Manitoba Links Weekly: A Whole Bunch of Food-Related Links This Week, But First Let's Note This Flooded Hospital and This Explosion (ManLinkWeek S02E14)

Hello and welcome to Manitoba Links WeeklOH GOD--

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[ CBC Manitoba: Natural gas pipeline explodes near Otterburne, Man. ]
[ Global Winnipeg: Pipeline blast sends fireball into sky near Otterburne ]
[ Winnipeg Free Press: Natural gas pipeline explodes in southeastern Manitoba ]
[ CTV Winnipeg: Communities without natural gas after pipeline explosion ]
[ Winnipeg Sun: Gas pipeline explodes, sending fireball into sky over Otterburne ]
[ KenoraOnline: State of local emergency declared in southern Manitoba ]
[ Reuters: TransCanada gas pipeline explodes in Manitoba, none hurt ]







Wow. Yeah, so. If you'd cast a glance southward late last night and happened to wonder what that was, it was a natural gas pipeline doing precisely what you do not want a natural gas pipeline to do.

The explosion has been confirmed as non-suspicious, which is comforting if you're glad that nobody is going around blowing up natural gas pipes to prove some sort of point, but also not comforting if you find yourself near a natural gas pipe any time soon and start wondering if they just kind of blow up on their own.

It's caused quite a bit of chaos in the area, evacuations and power losses and lots of folks trying to stay warm tonight; I'm sure there'll be more thorough investigations into the incident and some spirited discussions around pipeline owner TransCanada Corp. in the coming week or two, but for now everyone's busy trying to make the situation less of a mess.

You'll recall that Manitoba's last gigantic cinematic explosion was in St. Boniface, but St. Boniface is currently busy with a different kind of disaster:

[ Winnipeg Free Press: St. Boniface cancels surgeries after operating rooms flood ]
[ Winnipeg Sun: Water leak forces closure of St. Boniface Hospital operating rooms ]
[ CBC Manitoba: St. Boniface surgeries cancelled after operating rooms flooded ]
[ CTV Winnipeg: Dozens of St. Boniface Hospital surgeries cancelled or redirected so far due to water leak ]
[ Winnipeg Free Press: Flood flows work to other ORs ]
[ Global Winnipeg: St. Boniface ORs to remain closed for "a week or two" ]
[ CBC Manitoba: St. Boniface optimistic ORs in action again in 1-2 weeks ]
[ Winnipeg Free Press: WRHA 'cautiously optimistic' St. B ORs could be fixed in 2 weeks ]
Oh, geez. It really hasn't been a good year for the WRHA so far, has it? Just one thing after another.

I'm not sure if they have defined contingency measures for this sort of thing, or if they're just forced to wing it, but this is going to cause a new pile of delays for an already stressed health system not known for its, shall we say, expedience.

On the bright side, nothing blew up! Nothing blew up.

Also in unfortunate-closures news this week:

[ CTV Winnipeg: Mondragon restaurant set to close ]
[ Winnipeg Free Press: Mondragon closing doors for good this month ]
[ CBC Manitoba: Mondragon to close doors after 18 years of business ]
[ Metro Winnipeg: Winnipeg to lose Mondragon Bookstore & Coffee House ]
[ The Manitoban: Goodbye, Mondragon ]
[ Quill & Quire: Winnipeg's Mondragon bookstore to close ]
Alas, our fair city is losing a singular institution; there are only so many anchor-tenant anarchist-collective worker-cooperative combination-bookstore-and-vegan-restaurants in the world, and tomorrow there will be one fewer.

We discussed the closure of the Mondragon on this week of Winnipeg Internet Pundits, so I'll try not to dwell too long on it, but I remain hopeful that someone or something else will step in and provide a new hub for the community the Mondragon had helped to build. Perhaps in that now-vacant A-Zone space, or perhaps not, but ideally so; the Albert Street Autonomous Zone Co-op went to a lot of effort to acquire and preserve the building, so I wish them the best in securing an appropriate and ideologically-acceptable tenant for that anchor space.

Moving now from restaurants closing to restaurants opening:

[ Three Minutes of Less with Dustin Pernitsky: Bad business, Public Relations, and Poutine ]
haaaaaaa, yeah a'ight, cool PR there Smoke's

[ Power Goes Out (to eat): Fancy food and the future ]
I only really dabble in food blogging from time to time, at least so far, but I like to think that part of the fun is doing one's best to convey the experience of both the food and the atmosphere around it.

This blog post by RRC CreComm student Jordan Power definitely accomplishes that goal, but not in the way you're probably expecting. Oh, man, we've all been there, though, haven't we? "I should really, I should definitely, I should rrrrrAHH I can't I can't nope nope nope nope bail out bail out sorry everyone".

I'd love to world-wearily advise him that this all entirely disappears with time and experience, but I'd be lying through my teeth, so I will do no such thing. It does get better, though! You'd be amazed at what a new pair of pants can solve.

(Ahh, grad suits, man. There's a shared rite-of-passage dude-gripe if ever there was one.)

Onward to slot number six:

[ Winnipeg Sun: Welcome to Your Winnipeg ]
[ Winnipeg Sun: Winnipeg's best breakfast: Stella's ]
[ Winnipeg Sun: Winnipeg's best fries: New York Burgers ]
I'd foreshadowed this last week, and sure enough, here it is. Your Winnipeg! It's an ambitious project, and it's off to a strong start so far -- coincidentally also a food-related start, because that's how this post is shaking out today. (Maybe next week I should eat just before I start writing, I don't know.)

So here are the opening two poll-winner profiles, the city's best breakfast and best fries; the next profiles will be on favourite landmark and best cheap-drink haven, and then it'll continue on in pairs like that for the rest of the year, so be sure to keep an eye on that feature from week to week.

And y'know what goes well on fries? Y'know what goes well on lots of things?

[ Winnipeg Free Press: A Manitoba mistake: Honey dill sauce is strange and it's zesty... and it's ours ]
[ Winnipeg O' My Heart: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Honey Dill Sauce ]
AWW YISS HONEY DILL SAUCE

MANITOBA'S GIFT TO THE WORLD

SMOTHER ALL THE THINGS



(cough)

Er, sorry. Maybe went a little far there. I just mentally pictured the jar including the quote "'SMOTHER ALL THE THINGS' -- James Hope Howard" somewhere on the back and thought to myself that maybe this isn't the best rallying cry.

Honey dill, though, man! A personal weakness for many of us, but a shared strength as a group. Or... something like that. (Aww, man, I am never making the back of a honey dill sauce jar at this rate.)

Thank you for reading ManLinkWeek!