Artichoke pictures, etc.

I'm still getting an alarming number of visitors (well, maybe half dozen a day) who come here looking for various types of vegetable porn. This is despite the clear warning that appears in the search (now number 2 on msn).

I'm glad you liked the monkey helicopter picture, Andrew. I stole the artwork from some kid, who had very clearly said that her work was copyright and could not be used without her permission. Kids these days. I do feel sorry for the younger generation.

Last night, I saw some slightly older members of the younger generation get into a bit of a tossle near my neighbourhood Coffee "Tip". The police came by and broke it up before they did too much harm to each other.

I go to the coffee "tip" fairly regularly. I like it because, usually, I'm one of the least weird people there. Plus they're cheap and close and the newspapers are often free. It is, however, a very different world. When I lived at my grandmother's house, I would go to the Starbucks on the corner of bathurst. Most of the time, I wasn't crowded, so I could read or work on my laptop or flirt with the very cute 'barista' who also worked nights Crocodile Rock. I tried to find a similar spot around here, but despite the much larger selection of choices, I couldn't find a place I was as comfortable in. The Starbucks and its ilk are too crowded or too far away and it just didn't feel right. The closest is probably the victory cafe, which is excellent, and most of the time, the little room to the left is often completely empty. But the victory is not opened days, which is when I need it.

The coffee tip is no victory cafe, with its trendy crowd and good scotch. It doesn't have lattes or anything with whipped cream. In class terms, it doesn't even attract the same sort of upstanding citizens that you'd expect at Tim Horton's. The fight last night was not the first fight I've seen there. Or even the second. It's a favorite of street people, who tend to sleep face down on their table. And overnight cabbies, who tend to take the same position. Once, I was watching part of a hockey game there during the playoffs and I was sitting next to a group of teenagers. There was this older guy, probably in his late 40's sitting with them. They obviously knew each other from somewhere, but the old guy kept trying to convince one of the girls to sleep with him. He started at $40 and got up to $1000. Another time, I was doing some marking and the place was fairly empty. There was a younger women sitting in the back, not doing anything, not reading, not drinking. I was facing away from her, so I didn't notice when she decided to get up, and take a full pace leap into the glass on the other side of the room. Bang. She had chosen to run into the window, next to this couple and right over their dog. The guy of the couple thought that she was trying to attack the dog, and he goes into defensive mode, holding her up by the throat against the glass, yelling at her. He lets her go and she's standing in the middle of the place, with the guy still telling her to get out. She doesn't say a word or make eye contact with anyone. The people who own it seem to be an asian family, with various members who take turns acting as staff. Their english isn't very good, and it seems to me that they hate every second of it. They seem shocked whenever something like this happens and their faces read like who are these crazy people and what did I do so wrong to be sent here. Someone does get it together eventually and one of the staff people finally tells the young women to leave or he'll call the police. She runs away. I've seen her there a few times since.

I'm feel sometimes that I'm slumming there. Almost being a class tourist, visiting a world that's very different from mine and one that I can leave anytime I want.