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?

Margin Notes: Fall, Analogies, Radke and Moe

The first tree I found this year almost completely devoid of green color was on Dundas Street West in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario on 22-September-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The season has officially turned from summer to autumn, and with it came the first tree full of fall color (er, colour). While technically summer still had a few hours remaining, I was already in fall mode when I noted an almost completely-yellow tree on Dundas Street West in the Junction neighbourhood last Wednesday afternoon.

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A raccoon peered from the side of a 1942-built steam locomotive as it was switched at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre on 26-September-2010

The start of fall means nightfall comes earlier, which helped facilitate a night photo session at the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre this evening. I'm sure spectacular night photos from the session will be appearing around the Internet from the real photographers on hand; my favorite shot from the night is featured above. We have had evidence and second-hand accounts of raccoons taking up residence in former Canadian National steam locomotive #6213, and first-hand evidence was attained the form of those eyes peering out as the locomotive was switched onto the turntable. Abatement plans are being contemplated.

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The raccoons apparently mistook a locomotive for a home, but would you mistake a telephone for a baby? It doesn't seem so crazy after watching this week's Search Engine videocast from TVO.

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The other analogy that blew me away this week came from Daniel Kehlmann and host Christopher Lydon on the Open Source podcast. They discussed the analogy of the Internet as God--it might seem blasphemous, but if one believes in a passive deity, a lot of the descriptions prove to be the same.

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Combining the last two topics of technology and babies, is anyone else as dumbfounded by the IBM ad running before CBC video programming available on line lately? It shows a baby with its abdomen clearly breathing with the voiceover: "Here is a baby... a baby generating data..." When I see a baby, I can see a lot of things, but data generation is pretty much never on the list.

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Somehow, I doubt even journalists Bill Radke and John Moe, both known for their wit, would ever see the baby that way, either. The two seem to keep following each other around in the media world. I was introduced to both of them at KUOW-Seattle when they were still hosting their own local shows there, Rewind for Radke, The Works for Moe. Radke left for Los Angeles and became host of the nationally-syndicated show Weekend America, but was eventually replaced by Moe, who had moved to the Minnesota headquarters of program producer American Public Media. Radke then signed on to host Marketplace Morning Report, and now, with the re-naming this week of Future Tense as Marketplace Tech Report, both Radke and Moe are anchoring for the same Marketplace "brand" on American Public Media. Just once, I'd like to hear these two guys co-host the same program at the same time.