First, sorry about the blurred contours. I was still learning the ins and outs of Adobe Illustrator when I colorized that

Now, what the Hell is a Taoueille?

When I was growing up, around 4 or 5 years old, Taoueille was an affectionate term I heard whenever I did something cute, “Why, you little Taweille!”

When I was fifteen, I saw the word translated as “sauvagesses” in a Gerald Leblanc/1755 song Le Monde qu’on Connait. “Sauvagesse” is, well, a very pejorative term for an Aboriginal woman, akin to the word “squaw”. That’s the worst usage of the word I have heard...but not the only one.

Years later, I already had this story in the back of my mind and I wanted Buzz to talk about some invisible, supernatural guardian angel, more or less based on Florence and her three daughters from Michel Tremblay’s “Chroniques du Plateau Mont Royal'', who helps little schizophrenic boy Marcel survive his violent family. During a slow day at work, I was just killing time on Wikipedia and I ran into an article in french that explained La Taoueille. I had found my guardian angel! She was an outcast, solitary but compassionate woman who knew traditional medicine and threw spells but never to someone who did not have it coming. A badass feminist who takes no shit from anyone, a guardian spirit I made up to face a real-life.

I hesitated for a long time between using “Taoueille” and the more bland “sorcière”. In the end, for this part of the story, I think "witch" is the word most likely to come out of Buzz's mouth...while "Taoueille" probably comes out of Mittaine's mouth when he tries to sound racist and woke Beebee would try to make trendy.