By McGill Reporter Staff
If you find yourself in the vicinity of Pine Avenue and University Street at specific times of day over the next several weeks, you may hear the odd earth-shattering kaboom.
Rest assured that it’s not Marvin the Martian playing with his Illudium pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator (Bugs Bunny fans will understand) but blasting associated with the construction of a new service tunnel that will run from somewhere near that intersection under the Lyman Duff Building and the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – the Neuro – to its terminus at the north end of the Neuro.
Blasting through the bedrock will occur Monday through Friday at two periods each day: from 7 – 7:30 a.m. and from 7 – 7:30 p.m. The first blasting will occur at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20. Blasting will be more noticeable as the blasts are near the surface. Once blasting proceeds horizontally, under the buildings, the blasts will be little more than muffled thuds.
The Safety Code procedure for blasting is as follows:
1) 12 small warning shots at a second interval
2) Wait for a period of 30 seconds
3) Firing
4) Continuous warning lasting 15 seconds to announce the end of the blasting
No blasting is presently scheduled for weekends, but if additional sessions are needed, project managers will provide notice at least a week in advance. Blasting times will never be added at different times of the day, but may only be cancelled at the pre-arranged times, which have been agreed upon by the various parties affected by the project.
The new service tunnel will provide critical steam and condensate conduits and electrical power.
The project is to be completed by February 2015.
For more information on the project, including whom to reach for questions or concerns, please visit this link.
I believe that the more widely accepted term for Marvin’s weapon is the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Your spotty reporting makes me very angry, very angry indeed.
I’m not angry. Just terribly, terribly hurt that you would overlook direct video evidence of the pronunciation in this video cliP, which is clearly PU, not Q. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SklgaQXE5aw
Of course, you realize, this means war.
The Martian dialect can be somewhat difficult to discern, but it is most definitely a “Q” not a “PU”– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z40AsPaktzw.
Also, the Urban Dictionary is on my side, bub: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Illudium%20Q-36%20Explosive%20Space%20Modulator
Perhaps the Department of Linguistics should be brought in to referee?
Nyaaah, what’s up wit’ you, Doc? The most charming element of Marvin was his creativity with language – to wit: coming up with a new letter. I went back to the original Marvin the Martian episode, Haredevil Hare ( http://www.ulozto.net/live/xMM6UMq/bugs-bunny-haredevil-hare-1948-avi ) aired in 1948. At the 5:03 mark, you will clearly, very clearly, hear Marvin describe the device as the Iranium Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator. It could be Iranium or Uranium, I can’t really tell. But it was definitely Pu-36. Of that, there is no doubt. On this, I stand as firm as the Rock of Gibraltar!
That voice just isn’t right. Surely this fellow must be Melvin the Martian using a different device altogether, or perhaps Myron the Martian.
McDevitt the Martian?
Oh well. As a sage old gunslinger once declared, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
That was the Beta version, the first time the character appeared. Mel Blanc worked on the voice over the years until it was perfected. And I believe this Wikipedia entry will close the debate: On numerous occasions, Marvin has tried to destroy the Earth with his “Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator” (sometimes pronounced “Illudium Pu-36” or “Uranium Pu-36”).[3] Marvin always laboriously over-pronounces the name of the device, which resembles a mere stick of dynamite, in order to avoid any possibility of confusing it with some other similar form of explosive technology.[4] Marvin attempts to destroy the Earth because, he reasons,… Read more »