Pierre and his Poor Pathetic Page

This site is a blog on Montréal's architecture and streets where one can see photos, both recent and old, as well as comments from citizens on the history and evolution of this city.

Château de l'Aéroport-Mirabel
(November 3, 2008)

This tourism site still contains a mention of this hotel that closed in 2002. Have a good stay.

False fun facts
(January 5, 2008)

This 2003 Usenet article in alt.fan.cecil-adams gives a list of statements that sound true but are actually fabrications.

What are we busier than?
(October 7, 2007)

This Google search finds pages that use the expression "is busier than a." One can then discover several expressions that say how busy someone is.

Stained Apron
(March 4, 2007)

This site is "dedicated to the venting of food servers' frustrations and a harsh education of the dining public".

Uncyclopedia
(November 4, 2005)

The content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

Photos of "ointment"
(February 13, 2004)

I like the word "ointment".

Photos of "douilles"
(January 2, 2004)

I like the French word "douille".

International Federation of Competitive Eating
(June 21, 2003)

The IFOCE supervises and regulates eating contests in their various forms throughout the world. It sanctions Nathan's Famous Fourth of July international hot dog eating contest on Coney Island.

City of Walla Walla, Washington
(December 1, 2002)

I know nothing of this town, but I like the name. Bugs Bunny himself used it as a magic spell.

How Lawn Sprinklers Work
(February 9, 2002)

Another fine educational opportunity.

Dull Men's Club
(January 20, 2002)

"A place -- in cyberspace -- where Dull Men can share thoughts and experiences, free from pressures to be 'in and trendy,' to enjoy instead the simple, ordinary things of everyday life." In the Dull Trivia, one can learn lots of things that are useful in a conversation, like for example that bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

To deepen the shine
(December 16, 2001)

This January 1994 alt.peeves article seems to be the source of the somewhat famous sentence "To deepen the shine."

Photos of gaskets
(March 3, 2001)

I like the word "gasket".

Mad Magazine
(May 27, 2000)

Mad Magazine has existed since 1952 and was founded by William Gaines, who dies in 1992. This site presents the first chapter of a 1972 book on Gaines, who was a unique character.

Darwin Awards
(January 3, 2000)

In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chances of long-term survival.

Red Meat
(December 20, 1999)

This Web-published weekly comic strip trivializes stupidity, perversion and meanness. Makes you want to buy the book!

National Artificial Stupidity Association
(July 20, 1999)

This text demonstrates the fascinating concept of artificial stupidity.

Idaho does not exist
(July 11, 1999)

The existence of the american state of Idaho is only a conspiracy from the cartographers. This text proves that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Annoying questions for C.
(July 11, 1999)

If one were to ask C. some annoying questions, one could find some in this list (in french). It is normal for you not to know who C. is.

Too Much Coffee Man
(June 13, 1999)

A comic strip about a character who drinks Too Much Coffee.

Ecole secondaire de la Pointe-aux-Trembles
(May 31, 1999)

I went through secondary 3 to 5 (I suppose that would be grades 9 to 11 in the United States) at this high school, from September 1985 et June 1988.

The Gallery Of "Misused" Quotation Marks
(May 8, 1999)

This site shows many reals cases of bad uses of quotation marks. Obviously, many people never learned who to use them...

A list of joke punch-lines
(December 15, 1998)

This is a list in french of punch-lines to some of the jokes I have heard. Note that I am not necessarily able to tell the jokes in their entirety...

At last, something better than rock, paper, scissors
(September 6, 1998)

Someone finally took the time to improve on this fascinating game, and the result is rock, paper, scissors, Spock, lizard!

Rare and remarkable French first names
(July 26, 1998)

Genealogy allows one to see in old records lots of first names that are truly surprising. One wonders how in some cases people found the courage to live their life with such names... The names I compiled here happen to have been those of real people.

The Useless Pages
(May 8, 1998)

A directory of useless Web pages that has been described as a "waste of electrons" by Wired Magazine. Indeed, if you can believe it, there are some web pages that are more boring than mine.

List of things to teach to Paul
(October 16, 1997)

If you don't know to which Paul this refers, that's normal. The list is in French.

My short list of favorite books
(October 8, 1997)

Sometimes, I happen to read a book printed on actual paper. The list is in French at this time, but most of the books mentioned are in English...

Video Games

Batrachians
(May 2, 2004)

Batrachians is a game where you control a frog and your goal is to eat more flies and score more points than the computer's frog. It is a clone of the 1982 Frog Bog video game by Mattel Electronics.

Afternoon Stalker
(November 26, 2001)

This video game is a clone of Night Stalker, a 1981 game for the Intellivision.

I published it under the GNU General Public License.

Cosmosmash
(August 5, 2001)

Cosmosmash is a clone of the 1981 Astrosmash video game by Mattel Electronics.

I published it under the GNU General Public License.

Atari Lives!
(July 10, 2001)

A Salon article on the survival on the Atari VCS (2600) and the lessons that its weak graphical capabilities teach to video game developers: keep it simple and make it fun to play.

CoCo Game List
(July 5, 2001)

This site lists hundreds of video games for the CoCo.

BurgerSpace
(April 21, 2001)

BurgerSpace is a clone of the 1982 BurgerTime video game by Bally Midway.

I published it under the GNU General Public License.

Atari Historical Society
(May 24, 1999)

This site is a museum that preserves the history, the images and the products associated with Atari. It is mentioned in an article from Wired News titled A Grudge Match of Pong, where one learns that Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, defeated Dennis Fong, a former Quake champion, in a revench match of Pong. Pong was in the early seventies the first commercially successful coin-operated videogame.

Text-mode Quake
(November 12, 1998)

A sick pervert adapted Quake to have it display its "graphics" on a text screen.

CoinOp.org - Classic Arcade Games Home Page
(June 16, 1998)

This page covers classic video arcade games, with photographs of the games, screen shots, original advertisements, and so forth. It includes information on video game auctions as well.

See namely the history of the creation of Q*Bert. The author of this legendary arcade game talks about how it was created in the early eighties, in 8088 assembly language.

The Intellivision
(December 26, 1997)

This was my first video game console in 1981. The official site is associated with Intellivision Productions, a company that gathers several of the programmers of the original games. One can read about the history of Mattel Electronics and anecdotes about the creation of several games. There is an Intellivision emulator (PC and Mac versions) available for download.

Former programmers from Mattel Electronics are selling the "Intellivision Lives!" CD-ROM, which contains an Intellivision emulator that comes with over 50 of the original Intellivision games, for US$29.95.

Literature

Whence comes Quebec's accent? And that of Parisians?
(November 27, 2008)

This is the translated title of a book by Jean-Denis Gendron on the origins of these two accents of the French language. In this video, Gendron explains his findings. In summary, the people of New France had the same accent as in Paris, and the latter changed their accent around 1800, which is after the invasion of New France by the British empire.

The Count of Monte Cristo
(April 11, 2004)

This is the French version of what is often considered to be the best novel by Alexandre Dumas, written in 1844. An English version is available here.

Les trois mousquetaires
(September 8, 2002)

The story of four comrades-in-arms, who serve the Queen of France, and outwit her enemy Cardinal Richelieu and his clever agent, a female criminal. This is one of best-known novels by Alexandre Dumas. The complete text is available on this page.

Wired article about The Onion
(March 5, 2002)

This March 1999 article tells the story of the humor weekly The Onion. One learns that the Herbert Kornfeld column is written by a woman...

Wired Magazine Archive
(October 4, 2001)

This site offers the old issues of Wired Magazine, back to the first issue in 1993.

The Wolf and the Dog
(November 3, 2000)

A fable in French by Jean de La Fontaine.

References

Montréal Climate Normals
(March 28, 2007)

This table gives among other things the mean temperature in Montréal for each month of the year.

Dirty Montreal Restaurants
(October 3, 2002)

This page on the City of Montréal's web site gives the list of restaurants that were fined for having a dirty establishment.

Origins of the names of Montréal's subway stations
(February 4, 2002)

This site provides short explanations of each station's name. The Montréal subway was inaugurated in 1966.

The Elements of Style
(July 14, 2001)

This classic reference book is "a must-have for any student and conscientious writer."

Radio-Canada Time
(May 1, 2001)

One can obtain a good approximation of the current time from this page.

Personalities named Georges
(June 21, 2000)

This is a modest directory, in French, of personalities whose first name is Georges or George.

I like the name Georges.

Calculation of the date of Easter
(March 17, 2000)

This form takes a year and calculates the date of Easter for that year.

WWWebster Dictionary
(April 24, 1998)

Merriam-Webster, publisher of the well-known american dictionary, offers a page that can look up english words and display their definition.

Dead People Server
(January 3, 1998)

A site that will inform you on the state of the "health" of a great number of celebrities. Dates of birth and death are given, as well as the cause of death.

Television

Radio-Canada network identification (1982)
(September 20, 2008)

The gool old "exploding pizza" logo with the voice of the late Jean-Paul Nolet saying "ici Radio-Canada" ("This is Radio-Canada"), in reference to the French network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Brilliant Careers: Johnny Carson
(February 20, 2001)

A Salon article on Johnny Carson's career.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
(July 11, 1999)

A page on the television show that Carson hosted from 1962 to 1992. I watched that show during the last six seasons and I appreciated Carson's style of humour at lot. He made me discover geniuses like Jack Benny and Groucho Marx, from whom his style borrowed somewhat.

What Democracy Means to Me by Johnny Carson
(September 21, 1998)

A tribute from Johnny Carson to all the Soviet republics seeking freedom ("The Battle Hymn of the Republic" playing softly in the background).

What's All This Muntzing Stuff, Anyhow?
(September 9, 1998)

The muntzing technique, attributed to the legendary TV salesman Earl Muntz should be known by more engineers and programmers...

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