The Saturday paper

4Attention à la dermatite du baigneur. Grossness at lac Mephrémagaog.

4Un homme de 60 ans entre la vie et la mort | Montreal pedestrian in critical condition after being hit by car while crossing against a red light.

4La STM fait la guerre aux fraudeurs. New systems bring new problems.

4Une amende de 438$ for failing to stop at a red, riding without brakes and wearing headphones while cycling. Take from this what you will.

4Montréal croupit sous les ordures. More than a week after Moving Day, I’m definitely still seeing junk streetside.

4Des piscines pleines à craquer: a story about how people coped during the high heat and humidity earlier this week.

4Montreal’s Émilie-Gamelin park gets cultural calendar | Le parc Émilie-Gamelin sera plus éclairé | Le parc Emilie-Gamelin en fête ““We are giving public places back to the citizens,” Benoit Labonté, mayor of the downtown Ville-Marie borough, told reporters as he outlined details of the $80,000 program.” (Incidentally, Labonté intends to run against Gerard Tremblay in the 2009 mayoral election.)

4Lasalle: Un parc dangereux pour les enfants | Parents want more police patrols after boys find loaded gun in park

4Holiday Inn Sinomonde, sur St-Urbain à Viger: Les balcons de l’hôtel risquent de tomber | Des balcons d’un hôtel de Montréal jugés instables

4Un complexe revampé | Logements insalubres à Villeray: adieu vermine! | Appartements insalubres: La Ville aidera un promoteur à faire le ménage A slumlord’s properties in Villeray will be completely renovated with funding from the city and a construction company. Some units will be converted to social housing and the rest will remain affordable, according to the city. Some of the photos attached to the news stories are horrific.

4Podcast to put church, its history in perspective “Church of St. Pierre Apôtre was to serve the city’s poorest of the poor” and outsiders, including the gay community and AIDS sufferers. The podcast will be available beginning tomorrow on the church’s Web site.

Elsewhere:

4An Old Sound in Harlem Draws New Neighbors’ Ire: An interesting story from the New York Times about how the decades-old tradition of Saturday drumming in Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem — a tradition which has contributed to the revitalization and increased safety of the area — has drawn numerous (and some nakedly racist) complaints from new residents in condominiums across from the park, the majority of whom have migrated north from Manhattan. (The Times neglects to note that apparently the dispute has been solved by relocating the drummers once again.)

I thought it was an interesting story to compare to the Tam-Tams here on Mount Royal. Love ’em or hate ’em, I don’t think they’re in danger of going away any time soon.

4Cops: angry bicyclists gang up on the wrong guy. A rather harrowing tale of a — stay with me here — cycling activist who, from his car, scolded a cyclist for running a red light. The cyclist then attacked the activist’s car and the activist himself with his bicycle. The cyclist was found to be drunk and was charged by police on several counts.

You know, I didn’t appreciate the two rolling critiques I’ve received from fellow cyclists, and I think I would appreciate it even less from someone driving alongside me in his car. But this guy must’ve had a real bad day to actually use his bike as a weapon. Holy.

4Arrestation d’une danseuse érotique se produisant dans le métro de Santiago. An interesting case — the dancer, Monserrat Morilles, who l’Agence France-Presse inexplicably labels “superb”, performed in the metro to test the boundaries of Chilean freedom of expression, and said no one has ever complained.

4Finally, I leave you with this important lesson for us all, courtesy the York Region police, near Toronto: Don’t drink and mow!

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Don’t forget that the Just For Laughs is ongoing down in the Quartier Latin — check their site’s Urban Arts section for lots of outdoor and free events this weekend.

Also check out the free Pomme-Pomme craft fair from 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday at la Salla Rossa. [map]

Finally, Pop Montreal presents their Reggae Bike-in, with music and a screening of the movie Rockers, as well as food and drinks, tonight at McAuslan Brewery in St-Henri.

“You’re beautiful! (It’s society that’s fucked)” photo by Kenudigit on Flickr.