The New Scrawl

I just got laid off*. Again. If I were a Scottish-born senior citizen, you could call me Sean Cannery. That's what global recessions do.

But as layoffs go, I must say, there have been worse. The package was pretty decent. Not only that, but I start another 3-month contract this afternoon. I get to work from home or anywhere else much of the time, the people are interesting and the cause is a good one. More on that soon.

So not only do I get paid for a while, but I am working and getting paid on top of that already, I might get an even better-paying job out of it at the end, and if that doesn't work out, I still get unemployment if nothing happens. Good deal, I say.

Still, I regret not being in the industry. I am, or will soon enough be, at a real crossroads. I could try to get back into the industry, or I could see myself making a whole new career here. It's quite possible. But I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

*The cancer comparison is creepy now that I look back at that entry.

Great fictional story from Julie. She says:

I was talking about the word "nègre" with Julie last night. We looked it up in the dictionary and found some interesting usages. Beyond the most obvious ones were:

• Nègre en chemise, now just called "noir et blanc"
• Nègre, meaning "ghostwriter". (Think about that.) The OQLF changed it to "auteur fantôme".
  

And in Quebec:

• Plan de nègre: An especially ugly expression describing some kind of underhanded plot
• Juif: This means "Jew", but, as in English, the way it is used is actually quite offensive. For example, you say to your little girl, "Eille, ma juive!" when she is doing something sneaky. This is something that an older generation is far more likely to say, but then again, maybe not. I also really dislike the English usage (to be "jewed" = to be cheated out of something).
  

I'd like to know of more of these types of expressions in Quebec and elsewhere in the French-speaking world.

I think that I was just the target of a cowardly racial epithet.

I had just crossed the street after having left home to go to work. I had the light and right of way. There was a car that was waiting for me to get across so that it could turn, but he could not have been waiting for more than three seconds. When I got to the other side, the guy turned without incident, and the guy behind him blew straight through the intersection. Before doing so, he rolled down his window (I should remind you all that today was NOT a day to be riding around in your car with the windows down) and screamed, "FUCKING NIGGERRRR!" at me.

Let's see what the apologists and so on might have to say about this.

1) I had caused a three-second delay in his trip. It could have resulted in him having to wait on a red light, because I caused the guy in front of him to hold off on turning. I basically ruined his morning. It wasn't really racist, because he was just mad at having been delayed.

2) He wasn't really talking to me. He was talking to the driver in front of him that had turned right, but when I looked up, it only looked as though he were targeting me. I have no idea if the other driver were black, brown or purple. He just wanted in insult someone that had caused a delay. Not racist.

3) He didn't say, "Fucking nigger". He said, "Chrono Trigger", which is one of my favorite games on the SNES. Cool.

What the fuck was wrong with this guy? How can anyone justify this kind of behaviour? If he weren't hiding in his car, and I confronted him, what could he say? That if it weren't for people like me he would have his own country? (This actually happened two years ago downtown after he targeted me with a couple of "FUCK LES NÈGRES!") Did I do something wrong? I know that there are people, more than you would think, that believe in what this dickhole did. If anyone can come up with anything that makes even a bit of sense, I would like to hear it.