Blue Whale bone recovery

In 2014 a tragic event happened off the coast of Newfoundland.
Nine blue whales were trapped in the ice, and subsequently died.
Usually, blue whales sink to the bottom of the ocean when they die; but in this case two of them were washed ashore.

This unfortunate event became an opportunity for the world of science to research these enormous mammals..
The Royal Ontario Museum scientist together with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and Research Casting International, as well as some local communities began to de-flesh and recover the bones of this endangered species.
They transported the bones to Ontario and began a two year process to de-grease these bones for display.
Herewith, are some pictures of the finished product taken at the new exhibit.

 

The Ribs

 

The Fin

                                                                       The Tail

Bloor/Yorkville Ice Fest

Last week was pretty mild for February, but despite the warm weather the Bloor/Yorkville Ice Fest went on as scheduled.

The ice carvers made a valiant effort by covering them up overnight, but later on the weather was not very cooperative, and you could see some sculptures beginning to melt.

Of course, there were other sculptures placed nearby, such as the ManuLife Centre on Bloor, who had a beaver, and Louis Black on Yorkville who had an ice watch.

This is an annual event, and is free. The BIA and other business support this festival that provides residents of Toronto with a stunning display of carved ice along Cumberland Street.

Here are some of my pictures:

 

Doors

I have been capturing colorful and interesting doors in Toronto for a few months, now, and thought that I should post some of them.


All pictures were taken by me with my Smartphone.

Above is the door at Church of St. Mark, in Parkdale.
Note the Historical Plaque on the left.
 

 Even though it looks like a church door, it really is the entrance to an old Police Station on Bloor West, near Cowan Avenue.
 

 

This is a photo of the front entrance way to Julie's Mansion (aka The Keg) on Jarvis. The building was once home to the Massey family.

The door in this photo is part of a building that once housed the Canadian Red Cross, but now is a Youth Community Centre.

Hidden way back from the street and guarded by two lion statues, is this red door in Wychwood Park.

Some owners of the stores along Queen West have restored the original wooden doors, in hopes of making the storefront inviting.

 Here we have two wonderful doors side by each in Cabbagetown.

A blue door in Cabbagetown.

Another Cabbagetown door, with wonderful victorian etched glass.

Lastly, there are some older homes in the Annex that have doors and porticos with lots of character.

Oldest Toronto Hotels

One day last summer, my friend Tim decided to do something he called "Ye Olde Pub Crawl". According to him there are only a few pubs/hotels over 100.
Tim wanted to visit as many of these places as possible and sample their fare.

So, off we went on our historical adventure.
The first stop was the Gladstone Hotel at 1214 Queen West.

Here is Tim at the bar.
According to Wikipedia, this establishment is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Toronto. It has been lovingly restored, and even kept the bar and event space open during renovations.

This is the original hand-driven elevator, that still works...so Tim and I took a ride up to the third floor gallery and walked back down afterwards.

Now the Dominion Hotel was closed at the time we ventured east on Queen Street.
This pub was a natural extension to the Dominion Brewery located just west of Sumach. This was an active brewery until 1936, and is now an upscale office block.

At the Black Bull Hotel/Tavern, the bartender told us that this place was the oldest in Toronto.

This is a drawing of the hotel (Source: Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto - 1894).

Here is Tim on the patio of the Black Bull.
 

When we arrived at the Wheat Sheaf, and told the folks there that the Black Bull was the oldest, they disagreed.
The signage over the entrance to this pub says "A Toronto tradition since 1849"

 
Here is Tim perusing the menu at the last stop.
And that was our pub tour for today.
I was certainly ready for a nap after all that beer and food; not to mention the walking.
Tim also wanted to visit the Brunswick, but it was closed as well...apparently only opens at 4 pm.

The Firkin Bench

Last summer many folks sought out patios in around our city.

We all wanted to make the most of the short summer season here in Toronto.

As I wandered through the "Village" I noticed that a lot of people stopped at the little bench on Maitland Street.

This bench by the Church Mouse and Firkin was pretty popular...not to mention cheap (sitting on a patio in the downtown core can be expensive).

I noticed that most people just stopped for awhile, but some actually had food.
Over the course of a few days, I took four pictures with my phone camera.

 

BOOK CITY

                                  Herewith is an excerpt from a Book City bookmark:

 

"Introducing.....a new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge Device - BOOK.

BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology.
There are no wires, no circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected, nor switched on.
It is compact and portable. It can be used ANYWHERE - indoors or out, even sitting on a bus or train.

BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets (pages) of recyclable paper.
Each sheet is capable of holding thousands of bits of information (words).

These sheets are locked together with one of two different custom devices; a BINDER, or a DOUBLE STITCH BINDING, which keep these sheets in their correct sequence.

Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows the manufacturers to use both sides of the sheets, thus doubling the information density.
As each sheet is scanned optically, the information is registered directly to your brain.
A simple flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet.

BOOK never crashes, nor does it require re-booting.
The "browse" function allows instant movement to any sheet, forward or backward.
Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information; thus supplying one with an "instant retrieval".

It is portable, durable, affordable, and is being hailed as a precursor of a new form of entertainment.
BOOK'S appeal seems so certain, that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform.

Kate Mulgrew

Some time ago, I attended an interview with Kate Mulgrew.

She was doing a book tour for her book: "Born With Teeth - A Memoir"...which I had ordered in April.

There were over 300 people attending this event, and many of them, including myself, were Captain Janeway fans.

I got some very blurry photos, so I will not download them.

Instead I have taken some from the web.

This is from a previous interview.

 

 This is from the TV series "Orange Is The New Black".

 

Now this is my signed copy of her book.
It reads:

"To Nora
To Life
Kate Mulgrew"

 

Treasure Island

No, not the Robert Louis Stevenson tale about Long John Silver..... this is about a tiny island located in San Francisco Bay, California.
The island was originally built for the San Francisco 1939 World's Fair of the Golden Gate International Exposition. A full Wikipedia account can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Island_%28California%29

But I like to tell my story of this intriguing piece of American history (albeit it is not that old).

Whilst watching some old Charlie Chan movies, starring Sydney Toler, I happen upon one titled "Charlie Chan at Treasure Island" (1939). This particular movie shows an aerial view of the island from the window of Charlie's plane.

 

Now this got my attention, so I started digging up some information.
The island was created from fill that was dredged from the bay in 1936-37.
One of the main attractions was the 81 foot tall Pacifica Statue that stood guard over the entrance to the Cavalcade of the Golden West pavilion.

After the exposition was over, the island was used as an airport for the Pan American World Airways flying boats, of which the China Clipper  is a unique example.

In the Clipper's initial flight across the Pacific Ocean to Manilla, the idea was to fly over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge (still under construction at the time); but once the pilot took off, he realized that the plane would NOT clear the bridge structure, and so was forced to narrowly fly under it instead.

The island was destined to become a piece of American history when at some point the Federal Government stepped in to offer the City another piece of land, so that the municipality could build a larger airport.
The swap was made, and the Navy moved into this strategic West Coast Base.

Unfortunately, the statue was  torn down and now we only have pictures left to view.

Used Book Stores

With the demise of several independent USED book stores over the years; notably "Pages" and "Book City", I feel it is necessary to write about some of the ones that are still left.
 
ABC Books and BMV books are the ones that most folks know about.
Acadia Book Store sells art and rare books and is located at 232 Queen Street East.

http://www.acadiabooks.com/

 

 

Balfour Books on College Street, near Markham

http://balfourbooks.squarespace.com/

 

Circus Books and Music at 866 Danforth Avenue and Jones.
Advertises a 10% discount for cyclists.

http://circusbooksandmusic.com

Dencan Books and Magazines can be found at 3113 Dundas Street West.

Doug Miller Books is located on Bloor Street West near Manning Avenue.

My favourite little store is Eliot's Bookshop on Yonge Street, just north of Wellesley.

Then there is Pandemonium Books in the Junction at 2920 DundasStreet West.

Seeker's is another favourite of mine @ 509 Bloor Street West, underneath Kilgour's.

She Said Boom has two locations in the city:

393 Roncesvalles and 372 College

Then there is Ten Editions Book Store on the northwest corner of Spadina and Sussex.

These are the ones that I know about, and have visited.
There may be more, so I will add any new ones at some time.