Gulf Oil Spill Catastrophe may not stop until August

These people are choked,........this Mistake makes the Exon Valdez spill,look miniscule

Need a reason to be concerned,well how's this, turn on your water faucet full blast & leave it on your garden for 4 or 5 months,and that wouldn't even begin to be as much as the oil is spweing out each hour 24/7 Think about that.                    VENICE, La. - Oil from BP's out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, U.S. forecasters said on Monday, as public anger surged over the country's worst environmental disaster.

U.S. government and BP officials are warning that the blown-out deepwater well feeding the catastrophic spill may not be shut off until August as the company begins preparations on a new but uncertain attempt to contain the leaking crude.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will meet with federal prosecutors and state attorneys general in New Orleans in Tuesday. It will be Holder's first trip to survey the damage before what legal experts believe will be a criminal investigation into the disaster.

The London Stock Exchange and Wall Street were closed for holidays on Monday, but BP shares in Frankfurt sank 7 per cent to close at around 5.40 euros ($6.93 Cdn) on the news of the company's weekend failure to halt the oil leak.

BP's stock has lost nearly a quarter of its value since the oil spill started six weeks ago, wiping nearly 29 billion pounds ($44 billion Cdn) off BP's market value, according to Reuters data.

The disaster, in its 42nd day on Monday, is already the largest oil spill in U.S. history and officials are treating it it as the country's biggest environmental catastrophe.

Although Louisiana's wetlands and fishing grounds have been the worst hit so far by the spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said moderate southerly and southwesterly winds this week may start moving oil closer to the Mississippi Delta.

"Model results indicate that oil may move north to threaten the barrier islands off Mississippi and Alabama later in the forecast period," NOAA said in its 72-hour prediction on the expected trajectory of the huge oil slick.

Mississippi and Alabama have escaped lightly so far, with only scattered tar balls and oil debris reaching its coasts.

But the NOAA forecast was a sober reminder that oil from the unchecked spill, broken up and carried by winds and ocean currents, could threaten a vast area of the U.S. Gulf Coast, including tourism mecca Florida, as well as Cuba and Mexico.

Following the failure this weekend of BP's attempt to plug the spewing 1.6 km-deep well, public anger over the spill and how it occurred is growing, as tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents face a pollution impact on their livelihoods.

A group calling itself Seize BP, which has already staged anti-BP protests, said on Monday it would organize demonstrations in more than 50 U.S. cities from Thursday to Saturday to protest the damage from the leaking oil.

The group demands that BP's assets be immediately seized and held in trust to pay compensation for the spill triggered by the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

"JOBS VANISHING, CREATURES DYING"

"The greatest environmental disaster with no end in sight! Eleven workers dead. Millions of gallons of oil gushing for months (and possibly years) to come. Jobs vanishing. Creatures dying. A pristine environment destroyed for generations. A mega-corporation that has lied and continues to lie, and a government that refuses to protect the people," Seize BP said in a statement.

The public anger and frustration over the spill poses a major domestic challenge for President Barack Obama, who has been forced to admit publicly that the U.S. government and military do not have the technology to plug the leaking well and must leave this to BP and its private industry partners.

Obama, who made his second visit to the Gulf disaster zone on Friday, is sending three of his top energy and environmental officials back there this week. He is trying to fend off criticism that his administration acted too slowly in its response to the spill, the worst in U.S. history.

The crisis could swell into a political liability for the Democratic president as his administration and party, bloodied by bruising health care and economic policy debates, head toward key mid-term congressional elections in November.

Louisiana's commercial and recreational fishing industry already has been dealt a blow by the spill. Fishing boats bobbed idle on Monday at the Venice Marina in Louisiana, which would normally be a hive of activity during the long Memorial Day weekend.

"Just take a look around, it's quiet," marina owner Bill Butler said as he sat wistfully looking at the idle boats.

As a health precaution, U.S. authorities have closed all fishing in 25 per cent of Gulf of Mexico U.S. federal waters.

The Gulf Coast is one of America's richest ecosystems and a vital breeding ground for a $6.5 billion seafood industry.

ULTIMATE HOPES IN RELIEF WELL

BP executives say the company will try several immediate options to try to control the leak, including the planned deployment of a containment cap in the next few days, but the ultimate solution may only lie in the drilling of a relief well that is expected to be completed in August.

The drilling of two relief wells, which began in May, is an expensive but more reliable way to intercept and cap the leaking well.

The Gulf spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989 as the worst U.S. oil spill, with an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (1.9 million to 3 million liters) leaking per day.

BP is now preparing a containment cap to place on top of a lower marine riser package (LMRP), a piece of equipment that sits atop the failed well blowout preventer on the seabed.

Remote vehicles have begun cutting away pipes atop the blowout preventer to allow a tight fit with the cap, and will saw through the main riser pipe in "next day or two," a BP spokesman said on Monday.

The White House said the company would begin cutting a pipe that rises out of the so-called LMRP on Monday or Tuesday.

If the containment operation works — and BP expects to know later this week — then at least some of the leaking oil could be piped to the surface.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Gulf+spill+threat+widens/3092539/story.html#ixzz0pXod9xMd

Gulf Oil Spill Catastrophe may not stop until August

These people are choked,........this Mistake makes the Exon Valdez spill,look miniscule

Need a reason to be concerned,well how's this, turn on your water faucet full blast & leave it on your garden for 4 or 5 months,and that wouldn't even begin to be as much as the oil is spweing out each hour 24/7 Think about that.                    VENICE, La. - Oil from BP's out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, U.S. forecasters said on Monday, as public anger surged over the country's worst environmental disaster.

U.S. government and BP officials are warning that the blown-out deepwater well feeding the catastrophic spill may not be shut off until August as the company begins preparations on a new but uncertain attempt to contain the leaking crude.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will meet with federal prosecutors and state attorneys general in New Orleans in Tuesday. It will be Holder's first trip to survey the damage before what legal experts believe will be a criminal investigation into the disaster.

The London Stock Exchange and Wall Street were closed for holidays on Monday, but BP shares in Frankfurt sank 7 per cent to close at around 5.40 euros ($6.93 Cdn) on the news of the company's weekend failure to halt the oil leak.

BP's stock has lost nearly a quarter of its value since the oil spill started six weeks ago, wiping nearly 29 billion pounds ($44 billion Cdn) off BP's market value, according to Reuters data.

The disaster, in its 42nd day on Monday, is already the largest oil spill in U.S. history and officials are treating it it as the country's biggest environmental catastrophe.

Although Louisiana's wetlands and fishing grounds have been the worst hit so far by the spill, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said moderate southerly and southwesterly winds this week may start moving oil closer to the Mississippi Delta.

"Model results indicate that oil may move north to threaten the barrier islands off Mississippi and Alabama later in the forecast period," NOAA said in its 72-hour prediction on the expected trajectory of the huge oil slick.

Mississippi and Alabama have escaped lightly so far, with only scattered tar balls and oil debris reaching its coasts.

But the NOAA forecast was a sober reminder that oil from the unchecked spill, broken up and carried by winds and ocean currents, could threaten a vast area of the U.S. Gulf Coast, including tourism mecca Florida, as well as Cuba and Mexico.

Following the failure this weekend of BP's attempt to plug the spewing 1.6 km-deep well, public anger over the spill and how it occurred is growing, as tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents face a pollution impact on their livelihoods.

A group calling itself Seize BP, which has already staged anti-BP protests, said on Monday it would organize demonstrations in more than 50 U.S. cities from Thursday to Saturday to protest the damage from the leaking oil.

The group demands that BP's assets be immediately seized and held in trust to pay compensation for the spill triggered by the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

"JOBS VANISHING, CREATURES DYING"

"The greatest environmental disaster with no end in sight! Eleven workers dead. Millions of gallons of oil gushing for months (and possibly years) to come. Jobs vanishing. Creatures dying. A pristine environment destroyed for generations. A mega-corporation that has lied and continues to lie, and a government that refuses to protect the people," Seize BP said in a statement.

The public anger and frustration over the spill poses a major domestic challenge for President Barack Obama, who has been forced to admit publicly that the U.S. government and military do not have the technology to plug the leaking well and must leave this to BP and its private industry partners.

Obama, who made his second visit to the Gulf disaster zone on Friday, is sending three of his top energy and environmental officials back there this week. He is trying to fend off criticism that his administration acted too slowly in its response to the spill, the worst in U.S. history.

The crisis could swell into a political liability for the Democratic president as his administration and party, bloodied by bruising health care and economic policy debates, head toward key mid-term congressional elections in November.

Louisiana's commercial and recreational fishing industry already has been dealt a blow by the spill. Fishing boats bobbed idle on Monday at the Venice Marina in Louisiana, which would normally be a hive of activity during the long Memorial Day weekend.

"Just take a look around, it's quiet," marina owner Bill Butler said as he sat wistfully looking at the idle boats.

As a health precaution, U.S. authorities have closed all fishing in 25 per cent of Gulf of Mexico U.S. federal waters.

The Gulf Coast is one of America's richest ecosystems and a vital breeding ground for a $6.5 billion seafood industry.

ULTIMATE HOPES IN RELIEF WELL

BP executives say the company will try several immediate options to try to control the leak, including the planned deployment of a containment cap in the next few days, but the ultimate solution may only lie in the drilling of a relief well that is expected to be completed in August.

The drilling of two relief wells, which began in May, is an expensive but more reliable way to intercept and cap the leaking well.

The Gulf spill has surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989 as the worst U.S. oil spill, with an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (1.9 million to 3 million liters) leaking per day.

BP is now preparing a containment cap to place on top of a lower marine riser package (LMRP), a piece of equipment that sits atop the failed well blowout preventer on the seabed.

Remote vehicles have begun cutting away pipes atop the blowout preventer to allow a tight fit with the cap, and will saw through the main riser pipe in "next day or two," a BP spokesman said on Monday.

The White House said the company would begin cutting a pipe that rises out of the so-called LMRP on Monday or Tuesday.

If the containment operation works — and BP expects to know later this week — then at least some of the leaking oil could be piped to the surface.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Gulf+spill+threat+widens/3092539/story.html#ixzz0pXod9xMd

All Montreal Museums are Free today

For some of our Montreal members, you may want to check out soem of the museums as today they are Free...... it's the 24th annual Free Museum entry in Montreal.

 It would be a great day to checkout some of the old archives.

 

Admission to Montreal's museums will be free Sunday from 9 a.m to 6 p.m. as part of the 24th annual Montreal Museums Day open house, the only such event in Canada.

Under the theme of City of Glass - several of Montreal's museums and art galleries are featuring displays of glass art - the event will also serve as the kick-off to a city-wide, summer-long collection of used eyeglasses frames from the public, which will then be donated to Optométristes sans frontières in the fall. People are also being invited to participate in the creation of an art installation using donated glasses Sunday at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, located at the corner of Ste. Catherine St. W. and Jeanne-Mance Sts.

The Société de Transport de Montréal will also be providing free shuttle-bus service between museums Sunday.

And for the first time this year, several non-museum sites will be joining in the open house, including the Notre-Dame Basilica, Espace Verre, the Canadian Guild of Crafts, the Maison de la culture de Pierrefonds and many more.

An average of 130,000 museum visits are made each year on Museums Day, according to the Société de directeurs des musées montréalais, the organizer of the event.

For the complete program, and details on transportation and parking, visit www.museesmontreal.org

Dennis Hopper rides into the sunset (what's the Canadian Connection ?)

 Dennis Hopper's Canadian connection is this , the idea & screenplay were thought up & written in a Toronto Motel Room.... for the movie "Easy Rider"

---

May 29, 2010, 2:56 pm

Dennis Hopper, Actor and Iconoclast, Dies

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Everett Collection Dennis Hopper, in the film “Easy Rider,” which he directed, edited and starred in.

3:19 p.m. | Updated Dennis Hopper, whose portrayals of drug-addled, often deranged misfits in the landmark films “Easy Rider,” “Apocalypse Now” and “Blue Velvet” drew on his early out-of-control experiences as part of a new generation of Hollywood rebel, died at his home in Venice, Calif., on Saturday. He was 74.

According to the Times obituary written by Edward Wyatt, Mr. Hopper died from complications of prostate cancer. His death was first reported by Reuters.

Mr. Hopper, who said he stopped drinking and using drugs in the mid-1980s, followed that change with a tireless phase of his career in which he claimed to have turned down no parts. His credits include at least  six films released in 2008 and at least 25 over the past 10 years.

Most recently, Mr. Hopper starred in the television series “Crash,” an adaptation of the Oscar-winning film of the same title. Produced for the Starz cable channel, the show had Mr. Hopper portraying a music producer unhinged by years of drug use. During a promotional tour last fall for that series, he fell ill; shortly thereafter, he began a new round of treatments for prostate cancer, which he said was first diagnosed a decade ago.

Inverting a famous line of dialogue spoken by Peter Fonda in “Easy Rider,” Manohla Dargis wrote of Mr. Hopper in The New York Times:

Dennis Hopper — actor, filmmaker, photographer, art collector, world-class burnout, first-rate survivor — never blew it. Unlike the villains and freaks he has played over the decades — the psycho with the mommy complex in “Blue Velvet,” the mad bomber with the grudge in “Speed” — he has made it through the good, the bad and some spectacularly terrible times. He rode out the golden age of Hollywood by roaring into a new movie era with “Easy Rider.” He hung out with James Dean, played Elizabeth Taylor’s son, acted for Quentin Tarantino. He has been rich and infamous, lost and found, the next big thing, the last man standing.

                                  ----------------------------HF&RV--------------------Cheers !!

The Memories of Angels-Luc Bourdon film

This is a great film by Luc Bourdon,who uses all NFB clips in a well put together film aboput Montreal. If you grew up in Montreal you will appreciate this film....Well done (IMHO)

Also here is the direct link to te NFB site that contains this film, you can also search through te NFB site ,it's a treasure chest of many good films,...Have a look.
Cheers ! , HF&RV

The Memories of Angels -Luc Bourdon film

We posted the trailers for this film a long time back,but I am going to try & post the full film ,at the very least I will post the link to the NFB page where you can,if you like watch the film. It is an 80 minute film,but it does have a lot of great shots of the Montreal most of us remember..........  

                     Cheers ! HF&RV

 

Dead @ 97 ,Art Linkletter (a well known & liked man) & a Canadian too.

Well old Art Linkletter passed away yesterday,& I would imagine you would be hard pressed to find anyone (around our age groups) that doesn't Remember him....he was quite good with kids,on his show"Kids say the darndest things" .he also had invested in the Hoola Hoop ,as well as many other inovative deals.....he was a smart guy & likeable.

Art Linkletter, the genial television host who was born in Moose Jaw, Sask., and specialized in getting kids to say "the darndest things," died Wednesday at 97, his assistant said.

Linkletter, a mainstay of American broadcasting in the 1950s and ' 60s with shows such as People Are Funny and Art Linkletter's House Party, died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles' Bel Air community, assistant Jennifer Kramer told Reuters.

Linkletter's shows sometimes featured conversations with celebrities, but emphasized man-in-the-street interviews and comic conversations with children.

At one time in the 1960s, he was host of the Emmy Awardwinning daily show House Party, while also serving as MC on the weekly shows People Are Funny and Linkletter and the Kids. One of his shows featured a regular spot called Kids Say the Darndest Things, in which he elicited funny comments on topics ranging from history to their families.

The segment became wildly popular, thanks to spontaneous responses, such as the eight-year-old boy who said, "My mom is going to have a baby but my father doesn't know."

"My art," Linkletter once said, "is getting other people to perform. . . . People are more interesting to me than anything else."

In 1969, after the suicide of his daughter Diane was linked to LSD use, Linkletter campaigned against drug abuse. He also travelled the world on behalf of World Vision, a Christian charity, and served as a leader of Goodwill Industries, the Arthritis Foundation and the Los Angeles Orphanage.

He was born Arthur Gordon Kelley on July 17, 1912, but was abandoned by his biological family, who left him on the steps of a Baptist church. He was adopted by a family named Linkletter. His new father was an evangelist who moved the family to California.

He attended San Diego State College with the intention of becoming a teacher, but drifted into radio. In 1942, he moved to Hollywood and launched People Are Funny, a talk show 15 years on radio before moving to television.

Soon after, he started House Party, which aired a dozen years on both radio and TV.

With his wife Lois, whom he married in 1935, Linkletter also had two other daughters and a son, Jack, who produced TV programs, and a son, Robert, who died in a 1980 car accident.

                                -----------HF&RV--------

Lake of Two-Mountains ,part of our Around Labelle Province

About 2 Mo
In case you are visiting from somewhere else on planet earth

2 mo is short for Two-Mountains. Two Mountains which officially called Deux-Montagnes because of the language issues around Quebec is located about 24 km (16 miles) northwest of downtown Montreal, Quebec Canada at the point where the Lake of Two Mountains turns into the Mille-Iles (Thousand Island) river. For those of you with GPS units, it is at N45 32.153 W73 54.033. These particular co-ordinates will lead you to the steps of the Tartan Pub which is considered by many as the center of Two Mountains the universe. For people that are into geocaching you will find a cold beer at this place and you may leave your cache (cash) there in return. Tell 'em Paul sent you.

The train is the most direct link to Montreal as it is only a 24km ride while the drive can be anywhere from 30 to 45 km depending on the roads you choose. Its population is around 17,000 with about 20% Anglophone. Until 1963 it was called St-Eustache-sur-le-lac (on the lake) and it was mainly comprised of cottages for people of Montreal. Since then, cottage country has migrated north quite a bit.

For more information go to the official Deux-Montagnes city site.
There is also another site containing a lot of Two Mountains Info: go to  communityconnections-dm.org

In case you are from real far away in space here's a better map. Point your spaceship to the middle of the star.

 

 

Check this out: If you want to know what Two Mountains looks like from a satellite click here. You can then zoom in or out on any part. Click and hold on the map to pan around. The Google maps feature will leave every other map web site in the dust when it reaches its final release. Try the directions tab.

For a complete history of Two-Mountains from the real beginning check out this part of the Deux-Montagnes web site. WARNING with the new design of the website (June 2007) the History pages seemed to have disappeared.

Small Plane Crashes into Building in the GTA

.bad luck for this small plane.....reported only 26 minutes ago....

 

TORONTO — A small plane has crashed into a two-storey warehouse in Markham, Ont., according to York Regional Police.

The four-seat Cessna hit the building, just north of Toronto, at 8889 Woodbine Ave. just before 12:30 p.m., said Sgt. Gary Phillips.

Police know it was a small plane that crashed, Phillips said, but are still trying to determine how many people were inside. "We're still trying to confirm what the cause of the crash was," he said.

Television coverage show the remnants of the plane in flames on what appears to be the roof of the building. Fire trucks and emergency vehicles are on scene.

People are being evacuated from the warehouse because there is a concern about a fuel spill and a possible explosion, particularly given the hot temperatures Tuesday in southern Ontario, he said. "When you're dealing with aviation fuel, it's very volatile."

The warehouse is close to the Buttonville Airport, which operates one of the largest flight schools in Canada.

Toronto Buttonville Municipal Airport is a multi-service general aviation airport. It is operated by Toronto Airways Limited.

It sounded "like a bomb had dropped" when the plane crashed said Carmelina Competiello, who works close to the building on Woodbine Ave.

"I screamed," Competiello said, who works at the Chapel Ridge Funeral Home and Cremation Centre. "There is smoke everywhere."

Smoke is billowing out of the hotel and several fire trucks are on scene, she said.

"I'm shaking. It's so close by," she said. "It could have been us."

Yikes !! How's this for a Nutcase

Sadly this creep has serioulsy hurt a few other families....I have no problem with these type of Nuts popping themselves ,but why hurt others.....

MONTREAL – Police in Plessisville are still trying to figure out how one man was involved in two car crashes that killed four and injured four others in a 10-minute span Monday afternoon.

It will probably take several weeks to determine the motive behind the crash, but witnesses say the man who was responsible for the deaths, including his own, acted deliberately.

Police say a 39-year-old man was driving a grey minivan with his 4-year-old son riding inside. The man was seen by witnesses driving erratically on Highway 165 southbound just before the accident occurred about 1:50 p.m. The minivan crashed into a Honda Civic, driving in the same direction, and rammed it off the road. The passengers, a man and a boy, were declared dead in a hospital soon afterward, while two other passengers were sent to a hospital with serious injuries.

It’s believed the man then got into a dark-coloured Dodge Dakota pickup truck that was being driven by his former common-law wife, who arrived on the scene of the accident several minutes later. He drove south with his son for another four kilometres to the town of St. Ferdinand, where he rammed into another pickup truck, a grey Chevrolet Silverado, which was towing a trailer and a boat.

In that accident, the driver of the pickup truck and his son were killed. The passengers of the Silverado were sent to a hospital to be treated for shock

   this was listed as breaking News

Can Mayor Tremblay clean things up? Don't bet on it

                    MONTREAL – This has been a discouraging week for Montreal. We've been presented with five – count 'em, five – different troubling insights into city hall's behaviour. It's hard to keep track of these revelations because of their sheer abundance. So let's review.

1. In 2008, the city awarded contracts for a new telecommunications network, most of which was to be done by Telus Québec. That company's unusually low bid meant that contracts totalled only $108 million, an anticipated savings of $50 million. The city's Auditor-General Jacques Bergeron now indicates, however, that taxpayers can kiss that money goodbye. "Serious indications of irregularities" exist in the awarding of the contracts, he wrote in a report. They're so serious that he's notified the police.

2. The city's new No. 1 civil servant, director-general Louis Roquet, sent a copy of the auditor-general's report to Telus before it had been made public, despite the fact that the report was stamped confidential. (Reports by auditors-general at every level of government are, like budgets, supposed to be secret until publication.) As it happens, Roquet is also the board chairman of a company that has been a business partner of Telus.

In a rare display of public outrage, the auditor-general called this "a very grave transgression."

It is hard to tell whether Roquet's disclosure is only a breach of protocol or something more serious, possibly a matter of interference in a police investigation. In any case, Mayor Gérald Tremblay said at a press conference Thursday that Roquet "acted in good faith" and that "he has all of my confidence."

3. The city last year sold for $1.5 million a piece of land in Rivière-des-Prairies that it had bought for $7.7 million 20 years ago and that it had evaluated at $5 million 10 years ago.

The report found that the executive committee, in approving the deal, was not given "relevant information." As well, city council never gave it final approval. The land, to be used a residential development, is the size of 33 Canadian football fields.

4. The same short-circuiting of the city's checks and balances is apparent in the police department's outsourcing of security work to BCIA, a company that had spotty financial credentials. The executive committee, city council and agglomeration council were never consulted about the deal, which lasted from 2006 until Monday. BCIA is now bankrupt.

The auditor-general says police chief Yvan Delorme never insisted on a contract with BCIA, only an oral agreement. La Presse has reported that the company's head, Luigi Coretti, twice hosted Delorme at restaurant lunches in 2005 before the latter became chief. (This is the same businessman whose favours to Tony Tomassi led to the latter's ouster from the Quebec Liberal caucus.)

La Presse reports that BCIA provided surveillance of the home of former executive-committee chairman Frank Zampino free of charge. La Presse has estimated the value at more than $50,000.

As with the Telus affair, then, unseemly ties appear to exist between city officials and suppliers.

5. The auditor-general found that seven boroughs awarded the lion's share of capital-works projects to a small number of firms. The most extreme cases were Anjou, where all five contracts (totalling $6 million) went to a company owned by Tony Accurso, and Verdun, where all 21 contracts (worth $23 million) were awarded to a company owned by Paolo Catania. The auditor-general found this "perplexing."

So, what can we conclude from these five situations?

First, let's note that all but one - the Roquet leak to Telus - occurred before last fall's election. They thus predate the mayor's third mandate - a mandate that he says will focus on combatting sleaze.

Second, let's also acknowledge that none of the five cases really qualifies as a scandal. We have no evidence of outright corruption. The auditor-general's cautious term - perplexing - is the mot juste.

Still, the pattern is dismaying. Tremblay has said Roquet, who took the top job Jan. 1, is the key guy in achieving reform. The central step in any reform would be to chop the cozy ties between officials and contractors, and Roquet's rapport with Telus makes him look likepart of the problem. What's more, Tremblay's absolution of that rapport does nothing to raise hopes the mayor is serious about ending such ties.

At Thursday's press conference, the mayor also defended Delorme because the chief has assured him he has "no link of any kind to BCIA."

As well, Tremblay expressed no concern over the lopsided nature of boroughs' awarding of contracts. Not even a tsk-tsk.

On the basis of his performance this week, Tremblay's aptitude for draining the megacity's fetid swamp hardly seems promising.

           Ahhhhh All is right with the Universe ,when politicians show their true colours,the Commander N Thief ,will get his share........Bet On It !!           HF&RV

Point Saint Charles

                  Some of you had beginnings in the Point as well as Verdun, and here is another Point St Charles site I just came across this morning ( at least I can't recall seeing it before) it is not the same as George McCraes great Pont site wjich can be found in our links section,but it is worth having alook at .IMHO

http://point-st-charles.ca/

Old Stone House

Here is an article written by Rohinton Ghandi on the Old Stone House for the Local newspaper The Suburban wich I think VC members will enjoy reading. Of course he is referring to the Maison Nivard de Saint Dizier of wich I have spoken about many times and wich was built in 1710 and is one of the oldest houses in Montreal and wich was completely renovated at a cost of one and a quarter million dollars and will be open as a museum possibly this fall:

CLICK ON TEXT TO ENLARGE

Guy

Goodbye Broadway, Hello Montreal

http://artdecomontreal.com/congress/music/en/    You can listen to some of the music on this link to Art Deco Montreal........................   HF&RV

• Coming Up
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Music

Music will play an important role in the Congress as it did in the Art Deco era. Montreal was a mecca for jazz musicians who played in the many night clubs, now only a memory. Andrew Homzy, Professor of Music at Concordia University, has put together a selection of music, some with his original arrangements that will attempt to re-create the ambiance of the era. Here are some of the songs including the theme song, Hello Montreal,

——————————————————-

Credits for these performances:

Patti Payne and The Boys From Murray’s.
Researched, arranged and produced by Andrew Homzy
Patti Payne - vocals
Peter Purich - violin
Denis Chang - guitar
Dominic Desjardins - banjo
Paul Van Dyk - contrebasse
Recorded at Boutique de son, Pointe Claire
George Doxas - recording engineer

——————————————————-

One of the things that gave Montreal its old sparkle was the fact that you could get a drink there when the States was dry. Montreal was the largest wet city on the East Coast during Prohibition (1920 to 1933). In 1928, the Irving Berlin Co. published a song that summed up the feelings of parched Americanos in search of a good time.

Ingersoll was the name of a line of inexpensive pocket watches which were known as highly reliable, even though they only cost a dollar.

Phosphate drinks were sort of like the French “diabolo”, i.e. a flavoured syrup mixed with fizzy water, what today we would call a soft drink.

 

(sh) Speak easy, (sh) Speak easy,
Said Johnny Brown; I’m gonna leave this town, Ev’rything is closing down.
(sh) Speak easy, (sh) Speak easy,
And tell the bunch: I won’t go East, won’t go West, Got a diff’rent hunch:
I’ll be leaving in the summer, And I won’t come back till fall,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
With a stein upon the table, I’ll be laughing at you all,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal. I’m on my way, I’m on my way,
And I’ll make whoop-whoop whoopee night and day.
Anytime my wifey wants me,
You can tell her where to call,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
Yamo, yamo, I think I want a drink; Yamo, yamo, there’s water in the sink.
The sink, the sink, the sink, the sink, the sink;
The good old rusty sink;
But who the heck wants water when you’re dying for a drink?
Oh, “We Won’t Get Home Till Morning” Is the best song after all,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
There’ll be no more Orange Phosphates,
You can bet your Ingersoll,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
That old tin pail, that old tin pail,
Was never meant to carry ginger ale.
There’ll be photographs of brew’ries
All around my bedroom wall,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
(sh) Speak easy, (sh) Speak easy,
Asked Tommy Gray; I must know right away,
Are the gals up there okay?
(sh) Speak easy, (sh) Speak easy,
Said Johnny Brown;
You ain’t been hugged, ain’t been kissed,
Till you’ve hit that town:

Goodbye Broadway, Hello Montreal

http://artdecomontreal.com/congress/music/en/    You can listen to some of the music on this link to Art Deco Montreal........................   HF&RV

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Music

Music will play an important role in the Congress as it did in the Art Deco era. Montreal was a mecca for jazz musicians who played in the many night clubs, now only a memory. Andrew Homzy, Professor of Music at Concordia University, has put together a selection of music, some with his original arrangements that will attempt to re-create the ambiance of the era. Here are some of the songs including the theme song, Hello Montreal,

——————————————————-

Credits for these performances:

Patti Payne and The Boys From Murray’s.
Researched, arranged and produced by Andrew Homzy
Patti Payne - vocals
Peter Purich - violin
Denis Chang - guitar
Dominic Desjardins - banjo
Paul Van Dyk - contrebasse
Recorded at Boutique de son, Pointe Claire
George Doxas - recording engineer

——————————————————-

One of the things that gave Montreal its old sparkle was the fact that you could get a drink there when the States was dry. Montreal was the largest wet city on the East Coast during Prohibition (1920 to 1933). In 1928, the Irving Berlin Co. published a song that summed up the feelings of parched Americanos in search of a good time.

Ingersoll was the name of a line of inexpensive pocket watches which were known as highly reliable, even though they only cost a dollar.

Phosphate drinks were sort of like the French “diabolo”, i.e. a flavoured syrup mixed with fizzy water, what today we would call a soft drink.

 

(sh) Speak easy, (sh) Speak easy,
Said Johnny Brown; I’m gonna leave this town, Ev’rything is closing down.
(sh) Speak easy, (sh) Speak easy,
And tell the bunch: I won’t go East, won’t go West, Got a diff’rent hunch:
I’ll be leaving in the summer, And I won’t come back till fall,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
With a stein upon the table, I’ll be laughing at you all,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal. I’m on my way, I’m on my way,
And I’ll make whoop-whoop whoopee night and day.
Anytime my wifey wants me,
You can tell her where to call,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
Yamo, yamo, I think I want a drink; Yamo, yamo, there’s water in the sink.
The sink, the sink, the sink, the sink, the sink;
The good old rusty sink;
But who the heck wants water when you’re dying for a drink?
Oh, “We Won’t Get Home Till Morning” Is the best song after all,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
There’ll be no more Orange Phosphates,
You can bet your Ingersoll,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
That old tin pail, that old tin pail,
Was never meant to carry ginger ale.
There’ll be photographs of brew’ries
All around my bedroom wall,
Goodbye Broadway, hello Montreal.
(sh) Speak easy, (sh) Speak easy,
Asked Tommy Gray; I must know right away,
Are the gals up there okay?
(sh) Speak easy, (sh) Speak easy,
Said Johnny Brown;
You ain’t been hugged, ain’t been kissed,
Till you’ve hit that town:

Colourful Montreal

Montreal always had colour both in it's people & surroundings...the blue-est skies , the real lush green lawns & trees ,this painting of fall in Montreal is an example:

 

 

 

 

 

 

--painting by Carole Spandau

Check the Trunk of Your Cars Please (MUC Police) need help

                            "Alleged Mob Boss" , howcome it's never Pizza Chef disappears,or Cheese magnate missing.....Nope always 'alleged' these guys have more film being developed on them than the Paparazi do with celebs.I would think the cops have more film on this guy ,than there is 'film' on the Gulf of Mexico these days.....                        MONTREAL – Reputed mob boss Paolo Renda, the brother-in-law of reputed Montreal Mafia don Vito Rizzuto, appears to have been abducted and police are asking for the public’s help in finding him.

Renda was reported missing by his wife, Rizzuto's sister, Thursday afternoon and his luxury vehicle was found on Gouin Blvd. W. not far from his home in the Cartierville area.

The windows were open and the key was still in the ignition.

The 70-year-old Renda was paroled in February after reaching the two-thirds mark of a two-year prison term he received in October 2008 for a conviction related to Project Colisée, a major investigation into organized crime in Montreal.

Renda pleaded guilty to possession of the proceeds of crime and to a related charge of participation in a criminal organization.

The apparent abduction is the latest blow to the Rizzutos, with Vito in prison in the United States on racketeering charges and the broad daylight assassination of his eldest son Nick Rizzuto Jr. in December.

Renda, was last seen at 3:15 p.m. yesterday, Montreal police Const. Yannick Ouimet said.

Renda's wife contacted police about 6 p.m. to report her husband missing.

Considered to be one of the highest ranking members of the Rizzuto organization, Renda saw the National Parole Board take the unusual step of modifying his release conditions just as he was preparing to leave a federal penitentiary. The parole board received information, from Correctional Service Canada, that there were concerns Renda might seek revenge for the December murder of his nephew, Nick Rizzuto Jr.

Renda's release conditions had already been set when the parole board received the information, but commissioners took the very unusual step of adding more conditions just as Renda reached this statutory release date.

While he was being investigated in Project Colisee, Renda unwittingly provided investigators with the clearest evidence of how the Rizzuto organization was operating in the absence of its charasmatic leader, Vito Rizzuto, who had been extradited to the U.S. in a racketeering case.

Renda was secretly recorded during a conversation he had with an mafioso from Italy. The mafioso did not agree with how things were being run. Renda explained that a type of four-man committee had talen over the leadership. Renda also identified himself as being part of that committee. The mafioso from Italy responded that the traditional way is to have one person in charge.

Renda is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, and he weighs 170 pounds. He has gray hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing navy blue pants and a striped polo-style shirt.

Anyone with information about Renda's disappearance is asked to call Info-Crime at 514-393-1133.

Also this morning, Renda’s father-in-law, Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., is due in court to answer to a five-year-old impaired driving charge

.......Hey this last sentance is disturbing ,whats a 'five-year-old' doing drinking anyway,nevermind driving........  Cheerss ! HF&RV

Well I think We always knew that.

                 However it would be nice to finally rid the clownish caricatures ala P.Marois & her clan

LaBelle Province could make great strides in recovery from it's darker days of the 70's.but if it wasn't for overactive real-estate markets,the long slow decline in the provinces fortunes would still be happenning. Let's hope it makes a complete recovery & goes on to treat all it's residents equally,as the article says,it's separatist thoughts are archaic & only serves to hurt ,rather than grow,with the rest of a great country.

heres' todays Gazette story

A new poll shows that 30 years after the first Quebec sovereignty referendum, and 15 years after the second, most Quebecers consider the debate over whether the province should separate from Canada no longer relevant.

The survey conducted last month found that 58 per cent of a representative sample of Quebecers think the issue is as good as settled with only 26 per cent saying it is now more relevant. Only 14 per cent said they believe that Quebec will become an independent country within 30 years.

However, that doesn’t mean that Quebecers have come to embrace Canadian federalism. A majority of 56 per cent believe that Quebec typically comes up short in federal-provincial disagreements, and while 47 per cent agreed there are fewer reasons for Quebec to separate than there were 30 years ago, 41 per cent said there are as many if not more.

As well, support for sovereignty among Quebecers continues to hover around 40 per cent, the same level of support registered in the referendum held on May 20, 1980. The second referendum, in October, 1995, was more of a squeaker with 49.4 per cent voting yet and 50.6 per cent no to the sovereignty proposal put by the Parti Québécois government of the day.

The survey was conducted by the Montreal-based CROP polling firm for The Federal Idea, a new Quebec think tank founded last year to advance the study of federalism in Canada and other parts of the world.

“It doesn’t translate into greater enthusiasm for federalism,” said the group’s spokesperson, André Pratte, chief editorialist for La Presse. “It shows that even if they might think that the debate is old hat, people are still critical of the federal system.”

He said that while most people have given up on sovereignty, most still hold to sovereignist attitudes. “They may not be ready to vote for independence, but their view of the country largely corresponds to the sovereignist view. If there was a new federal-provincial crisis the debate would come back very readily.”

A majority of respondents, 57 per cent, were also of the opinion that French in Quebec is less secure than it was 30 years ago with only 15 per cent saying it is more secure. Another 21 per cent who ventured an opinion said its status is much the same as it was.

Pollster Alain Giguère said the perceived threat to French today is not from English Canadians, but rather the growing predominance of English the world over. “It’s not the English of the Plains of Abraham any more. It’s the English that’s become the Esperanto of the 21st century.”

Giguère said the most telling finding as far as he is concerned is that Quebecers increasingly don’t identify with constitutional options as much as they did. Asked if they were federalist or sovereignist, 22 per cent said federalist and 24 per cent sovereignist. However, 22 per cent said they were partly both and 25 per cent declared themselves to be neither.

He said it indicates that Quebecers in general have become less interested in politics, a finding that jibes with other recent polls that suggest Quebecers have grown cynical towards politics and politicians.

“This is quite new from a socio-political point of view. The political scene doesn’t rouse the level of passion we’ve seen in the past. People are more focused on careers, families and their personal lives.

Real Estate in Verdun/Point St. Charles/N.D.G

If you were sending a friend to live on "the Island", where would you suggest they buy a place to live? It needs to have easy access to McGill, yet be affordable for middle to low income families. An english population would be desirable as well.

30 Years ago today

Mount St. Helens
	The president and congress made the 110,000 acre monument for research, recreation, and education after it erupted. The mountain was 9,677 feet before the eruption and 8,364 feet afterward. The base of the volcano is six miles. Mount St. Helens is forty thousand years old, which is young for a volcano. Now days, the volcano just has a huge amount of steam coming out.
The volcano erupted on May 18, 1980 on a Sunday morning. The eruption lasted about nine hours. It was caused by a 5.1 earthquake underneath the mountain. Ash fell over eastern Washington and areas up to three hundred miles away from the mountain. Some ash became an ash cloud, circled the earth for 15 days, and might stay in the atmosphere for many years. Fifty-seven people were killed by the monstrous volcano.
	The volcano was named after the British diplomat, Alleyne Fitzerbert. Her title was Baron St. Helens. She lived from 1753 to 1839.
To the Pacific Northwest Native Americans the mountain is know as Louwala-Clough or Loo-Wit Lat-kla which means smoking mountain and fire mountain. The Indian legend for Mount St. Helens is that a female spirit called St. Helens tried to make peace between two sons of the great spirit that fought over her. Mount Adam and Mount Hood were the two sons. They through fiery rocks at each other, which made earthquakes. The fight destroyed the Bridge of the gods that crossed the Columbia River.

Australian Teenager Completes Solo Trip

                   Wow what a courageous kid,& obviously skilled too,.Congrats to Jessica Watson ,imagine travelling in such a small craft,around the world by yourself.....

SYDNEY, May 16, 2010 (AFP) - Australian teenager Jessica Watson says that she talked to herself and yearned for land during the seven-month voyage which saw her become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

Watson sailed into Sydney Harbour a national hero on Saturday, with tens of thousands of people gathered to welcome the 16-year-old home from the unassisted journey during which she had battled towering waves and loneliness.

She said the reception, which was led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, was "pretty amazing" after months at sea during which she barely saw another boat, let alone a fellow human being.

Asked whether she had begun to talk to herself because of the solitude, she said: "I’ve always done that. I did notice that towards the end I was probably talking to myself more."

"Everyone seems to think, ’Out there by yourself, ooh spooky, creepy. But it’s not actually like that out on the water," she told Network Ten, adding that there had been some occasions when it was so calm it was eerie.

Watson, who had earlier told reporters she had been craving fresh fruit and a salad after her voyage, revealed she hardly ever slept at night on the boat, preferring to nap during the early hours of the morning.

And she said it was the rocking of the waves, as much as the physical efforts of sailing, which wore on her during the 23,000-nautical mile voyage.

"Just the constant motion, it just gets you after a while. Especially after a rough week," she said in the first of several carefully arranged media interviews recorded shortly after her arrival.

"All you want to do is just walk around a room, or lie down, do anything without clinging on, holding on the whole time."

The teenager, who had been criticised before her departure as too young and inexperienced for the perilous journey after she crashed into a freighter in a trial run, also admitted to doubts about the voyage.

"For a while there it was driving me mad because I hadn’t actually done any solo sailing and there I was telling the world I was about to sail solo, non-stop, unassisted around the world," she said.

"I knew I could do it but it was just that niggling doubt."

Watson was Sunday keeping a low profile, resting at a Sydney hotel with her nearest and dearest and enjoying her first sleep-in in several months, while the media hailed her a hero.

"You little beauty," read The Sunday Telegraph’s front-page headline, adding that the petite Watson had "sailed into our harbour and into our hearts yesterday."

The Sun-Herald also praised the plucky Queenslander, saying the nation was riding a "wave of inspiration" after she brought her 10-metre (33-foot) bright pink yacht safely home after 210 days at sea.

Watson’s manager Andrew Fraser said the world had now changed for Watson, who turns 17 on Tuesday and who has said she wants to finish school and learn how to drive a car.

"She’s going to be very busy... she knows that, but for now she’s looking forward to it," he said.

The schoolgirl will spend the next couple of months completing a book about the voyage, to be called "True Spirit," and a television documentary.

On her return on Saturday, Prime Minister Rudd, who was waiting at the Opera House, praised her as "our newest Australian hero."

"At 16 years old, you are a hero for all young Australians, you are also a hero for all young Australian women, you do our nation proud. This is a great day for our country," Rudd said.

Still a little shaky on her feet after so long at sea, Watson disagreed.

"I don’t consider myself a hero, I’m an ordinary girl," she told the welcoming crowd.

"You don’t have to be someone special to achieve something amazing, you’ve just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard. I’d like to think I’ve proved that anything really is possible if you set your mind to it."

                                       Well done kid,............ HF&RV

LaRonde Season Starts,.....Summer.Fun

                           All the kids in Montreal would be happy,I guess LaRonde season started Saturday.......it's their Belmont Park so memories will be made for a new generation of kids,..

MONTREAL - The season for stomach-churning, upside-down twisting and turning in Montreal arrived Saturday when Six-Flags owned, amusement park La Ronde opened its doors.

To mark the official launch and to "show solidarity with Haiti," La Ronde invited a dozen or so recently-adopted Haitian children to the opening, according to a press release.

The amusement park also debuts a new thrill Saturday with Ednör L'attaque, a suspending looping rollercoaster, located near the Lac des Dauphins.

For more information visit La Ronde's website

                       "Would you go.....or are we all too old for that.......(I'd go)......HF&RV

Mount Royal Roads will soon be the Road Less Traveled ( & Les Traveled)

After reading this Gazette story & hearing that old Lunatic Drapeau had envisioned criss crossing the Mountain with highways,then I have to think that aside from Expo67 being a rousing success by all accounts ,then everything else he touched was moronic and came from a power hungry nutbar, He eradicated many areas of Montreal both French community's & English (Goose Village) all due to him not wanting to show the world that we too have lower income & industrial areas......Thank G ,he didn't get to ruin the Mountain too, Every other project he touched had huge cost overuns,like the Big O(we)

......Anyway on to the story:

Cars were cautiously introduced on Mount Royal in the 1930s. Years later, Mayor Jean Drapeau envisaged a network of highways criss-crossing the mountain, a dream that was not realized, though a through roadway was built.

This month, the city will take its first step toward trying to tame the automobile, by making it safer and easier for bicyclists and pedestrians to enjoy Mount Royal - and harder for motorists to use it as a cross-town shortcut.

That's not good enough for some opposition city councillors, who want much more of Mount Royal turned into a no-go zone for cars.

About 10,000 vehicles cross the mountain daily, most of that through traffic that has nothing to do with lookout views or green space.

Remembrance Rd. runs between Côte des Neiges Rd. and the Smith House on Mount Royal. There, Remembrance becomes Camillien Houde Way, which continues to Mount Royal Blvd. in the Outremont borough.

In the coming weeks, the city is to close the southern part of Remembrance (which runs east) to cars. By summer, only cyclists and pedestrians will be able to use the section of southern Remembrance between Beaver Lake and Camillien Houde. The northern portion of Remembrance, now one-way westward for its entire length, will become two-way (one lane in each direction) between Beaver Lake and Camillien Houde.

Between Camillien Houde and Mount Royal Blvd., cyclists will continue to share the road with cars. That strip is to be made safer for cyclists in the coming years, the city says.

The new configuration of Remembrance will "make it easier for users of the mountain to access it, and will reduce the number of cars using the road simply to go from one end of the city to the other," Manon Barbe, the city executive committee member responsible for transportation, said in an interview.

Through traffic will be discouraged by the reduction to one lane in each direction of much of Remembrance. "Drivers behind a bus that has to stop to drop off or pick up passengers will have to wait. They won't be able to pass."

The idea is to encourage motorists to use alternative crosstown routes, like Pine Ave. or Côte Ste. Catherine Rd.

In addition, the city will make it safer for pedestrians by building new crosswalks on Remembrance, Barbe said.

"It's currently asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, and people have to walk on roads and they have to cross with nothing there to make it safe."

The new pedestrian/cyclist path and crosswalks on Remembrance are to cost $5.2 million, part of a $25-million project that includes removal of the 50-year-old interchange at Remembrance and Côte des Neiges. The intersection, due in 2012, is to be rebuilt at ground level, similar to the new one at Park and Pine Aves.

The opposition Projet Montréal party has applauded the partial closing of Remembrance to cars, but it wants the city to go much farther.

Luc Ferrandez of Projet Montréal, mayor of the neighbouring Plateau Mont Royal borough, says closing part of Remembrance will not reduce through traffic, in part because that road and Camillien Houde will remain attractive to motorists, as they form a long stretch of road without street lights in the city centre.

He has said the city should, among other things, consider closing Camillien Houde completely to car traffic and turning the 450-spot parking lot at the Smith House into a garden.

"It's an excellent idea to get cars off Mount Royal and make it a people place rather than a big parking lot," said Alex Norris, a Projet Montréal councillor in the Plateau.

Barbe said closing more of the mountain to cars is unrealistic. "The mountain belongs to all Montrealers," she said. "We want the roads to be shared so the biggest number possible of Montrealers can enjoy this magnificent site."

Car access is needed for tourists, as well as for locals who want to zip up to a lookout to take in the view, she said. "If you're coming from a restaurant, it's nicer and more practical to get to the lookout in your personal car, spend 15 minutes on the mountain and then leave to do something else."

The work on Remembrance is in addition to a $7.5-million, 10-kilometre car-free route for pedestrians and cyclists that the city is building around Mount Royal. Four to five metres wide and incorporating parts of the existing Olmsted Rd., the gravel path is to wind all the way around the mountain and encircle all three Mount Royal peaks, as well as the cemetery grounds.

That project is to be completed over the next two or three summers, the city says.

ariga@thegazette.canwest.com

METROPOLITAN NEWS

For images of the new carless Remembrance Rd., info about the history of cars on Mount Royal and a look at Projet Montréal's proposal

 

                                                                                      HF&RV          Cheers !!

 

 

Hmmmmmmm Could this work ?

Hi All,

Here's a solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners at the airports.

Have a booth that passengers must step into that will not X-ray you, but will simply detonate any explosive device you may have on you!

It would be a win-win for everyone and there would be none of this nonsense about racial profiling. This method would also eliminate a long and expensive trial. Justice would be immediate and final.

Case closed! This is so simple, it's brilliant.

I can see it now. You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter, an announcement comes over the PA system. "Attention standby passengers, we now have a seat available on flight number. . . . .. "

Check Point Explosion Great Idea

  Now this is a Great IDEA for sure,a pinpoint dedicated explosion. You want to be a Terrorist,then start buying your tickets,cause we couldn't have enough flights......hahahahah  One of  Our Old  Members Emailed me this ,& it's hilarious & Would work too.                                What a great idea !!

Hi All,

Here's a solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners at the airports.

Have a booth that passengers must step into that will not X-ray you, but will simply detonate any explosive device you may have on you!

It would be a win-win for everyone and there would be none of this nonsense about racial profiling. This method would also eliminate a long and expensive trial.  Justice would be immediate and final.

Case closed! This is so simple, it's brilliant.

I can see it now. You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter, an announcement comes over the PA system. "Attention standby passengers, we now have a seat available on flight number. . . . .. "