Ok, so it's been a few days since I've posted anything. I've got a couple of entries started, but I just haven't gotten around to finishing them. And then inspiration struck. Well, kind of. Got an idea from watching TV.
Now, if you know me & my situation, you know I have a fair bit of time on my hands nowadays, so I try to keep busy. Some of that busy-ness involves watching TV. But I watch to learn new stuff, so pretty much all the talk shows are out, MuchMusic & MuchMoreMusic & MTV Canada don't offer anything aimed at my demographic, if you've seen one Springer or Maury, you've seen them all - and you ARE the father! If you've seen Maury, a free paternity test is handed out for each guest. And sometimes more than one. But I digress....
If you haven't figured it out yet, I try to watch stuff where I'll learn something. It might be trivial and/or insignificant, but it leaves me feeling smarter than when I tuned in (vs the shows & networks identified above). So one of the shows I try to catch regularly is called Trashopolis. It's on History Television (http://www.history.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=251059). Basically, they go around the world to major cities and examine their history and technological developments related to waste management. Legit waste management, not Tony Soprano "waste management". (I know it doesn't really sound interesting - it's garbage, right? - but I recommend watching the show.)
Last night they focused on Montreal. First time they featured a Canadian city. They've done London, NYC, Paris, Rome, Cairo, Moscow, Mumbai, Tokyo, Jerusalem, and Berlin. All sorts of cool stuff to learn. Like this little tidbit...good to have known if you'd lived downriver of Montreal prior to 1984....that's when their first sewage treatment plant opened. Before that, you flushed it, it ended up in the St. Lawrence River.
So what does this have to do with a depression blog? Well, I may be a tad warped in regards to my sense of humour, but I found the following bit on the show kind of funny. Essentially, Montreal has happy fish.
According to Sebastien Sauve, a professor of environmental chemistry that they interviewed for the show, the fish downriver of Montreal's sewage treatment plant have tissue levels of anti-depressants something to the tune of 100x the rate that would be needed to have an effect on the fish population. Thus, you have les poisson heureux. Happy Fish.
Basically, after the anti-depressants have passed through peoples' systems, they follow the regular way out. When the water treatment facility was built, medicinal drugs in the sewage weren't a problem. Take heart, though, Montreal is upgrading the facility to remove these kinds of contaminants before the treated water is released back into the river.
Now personally, I only like live fish. I'm not a fish, seafood or sushi guy. But if you like fish, especially those that you might find in the Great Lakes or St. Lawrence, you might as well eat 'em from downriver of Montreal - if the mercury & other shit in the water does end up poisoning you, you'll at least have a dose of anti-depressants to help ease you through it :)
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