The quoted Colombo poem:
Canada could have enjoyed
English government
French culture
and American know-how.
Instead it ended up with
English know-how
French government
and American culture.

He adds a footnote:
“The sentiment may be less true in the future than it has been in the past, but again it may be even more true.”
What’s all this about? I checked to see if the blog I has been hosting for my old friend Ben Viccari is still working properly. It is, and it’s full of good stuff.
Ben died back in 2010, but I keep the blog as a reminder and a tribute. While reviewing the entries, I found Ben’s item on John Robert Colombo, occasioned by the author’s 70th birthday. The poem Ben chose to quote tickles me just as much as it did him.

The big banner on the front of Ends on Queen Street East has understandably given rise to a rumour that Ends is going away. It isn’t.

The confusing sign refers to the adjacent Binz stores, which are indeed closing by the end of April.The good news is that the Binz owner is looking for new space, possibility in Leslieville. At present, everything in the store is 15% off… bins, kitchen gadgets, bath accessories, storage boxes. Picture frames are 30% off.
Other good news is that Harold will keep running his popular Ends store (end-of-line clothing, mostly), despite the banner.

Who replaced the label “guaranteed juvenile drivel” with the more famous “may contain mature subject matter”? Anyone have a name?

I knew founder and resident astronomer John Crossen when he was Mr Wonderful, a talented advertising copywriter. Quite a leap from there to the stars, but John has done it beautifully. He and Debbie live right beside their unique and world-recognized Buckhorn Observatory. They share the house with cats (4 at the moment) and a deaf white rabbit they rescued.

Our friend and today’s driver, Brian Hickey is a long-time friend of the Crossens. We owe our visit to him … just to chat today, which is very easy to do with John and Debbie. It wasn’t a star-gazing day, more of an equipment viewing thing.
Look at the size of that telescope! The roof retracts too, sliding out onto the frame you see at the end of the long building. There is a “warm room” holding photography equipment, walls full of framed pictures of notables who have visited. You can see the dome of another observing station alongside the main building.

Last month, Porter airlines lied publicly and in writing, sending out an email blast saying, “As you’re probably aware, there’s a small but vocal group that opposes Porter and wants to have the airport closed.”
The opposition is to adding jets, not to the airport. Porter knows this, of course.
This month, the Toronto Port Authority turned cry baby, whining to councillors that city staff’s conditions for island jet traffic are “poison pills” that pro-jetters can’t swallow. Funny, because the TPA put up the money for the consultants the city had to hire in order to assess the jet proposal.
I guess they don’t like the suggestions they paid for.

The photo dates back to 2006 and it’s only now that Canadian troops have finally left Afghanistan. Was anything accomplished, anything gained for the lives we spent, Afghani and Canadian? Did we waste our military resources and vast sums of public money?
Some schools were built, some girls got to attend, we are told. Cold comfort. There are needs for schools and educational opportunities for boys and girls here in Canada, and we don’t need military force to deliver them. All we need are better political priorities.

Cats don’t even like the indignity of being watched when they do something clumsy. A kick in the rear? THERE WILL BE A PRICE TO PAY!
Play the 911 call.

More story …

The likeness is unmistakable to subscribers of the company whose logo is a red sphincter.
Ted Rogers towers over the city.
Hard, heartless and homely, the expressive tribute captures the spirit of customer service and the beauty of advanced technology.
Woodbine and Danforth

 

 

 

My daily walks have educated me about the way the city is constantly changing. Buildings and businesses rise and fall so rapidly, a two-week interval between routes is always sufficient to guarantee some major novelty to note.

New streets are rare, though, so I am recording the appearance of this one on nearby Edgewood Avenue. A Catholic public school has been demolished. Frame and chipboard townhouses will line a new road that cuts at a right angle through the old school foundation and across the former playing field.
I wish that I had photographed our local commercial strip along Gerrard when we moved here in the 80s. None of the stores are the same today. I especially miss smiling at the bold red letters identifying the misspelled PERFERRED PRINTING shop.
Never too late to start, so here’s one from today. The old corner store has been temporarily fluffed into sales office for condo units that will be standing on the site before long. The demolition permit has been issued.

You might be amused to see how the condo has been presented since its introduction back in 2007. It has been a long and twisted road. Let’s start at the beginning.

There are mysterious images in some of my mother’s paintings of aboriginal myths and symbols. When I asked author John Robert Colombo what one of them might be, he replied at once, “Wendigo”. Then he gave me a copy of one of his hundreds of published books, Canadian Tales of Terror.
The collection of Algernon Blackwood stories includes a ripping tale of horror in the Canadian bush, wherein a French Canadian guide is swept up by a powerful spirit, transported at burning velocity and dizzying height, away from his camp and companions. He returns, a broken shell of his former self, hardly recognizable, demented and soon dead. He had seen the Wendigo.

The monster spirit of Algonquian lore is just one manifestation of similar beings known to the original peoples of this continent. West Coast cultures had their own versions and they probably inspired Helen’s imagery. Tsonokwa, Wild Woman of the Woods, another spirit figure, also appears with some frequency in the paintings.
Just what these images meant to my mother, I cannot say, but they spoke to her — and for her — in some way. Her art is often restless, unsettled, edgy and raw. That she felt some spiritual truth in tales like those of the Wendigo does not surprise me and I think John Robert Colombo has got it right.