Category Archives: Ephemera

A Wrinkle In Geography

Just remembered something nifty that tilted my world a bit this weekend.

NDG is currently the playground of a film crew shooting a movie called Wicker Park, as you well know if you’re an NDG resident and have been rerouted, or have been forced to find somewhere else to park because your street has been taken up by Star Suites and generators and eighteen-wheeler rigs stuffed full of equipment. On Friday around five PM, my husband drove me over to the Royal Bank on the corner of Sherbrooke and Hingston so I could cash a cheque and put gas in the car.

Except it wasn’t the corner of Sherbrooke and Hingston when we got there. It was the corner of two other streets. There was a US Postal box on the corner, and a City of Chicago trash bin, and a bunch of US newspaper boxes strewn about. That little triangular park had a new “Keep Chicago’s Parks Clean” sign up. And my bank wasn’t my bank. It had a huge green sign both out front and over the door, and it certainly didn’t say Royal Bank; it had a series of initials instead in gold lettering.

It certainly felt odd to walk up those steps and go inside. It was as if I had crossed some odd teleportation line, or passed through a twist in earth energy between my new apartment and the bank, and landed in Chicago. (Except Chicago is currently experiencing much nicer weather at nine degrees Celcius, as opposed to our minus ten. It’s March tenth; it’s more than time for spring. Damn groundhogs.) Anyways, it makes you wonder if there’s something odd about Sherbrooke Street – if you drive east along it from Cavendish to Hingston, you get Montreal; but if you drive west along it from Decarie at just the precise time on a Friday afternoon, you inexplicably end up in Chicago.

Fanciful, perhaps. Do remember that I worked in a F/SF bookstore for four years, though.

Where You Least Expect it

Found in the middle of a page on making bath bombs (fizzy bath salts, guys, not – never mind. It’s a girl thing, okay?):

Ummm.. what else? Don’t store the bombs in metal because the of the corrosive properties of the salt, avoid storing them in plastic zip-loc type bags or cellophane, I have heard reports that the plastic eats the scents, and a few mysterious reports of lavender essential oil going bad when stored in cellophane, and try to store them either sealed or in a dry area. Don’t use them if they look or smell funny, don’t run with scissors, call your mother.

Amused

Found more old e-mail as I was cleaning up my hard drive. For a while about two or three years ago, I signed off with “The Jovial Warrior Sorceress”, and my sig was “Leather will do just fine”. It’s a bit out of character, yes, but that was half the fun. It came from the wonderful, time-wasting Lee’s (Useless) Superhero Generator, which served as a source of amusement for my circle of friends for a week or two.

The next time I have to create a D&D character, none of this patiently developing a character and a background for me. Nope, it’s going to be The Jovial Warrior Sorceress, levelling enemies with a quip, a rapier, a fireball and a heroic laugh. “Hold, miscreant! Have at thee! What, my hearty allies? Wearied already? A round of song, then! Ninety-nine dumb orcs charging the Wall, ninety-nine orcs at the Wall; strike one down, spread him around, ninety-eight dumb orcs charging the Wall!”

I really think I should go back to bed.