THE KING OF THE MOUNTAINS

Bitchy Mrs. Simons: "I'm English, and it's not safe to play monkey-tricks with me.  I'll complain to the Legation....  There must be something wrong.  I've travelled in Switzerland.  Switzerland is a mountainous country, yet there I never wanted for anything.  I always breakfasted when I chose, and even had trout for breakfast if I wished for it--do you hear?"--The King of the Mountains

I've started reading The King of the Mountains, Edmond About's French novel about foreigners in 19th-century Greece who get kidnapped by a bandit king.  It's funnier than it sounds. (Andrew Lang's introduction compares his Scotland from a few centuries earlier to the bandit-rife Greece in the book.)

I'm reading it because I'd read it in the form of a Classics Illustrated comic book.  I think we bought it when I was almost seven.  It happened when we took the train to Campbellton to visit Father's parents for a couple of days around New Year's:  it was the last time I saw my grandmother before her death the next year.  They bought two copies of the comic for us to read on the train. (Moira looked at the comic recently and didn't remember it at all!)  So far, the book and the comic are pretty close.

I started reading it yesterday when I went to the first Toronto Transit Enthusiasts Meetup at the Tulip restaurant near Queen and Coxwell. (I'd just eaten, so I only ordered a rice pudding dessert.) Someone mentioned that the TTC could save a lot of money just by keeping a tunnel-boring machine on hand instead of buying a new one whenever they start digging a new subway!  I'm hoping we'll get politically involved to promote TTC improvements, what with the municipal election coming up.  On the way back I stopped by the Jones library to see if the copy of The Innocents Abroad that I lost has shown up in the library system, but it hasn't.

Early this afternoon Father and I moved the old refrigerator to the sidewalk.  It got picked up just an hour or two later!

This evening I went to a trivia quiz game at the Hard Rock Cafe next to Dundas Square.  It was a joint venture by Alex' Life Begins at 40 Meetup and Yvette's Movie Meetup.  My team included Dawn, whom I'd been chatting with just a week before when we saw The Killers.  We finished second or third.  I ordered a hot fudge sundae, which felt really heavy. (It didn't help that I'd had spaghetti for dinner.)