Spring is in the air...or at least the chlorine is in the (spring) water

I recently had a roadtrip¹ that allowed me to listen to Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel. Overall, it was a delightful, light read. The audiobook came in at just under 6 hours.

Flâneur is a French term popularized in the nineteenth-century for a type of urban male “stroller”, stereotypically of Paris. What a delightful word!

Microblogging v1.3.0 for Pelican released! Posts should now sort as expected. Thanks @ashwinvis. on PyPI #Microblogging #Pelican Plugins #Releases #Python

Summary plugin for Pelican v1.3.0 released! Now keeps internal link indicators (like {filename}) from leaking into summaries. on PyPI #Summary (Pelican) #Pelican Plugins #Releases #Python

CommonMark Pelican reader v2.0.1! Should stop complaining about intra-document links (e.g. #target) on PyPI #CommonMark Reader #Pelican Plugins #Releases #Python

New level of "business casual" unlocked: the bank teller today was wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap!

I’ve been intrigued by the term métis for some time. At the root, the word is French for “mixed”, as in “mixed race”. About twenty years ago, I was in France and actually overhead the word used “in the wild” in this sense in a conversation on the bus; the reference was to an arab teenager who had a black girlfriend.

In the Canadian context though, the word (especially when capitalized) has acquired a tighter meaning: the families of European trappers and their Indian brides, typically French and Cree respectively, born in the fur trade era, and their decendants.

The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life.

— Paul Morphy (?)

It’s been 6 years, but my genealogy website has finally been updated!