Two in the morning, Montréal, by Jeffrey Veen

Two in the morning, Montréal

Outside the pub it's -11 degrees and the snow is piling up. I turn to take a sip of my whiskey and pause. Across the rim of my glass, over the shoulder of the person I am with, and across the bar, a man has a pool cue above his head and is swinging it like an ax. I hear a crack from the wood and then see a barstool arc over a table at him. Now twenty people are on each other and the bartender is dialing the phone and I'm reaching for my jacket.

"We should go."

But the brawl has spread to between us and the door. A man near me is bleeding - really bleeding - like special-effects bleeding and I see a trail of fat round drops on the floor. There is so much swearing in French and everyone holding each other back. Things seem like they're in slow motion but I'm pretty sure that has to do more with whiskey than perception.

And like that there are cops and the bar is empty. It's really really quiet and it's just us and the woman behind the bar and the poor guy with the mop. She fills our drinks and pours one for herself and we do this a few more times. There's no tab when we leave.

The next day I wonder if this sort of thing happens all the time, or if this is just what I should expect at conferences for librarians.

This entry was written by Jeffrey Veen and posted 8 March 2005 at 9:24 PM. It was filed under Information Architecture, Personal. | View blog reactions

Comments

1. On 9 March 2005 at 5:38 AM patrick h. lauke wrote:

sheesh...i've seen my fair share of brawling, so i can sympathise. but have to say, your twist at the end made me laugh out loud.

2. On 9 March 2005 at 7:50 AM David wrote:

For the most part, Montreal is a really safe city...except at two in the morning in a bar with intoxicated cue-wielding pool players. Beware.

I hope the rest of your stay in Montreal was less intense. Glad you visited our fine city as part of the IA Summit. I wish I could have attended along with my fellow librarians.

3. On 9 March 2005 at 8:08 AM veen wrote:

The summit was great, David. And the city was fantastic. Old town was beautiful and I would have explored further had it not been, you know, -11 and all that.

Really looking forward to visiting again...

4. On 9 March 2005 at 8:36 AM John B wrote:

Long but descriptive and readable set up.

Great punchline. :)

5. On 9 March 2005 at 9:12 AM helen wrote:

excellent, nice twist :)

6. On 9 March 2005 at 9:15 AM mikey wrote:

Dang, not like any librarians I know! Must be a Canadian thing...

7. On 9 March 2005 at 10:06 AM Patrick wrote:

So you better appreciate the -11 of last weekend: it was -30 this morning with the windchill ;)

Where was that brawl anyway? After Brutopia?

8. On 10 March 2005 at 1:06 AM seth wrote:

hrm...i see stuff like this on a regular basis. maybe it's just the places i tend to go have drinks. who knows.

9. On 10 March 2005 at 10:52 AM Miguel wrote:

I guess it all depends on which bar and which area you were in. It's funny that I read this story 'cause I went out yesterday to a place called "upstair" (which is a great jazz bar in montreal). A friend of mine was singing. When I got out, their were a minimum of 15 cops at the bar next trying to calm down a couple of freshman kids... Exciting city isn't ? :)

10. On 10 March 2005 at 1:51 PM Anthony Bosio wrote:

This is what happens when there is no hockey.

11. On 10 March 2005 at 8:11 PM wrote:

That Irish pub around the corner from the conference? Hmmm. It was looking pretty scary in there Saturday night...

12. On 10 March 2005 at 8:42 PM Erin wrote:

Sacre bleu! If that was just a random incident, I'm afraid to imagine what the Richard Riots were like.

13. On 18 March 2005 at 11:28 AM Cecily wrote:

If you think that's bad, you should go to an ALA conference sometime...

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