Tuesday, December 07, 2010

4-5 cm of snow

The word according to the meteorologists was that we were expecting 4-5 cm of snow overnight and partly throughout Monday. Instead it snowed and snowed all day Monday and all night and we got a pretty serious dump of over 30 cm. The city (and its citizens) was caught a bit off guard. They are saying the snow should be cleared off in at best 5 days (a tip of the hat to the always reliable Montreal City Weblog for that link). Only problem, we're supposed to be getting another 10+ cm next weekend! Bring it on! Man, the commute must have been a beast this morning!







This is what you see when your toque has blocked your hearing until it's too late while stumbling along the narrow rut of an uncleared sidewalk snow path. It's a stoned and drunk sidewalk snowplow operator barrelling up from behind you and he is stopping for nothing! Quickly find some balcony stairs or dive into the snowpile on the street side!


Phew, you just made it. And you happened to arrive at the foot of my stairs. What a pleasant suprise, a frail, shivering university lad! Why don't you come on in and warm yourself up some, sonny boy? That ferocious snowplow must have given you quite a scare. Here, have some hot chocolate. Go on, drink it up. Yes, that's right. Drink it all down. There's a lad. You're safe now...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice pics!

FYI: It's 'tuque'. A 'toque' is a chef's hat or English bonnet.

(apologies if you actually wear a chef's hat in the winter)

OlmanFeelyus said...

Thank you!

I'm going to need some backup on your spelling of the word toque. 'tuque' is the french form of the word, I believe. According to the OED (not the best source for such a Canadian word, I fully agree) and they have the word 'toque' as any short cap and the word 'tuque' as the french spelling of the same definition.

I pronounce them both the same way, tuk, with a line over the u I believe. What rhymes with tuque in english?

Anonymous said...

Puke rhymes with Tuque - but not very poetic!

For back-up, there's the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuque.

Also, I have a Funk and Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary here that describes 'Tuque' as a Canadian knitted hat, but for 'Toque' it says :
1. A close fitting brimless hat worn by women. 2. The tall conical headress formerly worn by the doges of Venice. 3. A plumed cap with a band and brim worn in the 16th century 4. A misnomer for tuque.

Salut!

OlmanFeelyus said...

Now hang on there, puke does not rhyme with toque. Puke rhymes with rebuke or cuke or uke (as in lele). I did just figure out what toque does rhyme with in english: duke.

But I wonder if the reason that such a pronunciation of the ooh sound is so rare in english is because it really is a french mode and perhaps toque, like duke, is originally a french word.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this spelling debate?

Anonymous said...

Puke and Duke definitely rhyme, at least in English english. Americans pronounce Duke like Dook, whereas the English pronounce it like D-yuke.

Anyway, here's a handy link: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/toque

It even pronounces words for you. According to this site, Toque sounds like 'toke'. Tuque sounds like 'tooke' It also reveals that toque is also from the french, which in turn is from Spanish or Italian 'toca'. Tuque is probably a derivation of Toque. Tuque specifically refers to our Canadian hat - whereas toque is willing to sleep around with anyone that will give this archaic word a meaning.