The Off Topic Topic

[crazy canuck]

I think that the job that I had would usually have been represented by a squirrel.

you played with nuts?

In a manner of speaking...but probably not what you're thinking. 

Bolts?

[Savonarola]

Last night I heard a story on NPR about the Chinese fast-fashion store, Shein, is opening a boutique at BHV in Paris.  The French, of course, were upset, but what surprised me about the story is that one of the French speakers they interviewed used the term "Fast Fashion" rather than "Depeche Mode."

[crazy canuck]

Last night I heard a story on NPR about the Chinese fast-fashion store, Shein, is opening a boutique at BHV in Paris.  The French, of course, were upset, but what surprised me about the story is that one of the French speakers they interviewed used the term "Fast Fashion" rather than "Depeche Mode."

They just can't get enough?

[viper37]

I forgot the news.

My village merged with another village and the nearby city.

No longer am I a countryside boy, living with 1596 other people in an 80km2 area.

Now, we're a huge megalopolis of 6400 people, and only sky's the limit for our future!  
Well, that, and the St-Lawrence river.  And the US border, with miles & miles of wood (crownlands) and mountains in between 

[Josquius]

Ugh, hate it when countries do that.
It was a big point of confusion for me before moving to Japan. I read city and I expect an actual city, not a city's worth of people scattered across a county.
I can sort of get it when you have villages technically latched onto real cities at the core, but just clusters of villages....pff.

[viper37]

Ugh, hate it when countries do that.
It was a big point of confusion for me before moving to Japan. I read city and I expect an actual city, not a city's worth of people scattered across a county.
I can sort of get it when you have villages technically latched onto real cities at the core, but just clusters of villages....pff.

city
noun
1. a large town

 


I checked the official definition for Quebec:
Village: 40 houses over 60 arpents (.20 km2) and a fiscal value of 50 000$ minimum.
City: 2000 people minimum.


So, yeah, don't expect Montreal with 1.7 million people, and not counting un-merged cities in the center.  Metro area was 4.1M as of 2016, it's largely over that now. That's half the population of Quebec in that metro area.

If only that is a city for you, you'll be disappointed with Canada

[celedhring]

Ugh, hate it when countries do that.
It was a big point of confusion for me before moving to Japan. I read city and I expect an actual city, not a city's worth of people scattered across a county.
I can sort of get it when you have villages technically latched onto real cities at the core, but just clusters of villages....pff.

It's pretty common to do that here in rural areas. No point in creating an entire municipal administrative structure for small villages, so they get clustered together. That said, many existing small villages were "grandfathered" because of how touchy it is to be demoted.

Minimum population to create a municipality is 4,000.

[Josquius]

I don't quite expect Montreal.
In Japan the rule is a city has 50,000 people
Which honestly sounds quite reasonable to me. I've been to some lovely cities around that size.
.... Reasonable that is when those people actually live in a city.
The place actually looks like a city. They all live within a square mile or so.
When Japan set up its system in the meiji era this worked and meant only proper cities got to be cities.
Though they seemed to forget to put in any rules apart from the 50,000 one so villages many miles apart and not even viably called a city in the Atlanta vein were formed.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

If you want a real mess there's how New Jersey defines "city".

[Sheilbh]

So saw the stuff about Equator which has been founded by some writers I really like and admire - from Semfor a couple of months ago (and the question of a post-West mag "primarily based in London" is noted ):

Exclusive / New 'post-American' global magazine to launch
Ben Smith
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Semafor
Sep 15, 2025, 3:21am GMT+1

A group of high-profile writers is launching a new magazine called Equator "to challenge the reigning assumption that global events should be narrated by and for the West," according to a description shared with Semafor.

Its founding team includes Pankaj Mishra, Mohsin Hamid, Nesrine Malik, Samanth Subramanian, and Suzy Hansen, with editing by Guardian long reads creator Jonathan Shainin.

"In a post-American era, the task of a new magazine is to engage the rich variety of this historical moment on its own terms, without compulsively asking 'What does it mean for the US?'" the nonprofit outlet, which is primarily based in London, will ask.

A description on Equator's launch homepage contains a tacit critique of publications from The New Yorker and The Atlantic to the Economist, New York Times, and Financial Times: "A new world is emerging from the ruins of the liberal order. But the prestige publications of the West are ill-equipped to comprehend its challenges — and its possibilities."

Now it's starting to come out - and it looks fabulous:
https://www.equator.org/

[Tonitrus]

So saw the stuff about Equator which has been founded by some writers I really like and admire - from Semfor a couple of months ago (and the question of a post-West mag "primarily based in London" is noted ):

The Communist Manifesto was first printed in London .

[Sheilbh]

Total aside but it is something I've always thought London makes too little of - it's revolutionary heritage. I think Paris is quite proud of theirs and in London they get Blue Plaques on the houses they lived in, but I sort of feel we should have a Miranda Street, Mazzini Square, Karl Marx Road I blame the dead hand of monarchism

Obviously carries on into the 20th century too and in fairness there are statues of, say, Gandhi and Nehru. But we should be more ambitious.

[Josquius]

We've got a fair few streets round here for Marx et al.

[Admiral Yi]

I propose Pol Pot Lane.

[grumbler]

I propose Pol Pot Lane Mews.

FTFY