Society
More celebrations of Wednesday Nights: Never better, never warmer
By Stephen Blank on February 16, 2011
From someone who spent some moments on Canadian TV in the 1990s (when I headed the Council of the America’s Canadian Program in New York City), I can tell you that the lights were never hotter, the questions never tougher, the company never keener and the conversation never quicker than around the Nicholson’s table on Wednesday night. Might I also say, the friendships were never warmer, the wine more plentiful or hosts more gracious. Hail to David and Diana!
More celebrations of Wednesday Nights: Plus ça change..the 700th tribute
By Sam Totah on February 16, 2011
Dear Diana and David,
The year is now 2011, you have just moved out of the house - 33 Rosemount avenue, Westmount, Quebec, still in Canada (!) and I just reviewed what I had written some fifteen years ago about your Wednesday Nights Salon on the occasion of the 700th anniversary. Now, you have passed your 1500th anniversary of your unforgettable “plus ca change plus c’est la même chose” soirées with some slight changes, but the spirit is still the same ! Hope you would like the following to …my tribute to the 700th
NAOMI BRONSTEIN, CANADA’s SWEARING MOTHER TERESA: 1945-2010
By Alan Hustak on January 2, 2011
Naomi Bronstein, who died in Guatemala City on Dec. 23 at the age of 65, was a humanitarian, Children’s aid worker and a non-conformist whose abrasive personality earned her a reputation as the swearing Mother Teresa.
A moveable feast
By Beryl Wajsman on December 27, 2010
Some thirty years ago, Diana and David Nicholson opened their storied home at 33 Rosemount Avenue in Westmount for conversations with friends every Wednesday night. Those conversations grew into a Montreal tradition that rivals the most influential political and literary salons of Washington, London or Paris. Almost every leader from the worlds of politics, finance, medicine, science, academia and any other vocation you can think of have passed through their warm and welcoming doors.
1500 mercredis consécutifs!
By Alan Hustak on December 27, 2010
Ce n’est peut être pas impressionnant si vous le dites rapidement, mais contemplez le nombre pour un instant et il est en effet impressionnant.
Since David and Diana Nicholson held their first salon in February, 1982, we’ve gone through seven Canadian Prime Ministers, five United States Presidents, ten premiers of Quebec, eight periods of negative economic growth, four economic recessions, and two Quebec referendums. The ramifications all of which have been either debated, dissected, discussed or dismissed by those who have kept the flame of friendship burning at their table for 28 years. There have been Wednesday nights on Christmas Eve, even on a Leap Year a Wednesday in 1992. Through it all there has never been an occasion when no one has shown up.
Toast to a House
By Wanda Potrykus on December 27, 2010
For 1495 consecutive Wednesdays this stately mansion on its quiet tree-lined street in Westmount has opened its yellow door with the admiral’s port and starboard lights of red and green firmly, quietly beaming welcome to a motley crew of you and yes, I...to meet and greet, to talk and tease, and laugh and joke and sing...and ring in the changes of government, economies, birthdays, markets, years, ideas, philosophies, generations, recessions, opinions, seasons, reasons...even millennia...during times of sadness and madness...of plenty and of want...while it has steadfastly borne the brunt of countless openings and closings, farewells, hallos, and bon voyages...swinging shut for the final time behind some...but opening more often than not...for the crew of long time regulars...with or without their varied guests...and pasts...
Lasting connections
By Helen Forbes on December 27, 2010
I think my late boss, Richard J. Kaiser and I started going to Wednesday nights in 1981 or '82. Sometimes there were 20 or 30 people, sometimes as few as 10, often in the summers when people were away. Richard J. ended up giving up on the late nights as he had kids to get to school the next morning but I kept going.
Symposium on the Saint Lawrence: A tribute to Wednesday Night
By Kimon Valaskakis on December 27, 2010
In Plato’s original symposium which took place in the house of the tragedian Agathon, seven Greek philosophers compared thoughts and experiences on the subject of love (Eros, Agape but primarily love of wisdom which is the etymological meaning of philosophy itself). This started a long historical tradition of erudite discussions over the dinner table (and was probably even the precursor of the modern day business lunch).
Thank You
By Paul Shrivastava on December 27, 2010
Thank you for this grand celebration of Wednesday Night, and of Diana and David's leadership in creating and sustaining community discourse. For a new comer to Montreal like me, Wednesday Night offered it all - an introduction to the city's buzz, latest political news and gossip, lofty analysis, Punditry at its best, the seduction of a Parisian salon, an open, inviting and friendly atmosphere. It was a pill that made me feel instantly like an "insider". At least once a week I felt like I knew exactly how things really were. The discussions were well researched, erudite, and incisive, the disagreements were friendly and civil, and the video tapes archive is there to prove it.
The quiet charms of fascinating people
By Steven Lightfoot on December 27, 2010
It all started for me 20 years ago. My friend Marina knew I was interested in ideas and the sharing of them, and she had run across this really interesting couple living in Westmount. They held what could only be described as a 19th century Parisian salon right in their home. They had been doing this literally every Wednesday Night for years, which sounded implausible, but was true.
No small feat: 1500 sparkling nights....and one cracked chair
By Roslyn Takeishi on December 27, 2010
Intellectual Salons have been a social reality from the 16th century onwards, starting as an Italian invention, then flourishing in France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. They are the place for the exchange of ideas. David and Diana Nicholson have been hosting their Salon for over 28 years in their Westmount home. On December 1, 2010, we celebrate 1500 Consecutive Wednesday Nights, a seriously committed undertaking.
Something to look forward to
By Antal Deutsch on December 27, 2010
Wednesday Night is a delightful microcosm of educated Anglo and Allo-Montrealers. The over-all tone is leftist, in the let-us-save-the-world style of the early seventies. There are a couple of sacred cows that are carefully not discussed: Israel vs. the Palestinians, and the suppression of individual rights (nominally language, but really economic) in the name of “collective rights” in Quebec. The over-all leftist tone not withstanding, much attention is devoted to the stock-market.
Montreal’s Source of Enlightenment: « Les beaux esprits se rencontrent »
By Alexandra T. Greenhill on December 27, 2010
As a traveler crossing the desert in hope beyond hope happens upon an unexpected lush oasis, so did we stumble upon Diana and David’s miraculous Montreal institution, at which political, social, artistic, and scientific questions are discussed weekly with never ending passion and an abundance of new perspectives. This is what the Salons of the French 18th century Age of Enlightenment must have felt like and the impact of these gatherings is of similar scope to be felt for decades to come.
Thinking that's outside the box
By Margaret Lefebvre on December 27, 2010
It was the year 1991 and all was not well in the Canadian nation.. The Meech Lake Accord had collapsed, Quebec was feeling even more alienated then even after the “night of the long knives”; Canadian unity was at a crisis point, hoist on a feather, and rumblings of passionate discontent could be heard throughout the land.
1500 Wednesday Nights and a very special friend
By Catherine Gillbert on December 27, 2010
My thoughts about Wednesday Night always centre on the atmosphere created by the Nicholsons in their wonderful home. The open door, the hugs and handshakes and the glass of red wine is the right way to make anyone feel perfectly at home. Although I have lived in Canada for almost 50 years I never really felt as if I belonged until I discovered Wednesday Night. No longer the outsider looking in, I have found a place where I am free to hold any number of contrarian positions without being considered an imposter. As in an Oxford Common Room, divergence of opinion is the staff of life for Wednesday Night.
An unending stream of the best and the brightest
By David T. Jones on December 27, 2010
It seems like forever; it seems like only yesterday that I first encountered David and Diana Nicholson and enjoyed a "Wednesday Night." In the winter of 1993, I was political minister counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, and I attended this first Night as "spouse of" my wife Teresa who was the economic/commercial officer at the U.S. consulate in Montreal.
A True Salon
By Teresa C. Jones on December 27, 2010
In 1992, when I arrived in Montreal to replace the number two at the U.S. Consulate General in Montreal, I had a few days of overlap with John Riley, my predecessor. He told me all about this fascinating salon that he attended and that I should attend. He even took me to a Wednesday night meeting. Coming from Washington and the interagency maze of experts, it was refreshing to find a group who actually thought as well as they talked. Diana and David had the magical ability to draw out the best of the discussion and the discussants. The topic didn't matter.
Wednesday Night: The Cardinal would feel at home
By Margaret Duthie on December 27, 2010
Wednesday-Night – for me is a coming-together in what I imagine to have been the style of the French Cardinal Richelieu who founded the French Academy (Académie française) in 1635., but was also famed for his literary 'salons.'
1500 Wednesdays
By Prof. Gerald Ratzer on December 27, 2010
David and Diana Nicholson have to be congratulated for what is clearly a record setting contribution to the social and intellectual fabric of Montreal. From what started as an after-class get together with her McGill professor Carl Begie over a drink, this has expanded into a well researched and documented salon, few in the world can revival.
It changes lives
By Katherine Waters on December 27, 2010
My husband David and I weren't sure what to expect at our first Wednesday Night. We'd heard that several economists, stockbrokers, investment counsellors, bankers attended. Would a journalist and an English Lit professor of socialist inclinations and little disposable income fit in?
A magnificent and unanticipated pleasure!
By Prof. Guy Stanley on December 27, 2010
The Italian historian Benedatta Craveri remarks in l’Âge de la conversation (Gallimard 2002) that the conversation of the Salon over the course of a century or more, beginning in the 17th century after the the French wars of religion, developed a civilizing ideal of social conduct based on courtesy and mutual pleasure. Over the course of its development, as other historians noted (e.g. Anne Martin Fugier in her account of Les salons de la Troisième Républic (Perrin/Tempus 2009)) the ideal of sociable conversation deepened as participation broadened to include writers, artists, and politicians.
A Special Thanks to David and Diana Nicholson for Wednesday Nights
By The Hon. John Ciaccia on December 27, 2010
We are grateful for the opportunities you have given us to meet, to talk , to sometimes dispute but always to enjoy your company and that of the many and varied people who have joined you on Wednesday Night.
You have opened your home and your hearts to us all. We have been fortunate to have had this oasis in the midst of apathy inattention and confusion. A place where the events of the time will have been reviewed, discussed, discarded, embraced but never overlooked. They have enriched us all- and left us yearning for more.
To be or not to be, is still the big question
By P.A. Sévigny on December 27, 2010
While death and taxes continue to be the two immutable factors of modern life, questions raised by legal euthanasia seemed to be less concerned with the inevitable end of life as opposed to the where, when and especially how the lights get turned off.
“It’s not so much about if we’re going to die,” said Dr. Stephen Liben. “It’s all about how we’re going to die.”
Supreme Court compromises home privacy
By Beryl Wajsman on December 1, 2010
We have all heard the expression that a “person’s home is their castle.” It is more than a saying. It has for hundreds of years been incorporated into the body of our laws. Clearly one can understand that there are certain exceptions. If we hear some horrible scream or smell or smoke coming from our neighbour’s home or apartment we would be irresponsible not to call the appropriate authorities and they would be perfectly right to come and investigate. But how do you feel about information collected about you through the endless panoply of wires and meters governing our abodes being handed over to public security authority? A great danger we think. Yet that is what the Supreme Court has opened the door to.
The secrets of the Sistine Chapel
By Father John Walsh on November 4, 2010
The canonization of Brother André brought many Montrealers to Rome. Inevitably they will complain about the long line-ups to visit the Sistine Chapel but will they have uncovered the secrets of the Sistine Chapel? Viewing the work of Michelangelo is breathless but does the Chapel still hold its secrets from the average visitor. The incredible frescoes required a rather complex method to prepare the plaster before the first stroke of the paintbrush would bring color to life. Imagine Michelangelo laying on his back for four and a half years painting the entire ceiling and walls of ceiling and walls of the Chapel. The Chapel is a replica, of identical size, of the Jerusalem Temple and symbolized the successionism of Catholicism over Judaism. The masterpiece has, from the time of its painting, been regarded as an affirmation of the Roman Catholic Church’s central place in the economy of salvation.
“The Jew is not my enemy!” Fatah challenges extremists within his own faith
By Dan Delmar on November 4, 2010
Religious extremism in Islam, Tarek Fatah says, is a “disease that is affecting us to the point that we’re becoming insane with our hatred. I wanted to investigate what is the root cause of the hatred of the Jews.”
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Fatah is the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and the author of the just-released “The Jew is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism.” His book tour included two stops in Montreal last week, including one at Côte St. Luc’s Beth Israel Beth Aaron Synagogue.
JFK bust moved
By Alan Hustak on November 4, 2010
The bust of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy that has stood outside the Place des Arts metro station since 1986 is no longer there. Because he public square in which it stood is being rebuilt as part of the new Symphony Hall project, the statue has been taken away and JFK Square has been renamed Promenade des Artistes.
Les deux solitudes : Up close and personal
By Fanny La Croix on September 9, 2010
Why do Francophones speak so much English amongst themselves? It’s a question you find yourself asking often when you’re in constant language flux, seamlessly weaving between the two solitudes.
Même parmi les Francophones pures laines, certains dont l'anglais est au mieux passable, ils se retrouvent à utiliser ce langage si confortable et si à la mode, celui de Shakespeare. De temps en temps, il y a un éveil, alimenté par la fierté nationaliste; les excuses commencent ainsi que la détermination bien intentionnée de vouloir parler plus le français, mais c’est de courte durée.
L’Islam est-il né dans un désert?
By Louise V. Labrecque on September 9, 2010
Dans cinq ou huit langues différentes, en fouillant bien, des savants ont trouvés des textes arabiques, qui n’ont aucune parenté avec l’arabe qu’on connait. Le défi, pour quiconque s’intéresse à l’avant-Islam, c’est de trouver des sources. Il faut donc, bien souvent, se tourner vers la tradition orale et de la poésie archaïque, recueillis par les premiers savants arabo-musulmans (des milliers de textes antiques), souvent gravés sur pierre ou métal, espèces de graffitis incisés par des passants sur les roches, le long des chemins et autres documents d’archives écrits sur des bouts de bois, en alphabet cursif. En effet, cette diversité précède la conversion à l’Islam et porte le nom de Jâhiliyya ou « Age de l’ignorance »; en ce temps-là, la Mecque était une petite bourgade aux ressources limitées où la faim et la survie était lot quotidien de la population. Parce qu’elle n’a jamais été réellement conquise, l’Arabie n’est mentionnée qu’incidemment dans les sources orientales (annales syriennes et la Bible).
300,000 abused?
By Barbara Kay on July 22, 2010
“A bad statistic,” says sociologist Joel Best, “is harder to kill than a vampire.” Bad statistics come from bad intellectual faith. And in no field does bad intellectual faith run more rampant than that of domestic violence.
In an up-to-date example of the phenomenon, we find the “World Soccer Abuse Nightmare” out of England, in which the British Home Office carelessly endorsed a bogus study put forward by England’s Association of Chief Police Officers, purporting to find that a full 30 per cent increase in domestic violence (DV) during the World Cup. A subsequent investigation by reliable scholars found the so-called study to be riddled with errors and corrupt methodology.
What Hampstead can learn from Syria and Tunisia
By Dan Delmar on July 22, 2010
In their fight to prevent the Quebec government from passing Bill 94, niqab and burqa-wearing Muslim women have found support in the most unusual of places: The most heavily Jewish town, statistically, in the entire province.
The face veil – the dehumanization of women – is where most reasonable people would draw the line. And evidently leaders in jurisdictions like France, Belgium, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt agree, having adopted various sorts of niqab restrictions. Why does Hampstead purport to know what is better for Muslim women than a growing number of Muslim nations?
Armageddon or no Armageddon, Secularists need to remain vigilant
By Anthony Philbin on July 22, 2010
The recent publishing of Marci McDonald’s The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, was timed to coincide with Canada’s annual National Prayer Breakfast (NPB). Though the first occurrence of the prayer breakfast took place when The Beatles arrived on North American soil, back in 1964, I have to say I’d probably still be in the dark about it if not for the clever marketing ploy by McDonald’s publisher.
Message to environmentalists: ‘Humankind needs energy!’
By Mischa Popoff on July 22, 2010
Humankind needs energy; always has, always will.
The emails from East Anglia University revealed that global-warming data were all fudged – plain and simple. This led to the collapse of a global-warming industry that had sprung up after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. But die-hard environmentalists were never bothered by not having a leg to stand on. Not only do they still want us to quit driving our cars, they want us to quit taking flights.
Fifty years after – The Church today
By P.A. Sévigny on June 10, 2010
As one of the city’s more successful antique dealers, the late Conrad Martin used to tell stories about how he started out as a ‘picker’ when he used to go up into the Gaspé and the Lac St. Jean districts to buy up whatever he could find once the province’s Catholic Church began to close up its empty churches and assorted convent properties.
“I used to make sure I had big rolls of cash,” said Martin. “I would go up to see the Abbess of the convent, put the money on her desk and make the deal right then and there before calling in the boys to load up the truck.”
La pensée de Tariq Ramadan selon Gregory Baum
By Pierre Brassard on June 10, 2010
Le théologien Gregory Baum, professeur émérite de la Faculté des sciences religieuses de l’Université McGill vient de publier: Islam et modernité : la pensée de Tariq Ramadan (Édition Bellarmin, 2010). À mon avis, son livre comporte de profondes lacunes.
