Montreal

Bonkers, as they say.

I got a jaywalking ticket the other day crossing University and Milton--just got stood up by a thick-accented, blue-vested (are they bulletproof?) Montreal cop, looking all smug with his $12 haircut and toothy grin. Cost me a good $37. I don't mind paying the fine, but what annoys me is that (a) when writing up the ticket, there were clearly 30 students crossing the intersection in the same fashion as I; (b) when handing me the ticket, he gave me a flimsy little bookmark telling me that the flashing red hand means "Do Not Start Crossing" like I didn't know (I should put that in my favorite novel too!); and (c) when I payed the ticket online, they had to charge me an additional $1.50 for too-lazy-to-go-to-the-station-to-pay-his-fees-so-here's-a-little-kidney-punch.

On another note, the Levi's Walt Whitman commercials are one of the best commercials I have ever seen. First encounter: in the movie theatre, guessing which celebrity that blurred-out face belongs to (Nicholas Cage? Didn't know his birthday was in January). But bam! Thought I was in the wrong theatre, because there it was: Walt Whitman in all his glory on the screen with these forest adolescents doing artsy stuff like burning branches and running without shirts (like any free-minded individual would do). Anyways, I enjoyed it. Watch it. Buy Levi's or whatever it compels you to do.