Sunday, October 10, 2010

Margin Notes: Llamas, 10s, Radke, Random


What appeared to be a family of llamas wasn't moving very rapidly at the High Park Zoo in Toronto, Ontario early on 9-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This weekend is the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada, and people are spending relaxing time with their families--if reduced traffic levels in the early morning and people walking today along the Humber River amazed by the scenery are any indication. From a walk through the High Park Zoo early yesterday morning, the llamas seem to be having a similar weekend, not moving very much and lingering over breakfast.

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Those in the United States who listen to NPR received an introduction to Canadian Thanksgiving, courtesy of CBC satirist Rick Mercer. Mercer appeared on Weekend Edition Saturday yesterday, a nice nod by Scott Simon and staff toward their northern neighbour.

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Today is also 10-October-2010, or in simpler terms, 10-10-10. Numerologists are going a bit crazy about that arbitrary concurrence, with perhaps the largest phenomenon a large number of couples getting married on a "lucky" date--Toronto City Hall alone has twenty ceremonies today. I'm thinking the bargain was to get married on October 9th or October 11th this year.

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Speaking of "10s" (and, no, that's not a Too Beautiful to Live reference), Free Speech Radio News has turned ten years old. The independent half-hour news broadcast that started with a strike against the now-defunct Pacifica Network News has now demonstrated for a decade how much quality can be produced on a shoe-string, Internet-leveraging international newscast.

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Luke Burbank (of the aforementioned Too Beautiful to Live) isn't the only person from public radio make a transition to commercial radio, in particular KIRO in Seattle. Now, Bill Radke (once of KUOW, American Public Media, and Marketplace Morning Report) is leaving Los Angeles to do the morning news on KIRO-FM in Seattle starting 1-November-2010, co-hosting with Linda Thomas. Based on Radke's move, I'll now make a prediction, obvious from this item a couple weeks ago--John Moe will be on the KIRO-FM staff within in a year.

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The street sign at the east end of Random Street at Kipling Avenue in Toronto, Ontario was noted on 7-October-2010

If this entry ranging from llamas to John Moe seems especially random, perhaps that's because I live in Toronto--which even has a street in Etobicoke named "Random Street" that I first encountered last week, as demonstrated above.

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Steps leading to an escalator? The Broadview subway station in Toronto, Ontario could use more accessibility work as seen on 2-October-2010

One of the most random things I saw in Toronto in the past week was an escalator at the Broadview subway station that could only be accessed by going up three steps--what exactly were the people at the Toronto Transit Commission behind that thinking?

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