Month: December 2014

It’s almost time to design another book cover for John Robert Colombo, so naturally I was interested in an article about unusual library book covers …

These 4 examples were my faves. The subtitle on Dancing with Cats is too small to read, so here it is:

FROM THE CREATORS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BEST-SELLER Why Cats Paint

I love the picture on the National Rifle Association book. How idyllic! The little woman dutifully cleans and oils the family handgun while hubby (in the background) stares at a blank TV screen.
I like the Muskrat book because, well, it’s just so practical.
I know you want more, so here.

Dinner conversation at Kathleen’s last night revealed a mystery. Dayl’s office is on the 63rd floor of the beautiful, red granite-clad Scotiabank tower. Her view sounds stunning, but she also sees spiders, hundreds of spiders climbing outside on the window glass.
They busy themselves building elaborate webs until rain lashes them away or window washers remove them. The cleaners do a meticulous job, scrubbing all surfaces, frames and crannies, but soon the spiders are back. Where the heck are they coming from?
I had heard of spiders that travel through tropical rainforest treetops, riding winds on sails made of cobwebs. I had never heard of it happening this far north, and up to heights of 63 storeys! Could it be?
Apparently so. Google turns up examples in Chicago. Why not here? Here are more links, confirming the ways of wind-born cobweb sailors. In the UK. I like the note on spider mites, because that would explain why Dayl sees swarms of spiders that appear suddenly. A whole nest of mites, travelling in a clump would explain this.
David Attenborough says they can soar to extreme heights!

A Youtube video shows them in the Brazilian sky.

Dayl says I can visit her office and see the Toronto spiders for myself, but that will have to wait until the weather is more spider-friendly.

“His answers are unfiltered and to-the-point, often poignant but always unsentimental, not rude but refusing to infest the garden of honest human communication with the Victorian-seeded, American-sprouted weed of pointless politeness.”

Maria Popova is speaking about Werner Herzog in a book review on her blog, BrainPickings.

Yeah, I know… I’m asking for it. Not only messing up a Bible quote, but taunting the weather gods, all for a cheap heading over an abandoned wasp’s nest. Blizzards, soon.

It WAS a seriously mild day, today. Almost Spring-like. We discovered another Free Little Library, too. Flowering. It’s on Parkmount, east of Coxwell and a bit south of the Danforth. No finds we wanted today, but a nicely made unit. LOTS of windows.

The candies are placed on the checkerboard, positioned to trick the eye. If the candies are removed, the apparent distortion disappears.

Ever wonder how they get shredded wheat to fit in the spoon when they take those beautiful food shots for packaging?

It’s easy! Just snap the large pieces along the indented lines.

Voila! Spoon size shredded wheat!

On its own, my iMac displayed this notification today. What it will do tomorrow? [Answer:] Boxing Day Tomorrow.

Once most of the townhouses had been constructed on the site of a former Catholic school, two pits appeared at the ends of the rows, one on each side of the street. Danica wondered what they were for.

My guess was to make basements for two houses, but I was wrong. Four houses! Two in each pit.
Such is Toronto the real estate market at the moment. Land anywhere near downtown is precious. Yards have been replaced with flowerpots so that living space can be maximized.
Personally, I favour this development. Denser housing is better than urban sprawl. More people can enjoy the big city and work in it, with less time wasted on long, slow commutes. Denser populations also mean more potential customers for small, local businesses. There are a lot of plusses, and we can still have human-scale, tree-lined streets, without jammng everybody into high rises. Granted, these not-yet-finished townhouses look rather bleak at the moment, but that will soften when new maples grow in a bit.

A little bit of drizzle but mild. We are getting a West Coast winter so far. Today’s walk took me into the Kew Gardens Park where I looked up to Queen Street East from the shelter of the bandstand.

The park also holds a nice little fountain, erected in 1920 by public subscription to honour a good guy doctor who had died treating patients in the great flu epidemic a couple of years earlier. Dr. William D. Young provided healthcare, especially to local children, long before medicare.

The centrepiece of the fountain is a nicely sculpted bronze of a little boy. The sculpture, by Toronto artist Frances Gage was installed in 1975, replacing a sculpted figure by Florence Wyle. I’d like to see the original figure, but haven’t found a photo yet.

Photo credit: Chimay Bleue
The preliminary hype for Toronto’s upcoming PanAm Games set Danica and me wondering, “What other international games have been hosted in our city?” We figured that the olympic-size pool at the foot of Woodbine must have been built for some big event, but we know that the Olympics were never held here.
Turns out, it’s not so easy finding out much about the Donald D. Summerville Outdoor Pool. Architect: Unknown. Built in? 1963? Oh well, those grey little facts are trivial compared with the best one. Apparently the “olympic-size” pool is a a tad smaller than it is supposed to be, due to a mistake in the conversion of measurements to metric. I presume this means it could never be used for real competition.