Heading back home after a failed dentist appointment- failed as in we don't have our dates matched up right. I double checked with their office a week ago, but okay.
But I was stopped by our neighbor as he was getting set for a walk around the area. I should say a lonely walk around the area. He's an old man with something of the mad scientist about him. I said it was a nice day out- he gave me a chocolate egg. Said if I ever needed anything I could come to him, 'cause we're friends.
The last time I saw him he asked where I was living, he said he was looking forward to the summer, we could get to know each other better. He completely didn't know who I was, that I'd been living down from him for the past, what, three years now? Four?
That's hard- at any given moment you have to ask-
Who does he think he's talking to?
And that phrase strikes me because that arrangment of those particular words, it jumps out with connotations of shock and anger- but I just am wondering if at this moment you see me, or the shadow of someone from years past?
It's funny that this kind of confusion, I'm used to to some degree, what with people mixing up my brother and me- reduced to smiling and nodding, and yet somehow THAT'S the kind response in this situation.
Ah well.
I just finished the Chester Brown penned Louis Riel biography yesterday, I'm really glad to get some Canadian history in my brain- turns out the Red River Rebellion had its most official throwdowns in 1885- one hundred years before I was born AND the time Doc Brown went to after being struck with a bolt of lightning. I'm not likely to forget the year anytime soon.
Not that I should be surprised (the reviewer praise pasted on the back of the book forewarned me of this-) but the book was pretty successful at not taking sides over Riel, painting both his good and bad points. But really, if the worst of him was going a little crazy, well, years on the run and a $5000 bounty will do that to a guy.
Sir John A MacDonald (I had previously written "Prime Minister Macdonald" but that felt weird... until I hit on the fact that yeah, I've always just referred to him as "Sir John A Macdonald". After a couple years without having to write his name - and we really should catch back up on our correspondence, old boy- I couldn't just know to automatically write the "Sir John A MacDonald", but I could feel it wasn't right. Not that either one is "right", I just mean the one way is how I had always done it growing up. Anyways) came out much the worse for wear. I knew he'd been pretty lame in his time, but I'm always surprised by how bad the guys in charge can be. Couple years ago I read an Al Frankin book and reacted thusly: "wait, you mean the Bush administration aren't morons, they're just evil? That's... worse."
Derailed again. Much like the Canadian railway system would have been derailed if not for Macdonald provocating the Red River guys into the aforementioned Rebellion to sucker extra funding for it and gain some good will for his political career.
Ah, see what I did there with the derailed... nevermind.
Well, that's my understanding anyways, I'm certainly open to learning about any extenuating circumstances that may have been neglected from the book; Brown himself admits he painted Macdonald as a villain because it makes for a better story.
One awesome part of the book: this "frontiersmens frontiersman" Gabriel Dumont is shooting for his life (who knew rebellions were so dangerous?) and Louis Riel is just sitting behind him in a pit. Here's an approximation of the books scene (itself, of course, an approximation of a conversation which may have never have happened):
Riel: Gabriel!
Dumont: What? [Fires his rifle]
Riel: I just had a vision. When sinners die they don't spend eternity in hell.
Dumont: You mean there's no hell? [Ducks under a shot, reloads his rifle]
Riel: Yes there is, but when we die people don't spend eternity in hell, they pay their penance for a time before reuniting in paradise with everyone.
Dumont: That's great. [Fires his rifle]
It's a really funny scene, maybe you have to be there- it helps that Brown's figures look completely serious all the time, and Dumont is fighting a battle on two fronts-the mounties ahead and Riel cutting him off at the knees, stopping Dumont from using guerilla tactics. Kind of mixed my metaphors there.
A little later the metis (okay, so let me address this now- yes, there should be an accent over the 'e' in metis, but I don't care to search out the procedure to create it. I'm only planning on using the word at most twice more) are running out of bullets, so Dumont is pulling everyone back but this one crazy old guy says "Just want to kill one more englishman". According to the notes the crazy old guy may have never said that to Dumont, and he probably didn't say it at the point where everyone had to retreat- BUT apparently the old guy DID in fact say that, and on multiple occasions, which is almost better.
I guess that's fine for now- I'm off to get an english muffin and take some tea and sing "God Save the Queen" as my penance for enjoying any brief metis victories from over a century ago. Okay, well, I'll pretend to do those things.
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