Expect the expected

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863 - 1944)

A terrible shadow drew nearer -  a shadow 

that seemed as if torn from universal Night.   

                   —Dame Edith Sitwell, 

                    The Queens and the Hive (1962)

They say “expect the unexpected” but common sense tells us to “expect the expected”; there is some hope in the unexpected, it remains unknown, but we have a good idea of what the expected might be. Isn't it just common sense to expect the expected?

The other night, reading the Oxford Book of English Verse (1939), edited by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch,  I thought this is about as good as it gets for a poet. If you can have just one page in a future edition of the Oxford Book of English Verse you've got it made, you have been and will be  remembered, you have dodged obscurity, your work will be remembered. The irony of this is that the editor of this famous anthology, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, has been more or less forgotten; indeed, Quiller-Couch's website intends to salvage him from obscurity. The truth is, for all of us, that with time there will be no one still alive who will remember us, or remember what (if anything) we accomplished, and it will be as though we never existed. Expect the expected.

Oh, how we struggle against time. Time cracks the whip and we jump and ask, “is that high enough, I can jump higher?” Old age is torture, it includes declining health, physical and mental exhaustion, arthritic pain, dentures and dementia, loneliness and regret, and the loss of all of one’s friends and family, we are stripped naked and chastised; the worst is saved for last when we are weak, crippled, and incontinent, and least able to deal with it. 

D.H. Lawrence wrote about the "bitch goddess" success, about the desire for material riches and fame that drives most people; they want the magic dust of being wealthy and famous sprinkled on them but without doing anything to deserve it, they want to be a somebody, even if being a somebody doesn't last long. But this magic dust bestowing fame and success is still dust, to be sprinkled down by the gods, or perhaps from Mount Parnassus. Poets should remember that the Muses don't care about your fame, prizes, literary awards, honorary degrees, prestigious presses, or who you knew, they are preoccupied with transience, that nothing lasts forever, and if it is the desire for fame driving your poetry, hanging out in bars at 2 a.m., schmoozing and boozing, it will still come to nothing but dust. And this applies to everybody; Transience, thy name is Everyman's Fate; Shelley knew this, it is the message of "Ozymandias", his most famous poem. I say to you poets, you are dead while still alive; blow the dust off the paper on which you have written your poem, the poem is already dust, the paper is dust, and then the poet is dust.

Seen on 9 September 2025, you never know where you will find wisdom

Posters on Cote-St-Luc Road seen on September 9, 2025. These are quotations from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov who said, “The whole world is a very narrow bridge. And the most important thing is not to be afraid.” I noticed, a few days later, that these signs had been removed.

“Even in dark times, you are able to find G-d.”

More quotations from Rabbi Nachman of Breslov:

 “You are wherever your thoughts are, make sure your thoughts are where you want to be.”

“If you won’t be better tomorrow than you were today, then what do you need tomorrow for?”

“All new beginnings require that you unlock a new door.”

“Always wear a smile. The gift of life will then be yours to give.”

“Let the good in me connect with the good in others, until all the world is transformed through the compelling power of love.”

 “Work at not needing approval from anyone and you will be free to be who you really are.”

“Seek the good in everyone, and reveal it, bring it forth.”

“Where there is no truth there is no grace.”

“Depression does tremendous damage. Use every ploy you can think of to bring yourself to joy.”

“Get into the habit of singing a tune. It will give you new life and fill you with joy. Get into the habit of dancing. It will displace depression and dispel hardship.”

Another fire, 14 September 2025

Coincidentally, there was a second fire (on Elmhurst Avenue) only two streets over but in the same city block just over a week after the fire on Westmore; the second fire, five alarms, was in a building that had not been occupied for about fifteen years. No one was injured, the apartment building had been boarded up for many years. It's possible homeless people were in the building.

Fire on Westmore Avenue

Here is the apartment building, on Westmore Avenue, where there was a fire on 05 September. These photographs were taken on 13 September 2025. When I took these photographs there were former residents leaving the building with what they could salvage from the fire, a disaster for them, and now they must find new places to live at a reasonable rent which will be difficult.

Driving to work, driving home, 16 September 2011

 

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course

A very long walk on 9/11; the last days of summer.

 

  

Darrell Morrisey and "Les secrets de la bonne cuisine"

Darrell's drawing for this advertisement, for Les secrets de la bonne cuisine,
was published in La Presse on 22 October 1928

Darrell Morrisey's drawing, see top right hand corner

In 1927 Darrell Morrisey produced an advertisement for what became a popular cookbook, Les secrets de la bonne cuisine (1928) compiled and written by Sister Sainte-Marie Edith (1876-1949) whose secular name is Mary Theodora Turner, of la Congrégation de Notre-Dame (CDN) located at 2330 Sherbrooke Ouest, Montreal, QC. Sr. Sainte-Marie was the director of the school for home economics which included cooking classes taught by Sr. Sainte-Marie; the book was also published in English. The book has been reprinted and second hand copies of the original book are available online, it can also be read or downloaded in its entirety on the Internet Archive website. Darrell Morrisey was a member of the Beaver Hall Group of artists; she was born in 1897 and died in 1930.

"Les secrets de la bonne cuisine"

Title page: Les Secrets de la Bonne Cuisine: Contenant La Substance Des Cours
de Cuisine Donnés À l'Ecole Ménagère (Congrégation de Notre-Dame)
de Montréal, Avec Plus de 1500 Recettes, Toutes Mises À l'Épreuve
Dans La Cuisine de l'École.

The secrets of good cooking (English version) by Soeur Sainte-Marie-Édith
(Mary Theodora Turner), Montréal, Canadian Printing and Lithographing
Company, 309 pages, 1928. Archives: Congrégation de Notre-Dame, Montréal.

Is this Sr. Sainte-Marie Edith's birth family?

Just out of interest (and thoroughness) I tried to find Sr. Sainte-Marie Edith birth family in the 1881 Canadian Census using her name, Mary Theodora Turner; there were several entries for "Mary Turner", each was age five years old. The family that seemed the most likely to be Sr. Sainte-Marie Edith's family lived in Addington, Restigouche County, New Brunswick; the family is listed as being Roman Catholic; they were also described as "Francaise" as their nationality but I am not sure if this means French-speaking (Restigouche, New Brunswick, has a large French-speaking population) or that the family was originally, or second generation, from France; the family have Anglophone given names but they could easily be anglicized French name; family members included: David (the father), age 42; Aleva (the mother), age either 26 or 36; William (son), age 10; Edward (son), age 9; Mary (daughter), age 5 and therefore born in 1876 as was Sr. Sainte-Marie; and George (son), age one year. What suggests that this might be Sr. Sainte-Marie's birth family are two things: Mary Turner's second name, "Theodora", is an unusual name, it is unlike more traditional English or French Canadian names for that time; and Mary Turner's mother's name is also not traditional, it is "Aleva", a name that I have not previously encountered. That said, one of my New Brunswick ancestors also has a name that I am not familiar with; John Veraker Morrissy, was born in Miramichi, NB, and became a Member of Parliament in Ottawa, I have never heard of the name "Veraker" other than in reference to him.

The above image is not from the Mother House of the Congregation of Notre Dame but
should give an idea of what the CDN cooking classes, in this instance at the college
Marguerite Bourgeoys, were like.

Sr. Sainte-Marie Edith conducted cooking classes and was director of the school for home economics at the Congregation of Notre Dame. Across the street was the Mother House, also a part of the CDN, where young girls were educated in secretarial science; I am not sure if buildings on both sides of Atwater Avenue were known as the Mother House. This was a prominent post-secondary school in its time; for instance, after attending the High School of Montreal, my mother learned typing, short hand, what we now call “secretarial science”, at the Mother House, it was excellent preparation for employment. Students were both French and English speaking, as were many of the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. Sr. Sainte-Marie Edith's cookbook appealed to the average homemaker; recipes are prefaced with questions students might have asked about the recipes, as we say today, it was "user friendly". Use of the commercial product, Crisco, is common in the book. Many girls, both English and French speaking, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, were welcomed and attended the courses given by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame.

It seems to me that Darrell Morrisey found a friendly environment at the Congregation de Notre Dame. Her father, Thomas Louis Morrisey, was born into the Roman Catholic faith but converted to the Church of England when he married, in those days this was advantageous for upward social mobility and professional advancement in business.