@asecsoffice.bsky.social will be holding its annual meeting online this year. Looks like it was a good decision.

There is talk along these lines. Alberta is not excited about the idea. Ontario is considering an export ban on power altogether. Quebec can withhold maple syrup supplies!

Let's keep an eye on what the US military does in the next few months. If there's a real purge at the Pentagon, then we all need to seriously worry.

I'm not sure of anything anymore. It is a moment of great contingency, and the old order could collapse as quickly as it did c. 1917-22. Even so, it will take more than a few mad tweets and press conferences to bring it all down.

None of this will happen though.

The Canadian federation would have to be dissolved and incorporated as a new US territory on the Puerto Rico model. Quebec would not join willingly, and might be allowed limited independence. Montreal and the First Nations might opt out and end up as free states or American client states.

They did the mash... (Sorry I couldn't resist)

It's very Quebec specific. If you don't hear 'calisse' and 'tabarnak' regularly, it won't hit the same way.

When teaching the English Reformation at a Quebec university, I show an image of the interior of a pre-reformation parish church. Then I say, every swear word in this province can be found in this picture. The joke lands every time.

Bienecke plaza a few minutes ago. A band was doing a decent cover of Lauryn Hill's Doo Wop (1998).

It's got a very original perspective on a well studied topic.

Many years later, she could still animate a room full of another generation of graduate students when she came to speak at McGill.