BLACK ROBE

"Our soldiers defended themselves like soldiers of the pope:  they all knelt, threw down their arms and asked the pirates for absolution in articulo mortis"--Candide

Tuesday night I went to the first meeting of John Snow's book club in its new format, focusing on translated French novels. There were just four people there, but that's twice the number that were at my book club's first meeting!  We discussed Candide, and John was impressed by my calling it a "burlesque" in an earlier post.  Afterward the weather was nice so Brenda, Neeta and I walked from Sherbourne to the Yonge subway.

Tuesday I misplaced Canadian History for Dummies, but it turned up today. (It was in a window sconce.) I'd just got my hair cut that afternoon, so I thought I'd left it in the barber shop.

Yesterday afternoon at Jimmy's I met Anne and her Aspie daughter Assantewa and we discussed her new literary project.

This evening I saw the DVD of Bruce Beresford's movie of the Brian Moore novel Black Robe (for the second time) with the History Meetup.  It's a gripping, beautiful drama about a Jesuit in New France going west to be a missionary among the Huron nation.  Funny that it took an Australian director to make the great Canadian epic!

This afternoon I went to Tap Phong in Kensington Market and bought an ice-shaving machine.

Just now I've been reading The Xenophobe's Guide to the Scots.