Reader Dom works at a library and thus comes across all manner of interesting literature. This story, “The Cat and the Mouse”, comes from a 1912 book, A Second Reader for Deaf Children. Click to enlarge, and be sure to look at the pictures (especially the last one), and read the story (especially the last two sentences).
And a taste, in both senses, of what’s to come: the elusive Montreal smoked meat sandwich (my dinner last night). I ate every morsel.
Which Deli?
How does it compare with the best NY Delis?
Yum!
The sandwich does not get away.
The sandwich is digested.
I am so hungry now! 🙂
Montreal smoked mouse…?
Ruth Reichl’s first book “Tender at the Bone” describes being sent by her mother to a convent school in Montreal (tough on a New York Jewish girl), going out one weekend day to a local shop, and consuming vast quantities of smoked meat.
The disgusted cat looks exactly like any other cat _not_ being disgusted.
yum, indeed. When are you going to have some poutine?
I had some before–in Ottawa, and I’ll have some tomorrow at the king of all poutine places in Montreal.
I STILL don’t understand why you don’t gain any weight!!
Because he doesn’t eat this way at home, and his sandwich was only the kids’ sized one.
The internal evidence in the photo disagrees with you. Unless Canada has some special micro-bubble bread, scaled to confuse photographers. (Which, with Canadians being Canadian, is a hypothesis to be entertained.)
A combination of genes & chance! Listen to Jim Al-Khalili on the Life Scientific – all available as podcasts eventually…
Professor George Davey Smith of Bristol University talks to Jim al-Khalili about why some of us have long healthy lives and others don’t. Is it down to social class or genetics?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071t8qd
Cute story & illustrations!
But sadly, we all know that that mousie probably wasn’t long for the world despite escaping. Lest it was a declawed toothless kitteh.
That meal looks delicious!
Hasn’t the author of that book ever heard of spoilers?
Read the first two sentences and you can skip the rest.
(It also strikes me how devoid of any literary ability the author was. No interesting turn of phrase. More like a script than a story. The sort of thing, in fact, that I might have written for ‘English composition’ at age ten. It might pass if some adult was reading it and embroidering it with suitable histrionic gestures.
Or am I over-analysing it?)
cr
‘… if some adult was reading it aloud to the kiddies…’
of course.
Oh for an Edit function.
cr
The book was aimed at deaf children teaching them in an oralist way – in other words, not with sign language (manualism)…
Oops, so it was. I completely missed that! I suppose that would account for the rather simplistic sentences. I assumed it was aimed at teaching children to read.
My comments about ’embroidering it with histrionic gestures’ and ‘reading it aloud’ should be ignored (please!) since they are probably irrelevant in this context.
cr
And, oddity of oddities, I just had an order of Poutine in Tucson AZ! (Interesting, but I recall liking the Montreal version better; still the experience at the old train station was endearing, with a 5 freight-train accompaniment.)
There are a fair number of “snow birds” (Canadians who spend some/all of the winter south) in AZ; perhaps that’s why.
Was the sandwich from Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal? If not, you should definitely stop by there before you leave. Best smoked meat sandwiches in the city, as far as I’m concerned.
And make sure to stop for a beer at Dieu du Ciel! in the city as well. They make some great microbrews.
No, Reuben’s deli, which is highly rated. It was very good–much like pastrami–but the bread was too flimsy to hold the meat. They need to make a good thick Jewish rye for a sandwich like that!
Schwartz’s is supposed to be crowded and touristy, and not the best smoked meat around. I will try to find another place today.
Last time I was in Montreal I ate the smoked meat sandwich at Reuben’ Deli and enjoyed it.
(I still pull for Schwartz’s though…the vibe, the experience, the quality).
When Schwartz’s was really busy we often went to The Main Deli, which is close to Schwartz’s, easy to get in to, and some of my Montreal friends prefer it to Schwartz’s.
If you like potato latkes (I love them) I remember the latkes at The Main being delicious. (Though it’s been a long time since I was there now).
Montreal smoked meat and Montreal steak spice are two very special things in life. We use Mtl. steak spice to season tons of stuff, even fish! Pick up a bottle of it some day.
My memories of Montreal smoked meat from childhood include putting it on pizza, another popular Montreal fast food …