On the Road: Montreal 2026

My wife and I went to Montreal for a few days last week to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  As we did last year, we stayed in Vieux-Montreal (Old Montreal), not far from the Basilica.  Our approach was different this year from previous trips.  All of the sights and restaurants we visited were within walking distance of the hotel - didn't take a subway or a cab anywhere.  And while we did do some sightseeing, we also spent significant time relaxing in either a bar or our room with a World Cup game on.  I suggested it was because we're getting older.  My wife thinks it's more that our relationship with Montreal has changed.  Whichever it is, the change is a pleasant one.  I've long believed the ideal vacation is one where you can feel happy doing things or doing nothing.  Mission accomplished.

A couple of our most enjoyable spots...

Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bons-Secours (Our Lady of Good Help), a sailors' chapel dating back to 1771:

PHI, a multi-building art museum.  In addition to the visual art, we also enjoyed a listening room experience featuring John Coltrane's masterpiece, A Love Supreme.  From Paula Pivi's exhibition, Come check it out. Lies lies lies:

We also visited the Château Ramezay, an old governor's mansion which has become a private museum telling the story of the city's history... from a deeply white perspective.  In fact, when we got home, we told the kid where we'd gone with the "deeply white" description and they knew the place exactly.  They'd gone once on a field trip.  

As an example, I provide the following caption excerpt:

With the same initiative as the merchants, missionaries arrived in Canada with the earliest settlers.  They mastered the native languages and recorded the native traditions that they aimed to modify.  The "Black Robes" settled among the Hurons in 1634 where they strove to integrate the Amerindians into the French and Catholic culture.  Some native groups reacted adversely and several missionaries were martyred.

Word choice matters.  Martyred.  It's pretty obvious who the sympathetic protagonists are in this particular telling of the tale.

Let's be clear.  Indigenous people have always been correct to push back against European encroachment.  The end result was genocide.  As for the Huron mentioned above, two thirds of the population were wiped out by European diseases.  And that was just the beginning.

It's time for a new telling of North American history.  Or rather, the story has been told over and over again.  White people need to start listening more and believing more.

Yes, I know the MAGA fuckers have pushed hard against such "woke" thinking and the effort to bury our nation's darker truths has, unfortunately, been largely successful recently.  But that's all delusional bullshit.

Fact: the nation we call the United States of America was built on genocide - multiple genocides, African and indigenous.  You can "believe" otherwise all you want but it doesn't change reality.  Is it too late to change the past?  Yes.  But it's not too late to build a better future and that starts with acknowledging the harm done, both past AND present.  Canada has done a better job in recent years than we have but as Château Ramezay demonstrates, there's still a lot of work to do - and undo.

My thinking about such matters may have an impact on travels moving forward.  Stay tuned.

Overall, our Montreal visit was very nice.  We'll be back, I'm sure, though our increased comfort and familiarity have me wondering if it's time to explore someplace new.  Ottawa isn't far...

Star Trek: Doctor Bashir, I Presume

Episode: "Doctor Bashir, I Presume"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 16

Original Air Date: February 24, 1997

via Memory Alpha

Robert Picardo guest stars as both Dr. Lewis Zimmerman and the Emergency Medical Hologram he created in his own likeness.  The scientist is designing a new and improved medical hologram and wishes to use the handsome and talented Dr. Bashir as the model.  To do the job, Zimmerman requires intimate knowledge of Julian's psyche, including a deep probe of his past.  To this end, Zimmerman invites our doctor's parents to the station for interviews, against Julian's explicit wishes.  In an accidental slip up, Mom and Dad reveal a dark secret: Julian was illegally genetically enhanced as a young child.

Meanwhile, Zimmerman takes a shine to Leeta, forcing Rom out of his shyness to confess his love for her.  Fortunately, she loves him, too, and DS9's happiest and healthiest romance is finally realized.

I have mixed feelings about the Genetically Enhanced Julian storyline.  In the writers' ongoing need to make the character more interesting, I think they went a bit too far with this one.  He's superhuman?  That doesn't make him more likable.  Contrast his with Rom's arc.  We root like hell for Quark's little brother.  At this point, Rom is one of the strongest recurring characters and for DS9, that's saying quite a lot.  The writers didn't change Rom.  They simply put him in circumstances where he'd best be able to shine.  With Bashir, they try too hard.  And so does Julian.  In my defense, the development came as a late surprise for actor Alexander Siddig and he wasn't too happy about it initially either.

But postgaming the episode with our child brought new perspective for me...

They feel the augmentation plotline has parallels with nonconsensual genital surgeries performed on intersex children.  Julian didn't have a choice in undergoing the procedure.  In fact, he didn't even fully understand what had been done to him until later.  The same is true for infants born with non-conforming genitals.  In both cases, the parents have made what is essentially a cosmetic choice motivated by the long-term well-being of the child.

I think it's hard to fault the parents in either case.  We all want what's best for our kids and will go to great lengths to ensure their well-being.  But where is the limit?  For the Trek universe, there's a legal limit regarding genetic enhancement.  Regarding intersex children, parents have all the power, though the medical establishment certainly has influence in the matter.

It's an interesting question - the sort of question Trek should be encouraging all of us to ponder.

One fun note: Fadwa El Guindi (Amsha Bashir) was not a professional actor at all.  At the time, she was an anthropology professor at UCLA.  A casting agent discovered her at a community theater performance and El Guindi auditioned for Trek on a whim.  The episode is her only on-screen acting credit.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Chase Masterson (Leeta) was born Christianne Carafano in Colorado Springs, February 26, 1963.  She graduated from the University of Texas with a BFA.  She made 17 appearances as Leeta on DS9 plus a voice appearance on Lower Decks.  The television resume also includes guest appearances on General Hospital, Sliders and ER.  Her film Yesterday Was a Lie earned her a Best Feature Film Producer award at the LA Femme Film Festival in 2008.

Squid Eats: Donwoori

As I have written before, I adore Korean food.  Long ago, when I was living in Yokohama, there was a Korean barbecue place in my neighborhood.  I couldn't go as often as I would like because unlike most Japanese restaurants, I had no shot at reading the menu - all kanji (characters), no kana (syllabary).  No pictures on the menu or plastic models in the window.  I had to go with someone who knew what they were doing.  But it was always worth the wait - the sort of place where your clothes would smell like your dinner for the rest of the night, and that was a wonderful thing.

For whatever reason, Korean food hasn't caught on in the US the way Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian or Vietnamese food has.  But now there's a dedicated Korean restaurant in Winooski, Vermont and that is wonderful.

Donwoori has an extensive menu.  We ordered green bean fries and fried oysters to start.  For entrees, I got Korean fried chicken with hot Gochujang sauce.  My wife got stir-fry udon with bulgogi beef.  The kid got curry udon with chicken katsu.  All were satisfying.  It's the sort of place I can imagine ordering something different each visit and being happy.  Service was friendly and decor pleasantly modern.  

Overall, Donwoori is a wonderful addition to Vermont's food scene.  I certainly hope we'll be back.

Star Trek: Darkling

Episode: "Darkling"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 18

Original Air Date: February 19, 1997

via Memory Alpha

In an effort to improve his bedside manner, the Doctor selects famously compassionate historical figures - Byron, Ghandi, Socrates, T'Pau - to incorporate into his programming.  Meanwhile, Kes is falling in love with a trader, Zahir, who offers to take her on grand adventures - away from Voyager.  Unfortunately, the good doctor fails to account for the fact that he would take on his heroes' flaws along with their strengths.  Two separate, competing personalities emerge in a Jekyll and Hyde tale.  The evil one eventually puts both Torres and Kes in grave peril.

Robert Picardo really acts the snot out of this one.  As with Brent Spiner (Data), there is danger in letting Picardo out of the box.  We see a lot of "look at me, I'm meeeeeean" from ol' Bob here.  And I have to admit, I really wanted to watch B'Elanna kick his ass for pawing her.  Perhaps another time...

Kes will be leaving the show soon.  I'll leave discussion of the particulars until the moment arrives but "Darkling" makes me wonder how far ahead of time the creative staff was at least aware of the possibility.  The writers painted themselves into a corner from the beginning with Kes's expected life span and in this episode, she suggests to Janeway for the first time that she may not want to spend the rest of her short life on Voyager.  And just as importantly, Janeway responds quite reasonably.  After all, Kes isn't Starfleet or Maquis.  She's along for the journey by choice and she's certainly earning her keep as the doctor's assistant.  There's no reason she shouldn't be free to go whenever she pleases.

Fortunately, not just yet.  At this point, I would say Tuvok has overtaken both the Doctor and Kes as the most interesting character but Kes is still comfortably Top 3.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

David Lee Smith (Zahir) was born in Birmingham, Alabama, September 8, 1963.  Films include The Man from Earth, Mysterious Skin and A Walk to Remember.  Television work includes Savannah, The Naked Truth and CSI: Miami.  

Squid Perks: Raktajino

Raktajino is Klingon coffee, particularly popular on Star Trek's Deep Space Nine, both the station and the series.  The canon doesn't provide much guidance as to flavor beyond that it's Klingon-strong but, of course, there are numerous recipes online.  I adapted the one at AF's Amazing Food Blog, which incorporates cinnamon, cardamom and allspice.  For the "extra strong coffee," I used espresso and I mixed in the ground spices pre-brewing.  I did not use AF's recommended sugar as we don't really put sugar in coffee at home.

The result was quite pleasant.  The spices add dimension.  It doesn't have the wow flavor kick I was hoping for and I'm not sure what would bring that.  The optional black pepper in the recipe would certainly supply heat but honestly, I'm not a black pepper fan.  Some recipes add alcohol - AF suggests rum, cognac or coffee liqueur.  I doubt that would add much flavor.  I'd just want to go back to bed.

The most important question is whether we prefer raktajino to Captain Picard's beloved Earl Gray tea.  We're planning a Star Trek-themed brunch for Father's Day.  The Purple Penguin and I both prefer the rak.  My wife doesn't care.  So raktajino, it is.  Maybe we'll have a clever idea for making it stronger by Sunday...

Star Trek: By Inferno's Light

Episode: "By Inferno's Light"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 15

Original Air Date: February 17, 1997

via Memory Alpha

Garak episode!

The basics: picking up where the last episode left off, Worf, Garak, Bashir and Martok all manage to escape from the Dominion Internment Camp while the gang back at the station fend off a Dominion invasion with some help from both the Klingons and the Romulans.  There's so much more going on in this extraordinary episode.  Where do you even start?

• The Cardassians, under Gul Dukat's leadership, have cut a deal to become part of the Dominion.
• The prison escape is probably the best narrative in the episode and it is two-pronged.  Garak must contend with his own claustrophobia in rigging the camp's shields to allow the prisoners to transfer back to the runabout, which the Jem'Hadar rather carelessly left in orbit nearby.  Evidently, Andrew Robinson is genuinely a bit phobic and was also sick with the flu so much of his on-screen anxiety was real.  Even so, his is a Patrick Stewart-level man-on-the-edge-of-madness performance.
• Worf is "forced" into fighting each of the guards in turn, satisfying his own lust for battle as well as creating a distraction so Garak can do his thing.  He defeats them all, of course - well, nearly all of them.
• Finally, Worf takes on Ikat'Ika, the First at the camp.  By this point, Worf has earned deep respect from the guards and we also get a glimpse of the guards' disdain for their Vorta superiors.  This ultimate match ends with a memorable line from Ikat'Ika.  He is clearly in the superior position, though Worf refuses to concede: "I yield!  I cannot defeat this Klingon.  All I can do is kill him and that no longer holds my interest."  Wow.
• Garak's story is based on the 1963 film, The Great Escape.
• Meanwhile, back at the station, the impostor Bashir is discovered but almost too late.  He gets away in a runabout and nearly detonates a bomb in the Bajoran sun.  But he is destroyed first.
• Evidently, the rest of the Dominion invasion wasn't real.
• Upon returning to the station, Garak gets a girlfriend!

Seriously, there's a lot going on here.  I'm always amazed by Seinfeld's ability to cram so much material into a 22-minute episode.  Granted, DS9 had twice the time to work with here but even so, it's impressive.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Ray Buktenica played the role of Deyos, the Vorta Commander of the Internment Camp.  Buktenica was born in New York City, August 6, 1943.  Most of his work has been on television, including a recurring role on Rhoda, one of three spin-offs of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the most neglected contender in the GOAT sitcom debates.  He also had a principal role on House Calls and a recurring role on Life Goes On.  The big screen resume is relatively modest in length but he's been in some high-profile films, including My Girl, Heat and Shopgirl.

Squid Mixes: Cosmonaut

A Cosmonaut, invented by Sasha Petraske, combines gin, lemon juice and raspberry preserves.  I got my recipe from 3-Ingredient Cocktails by Robert Simonson.  It was intended as a spoof on the Cosmopolitan.  As you can see, it's deeply pink so maybe also a nod to the Soviet communists?  Or is it a pun?  Cosmo-not?  Both?

The first flavor hit for me was jelly doughnut, undoubtedly from the raspberry jam.  Once my taste buds adjusted, though, the sweetness was less potent.  The lemon brings out the natural tartness of the berries.