all pics

Friday, September 18, 2009

Best of Montreal 2009 according to Montreal Mirror

Montrealers

Montrealer Closest
to Sainthood

1. Father Emmett “Pops” Johns
2. Leonard Cohen
3. Current Habs (Saku Koivu, Alexei Kovalev,Bob Gainey)
4. Celine Dion
5. Brother André
6. Guy Carbonneau
7. William Shatner
8. Pierre Elliot Trudeau
9. Justin Trudeau
10. Maurice Richard
Honourable mentions: Jean Béliveau • Guy Laliberté • Guy Lafleur

The founder of Dans la Rue and the legendary singer-songwriter retain their perennial top spots. Current Habs did well, as the BOM voting took place before the team choked, while ex-Hab Guy Carbonneau still has his supporters. Perhaps because an English greatest hits set has rekindled some fandom, or maybe because she hopes to buy the Habs and improve them, Dion moves up to #4 from #10.


MOST DESIRABLE WOMAN
#1, BEST LOCAL BLOG #10: Nadia G

Montrealer Closest to Hell

1. Gérald Tremblay
2. Bob Gainey
3. Celine Dion
4. Ben Mulroney
5. Frank Zampino
6. Brian Mulroney
7. Carey Price
8. Jean Charest
9. Karla Homolka
10. Mosé Persico
Honourable mentions: Mary Hell • Pauline Marois • Vincent Lacroix

For the fourth consecutive year, our mayor is #1! Gainey (#2), having helmed the Habs’ sad centennial season, makes this list for the first time, as does municipal-politician-turned-businessman Frank Zampino (#5), who recently joined the ranks of the unemployed in the wake of a public water meter scandal.

Most Desirable Man

1. Justin Trudeau
2. Leonard Cohen
3. Roy Dupuis
4. Alexei Kovalev
5. Sam Roberts
6. Carey Price
7. Jonas
8. Nathan Cassiani
9. Saku Koivu
10. William Shatner
Honourable mentions: Gabriel Aubry • Mike Komisarek • Jay Baruchel

Trudeau (#1) trades places with last year’s winner Cohen, while Dupuis and Kovalev hold down third and fourth and Roberts moves up a notch. The Shat is back and Koivu makes his first appearance in this category, while Jonas and Price rise up from mere Honourable mentions. Concordia organizer and activist Cassiani moves down three notches, desite his stellar musical taste (his Facebook page is public, FYI).

Most Desirable Woman 1. Elisha Cuthbert
2. Mitsou
3. Nadia G
4. Mutsumi Takahashi
5. Celine Dion
6. Amy Blackmore
7. Karine Vanasse
8. Isabelle Desjardins
9. Caroline Néron
10. Melissa Auf der Maur
Honourable mentions: Annie DeMelt • Jessica Paré • Emmanuelle Chiriqui

The top two reigning queens remain, but Nadia G of Bitchin’ Kitchen fame has arrived to bump everyone’s favourite lady newsreader down to #4. MusiquePlus’s Desjardins debuts at #8, and actress Néron returns to the list after last year’s absence, possibly on the strength of her starring role in 3 Saisons. Multitasking stage star Blackmore is up by three and actress Vanasse makes the top 10 for the first time.

Best-dressed Montrealer

1. Leonard Cohen
2. Rufus Wainwright
3. Guy Carbonneau
4. Justin Trudeau
5. Philippe Dubuc
6. Daniel Phalen from Cafeteria
7. Mado
8. Celine Dion
9. Cary Tauben
10. Keith Dean
Honourable mentions: Todd van der Hayden • Pierre Lapointe • Plastik Patrik

Money, media stature and good taste are clearly not required to win over Montrealers when it comes to style. This list includes singer-songwriters, a hockey coach, a politician, a waiter (#6), drag queens (#7 and arguably #8), a designer (#5), a bizarre self-proclaimed fashion personality and partygoer (#9) and DJs (#10).

Best Sports Personality

1. Alexei Kovalev
2. Saku Koivu
3. P.J. Stock
4. Carey Price


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5. Bob Gainey
6. Maxim Lapierre
7. Georges St-Pierre
8. Guy Carbonneau
9. Mitch Melnick
10. Randy Tieman
Honourable mentions: Georges Laraque
• Jacques Demers • Alexandre Despatie

Possibly due to votes cast before the Habs hit the wall, the top two spots remain unchanged from ’08. Gainey (#5) is up one and Lapierre debuts at #6, though Price (#4) and Carbonneau (#8) have dropped one and four, respectively. Also on the descent is TV personality Tieman (#10), while radio guy Stock (#3) continues his peculiar rise to the top. Melnick makes the move from honourable mention, while champion mixed martial artist St-Pierre rises by two.

Tackiest Personality

1. Mosé Persico
2. Ben Mulroney
3. Celine Dion
4. Andrew Carter
5. Mado
6. Cary Tauben
7. P.J. Stock
8. Frank Cavallaro
9. Gérald Tremblay
10. Anne-Marie Losique
Honourable mentions: Michelle Richard • Java Joel • Julie Snyder

The city’s top three of tacky remain the same, while CJAD’s Carter (#4) somehow overtakes Mado (#5). The Team 990’s Stock (#7) makes an impressive debut, while fashionisto Tauben is down one and our mayor moves up a notch—his approval rating could use such a boost.

Best Montreal Weirdo

1. Hollywood the Banana Man
2. Spider-Man
3. Spoonman
4. Maysr
5. Tricycle biker
6. Cary Tauben
7. Nantha Kumar
8. Dane Gerus
9. P.J. Stock
10. René Angélil

Honourable mentions: Bernie from Dollar Cinema • Gérald Tremblay • Ben Mulroney

We Montrealers like our homeless, our buskers and other oddballs-about-town with a side of fruit (#1), spidey sense (#2), a set of spoons (#3), dread and decks (#4), a child’s ride (#5), an ego problem (#6), a restaurant (#7), a blog (#8), a sport radio show (#9) and a billion dollars (#10).


BEST DRESSED MONTREALER #2,
BEST SINGER/SONGWRITER #8:
Rufus Wainwright

Best Politician

1. None
2. Justin Trudeau
3. Amir Khadir
4. Gérald Tremblay
5. Thomas Mulcair
6. Jean Charest
7. Gilles Duceppe
8. Peter McQueen
9. Pierre Trudeau
10. Stéphane Dion
Honourable mentions: Mario Dumont • Boris St-Maurice • Marc Garneau

After last fall’s win in Papineau, now-MP Trudeau (#2) moves up a notch, as does his dad (#9), despite having done nothing for us lately. The Bloc chief (#7) rockets up from honourable mentions and victorious Québec Solidaire co-leader Khadir (#3) shoots up from #8, while our premier (#6) plummets four spots and NDG’s provincial Green candidate McQueen is down one. As for Dion and Dumont, we’re guessing their BOM supporters voted ironically.

Best Political/Social cause

1. Environment
2. Dans la Rue
3. Homelessness
4. Breast cancer
5. Animal rights
6. Health care
7. Education
8. Arts funding
9. AIDS
10. Bloc Pot
Honourable mentions: Anglo rights • global warming • anti-police-brutality

Mother Earth is closest to our readers’ hearts, as is the plight of people living on the streets, just ahead of our furry friends, our aging, diseased bodies (#4, #6, #9), building up our brains (#7), expanding them (#10) and, new to the category thanks to Harper’s Conservatives, keeping our artists afloat (#8).

Loudest Activist

1. Jaggi Singh
2. Amir Khadir
3. Fidel Fuentes
4. Nora Rohman
5. Students
6. Alison Louder
7. Anti-police-brutality protesters
8. Chris Schwartz
9. Father Emmett “Pops” Johns
10. Lucas Solowey
Honourable mentions: Nisha Toomey • Reverend Darryl Gray • Stefan Christoff

Singh’s the king once again, with lefty MNA Khadir close behind and the NDP’s Fuentes rising in the ranks. We welcome queer organizer Rohman to the activist scene, as well as Pops—the man himself is relatively under the radar, but his street-kid organization, Dans la Rue, always keeps the bullhorn handy. Supporters of exiled Tibetans (Schwartz) and Burmese (Toomey) make the cut too, while Louder, though more artist than activist, sticks in Montrealers’ minds due to her work on the Parc Avenue issue in ’07, and that awesome surname.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Changes to the Main.........well Maybe

Just waiting for the final enveloppes stuffed with brownies,to land on the right desks,before a final OK is given to expropriate some buildings to make way for a new complex or something.......   Lower Main actually which ,if I remmeber correctly was in sad shape way back in the 70's ?? 

MONTREAL – The city’s executive committee is expected to decide on the next steps for the $160-million lower Main redevelopment project Thursday, André Lavallée said Wednesday.

He specifically refused to confirm or deny whether expropriation orders, and how many, are among the steps planned.

Lavallée – the member of the executive committee responsible for urban development – is the city’s point man on the project, which is meant to help revitalize Montreal’s old red-light district along St. Laurent Blvd., between Ste. Catherine St. and René Lévesque Blvd.

Members of the top city committee met to discuss the project Wednesday, he said in a brief interview, “but we are waiting for answers to some questions.”

“We are also waiting for some information from the Quebec Ministry of Culture.”

In early August, the Office de consultation publique de Montréal issued a report suggesting that some elements of the project be reconsidered.

The plans as submitted for the consultation hearings would require the demolition of eight buildings, including several neo-Roman greystones built between 1890 and 1930.

janr@thegazette.canwest.com

Irish Immigration in the 1800s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grosse_Isle,_Quebec

Bye Bye Murray's

Some of Our members will feel some nostalgia ,for this story,.Murray's Restaurant is closing for good........  (even my Mom worked there a long time ago,) Oh Well time march's on,perhaps it can be replaced by a nice McDumpy's or something equally as tasteful(or tasteless)

                                

........maybe they can tear it down & make something usefull out of it..............lol

Please share your Murray’s memories in the box at the end of the story.

MONTREAL - Although many had been hoping for a comeback, it appears the city’s last Murray’s Restaurant, in Town of Mount Royal, will not reopen.

Facing bankruptcy, owners of the landmark restaurant in the Lucerne Shopping Mall have applied to a Quebec court for creditor protection.

Among the creditors are TD Canada Trust and First Capital Realty, the corporation that owns the strip mall where the restaurant is located.

“There will be no reopening of Murray’s,” said Mike Ouellette, a Montreal accountant representing Mounir Yassa and his wife, Alice, the restaurant’s owners since in 2007.

Since the restaurant closed at the end of July, Ouellette said, there has been interest from two potential buyers.

But, he added,“it didn’t work out.”

“It’s very unfortunate,” said Louis Voizard, a vice-president with First Capital Realty, one of the restaurant's creditors.

“It was a popular restaurant for many years."

Voizard said the restaurant owes First Capital $36,141 for “rent-related items.”

TD Canada Trust, a second creditor, is owed $211,422, according to court documents.

This summer, Mounir Yassa said, he was well aware of the restaurant’s storied past and, for that reason, he had tried to keep it afloat.

But it was a losing venture that was costing him between $8,000 and $12,000 a month, he said.

After the Murray's restaurant on Sherbrooke St. W. in Westmount closed in 1999, the Murray's eatery in T.M.R. became the last one standing in the city.

The chain, which got its start in the 1920s, once served diners in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.

ccornacchia@thegazette.canwest.com

Tell us your Murray's restaurant stories using the comment box below or send us your photo memories by clicking this link.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Hogg Family were very active in commerce

A little article from a couple of years back re: Hogg Family ,....originally from the Westmount Examiner

From milk to mallets: lecture traces Hogg family history

By Caroline Breslaw and Grace Hogg

Article online since October 4th 2007, 8:26
Comment on this article

From milk to mallets: lecture traces Hogg family history
Grace Hogg with son Cameron Hogg Tisshaw
From milk to mallets: lecture traces Hogg family history
By Caroline Breslaw and Grace Hogg
Their name is familiar to most Westmounters as proprietors of the neighbourhood hardware store, but as members of the local historical association learned recently, the Hogg family's roots in this community are as old as Westmount itself.
As the first event in the Westmount Historical Association's fall lecture series, Grace Hogg dropped by the Westmount Room of the Public Library on Sept. 20 to discuss her family and share some archival photos.

She began by pointing out that her ancestors left Scotland's Selkirk Valley in the early 19th century along with thousands of other emigrants. Her great, great, great uncle, grain merchant William Kerr, was the first of the family to arrive, settling in Montreal in 1829. He rented the Samuel Gale farm on the eastern edge of the old city limits – near today's Jacques Cartier Bridge. He prospered by selling hay and vegetables to the British army. In 1863, Kerr's niece, Margaret Laidlaw, married fellow Scot Walter Hogg; together they had three children.

In 1888, with the help of Uncle William Kerr, their eldest son, George Hogg,

began a career as a dairy farmer in Longue Pointe, in the city's east end.

In 1901, George and business partner William Trenholme purchased the

fledgling Guaranteed Pure Milk Company. The dairy was one of the first

to pasteurize its milk, gaining it a reputation for safe, reliable products at a time when unhygienic food processing and poor sanitary conditions contributed to a high infant mortality rate.

In addition to being president of the Guaranteed Pure Milk Company, George also operated the Purity Ice Cream Company and served as mayor of Westmount

from 1926 to 1930.

In 1948, George's son, William Hogg, succeeded him as president of the milk and ice cream companies. In turn, William was followed as president by his son, David Hogg. The dairy was sold to Ault Foods Ltd. in 1989.

In 1992, George Alexander Hogg, great grandson of George Hogg, opened

Hogg Hardware at 4833 Sherbrooke St., the site of the former Pascal's. Today, many family members, including George Alexander's bothers, Dave and Al, are involved in the business.

Members of the Hogg family have lived in Westmount for almost 100 years. They moved to the city in 1914, when George Hogg, his wife, Genty Drummond, and family left their Longue Pointe farm for a newly constructed home at 3637 The Boulevard. Four subsequent generations of Hoggs have also made their homes in Westmount. In 1977, as a tribute to his father, William Hogg established the George Hogg Family Foundation, a charitable organization which funds numerous Montreal charities.

During the animated question period, Grace's father, David Hogg, answered questions about the dairy. At the end of the evening, a group photo was taken of the many members of the Hogg family present.

Obituary Clarence Hill

My uncle, Clarence Hill passed away on the 3rd of September at the St Anne's Veterans Hospital.  He grew up in Verdun with his 8 brothers and sisters.  The family home was at 1090 Woodland Ave.  He lived at 1281 Godin in the early sixtys and worked at Canadair and then Brown Boveri.  The following is from the Gazette on Saturday:

Clarence Hill
HILL, Clarence 1917 - 2009 At Ste-Anne de Bellevue Hospital on September 3, 2009, Clarence Hill passed away at the age of ninety-two years. He will be sadly missed by his wife Adele, his daughter Dolores (Pierre), brothers Harold (Helen), James, Thomas (Marie), Norman, sister Florence (Dick), his brother-in-law Philip, with many nieces and nephews. A service will take place on September 14 at 11 a.m in the presence of the urn at Rideau memorial Gardens, 4239 Sources Blvd., D.D.O., 514-685-3344. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Heart and Stroke Foundation would be appreciated.

Below is the url for condolences.

http://www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=5875647953659

Monday, September 14, 2009

Big Milk Bottle getting saved .maybe the Cows are coming back two or (too) ...lol

Montreal's iconic Guaranteed Pure Milk bottle, currently covered in rust and graffiti, is about to get a makeover, thanks to Heritage Montreal and several soon-to-be-announced sponsors.

Scaffolding is going up around the bottle and work is expected to start by the end of the month on cleaning and repainting the structure, Robert Turgeon, chairman of the board at Heritage Montreal, told Metropolitan News. Turgeon said Heritage Montreal expects to announce the cost of the project and the names of sponsors in late September. The work should be completed by the end of October, he said.

On the scaffolding, workers have installed signs that read SauvonsLaPinte.com, which sends people to a Facebook page about the project.

 

From Heritage Montreal's file on the bottle (before it found sponsors to pay for its restoration):

The Guaranteed Pure Milk dairy plant, a remarkable Art Deco building which attests to the presence of the milk industry in the heart of Montreal, was built in 1930. It supports a water tank shaped as a giant riveted steel quart of milk 10 metres tall built by Dominion Bridge of Lachine. The milk bottle is almost a poetic emblem of the downtown area, a naïve architectural element which contrasts with the more monumental features of the neighbourhood.

The Guaranteed Pure Milk dairy plant and its milk bottle bear witness to the past presence of the agro-processing industry right in the heart of the metropolis as well as a reminder of the traditional means of delivering milk.

Shut down in the 1990s and used as a site for shooting TV series, the building faces an even more uncertain future with the arrival of the E-Commerce Place. Promoters would preserve only the façade of the building. What will happen to the milk bottle? Moreover, the bottle is suffering from lack of maintenance; the metal is rusting, and its appearance has been affected.

Héritage Montréal intervened as part of a coalition to request that the E-Commerce Place project pay greater attention to its urban environment, and in a manner less devastating to the site’s heritage. Industrial heritage continues to be a subject of concern by the organisation, which wishes to embark on a specific protection project for the milk bottle.

- Andy Riga

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                     Restoration underway,..............HF&RV