BOM naysayer

Another year, another Best of Montreal poll. And still the same old crap. How does it happen?

Best clothing store: The Gap. What? Best record store: HMV. Is Montreal serious? Best first-run cinema: The Paramount. You gotta be shitting me. C'mon, where's the joke? One could have got the same results from the same poll in Hackensack, New Jersey. If I'd wanted to know how much Montreal adores Corporate North America, all I'd have to do is walk past the lonely remains of Sam's on Ste-Catherine St.

I refuse to believe that Montrealers honestly think McDonald's makes the best French fries and Harvey's the best burgers. Do people not eat out anymore? How can Montreal truly feel that Second Cup makes the best cup of coffee? The out-of-the-pot diner Joe at Cosmos is better coffee, but people wouldn't know that 'cause they still think Eggspectations makes the best breakfast! What the hell?

Perhaps we Montrealers have been so conditioned to accept mediocrity that we actually don't mind Blockbuster stores with crappy selections surrounded by racks and racks of Hollywood bullshit. And if Montrealers' favourite festival is actually the overpriced, overcrowded, advertising orgy we call the DuMaurier International Jazz Fest, then it seems to me that people gotta get out more.

For a city that loudly prides itself on its incomparable abundance of culture and diversity, its citizens always seem oddly unaware of most of it. Then again, some things never change - the best place to get hit on by a jerk still is and always will be Crescent St. Boys will be boys, after all.

Hang on a minute, I've only just now noticed that results will only appear in this week's issue of the Mirror! I suppose I've jumped the gun a bit. Maybe you nice folks at the Mirror ought to consider waiting a few weeks to publish this letter. Then again, what difference would it make?

None to me. I'm off to the corner of St-Urbain and Duluth to have the best sandwich on the best terrasse in the city. If you wanna argue with me, that's where I'll be.

» Alan Yates

Flustered by fluoride

Kristian Gravenor seems to consistently sit down at his keyboard and compose a string of opinions that are largely unsupportable. His desire for Montreal to fluoridate its water is untainted by any opposition to this view, as he feels the anti-fluoridation forces lack credibility ["Cavityville horror," May 1].

In this, Gravenor is taking a page from the Sue Montgomery school of journalism. It's up to your editors to put such work into a section clearly marked "commentary," as Gravenor's opinions are hardly ever reflective of a diversity of views.

Serious questions have been raised in the last half century over the efficacy and ethics of medicating the water supply. In Europe there are very few jurisdictions where this is being done.

Montreal's Public Health department should be spending its time on more worthy issues. People in the city are choking on fumes, yet we rarely read about this. The streets are unsafe for pedestrians, yet we rarely hear about this. To be so biased on an issue like fluoridation is not only poor science, it's extremely poor public policy.

I suggest that in all fairness, your news department actually do some digging and find out why many people who previously advocated the use of fluoride have now changed their minds after carefully reviewing the facts of the matter. What Montrealers need is education on nutrition and a large sign in most grocery aisles warning people of the consequences of eating and drinking the products offered for sale.

Indeed, the government sells toxic products every day in the form of alcohol, which kills many Quebecers, lands women in shelters and tears families apart. But this product, which causes people to drive and kill, drink and puke, turn from happy to angry in a few minutes, is, in Gravenor's opinion, "good" [Kristian Perspective, May 1]. Makes you kind of question his views on fluoride, another "good" and toxic product.

» Jeremy Wallace

Daze of wine and drool

While my pot smoking rarely brings on the drool, for once I'm right beside Gravenor on one of his right-wing rants. Booze sales should be privatized [Kristian Perspective, May 1].

People from other provinces rave about how great it is to be able to buy a six pack here at 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday from a dep around the corner. Public drinking is widely accepted too, especially on holidays that seem to exist to facilitate it, namely St. Paddy's and St-Jean-Baptiste days.

But the SAQs suck, especially when it comes to my libation of choice: wine. Quebec has this tiresome Gallic pride or something that dictates that the vast majority of wine in their outlets be French. (I boycotted French wine when they decided to test nukes in the South Pacific and I haven't looked back). Meanwhile, highly popular Australian wines, for example, are significantly more expensive than in other provinces and the selection is abysmal.

If anyone's drooling, it's the SAQ buyers. And if you rebel with a stop at the dep for a bottle, you'll pay with a mouthful of window fluid, purple-stained teeth and a headache.

The solution is simple: Private retailers could buy according to the good tastes of their clientele, sell at more reasonable hours than most SAQs, and the government would still scoop up the taxes.

» Devin Kline

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