O…
The BBC has a short piece on Montreal: One Square Mile of Canada – with lots of subtle mistakes and clichés, alas. It’s presented by Lyse Doucet, a longtime BBC reporter, who’s from New Brunswick.
For starters – the Main is anything but “sweeping” – that makes it sound like a grand Paris boulevard rather than the cranky one-way thoroughfare it actually is …”once the symbolic dividing line between the city’s French and English speaking communities” – again a cliché and never really true: anglos lived in Hochelaga and Rosemont, francophones in Ville Émard and Verdun and all over … “the Quartier Chinois, or Chinese quarter” – actually, we call it Chinatown, and it’s more a small shopping area now than a “quarter” where many people live.
“Maple Spring”? That translates printemps d’érable which was mostly just a pun on printemps arabe. And translating Garde-Manger as “The Larder” is just kind of weird.
And hey – Mount Royal is not a hill.
But “the mighty St. Lawrence River” – it’s always fun to spot one of those.
Nice chat with Mike Finnerty though.
(I can’t tell whether this is a piece in itself, or a teaser for a longer report. But I do know it’s part of a series on Canada that the network is doing.)
Raoul 11:08 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
cmon its the BBC… have you ever seen their depiction of americans in doctor who? theyre dressed in red, white and blue, junk-food all over the place, and they seem think american household are as cramped as your typical english flat.
carswell 11:15 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
«And hey – Mount Royal is not a hill.»
Well, it’s not a mountain in any geological sense. More like a volcanic plug that, when it was formed, didn’t even break the earth’s surface. And it *is* officially one of the Monteregian Hills, so at least Doucet has geological science on her side.
Kate 11:59 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
carswell, are you trying to pollute my Montreal pride with geological facts?
jeather 12:19 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
Geological science is, in this case, wrong. They’re not facts, they are mistakes that will clearly be rectified once geologists have learned the truth.
Seriously, Kate, you need to moderate this community better. It’s one thing to have people fighting all out about tuition hikes, but it’s another to have them polluting your comment threads with heresies like “Mount Royal is not a mountain” or “Mount Royal is officially a hill”.
C_Erb 12:47 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
I honestly don’t think I can continue reading this blog until that comment has been removed and the commenter banned from ever posting again. Besides, these so-called “facts” are flimsy at best. I for one have never heard of these “Monteregian Hills” and quite frankly, have already heard enough about them.
walkerp 12:52 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
Not only is Mont Royal a mountain, but it’s two mountains! Hell, it’s practically a mountain range.
[good Friday stuff, people. :) ]
Spock 14:20 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
Mount Royal… Yeah, mountain… uhuh, yup.
carswell 15:23 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
«Not only is Mont Royal a mountain, but it’s two mountains! Hell, it’s practically a mountain range.»
Actually, in that case it’d be three: the cross summit, the Westmount summit and the Outremont summit.
Guess you all aren’t interested in hearing about the claim that the Laurentians aren’t a range or even mountains but rather the crenelated edge of the Canadian Shield, eh?
Anto 15:30 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
If it’s not a mountain, what did I climb last Sunday, huh?
That’s where your “logic” fails.
MB 16:09 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
After the first hike of the season, it sure *feels* like a mountain. #winterpadding
ant6n 16:13 on 2012/05/18 Permalink
@carswell
You can diss the Laurentian speed bumps all you like. Just don’t disrespect our mountain.
Kevin 08:01 on 2012/05/19 Permalink
It’s not called Mount Royal because it’s a mountain. It’s called that because the bump is a great location to get … you know… excited.
I bet you think Beaver Lake was named after flat-tailed rodents too.
And the Big O. Do I really need to be more obvious? Cum on!
Spock 08:08 on 2012/05/19 Permalink
Its a small hill, a slight bump in the terrain.
You can’t even build anything taller than 200m or risk blocking the view…