Méli-Mélo: a snackable mix of links capturing my attention

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Being From the Eastern Townships + archival disasters + grudging Olympics
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Being From the Eastern Townships + archival disasters + grudging Olympics

Amy Tector
Jul 25, 2021
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Being From the Eastern Townships + archival disasters + grudging Olympics
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May I recommend

Being from Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

Look, I know this is going to be tricky for a lot of you to pull off, but you should at least try. You can go to school there (like Andrew did) or marry into it (like Andrew also did - really, his keenness is commendable) or move there in later life (like Andrew might do one day, ha ha, little does he know the master plan) but the best way to succeed at being a Townshipper is to just, well, be from here.

Who cares about being from this place, you might be thinking. It’s a tiny wedge of rural landscape smacked up next to the Vermont border with a weird name that is not even on official maps any more. Yes Donald Sutherland has a house here and true, the world’s finest maple syrup is produced here (suck it, Vermont) but apart from that, what’s the big wup?

Well, there are a bunch of reasons to try to be from here, so I’ll run through a few of the most important ones.

Firstly, it’s very very beautiful. I have gotten into arguments with people about this - those who claim that an aqua blue Caribbean Sea is more spirit-lifting, or the view of the Coliseum at dusk more awe-inspiring. Look, those things are fine, in their way, but do they have gentle rolling hills, crooked old fences, mature stands of trees, stone houses and cows?

No?

I didn’t think so

Next up, does the Thai coastline have my mother in it? No. Only the Townships has a little Australian expat lady zipping around the dirt roads in her Kia Soul with a plate of brownies to give to someone in the passenger seat and The Weavers blaring from the stereo.

Thirdly, when you’re hiking on Machu Pichu, are you going to bump into your beloved sixth grade teacher, the first boy you kissed or that person you really liked hanging out with in high school, but then lost touch with? Nope. They are not looking for Incan artifacts at high elevations. They are buying sandwich bags at the Cowansville Wal-Mart or walking along the path to the lake in Knowlton.

Fourthly, as you’re sipping a merlot in Californian wine country, are you also able to get the unique thrill of feeling ever so slightly oppressed for being an English-speaker on the North American continent? No? Then shut it, Napa.

What about that rockpile you played on as a kid? The tree your dad always honked at on the road to Knowlton? The hospital where you were born? The woods where you did your underage drinking? The field where you picked marsh marigolds for Mother’s Day? The library where you got all your Agatha Christies? The cantine where you ate the best poutine? The movie theatre where you saw Splash? The fairground where you broke your wrist? The lake that you skinny dipped in? That cafe where you got your first job?

Oh, those are all in the Eastern Townships?

Yeah… I thought so.

Case closed.

What about you, do you have a place to recommend being from? If so, leave a comment below!

The tricksyness of preserving items forever

An archivist sneeze on a priceless document, then what

A year and a half ago, I found myself in an archive room at the London School of Economics, staring at 150-year-old documents complete with swirly handwriting and a red-wax seal. My mind flicked back to a few weeks earlier, when I’d gotten one of my occasional nosebleeds, and I had a random yet horrifying thought: What if my nose starts bleeding on one of these irreplaceable pages?What would happen if I ruined them?

Twenty years into a career in archives I have some stories about stuff like this. The one that still fills me with horror was looking at a box of glass lantern slides from the First World War at Library and Archives Canada’s super cool, state of the art Preservation Centre and having one basically split apart in my hand. There had been a hairline fracture in the glass, and as I removed it from its specially made box, it just cracked. Sob. Panic Don’t worry! We have very good great photographic conservators.

Want to read a legit cool story about an archival preservation nightmare? What if it were about the Canadian Constitution and the fact that both copies in existence are a nightmare to preserve, one because it was raining the day that the Prime Minister and the Queen signed it so it got wet and the other because an activist snuck paint into the archives and deliberately damaged the only pristine remaining copy as a political protest?

My upcoming novel, THE HONEYBEE EMERALDS, is about a lost necklace and my team of intrepid characters have to track down where it’s from. Do they have to visit various cool Parisian archives and research libraries to do that work? YOU KNOW IT!

A return to Tehran

Revisiting my grandfather’s garden

Another plug for THE HONEYBEE EMERALDS, one of my main characters is Iranian and I got to do some fascinating research on that country in the process of writing this book. This article was just lovely.

I am reminded of the tree in my grandfather’s garden. He loved gardening and asked my sister and me to help him with the garden work. He slanted the short ladder toward the fig tree and gave each of us a basket to stand under the tree with while he picked the ripened figs and threw them down to us. Sometimes the broad leaves landed on our heads like little doll umbrellas as he pulled the boughs to pluck the fruit. If a fig fell down by mistake, we raced to snatch it from the ground. We played a game to see whose basket filled up first.

I’m not super into the Olympics

25 pictures of Olympians that basically just completely freak me out

Still, I liked looking at the pics from this article. That guy and his pecs made me laugh. A few of these are gross. You have been warned.

Badminton rant

I had to include this, because it’s funny, true and linked to one of my earlier recommendations.

Super Human: Paralympians

Okay, fine this is my third Olympics-related post, but I promise, I DON’T CARE ABOUT THEM.

Twitter

Twitter avatar for @SortaBadperpetual meh @SortaBad
Stone Cold Jane Austen

July 22nd 2021

2,697 Retweets17,189 Likes
Twitter avatar for @MoreenMcGMoreen @MoreenMcG
hey my partner and I noticed you from across the bar and we saw that you aren’t eating the pickle that came with your sandwich can i have it

July 22nd 2021

20,952 Retweets189,222 Likes
Twitter avatar for @KatyGilroyBlogkaty 🌙 @KatyGilroyBlog
you have to respect one of my clients, based in Italy, who upon receiving an email from me yesterday responded with "Katy, today in Rome it's a day for living on the beach" and ignored all of my questions x

July 21st 2021

3,127 Retweets50,536 Likes
Twitter avatar for @DrJenGunterJennifer Gunter @DrJenGunter
Siri, show me a photographic representation of the patriarchy

Dr. Ji Son @cogscimom

I knew there was a double standard for uniforms worn by male and female athletes... but this picture of Norway's beach handball team says a lot. https://t.co/qdZBKU7pTK https://t.co/KoWdOvecmr

July 21st 2021

2,062 Retweets11,851 Likes
Twitter avatar for @Swilua🌈Dr. Frizzle @Swilua
One time I turned to my wife and asked “if you had to get rid of a body how would you?” because I am a writer and we think about this over our toast Without a single missed beat she goes, “Pigs.” Then she takes a bite of toast & says, “there are 3 pig farms within a 1mi radius”

July 20th 2021

1,303 Retweets20,800 Likes
Twitter avatar for @J_MotokiJ. Motoki @J_Motoki
Image

July 21st 2021

70 Retweets777 Likes
Twitter avatar for @AntoniaAngressAntonia Angress @AntoniaAngress
it finally happened. The thing I thought was literally impossible: I used too much garlic in a recipe

July 19th 2021

1 Retweet25 Likes
Twitter avatar for @eerrriiicaaErica @eerrriiicaa
It’s actually so fucking annoying when you’re at work and your boss wants you to do something that’s well within your job responsibilities

July 8th 2021

6,656 Retweets90,573 Likes
Twitter avatar for @wholesomepageWholesome Page ❤️ @wholesomepage
"Came home to this today. I only own the dog."
Image

July 19th 2021

3,825 Retweets31,424 Likes
Twitter avatar for @freudintens𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐮𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐬 @freudintens
Image

July 18th 2021

219 Retweets1,247 Likes
Twitter avatar for @Oliver_delaPazOliver de la Paz @Oliver_delaPaz
My oldest son just brought up the fact that no one ever asks “How’s Waldo?”

July 18th 2021

159 Retweets1,912 Likes

TikTok

Fat cheesies for the win

It’s the length of time he stays stuck

Too cute

Fluffy toy

I kinda love these

What I really really want

The state of his feet

We have all felt this panic

Exercising

Scribble

Love this guy

Frito Lay strike


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Amy Tector, The Honeybee Emeralds (March 2022)

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Monica
Jul 27, 2021

What is a poutine??? I am guessing it’s not a Frenchified Vladimir Putin in edible form…

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