kicks off the first game of Euro 2000 in Brussels. I’m not a huge football (aka soccer) fan but I love the big tournaments. And Montreal is a particularly great place to be a soccer fan – it really comes alive during a big event. My neighbourhood (le Plateau Mont-Royal) is a mix of artists and students – but also of tons of first-generation Canadians, just here from Portugal, South and Central America, and little Italy is just up the way a mile or so. During the last World Cup if you had walked down boul. St-Laurent, you would have noticed that every business had a TV in it – barbershops, hair salons, cafs, bars, restos – and they were all tuned to a game.

My friend Roel splits his time between here and Amsterdam and tells me that Holland is particularly dangerous this year.