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Stuff i seen on TV (cont'd)
Toronto Centre Byelection
February 4, 2010
City TV reminds us that there is a byelection today in the provincial riding of Toronto Centre. Too bad they stuffed an extra letter in Glen Murray's name. Anyone want to buy an R?
My Toronto
Deer Park and Summerhill
February 2, 2010
There are several libraries within easy walking distance, and today I chose to go to the Deer Park branch. My trip started out in Bennington Heights, with a look back towards Florence Moosengale on Moore Avenue, already decked out in her red Valentine's Day attire.
I walked west, along Heath Street, across the pedestrian bridge over Mud Creek, through the Moore Park neighbourhood until Heath Street ends at the Vale of Avoca, and so down into the ravine.
At the bottom of the ravine, impossible to miss, Yellow Creek emerges from its underground storm sewer just south of Mount Pleasant Cemetery. Today, there was but a trickle of water. Last August, without a camera, I was here during a torrential thunderstorm, and the outflow was monstrous, a good ten feet high. Next major rain, I will be back.
Looking back south from above the outflow basin, you can see the gabions along the creek bed, and the beatings they must have taken to end up slumped over like that. A couple of trees lie across the creek bed, and I suspect they won't be removed because they will help slow down the outflow of water during storms.
Walking north through Mount Pleasant Cemetery, it's easy to visualize just how much earth had to be brought in to fill the ravine here.
At the entrance to the cemetery on Yonge Street is a weathered plaque, which gives a bit of history.
"Almost the entire 200 acres of land now comprising Mount Pleasant Cemetery, extending from Yonge Street to Bayview Avenue, was purchased in 1873 in what was then the Village of Deer Park. Following three years of development, the first interment took place on March 13th, 1876.
"At that time the City of Toronto had a population of about 68,000 people with its northern boundary at Bloor Street. A toll gate stood on Gallows Hill on Yonge Street, just south of St. Clair Avenue."
Gallows Hill, the site of a clash during the insurrection of 1837, got its name from an apparent suicide, a man found hanging from a large tree trunk that spanned the road in the early 1800's. The "hill" here, of course, is the escarpment of the former Lake Iroquois shoreline; everything south of this spot was under water only a few thousand years ago.
Gallows Hill on Yonge Street is today just another typical city street.
Continuing south down the hill, I am passed by a small man desperately trying to prevent his overloaded shopping cart from rolling away from him. "Wow," I said, "you must have a hunnert bucks worth of empties there." "No," he replied, "probably like sixty dollars." "How long did it take you to collect them?" I asked. "About five hours," he said, "but I don't do this every day." Private enterprise at its best.
South of Jackes Avenue, the neighbourhood is known as Summerhill, and its biggest landmark is the North Toronto CPR Station, now converted into a flagship LCBO outlet. On the west side of Yonge, you can gain easy access to the tracks. Note: trespassing on railway property is illegal!!
The rail line running east from here goes right through Summerhill. The small area north of the tracks and south of the Rosedale Reservoir on Jackes was the location of the original Summerhill estate. The rail line bridge across the Yellow Creek ravine has sufficient space for safe pedestrian traffic, although once again I must remind you that trespassing on railway property is illegal!! Trains come very frequently, so don't get caught.
East of Yellow Creek, Summerhill Avenue runs just south of the tracks. There's a lovely small village feel to this little community, and I left the tracks here for a quick detour to Chorley Park. There's a nice outlook across the Don valley here, from the crest of the hill overlooking the Brickworks and the Half Mile Bridge, to Pottery Road at Broadview.
Sorry for the crappy photo, but it was the best I could do without a tripod. At least I managed to figure out how to make it skip the flash and take a long exposure instead.
Football Central
Sunday Football is cancelled next week
January 31, 2010
Eight guys today—Eric, Dave, John, and Milton, against Andrew, Dean, Gordie and me. Clear skies, no snow on the field, and only slightly cold (as opposed to very cold, or bitterly cold, as it was for the last couple of weeks), but a strong westerly wind that messed up more than a few passes.
Things started out simply. Dean got a pick for our side, then Milton got a pick for their side. After they punted, we completed a long drive with a hook-and-go pattern to me, and I made a lovely fingertip catch, fully extended, for a touchdown. In retrospect, I truly regret doing the celebratory dance in the end zone, because that's just not my style, but hey, it was a really pretty catch, and I might not ever have another as good.
Eric, with his much stronger arm, fared well in the wind, completing many long passes and eventually throwing two touchdowns to Milton and one to Dave. Our side managed only one more score, to Dean, after a nice march with me at quarterback. My plays are awesome, and my guys were open all day, but my arm is crap. What I really want is to be an offensive coordinator.
After the game, we took a count of guys who can make it next week, and came up with 5. So unless I hear from several more guys this week, and post an update here on the site, we'll skip next Sunday, and play again on Sunday the 14th, 11:00 am, Bathurst Heights.
Lame or Not Lame Ontario decision?
Business Owner Fights For Personalized Licence Plate
January 29, 2010
Watch the City TV news story Business Owner Fights For Personalized Licence Plate. You'll have to suffer through a car commercial. The story is about a small business owner denied by the Ontario Ministry of Transport the personalized plate KICKBUTT. That plate would be ~so~ not lame. What do you think?
Stuff i seen on TV (cont'd)
A few ruins
January 27, 2010
In the 1948 movie A Foreign Affair, Jean Arthur is prim and proper Congresswoman Phoebe Frost from Iowa, while Marlene Dietrich is sultry Erika Von Schlütow, a singer at the Lorelei nightclub in occupied Berlin. The film is quite remarkable for its scenes of the destruction of Berlin, and the general depravity of its post-war life. But this is actually supposed to be a comedy.
Congresswoman Frost: "What do you want from me, Miss Von Schlütow?"
Erika: "Let's go up to my apartment, it's only a few ruins away from here."
Stuff i seen on TV (cont'd)
Bananas
January 27, 2010
Cary Grant as Geoff Carter in the 1939 movie Only Angels Have Wings: "Well, what are you waiting for, Kid?"
Thomas Mitchell as "Kid" Dabb: "Boat doesn't stop at Santa Maria this trip."
Geoff: "Why not?"
Kid: "They have no bananas."
Geoff: "They have no bananas?"
Kid: "Yes, they have no bananas."
I wonder how many takes they had to shoot before this scene was perfected and everybody made it through with a completely straight face.
"Lame or Not Lame Hall of Fame or Shame"™
Now with photos!
January 26, 2010
Whenever I notice a personalized licence plate, I try to remember it, at least long enough to write it down. (Of course, if I can't remember it that long, I'm not going to mention it here, eh.) After a few days, I have all these scraps of paper lying around. Today I cleaned up my desk and found a whole bunch.
- 4 BUTTS
- Not lame. Usually a plate that is "for" someone or something is automatically lame, but this is different.
- DRACULA
- Not lame, aah aah aah...
- BBUZZZ
- I dunno, but I'm leaning towards lame with that extra B.
- SMARTIAM
- On one of them new Smart cars. Lame.
- KERBS
- Not lame. Any nickname like this is awesome.
- WUZ HERZ
- Lame.
- FIT HPNS
- Presumably this is "fit happens" which is a sly reference to something else that happens. Hey lady, guess what. Lame happens.
- MAKNOFR
- No, make an excuse for being so lame.
YES BMW- Not lame. Take another look; it's on a Mercedes.
- FUNFORUS
- Not lame for me.
- CR Z 4U
- OMG lame. Lol.
- PUG PALS
- Lame pals.
- SKIBS
- Not lame. Any nickname like this is awesome.
- PINETOP
- Not lame.
- CUE
- ~So~ not lame.
- I HLPUC
- I made eye contact with this guy, then pointed at my eyes, then at him. He nodded vigorously. An optometrist. This is ~so~ lame.
- YYZ LAW
- Not lame. Don't much like lawyers, but the plate is great. YYZ, for those who might not know, is the airport code for Toronto.
- QRIOUS
- Not lame. Kinda cute, actually.
GR8BIG 1- Sent to me by Dieter. Not lame. It takes balls to advertise yourself this way. Oh wait, he's cruising high school girls...
- CDRFALS
- I think this is supposed to be "cedar falls" and if so, it's lame.
- FIONA
- Not lame.
- VE3...
- Not lame. The dots here, of course, represent additional characters following the VE3. (You can't actually get a dot or period on a licence plate in Ontario.) For those who might not know, VE3 is the international radio call sign prefix for Ontario amateur radio stations. When you see a plate like this, it will have the entire call sign.
- ULTRA Q
- Ultra not lame.
- RTNM
- Not lame. Of course, I don't know what this plate actually means, but what I saw was "Read the nice manual."
- JENKS
- Not lame. You're valcome.
- WAMPA
- Not lame. I'm guessing this is a grandfather.
- FREE SKY
- Not lame.
- BUBU 1
- I'm leaning towards not lame. Presumably BUBU was taken. The 1 is still okay, but any other numbers would be lame, unless you own the whole fleet.
Friends and family
Alubadit
January 25, 2010
Saturday night I babysat my two granddaughters, Claire and Norah. During dinner and playtime, Norah kept saying "Alubadit, alubadit." I picked up on it, echoing it back to her, like a word game. (We have several nonsense word games we play, including "Mnw mnw mnw" which you have to see before you realize how funny it is.) So she'd say it again. "Alubadit." I said it few times slightly differently, like "Aloobadit." But she'd correct me, and say it more like "Alibadit."
At more than one point, she'd stop herself and say "I can't say alubadit."
Her parents cleared up the mystery today. She's trying to say "a little bit."
What completely blows me away is her self-awareness. She's trying to say it, but it doesn't sound right coming out of her, and she knows it. And she's only just turned two.
Football Central
This week's Sunday Football star is...
January 24, 2010
... John Hatley. There were nine guys and John volunteered to go both ways. Eric, Greg, Steve and me against Tobacco John, Gordie, Dave and Dean. John got three touchdowns from Eric, and, on the last play of the game, beat me on a post for a touchdown for the other team, bringing the score to 4-4. Well done.
Same time next Sunday, 11:00 am, again at Bathurst Heights.
Stuff i seen on TV (cont'd)
Oh, Captain!
January 24, 2010
Captain Brad Parker (Robert Taylor) makes his move on young British aide Valerie Russell (Dana Wynter) on the Red Cross club dance floor in the 1956 movie D-Day the Sixth of June.
Stuff i seen on TV (cont'd)
Conan's last show
January 23, 2010
Conan O'Brien ends his last show by jamming on stage, playing guitar on Lynyrd Skynyrd's famous Free Bird. Symbolism duly noted, except that he isn't actually free until September (due to a non-compete clause). And it turns out he's a pretty decent guitarist—who knew?
Stuff i seen on TV (cont'd)
Taffic deaths
January 20, 2010
We've had an unusual number of taffic deaths lately, so much so that it made the CBC news.
I like how the visual artist managed to photoshop in some "shiny floor" reflection for the letters, without once pausing to actually read them.
Simply SQL
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