WARNING :
This post was originally written in French
and then translated/adapted as best as I could… I.e. it’s full of odds, and over-explicit.
If you have any comment to make, just send it to my Ninja Chipmunk. 😛 !
No seriously, I’ll be glad to hear from you. 🙂
_________________________________

With luv from… Montreal?!

Special thanks to Dominique for being my best postcard pusher ever.
(By the way, the next step would be to work from my own pics…!)

And thanks to Olivia for spending such an awesome artistic afternoon with Ming!
(I want some more!)

Okay, so I’m sharing my little pop-tart series with you guys,
even if choosing the photos is a total nightmare
(golden spray paint is everything but camera-friendly)…
[Plus, this is only a sample,
as some of the cards were posted without any trace of their existence… oh well.]

Castorium
Let’s first go awkward : “Beaver”, in [English] Canadian culture, for what I know,
isn’t just an animal.
(Or yes, it still is… After all.)

In French, it’s “castor”, but it-ain’t-no-beaver, but it is…
“Castor”: it explains the name of that beautiful potion
we use to make out of its glands. (Yeah, we’re that kind of people.)

In New France, it  was believed that Castorium could cure several diseases,
which is… somehow true,
since that our little rodent is technically a furry Aspirin -full of acetylsalicylic acid.
(We thus can conclude
that beavers never suffer headaches,
and to some extent that their species isn’t endangered.)
…
A few centuries ago, Christians believed in the “Signatures Doctrine”,
i.e. “God has left hints everywhere for humankind to understand how to use His creation”
…
It’s quite similar to Chinese medicine thinking,
where something looking like a specific organ
might be efficient to heal it -or to maintain it in good health.
…
So,
for Canadian pioneers,
the beaver’s “fish-like tail” was an indication from God
that it was a good option as a Friday dinner. No worries : it’s seafood.
(What??! -They thought about it just after “making peace” with their neighbor, right?!)
Got the munchies? Bon appétit!

Never Far
(View : Montreal Botanical Garden)
It’s a puppet-theater concept, as sent with the next picture (for a sophisticated dialogue)…

What the??????
Warning. I’m about to swear.
Should I explain that a “seal”, in French, is a “phoque”. It sounds the way you think it does.
A stupid phoque. Completely phoqued up. WTP???

Oh My Tractor
(View : Old Montreal)
Oh my love, oh my tractor, I’ll be tracking you in the snow,
though your so slow,
and so noisy,
that you’ll never be able to hide from me for too long anyway…

Ninja!
Warning. Canadian chipmunks can be real assholes.
“Hey Kung Fu Panda,
noodle-sucker bamboo-licker, no wonder you were born with permanent black-eyes!
Da-da-da-dada, da,
catch me if you can, fatty!”
*GOOOOOOONNG*!!!!

Formula One
I like your race, baby tank…! Or maybe it’s just you :)!

For the two next ones,
you are cordially invited to find the 777 differences.

*
Stadium 1 and Stadium 2

The “Unlucky Hunter’s Stew”
Some [unfortunate] traditional recipe!
I’m serious. Google Jehanne Benoît’s traditional cookbook if you don’t believe me.
…
I Never had this faaaaamous stew yet,
but I guess we can have it for dessert -after the main course : beaver.
(But not on a Friday, nononono, there’s no “Fish Tale” about that one!)
…Now tell me again that Chinese are weird for eating crayfish
[whatta “calorie-wise” mess]…
Detail, the sticker on the squirrel says “Life is short, eat poutine”. Indeed.
If you live in China and have no idea what “poutine” stands for, go get some at Julie’s. :)!

That will be all for now,
so have a very… (lucky) rodent day (whatever that meant)!

Ming Mu xo