I think that everybody who is taking part in the Pastagate – on either side – should go find some work to do. Seriously, folks, this is all so trivial that it’s a shame to waste one’s life on that. Pasta is for eating, not for debating, tweeting and organizing political action.
In case you haven’t heard of Montreal’s Pastagate, here is a link:
Buonanotte restaurant, located in French-speaking Quebec, Canada, recently came under fire for using the words “pasta” and “calamari” on its menu, reports CBC. The reason? The words aren’t paired with French translations on the menu, and that’s a problem for Quebec’s office of French language (OQLF).
CBC reported that the restaurant’s owner, Massimo Lecas, was told by authorities that Italian words such as “bottiglia,” “pasta” and “antipasto” should all have a French translation on the menu. He also claimed that he was told to translate the Italian words for meatball and calamari into French.
My Facebook thread looks like all of my friends are completely obsessed with pasta.
Worldwide for thousands of years? Really?
Clarissa's Blog 
Very very stupid nonstory indeed. Journalism has been on the decline for decades.
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language is a very sensitive issue in Montreal and people really go overboard on the subject.
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The fact that Québec has a language police is not a non story. The fact that our tax dollars are going to pay for such policing is also not a non story.
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Imagine how much free pasta could be given to people instead! 🙂
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Abolish the language police.
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Have you tried telling that to a Quebecois? Since you are still alive, I guess not. 🙂 🙂
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I agree with Rob F.
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So now you are against Bill 101??
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I have. And they agreed with me.
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I don’t live in Canada, but I had no idea it was this bad up in Montreal. Excuse me for my ignorance.
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The OQLF said they had been overzealous, so yes, as you said, end of the story. Next!
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A much more interesting topic of discussion is why calamari in Montreal are so much better than calamari anywhere else in North America where I have had a chance to try them. The US and Toronto calamari taste like rubber.
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If only this was an isolated incident.
http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/entry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10507103
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Come on, Sister! This bike shop story is more funny than anything else.
And thank you for reminding me that people still listen to AM radio in 2013. I thought that AM radio had died with my granpa in 1991.
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This is especially funny because I happen to know the author of the article – and not in a good way. 🙂
I hate that radio station.
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Well unfortunately the stories that are not entertaining do not make the news. My business got a complaint too. It’s mind boggling how many useless bureaucrats our tax dollars are paying for. Instead of supporting small businesses, they harass them with ridiculous issues to no end.
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Yes, getting rid of the language police would make it easier to do business (because of less paperwork, etc). This applies even if the tax money spent on the language police isn’t given back but rather spent on something else.
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And so it continues…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2013/02/25/quebec-restaurants-language-police.html
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Can I just laugh for a bit at the fact that the memes are in English? 🙂
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“So now you are against Bill 101??”
I’m against a part of this law, especially the signs part. The State should not regulate private advertising signs. I’m a secessionist, but not a nationalist.
But I don’t have a big problem to not subsidize english schools, but this is not the case in Québec now.
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“I’m against a part of this law, especially the signs part. The State should not regulate private advertising signs.”
– I respect you for that,
“I’m a secessionist, but not a nationalist.”
– And I especially respect you for that.
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It’s striking to me how much the Francosupremacists are like the religious right wrong in the US. For example, the RW enacts/supports laws motivated by animus/hostility towards atheists, women, scientists, LGBT people, etc. (opposition to same-sex marriage, VAWA, attacks on reproductive rights, creationism, etc). Similarly, the Francosupremacists are motivated by animus/hostility towards English speakers, such as Bill 101 and the recent proposal to strip bilingual status from some local jurisdictions in the province.
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