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?

Culture: High Park Harvest Festival

A group of children worked on carving small pumpkins at the High Park Harvest Festival in Toronto, Ontario on 3-October-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Nighttime lows are closely approaching the freezing point. Days are shortening. The leaves in the trees are starting to turn. As hard as it is to accept, harvest time has arrived, and in the city of Toronto, that means time for the annual High Park Harvest Festival.


A singing group performed for children during the High Park Harvest Festival in Toronto, Ontario on 3-October-2010

For the most part, the High Park Harvest Festival is designed to help children learn about what harvest times were like during more agrarian times. Activities for children included bobbing for apples, making apple cider, carving pumpkins, story telling, horse-drawn cart rides, and performing groups.


Apple peeling was the first step in making cider, a part of the High Park Harvest Festival in Toronto, Ontario on 3-October-2010

Connections to the First Nations are always associated with harvest time in North America, and in High Park, the scene was no different. The primary performers around Colbourne Lodge were from the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, playing their drums and dancing in the field.


A pair of First Nations dancers performed during the High Park Harvest Festival in Toronto, Ontario on 3-October-2010

If all the harvest activity reminds one that's it is time for the feast, that's not a coincidence--Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada next Monday.

Margin Notes: Population, Harvest, CBC, Ross

The population of Hamilton, Ontario was "you" according to this public art noted on the MacNab Street South pedestrian underpass beneath the Canadian Pacific tracks on 28-September-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Sometimes, an idea appears that it's hard to believe hasn't been seen before. I had a feeling like that after encountering the above piece of public art during a brief visit to Hamilton, Ontario--the idea of the population of something being "you" (or, in the case of Toronto, you and 2.5 million friends) seems so obvious, but I could not remember seeing it before.

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A horse-drawn cart was offering rides inside High Park in Toronto, Ontario on 3-October-2010

Closer to home, when I took the above photo during the Harvest Festival in Toronto's High Park, I couldn't decide if I liked the bicyclist that got in the frame. Was the contrast between modern clothing and technology and the horses interesting, or had a picture out of another era been ruined? I honestly don't know; maybe readers will weight in.

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It was easy to answer a question on an employment questionnaire this week. Asked to rate the desirability of various activities, I encountered a listing for "operating a merry-go-round at a community event." Considering that I had spent the previous afternoon giving rides on a 1929 historic turntable for visitors to the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre, analogous in many ways to a merry-go-round, that one was easy: "Very satisfying."

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As explained at length in a previous post, I no longer find the Dave Ross Show on KIRO-FM satisfying, and looking at the logs (I didn't actually listen) last week, there's another reason why. A main reason to tune in had been the regular guests David Sirota, Thomas Frank, and Carl Jeffers. All three of them seem to have been canceled in favor of lifestyle talk.

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While not as fatal as programming decisions at KIRO-FM, sometimes programmers at the CBC mystify me. In the fall schedule for CBC Radio One, I can't figure out Saturday morning. Both the new show "Day Six" (airing at 10) and "The Irrelevant Show" (airing at 11:30) offer a lighter take on the world. Yet, programmers have scheduled "White Coat, Black Art," a serious show on medicine, in between at 11:00. Especially since I imagine much of the audience of "White Coat, Black Art" also tunes in to the serious "Quirks and Quarks" science show at noon, why in the world isn't the order "Day Six," "The Irrelevant Show," and then "White Coat, Black Art" and "Quirks and Quarks"? There's a reason I'm mostly listening to these shows by podcasts these days!

Heritage: The Howards of High Park

A stop along Grenadier Pond during the Heritage Toronto walk "The Howards of High Park" was interrupted by the passage of the tour train on 15-August-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - On this blog, probably the second most common local geographic reference (after the Humber River) is High Park. The 399-acre park not far from my residence is so large that even today there are likely corners I have not visited. I have grown to appreciate High Park, but I knew little about its history. That was rectified by Heritage Toronto's walk, "The Howards of High Park," last Sunday.


Catherine Raven of the Colbourne Lodge museum introduced the Heritage Toronto walk on the Howards of High Park on 15-August-2010

John Howard, a local architect, had set his sights on the property that is now High Park not long after he arrived from England in 1832. He first leased land in what is now Swansea, and then purchased the land when it came on the market in 1836. He built Colbourne Lodge as a one-storey cottage the next year, as it was effectively a legal requirement to build on one's land within a year, even though he didn't regularly occupy it until his retirement in 1857. By 1890 when he died, it had taken on its present two-storey appearance with an art gallery to its rear. Particularly intriguing to me was the fact that he installed indoor plumbing, one of the first buildings in North America to have it. The window he added to his bathroom was pointed out prominently during the tour.


One of the first bathroom windows in North America was found at Colbourne Lodge in High Park, Toronto, Ontario on 15-August-2010

John Howard and his wife Jemima did not long wait to share their property with the city. In 1873, about 300 acres became High Park, one of the first urban parks in North America. The Howards kept about 100 acres, but interacted with community in the park. People were invited to come down to the gardens at Colbourne Lodge, where on one day in 1883, Howard counted 10,993 bulbs.


The Heritage Toronto walk gathered at the tomb of the Howards in High Park on 15-August-2010

The single most impressive portion of the walk was probably the Howards' tomb. Constructed in 1874 and 1875, the stone cairn pays tribute to Jemima's Scottish ancestry, and the Maltese Cross at the top to John's association with the Masons. The most amazing thing is that Howard had the fence from St. Paul's Cathedral in London, one of the earliest cast iron fences made between 1710 and 1714, shipped to Toronto to surround the tomb. It may be the single most interesting artifact in High Park, certainly the oldest.


The cast iron fence around the tomb had been cast by 1714 and had served at St. Paul's Cathedral in London before coming to Toronto, seen 15-August-2010

When John Howard died in 1890, the final portion of his property became part of High Park, under strict terms ensuring that it would never charge admission or allow alcohol, amongst other things. It is thanks to the generosity of an immigrant architect that today we can enjoy this urban treasure.

Margin Notes: Cherry Trees, Media, Wappler

Japanese Cherry Trees were in full bloom at High Park in Toronto, Ontario on 22-April-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I spend a remarkably small amount of time in High Park, despite its proximity to my residence and all the natural attractions there. One of those features are the Japanese Cherry Trees which I had never seen in bloom any of the years I have lived here. The trees were not in bloom when I walked through High Park on 16-April, but when I returned this Thursday, there they were; it wasn't as impressive as Washington DC, but it was neat.

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The High Park cherry blossoms were even mentioned this year on CBC's local Metro Morning morning show, but it was another CBC host that alarmed me this week. I realize he is on a book tour, but did any other Canadians get nervous when Terry O'Reilly of the Age of Persuasion appeared on NPR's All Things Considered on Saturday? All we need is to lose one of the more entertaining Canadian media voices to the United States...

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Speaking of things heard on NPR, I was surprised to find more evidence that Green Day's "American Idiot" album may be becoming one of the more influential albums of the last decade. It inspired what is arguably the best mash-up of all time, The Boulevard of Broken Songs by Party Ben, and now it's being turned into a musical, as reported on Weekend Edition Saturday.

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A White Fallow Deer enjoyed his afternoon snack at the High Park Zoo in Toronto, Ontario on 22-April-2010.

I doubt this White Fallow Deer buck was feeling alienated at High Park on Thursday. In fact, it rather looked like he was really enjoying some exquisite straw.

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If this were a more popular blog, someone would probably complain that I showed a picture of a buck instead of a doe. I have taken some heat in the past for not including enough female voices on my ideal radio schedule and my weekly radio picks. Thus, I want to point out this week that it was an absolute pleasure to listen to Jane Clayson sit in for Tom Ashbrook on WBUR and NPR's On Point. She's someone that deserves her own current affairs radio program.

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Finally, I would like to note the passing of Harry Wappler, the long-time weatherman at KIRO-TV in Seattle, Washington. I grew up watching Wappler's weather forecasts, and while many suspected that he actually liked rain, at his prime he tended to be notably more accurate than his peers. Seattle weather forecasts haven't been the same since he retired in 2002. While I was too young to see one of the all-time great Wappler bloopers the first time it aired, this forecast with J.P. Patches may have been the most-played Wappler moment on the air. Wappler was 73; those in Seattle may be able to catch a half-hour tribute tonight at 6:30.