The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 21: I Am Off to New York City as a Lawyer for The United Mutations

One night at a favourite bar of mine Marwin’s on Stanley Street in Montreal I met up with a couple of lively personalities Squid and Willie Montenez. I had worked with Squid and Willie Montenez while volunteering with the United Mutations in Montreal. Weird cats. They claimed to have been from other planets and dimensions. Initially I thought they were tripping on too much vodka and mescaline but I recalled that Jesus often spoke in parables and this must be the case with Squid and Willie Montenez. Their brilliant and passionate minds worked often in “otherworldly ways”.

I had heard of their activities in Montreal before I had commenced my studies at McGill University. Their enemy Eno Ergot from some far away planet had apparently landed at the campus of McGill University a few years back. They had battled Montreal mayor Jean Droolpoop during Expo 67 and had lead mutant revolts at the Queen Fairy Veterans Hospital and Douglas Psychiatric Institute. You might say they were the grandfathers of mutantism.  Robert K. Stephen, my collaborator on this book, has written a brilliant history of mutantism in his seminal “Mutantism on the March” so I encourage you to read that serialized masterpiece for a complete historical treatise on mutantism.

What I will say is mutantism involves advocates for the rights of mutants on a global scale. And who are mutants you ask? They are the limbless, the lepers, the deformed, the mentally challenged, some criminals, disadvantaged and exploited populations etc. Luminaries such as Santa Claus and Tarzan had been involved with mutantism so it was no far out pie in the sky irrelevant social and political movement.

I had developed an excellent working relationship with Squid. Squid had contacted me in Toronto to congratulate me upon being called to the Ontario Bar and offered me a job in New York to help draft the Charter of Mutant Rights. I had written an article on the Canadian Bill of Rights so he thought this and my legal training qualified me for the job. It sure beat an offer for a full-time legal position in Toronto with Mr. Donut. So here I was on the midnight Greyhound bus from Toronto to New York full of Amish.

RKS 2025 Wine: Armenian Wine: The Next Great Hope? Not Enough Volume in the Market to Make That Determination

Wine producing countries and their subregions, such as Armenia, have a scarce presence in Ontario with a state monopoly controlling all wines flowing into the province except for the miserable duty-free wine quotas a traveller can bring into Canada from abroad or “smuggle” in from other provinces. There is no free Canadian interprovincial wine trade.

We have had a couple of Armenian reds on the shelves in Ontario as of late. But what can a wine writer do to expand their knowledge of a country and its subregion’s wines? Either the wines can be brought into the province for a “trade show” so consumers, wine writers and potential agents can get a crack at sampling a multitude of wines in a short period of time or even better take wine tourism writers/tour operators to the producing country where they can visit wineries, talk with the winery teams, try wines, sample local cuisine and get a feel for local tourist sites of interest. You want tourists to visit your country bring over those who will inform their readers and viewers not only about wine but wineries, local cuisine and interesting touristic sites. These “FAM” trips require an outlay of money to transport, feed and lodge journalists and tourism wholesalers. If you are cheap about the expenditure remain in obscurity.

Without such trips to Armenia how is the world to be cognizant about Armenian wines, cuisine and Armenian tourist sites?

Speaking of Armenia we sample a Yerevan 2023 Red Dry Winemaker’s Blend. Yerevan is both Armenia’s largest and capital city. The wine is 65% Areni and 35% Kamrahyut the grapes being from the Vayots Dzor and Aragtsotn continental climate locations with altitude of 1700 to 5000 feet. Areni is a village in southwestern Armenia where in 2011 a cave was unearthed revealing a winery estimated to be 6,100 years old.

Aroma: Blackberry, cassis, boysenberry, dates, chocolate covered cherries and high-toned raspberry. No oak.

Palate: Minimal tannins and controlled acidity. Raspberry mingling with milk chocolate. Both strawberry and raspberry jam. This midweight wine has a gentle long finish.

Personality: Admit it. You have never had a wine like this before so perhaps you can stumble around clumsily and get some bearings as misguided as they may be like thinking there is some similarity to a Pinot Noir Gamay blend.

Food Match: Shashlik (grilled kebabs).

Cellarbility: Drink by 2025-year end.

Price: $20.65 CDN.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 89/100.

(Yerevan 782 B.C. Areni/Kamrahyut 2023 Red Blend Winemaker’s Blend, Armenia Wine Company, Sasunik Village, Armenia, 750 mL, 13%).

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 20: Slavery of the Young Lawyer! Donuts and Orangemen in Toronto

Not being lily white in the province of Ontario, home of Orangemen, a sort of Canadian Ku-Klux-Klan and in the City of Toronto well known for its anti-Greek riots in 1918 I was bypassed by the big downtown Bay Street law firms who failed to realize my wealth and the numerous corporate structures I presided over! Their loss. This was before law firms and corporations jumped on the “global inclusion” bandwagon like the latest fad where lily white became somewhat of an evil (too late to benefit me) of course not including senior management and in the boardrooms. So as a “dusky grunt” I articled with Mr. Donut in the east end of Toronto. You are required to article for a year as a “lawyer in training” before you took Law Society of Upper Canada courses and exams you had to pass to obtain your license to practice law.

In Montreal often with a café au lait one ate a croissant. In Toronto it was a fattening sugar coated donut Torontonians were obsessed with. Premium coffees were unheard of as were croissants! Those Torontonians loved their “double doubles” meaning two creams and two sugars.

 Mr. Donut had some 155 franchised stores in Ontario most of which were in seedy neighbourhoods. I became an expert in negotiating franchise agreements. I represented the corporation in shoplifting matters, trespassing actions and all types of small claims litigation. Occasionally I would defend Mr. Donut delivery drivers for traffic infractions. It was all very exciting at a drastically pathetic salary and a box of 24 donuts each week which I fed the pigeons and gave to the homeless sleeping in the alleyways of our cockroach infested corporate office on Coxwell Avenue. Exploitation wages. I had to plod away at this for a year then it was a year of courses at the Law Society of Upper Canada with exams held mostly at decrepit bingo halls. I was called to the Bar as they say and ready to be a “real lawyer” 6 years after I started the process. Then the frenzy of applying for a job and again being part Indian the curry in my blood did not sit well with the roast beef brains of the Anglo-Saxon legal elite. I accepted a job back in New York working for an organization The United Mutations advocating for the rights of mutants throughout the world. I was working on drafting a very historic Charter of Rights For Mutants. Being half Indian in Toronto I was a mutant anyways. So it was off to New York! I was no ambulance chaser! I was changing the world!

RKS 2025 Wine: Decent Cabernet Sauvignon Hiding Out in Washington State

In the 14December2024 Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s Vintages Release catalogue in the California red wine section there are 8 wines listed and 5 are Cabernet Sauvignon. Ontario has been “taught” (is that the correct word?) to worship Cali Cabernet Sauvignon. Grabbing a bottle of reasonably priced California Sauvignon in the $25 CDN range can be a bit disappointing. There is a good supply at that price point but quality is a matter of hit and miss.

There is always Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon and Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is reasonably priced at $20 CDN and is consistently good.

Aged 24 months 20% in new oak, 46% neutral oak and 34% stainless steel. 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Syrah, 5% Malbec and 7% other red grapes.

Aroma: Suggests density. Loaded with black fruit particularly blackberry, black cherry and there is some dark chocolate too.

Palate: A well-crafted full-bodied wine with well supressed acidity. A big mouthful of black fruit and a judicious and highly effective maturation in both French/American oak and stainless steel.

Personality: Amenable and inoffensive to all levels of palate i.e. easy to get along with.

Cellarbility: Happy to hang around a bit but not beyond 2026.

Food Match: Roast lamb with sage potatoes.

Price: $20 CDN. $17 USD.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 87/100.

(Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley 2021, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Paterson, Washington, 750 mL, 13.5%).

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 19: Escaping Quebec Nationalist Fervor from Montreal to Hogtown!

I graduated with two law degrees from the University of Cote St. Luc Law School in Montreal. Despite the fact I spoke very good French having learnt this noble language at the King’s School for Young Men in Bombay my French was trés Parisien and nowhere near the joual of the Montreal working class. I was a “L’etranger” and a “Tete Carré” to the locals. Quebec at this time was going beyond its “Quiet Revolution” and trying to neuter the English or anyone not born in La Belle Province. The nationalistic Quebec Government’s Bill 101 criminalized all languages but French. In any Canadian city in you were free to advertise in your language of choice without any restrictions but oh no in Quebec you could only advertise in French with any other language secondarily measured in centimetres below the French text. This is how bureaucratic bean counters save a culture. Anyone perceived as English was penalized for the defeat of Quebec on the Plains of Abraham by the English in 1759. Oddly penalized for not completely wiping out the French population and giving them certain fundamental and cultural rights. No need to further discuss lest the FLQ terrorists who graduated into respectability with the Parti Quebecois firebomb a mailbox outside my home!

I headed down the 401 Highway with 425,000 Quebec “anglophones” to the safety of Toronto. What a horrific wasteland Toronto was! Everything closed on Sunday (churches excepted!) leaving only the smell of Yorkshire pudding and roast beef wafting in the air. Locals dressed in sweatpants and running shoes. Frightening but at least you could advertise in Punjabi without any restrictions. And the subway creaked and squealed like a pig in a slaughterhouse unlike the beautiful Montreal subway running on rubber tires! And bagels were Kaiser rolls. I recall heading out to a pizzeria after arriving in Toronto and asking for a mushroom pizza only if the mushrooms were fresh. After sitting down I heard the stoned out server ask his pizza maker to open a can of mushrooms to ensure they were fresh. Yes, high gastronomic culture in Toronto! Torontonians were well deserving of their nickname of Hogtowners due to their love of peameal bacon.

My publisher Wuhan Wet Market Publishing demanded I replace my view of the Quebec government’s attitude with a kinder word “nationalistic”. I had another word in mind. Unlike Rosa Parks I decided to disembark from the non inclusive Quebec political bus and flee.

RKS 2025 Wine: “Back to the Volcano”: Italian Red from ETNA

“Under the Volcano” is a novel by Canadian Malcom Lowry not to be confused with my heading above “Back to the Volcano”. I have had the pleasure of a day of intense fine tasting on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius outside of Naples 5 years ago and in May I am heading to Mount Etna in Sicily for some more volcanic tastings. To get a head start we try a Torre Mora Cauru Etna Rosso made from a blend of Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappucio.

Aroma: Black cherry, raspberry and dark chocolate but its essential core black cherry.

Palate: Black cherry just keeps on charging (and it loves the top palate) with some diffuse blackberry. Moderately tannic. Short finish.

Personality: Scrappy and persistent.

Food Match: Tomato maccheroni.

Cellarbility: No later than end of 2027 please.

Price: $26 CDN. 13.50 Euros.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 89/100. Luca Maroni 96. Wine Align 90.

(Torre Mora 2022 Cauru, DOC Etna Rosso, Torre Mora Societa Agricola, Castigone I Sicilia, Italy, 750 ml, 13%.).

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 18: Mind Numbing Law School at the University of Cote St. Luc:

My Bombay relatives were incessantly chattering about what my next step in life should be and it was the same story, MEDICINE, LAW, ACCOUNTING and COMPLIANCE! I could have lived a life of idle luxury with my wealth but the voice of my late father Paneer incessantly advised, if not nagged, me to improve myself and my fellow human beings by my actions. I could not see how my idleness would do either.

Having nothing much better to do I applied to and was accepted by the University of Cote St. Luc Law School in Montreal in their 4-year National Programme to obtain an LLB (common law degree) and BCL (civil law degree). I was accepted. I turned down McGill University Law as the United Mutations had funded a study by the Cote St. Luc Law school to further define how Canadian mutants were discriminated against by the judicial system and the United Mutations held the view I should be heavily involved with the project.

It was 4 more years in Montreal this time and instead my lodgings at the Presidential Suite at the Four Season’s Hotel in Montreal it was an “executive suite deluxe efficiency suite” at the Cavendish Congress Centre Hotel in the Montreal suburb Cote St. Luc. This eliminated the 45-minute commute from Montreal city centre. Food was much more basic in my new digs. I ate many a meal at the Ben Ash Restaurant in the nearby Cavendish Mall and at Delly Boys on Westminster Avenue. I developed a fondness for Cote St. Luc Bagel Bakery’s blueberry Danishes and pickled eggs at the Robert Burns Tavern.

Day one at law school witnessed a friendly and encouraging talk by one of the professors who said look to your left and right and amongst the three of you only one will graduate. So supportive and nurturing. What devils had I got myself caught up with? The professors liked to demean students although a lot could be said about students demeaning professors. That professor with his fly open. The hot shot professor who flew in from Quebec City to give lectures on “Being an Effective Tool for Megacorp Profitability”. For his exam he overloaded students with so many questions no one finished that exam causing student mass trauma. He later joked about it saying this is the stress you will have to live with in practice so get used to it. Nice man. I could go on but suffice to say these male professors were mostly nasty.

Being an “artsy fartsy” graduate it was difficult to be treated like a receptacle for judicial decisions. Were they good or bad? That was not important. The trick was to reduce all judgements into four sentences and memorize all those sentences and spew them out. The critical mind was not necessary or appreciated.

The competitive atmosphere fostered the aims and ambitions of the cutthroats. The most successful students had a tremendous ability to parrot and memorize but possessed limited intellectual ability. They were excellent regurgitators. One shocking incident involved 4 students I saw give a wad of cash to some janitorial employee who passed along a large brown envelope in return for the cash. It no doubt was meant to be secretive but word soon circulated about a bribery to obtain advance copies of several final exams. These students were award winning model students! I wonder why! One was eventually arrested for homicide and one other became the Minister of Justice of Quebec.

After 4 years of tough slogging I did indeed graduate and it was off to indentured servitude called articling before I could take my final exams and be a full fledged lawyer.

RKS 2025 Film: Scarborough Hits the Big Screen in “Morningside”

I grew up in Montreal and fled as a refugee to Toronto. I encountered incessant references about this neighbourhood called Scarborough and not always in the most positive language. An undertone of poverty, crime and naughtiness. Scarborough seemed so far away from Toronto it earned the derogatory nickname of Scarberia. 

The only relevance Scarborough held for me was the appearance of the Scarborough Town Centre on my drive home on the 401 from Montreal. A “almost home” beacon.

The film will be flickering on Canadian movie screens in February. To watch television commercials advertising this film well before it has hit screens means it is being extraordinarily well marketed and perhaps an indication it is already headed toward being a Scarberian classic and perhaps even a Canadian one! Remarkabke buzz for a Canadian indie movie.

Director and writer Ron Dias refers to the film as a love letter to his cherished Scarborough and that he has a responsibility to present it accurately.

What can you expect? A fictional account of Scarborough with enough reality to take it out of “fictional”? Violence, drugs, crime and the refusal of many to give up on Scarborough and its youth? Too dramatic and light to be “City of Vultures” yet too rough edged Canadian to be a “Boyz in the Hood”?

Coming to Canadian screens in February 2025. You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_IoV8DZvFs&t=2s

RKS 2025 Wine: A Devilish Bulgarian Wine

We try a pentagram Cabernet Sauvignon from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Pentagram hmmmmm. What the devil’s going on here!

The winery sits on a 3.5 km. peninsula on the Southern Black Sea Coast. The area has been under Greek, Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman rule.

The grapes were hand picked and sorted and fermentation was in stainless steel then 6 months of ageing in oak barrels.  

Aroma: Blueberry, black currant, blackberry and hints of dark chocolate.

Palate: Black fruit abounds. A bit brackish and curt. Moderately tannic and minuscule chalkiness. Decent structure but the fruit has largely wandered from the bouquet into the waiting waters of the Black Sea.

Personality: Why did someone give me a devilish name. I am neither Damien nor Linda Blair. I’ll be stuck with this curse until they change my name.

Food Match: Kiofte

Cellarbility: Drink by 2025-year end.

Price: $16.50 CDN.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 85/100.

(pentagram 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, PGI Thracian Valley, Black Sea Gold, Pomorie, Bulgaria, 750 mL, 13.5%).

RKS 2025 Wine: Armenian Wine: A Daring Move by The Liquor Control Board of Ontario!

Shame on you who decry the monopolistic Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO)! The “Control” in the corporate name shouts out a paternalistic and profitable heart. The LCBO wants to control what you drink reducing its administrative and business costs as much as possible to maximize profits. No expensive forays into new wine markets only “new” as they have been ignored. Higher LCBO profits mean increasing sums will gush into our efficient medical system to the extent that money will be spent on groundbreaking and next century medical technologies like the relaxing effect Bailey’s Scottish Cream dispensers will have on overly “popular” emergency care waiting rooms. Brilliant strategies for better health.

Imagine my shock seeing a bottle of wine from Armenia tucked amongst the “Holiday” Vintages Catalogue of 14December2024. The LCBO is rightfully championing a newcomer to its shelves in its “inclusive to some exclusionary to many” wine buying programme. Thank goodness for this international forward-looking outlook as why start bringing in wines from over 100 Quebec wineries when Eastern Township wineries are a mere 7 hours drive from Toronto!

A blend of Syrah, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. Predominately volcanic soils. Winemaker is Gabriel Rogel from Argentina and consulting “blender” Michel Rolland.

In a salute to the bravery of the LCBO we try a Karas 2022 Red Blend from the Ararat Valley.

Aroma: Dense black fruit. Blackberry, black cherry, cassis. Soft, smooth and some creamy lushness and density one might find in a Mendoza Malbec. A bit of dark chocolate and chili oil. I am picking up a hybrid of sorts almost Foch or Baco Noir but according to their website and label no such mention of hybrids. Hmmmmm? Some funk too reminiscent of many South African wines some 25 years ago.

Palate: Dry. Moderately tannic. The fruit tucked into the inner recesses of the wine but there is sufficient black fruit lurking that make this an interesting wine teasing you with much more to offer if you scrunch up the eyes and concentrate when tasting it. The Malbec is noticeable on the nose but more so the Syrah on the palate. Creamy blackberry with dark chocolate.

Personality: Dusky, dark and mysterious not capable of any convenient categorization. 

Food Match: Not having visited Armenia a more domestic food suggestion would be roast lamb with lots of garlic with roast potatoes and a heaping pile of rapini sauteed with garlic, olive oil and red pepper flakes.

Cellarbility: Perhaps it will take until the end of 2025 for more fruit to emerge but consume by 2027-year end. This wine is uncertain in what direction it is heading and its key to brilliance is maintaining its stern structure “while letting its fruit out” in a measured fashion. Take a bit of risk and hope some age will draw more fruit out.

Price: $20 CDN and as low as $8.95 in the United States.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 91/100. Wine Align 90.

(Karas 2022 Red Blend, Ararat Valley, Tierras de Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia, 750 mL, 13.5%)