Author tackles love, passion, appearance and reality in India

Meeting Montreal writer Merrily Weisbord the other day was a celebration, though you wouldn’t know it from looking at our table.

No alcohol, coffee, tea, cake or even bread—only a tape recorder, notebook and some papers were laid out at Mamie Clafouti, a charming bakery on St. Denis.

Though she had yet to take her daily swim, Weisbord was buoyant and full of joyful energy as I told her how much I loved reading her critically acclaimed The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship With Kamala Das (McGill Queen’s University Press, 278 pages, $32.95).

This fascinating memoir of her 10-year friendship with South Indian poet-essayist-short-story writer
Kamala Das is a terrific read: informative, intimate, full of surprises and a triumph of friendship, trust and humanity.

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Gary Carter remembered for his friendship, generous smile

With tears welling in his eyes and a Montreal Expos cap on his head, former Expos star Warren Cromartie could barely begin to talk about his best friend, Gary Carter, without choking up.

When he finished his speech, though, with a passionate call for baseball to return to Montreal, he flashed a smile that would’ve made Carter proud.

Cromartie and other esteemed athletes and guests came together on March 18 for the eighth annual Cummings Centre Celebrity Sports Breakfast, in honour of the Expos Hall of Fame catcher who died February 16. The event raises money for Seniors in Crisis, a foundation that provides financial support to seniors in need.

They also came to pay tribute to Carter, a beloved figure in the Montreal sports community.

“Gary was just the best,” Cromartie told the crowd. “Everything you saw on camera, that big smile, the things he did with the kids, it was all genuine.”

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Central Park a masterpiece to be marveled at, meandered through

In 1877, Montreal fired Mount Royal Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted. Thus, his masterwork created 20 years before, Central Park, stands alone. True, we don’t have many mountains, but we have 200 more acres, more monuments and far more eccentricity.

When I visited Mount Royal Park last year, it was pouring rain, whereas Central Park is invariably sunny.

Thus, these past weeks I dug up a few rare factoids (and a few earthworms). I offer them alphabetically here and in our May issue.

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