Okay. I can no longer tell the lame-sexual-innuendo Virgin Mobile ads from the lame-sexual-innuendo blood bank ads, and I think this is done on purpose. Expect twelve-year-olds competing to pass themselves off as old enough to give blood, and failing that, staging blood donor clinics in basements.

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Assis devant une affiche dans le métro, j'en relisais le slogan jusqu'à en drainer le sens. 'Ajoutez un certificat à vos compétences.' Il y a un paquet de compétences sur Terre, un certificat en est une autre. Savoir conduire, parler russe, cuisiner, un certificat... C'est la compétence qui sert à certifier, un certificat. 'Yanick, je te certifie.' 'Borne-fontaine, je te certifie.' 'Virgule, je te certifie.' Tout ceci pensé dans le même état d'esprit où j'ai ensuite lu dans une liste de cours 'Français langue sexuelle.'

Tags: cartoonist_underground, en_francais

Bikini-saturated beaches this morning on the Berri screens as temperature outside dipped back to -12. I wonder if they still project images and play sounds of nature at the World Trade Center exit of Square-Vic.

Overheard fiftyish women speaking of the evil screens. They found them very entertaining but deplored that the STM had raised fares to pay for that kind of stuff. Not a suspicion expressed that what they watch is paid advertisement.

A friend commented that she'd rather watch TV than people any day. In her defense, she's been working retail for years.

Tags: cartoonist_underground, society

Whenever it rains or snow melts on the roof of the Préfontaine subway station, it rains inside too. Onto electrical equipment and metal you're meant to walk on. It's been like this for at least a year and it's getting worse. What the fuck?

Tags: cartoonist_underground

Margaret Hassan's plea was on those giant screens at Berri Friday, sandwiched between circus ads and close-ups on brand-name-encased boobs. I've thus been made complicit to this woman's torture, with no entity I can apologize to. A pornography of suffering force-fed from a twenty-foot screen is not information, people.

The distribution of those screens makes it impossible to completely look away, too. Unless you stare at the floor, there's at least one in a corner of your eye. I wonder how much of a reflex it can become to ignore movement at the corners of my eyes before I get killed crossing a street.

Tags: cartoonist_underground

Blade Runner award for September goes to the STM for installing these in Berri station, hub of the Montreal subway system.



Now I get to watch most of my fellow commuters stare at the boob tube twice a day. My love for students and other readers who ignore it and carry on blossoms.

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Like I said ealier, I've limited love for phones nowadays. Another recent feature of our subway is that you can now use a cell in some downtown stations. Young lady near me tonight took advantage of this to reach out and discuss a sad development in her love life. I can't believe she even wanted me, or anyone else on the train, to know. But there I was. I would've thanked her for the education, except I have a heart.

Armoring yourself from loneliness in a crowd in a way that broadcasts information about yourself into the crowd at random looks counterproductive to an introvert.

Tags: cartoonist_underground