Ah, the wild years. Back in Montreal in the seventies and
early eighties, taverns were the exclusive domain of men
(except for occasional women on staff), and usually offered
only beer and pub food. Brasseries were open to women and
men, and usually offer wine as well.
But I doubt there are any "taverns" left at this point. The
last one I know of converted in the early-nineties. I
remember a tavern I used to frequent right downtown for lunch
(two drafts and a decent hot meal served on a real plate with
real cutlery, and still cheaper than McDonalds). When they
first converted from a tavern to a brasserie, there was no
women's room. So the owner would stand outside, looking
official, while the women used the facilities. Not that many
women would venture into the place -- it was a pretty gloomy
dive at the time. When asked where the ashtrays were, the
waiters (usually all called "chief" for some reason) would
usually offer the typical pub witticism: "You're standing on
it."
And now I live in a pre-fab California malltown that's
virtually bar
(and smoke) -free. The closest drinking establishment (ie:
within wandering distance home) is tucked away in the back of
a chain burger joint in the middle of a sprawling mall. It's
all offensively clean and brightly lit and plastic and there
are nauseatingly cute names for all the food items, but the
beer and the people are real. Even though I don't smoke, I
sure miss the slightly sinful smell of cigarettes with my
pints. And there's something scary about these overly chipper
waitresses with big plastic name tags bringing you you
drinks... most of them look like they're working their way
through cheerleading school.
Worse, there's TV screens all over this tiny alcove, and not
one of them's ever tuned to a hockey game.
Anyway, I'm reading C.J. Songer's BAIT right now, and I'm
really enjoying the tone of the narrator, an ex-policewoman
who's had plenty of bumps and bruises along the way, working
for a small security firm in LA. There's a great balance
between toughness and sensitivity here, a believably
hard-boiled femaleness that is too rarely captured in print,
as she tries to figure out what the hell happened to her
missing partner (another ex-cop) and who's trying to set her
up for a possible murder rap.
Has anyone else read this, or its sequel, HOOK? I'm not even
finished the first, and am already looking forward to the
second.
--
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.thrillingdetective.com -- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
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