the horse

yes indeed, back in Whitehorse, where everyone's relieved that the temperatures are back up at a relaxing -6. i'm heading to Dawson shortly, the drive should be gorgeous if it stays clear.

by the sounds of it, the Yukon Quest had a harsh starting weekend--exceedingly low temperatures, nasty winds--so by Monday night, six mushers had left the race. a hard decision to make, but usually a wise one, especially since the Yukon River has frozen in a wild series of formations this year, making the current part of the trail extra-challenging. i'm really looking forward to getting to the Quest checkpoint in Dawson, to catch up on conditions & see the teams coming in.

green gables

centenary for Anne of Green Gables...Lucy Maud Montgomery created the effervescent redhead in 1908, and this month kicks off a whole year of celebration for the best-known fictional Canadian heroine on the planet. though i'm now in the Yukon, about as far as you can get from PEI while still being in Canada, i still noticed the promotion this morning in the Pearson aeroport of the new Anne prequel by Budge Wilson...not sure i'm going to read that...

lost city, a lost opportunity

just back from a stunningly dull talk about Toronto--a classic example of good intentions gone awry. the evening was called "Lost Toronto", built around the current "one book" theme of February's reading month in the city (we're all supposed to read the novel Consolation, by Michael Redhill. i'm fascinated by the suggestion to get a whole city reading a single book...will it work? i'm going to read the book on my flight tomorrow--assuming i can find a copy to buy at the aeroport--because it seems impossible to get ahold of in the public library system. which might mean people are really out there, reading it).
Tonight's talk had fascinating guests--ex-mayor Barbara Hall, Spacing editor Matthew Blackett, columnist Christopher Hume, & real estate tycoon-in-the-making Brad J. Lamb (you've seen him: the ad with his head on a lamb's body that was plastered all over the garbage bins last year).
i was curious about the idea that a city could be lost, and i was looking forward to exploring that idea. but Moderator Matt Galloway of CBC didn't really focus the conversation, or push anyone's buttons. what is Toronto's relationship to its heritage? who knows...based on the conversation tonight, we're still swamped by petty bickering about whether tall buildings belong, whether anyone should tear anything down, ever, and whether politicians know anything.
i'm going to focus instead on the best line of the night--Matthew Blackett's comment: "The City needs to have some chutzpah."
i think the city of Toronto has chutzpah...it just gets bogged down in anxiety. maybe it's all the slush.

pub democracy

because i live with an American, and because somehow i've ended up knowing a whole slew of Americans who have escaped to Canada, i found myself at the Democrats Abroad event last night at Toronto’s Elephant & Castle pub. no one could explain why the Dems found themselves at an elephant-logo pub instead of one with a donkey logo...but there we all were. during the day,a voting booth was set up so that Americans living here could vote in the primary—in the old-fashioned pencil & paper way. no fear of electronic vote tampering...
there was beer, and there were a lot of televisions. so once we got the sound turned up, we had constant confusing coverage of how the primaries were going, with predictions, frenzied analysis, and harrassed journalists trying to get the channel changed from CNN. just before we left, this guy made an appearance: the rather dark photo is Toronto Mayor David Miller talking to the chair of Toronto's Democrats Abroad. i hadn't realized he's a dual citizen...but i should have known the Mayor was a closet American: he's a thousand times friendlier than the Canadian politicians i’ve met.

melting today, freezing tomorrow

OCAD

i often walk past one of the strangest buildings in town...the Ontario College of Art & Design by Will Alsop. i like it...and i like it even more now that i've read this little snippet culled from the Torontoist blog... from The New Yorker, October 2007:

...the neighbors in the apartment block objected to losing their park views and the college was eager to avoid confrontation. Alsop met with the neighbors and someone suggested lifting the addition into the air to allow views under it. “I don’t want to sound like some Communist here, but ordinary people do have some good ideas,” he told me recently. “Architects left on their own can’t break away from their preconceived notions.”

here it is as i usually walk past, with the CN Tower in the background (though the photo is a little grey--blame yesterday's weather)

soursop juice

after reading a rave review of the food at Downsview market in The Star, we decide to head out to the 'burbs to check it out. first challenge: figuring out how to get there by TTC, because the article mistakenly assumes anyone going there will have a car. fortunately, the market is close to Downsview subway station (the last stop on the line)...and even more fortunately, a Shepherd West bus turns up at the station soon after we step off the subway, so we don't have to walk anywhere in the biting wind. the market is easy to spot from the bus, so we hop off & head in past the farmers' market.

the decent-looking vege are followed by nearly five hundred discount stalls, selling everything from ipods to shimmering religious clocks (Christ, Buddha, Ganesh, and Mecca all available, ranked equally in a neat row).past rows of Gucci purse knock-offs & antique teacups, right at the back, there's the food fair. the space is pretty spartan, weirdly punctuated by giant plastic green-blob-tree things. but i soon discover that in this anti-chain food court, the food is hand-made, carefully-considered, and made by people who really want you to enjoy your meal--call it food ambassadorship.

i kick off my meal with an amazing soursop smoothie at the Juicy Hut, sweetened with sugar cane (inspired by the drinks sold on the street in Vietnam, here they peel & grind the cane right in front of you--very cool).i'm browsing past the other stands trying to decide what to have (tacos? sushi? shark & bake?) when Niam Kabiri hands me a glass of Afghani tea. "Very good for your health," he says. i drink the tea (in a real glass) and decide to try a bolani, a kind of fried vegetable-stuffed bread. his wife rolls out a ball of dough, spreads it with vegetable paste, and makes it freshly just for me. while i'm waiting for it to finish cooking, i wander further down the line of stands, and get a bowl of West Indian ox-tail soup to go with the Afghani bread. my husband chooses a chicken roti from a different stand. it's all fantastic, and as the place gets crowded for lunch, people start sharing tables, plunking down plates of Italian and Guatelamalan and Chinese foods.
makes me think that Downsview's food court would make a better ambassador to the world than most of our politicians...

Salty Toronto

i hate the salt Toronto loads onto its sidewalks & roads at the slightest hint of frozen precipitation. i hate it, and my dog hates it even more (that's her, there, beside a heater to dry off her feet after i've washed them.) but now Laurie Varga has actually started a petition to try to convince the mayor to tone down the salt quotient on our streets...after all, if gravel & sand works just fine up North--where there are some fine connoisseurs of winter driving conditions--and if Calgary uses gravel & sand, if even Montreal--which gets way more snow than we do--has cut back on salt...WHY DOES TORONTO KEEP DUMPING THE STUFF ONTO THE ROAD? think of what it does to your boots & your car. now think about how it must affect the lawns, the trees, and the lake...because most of the salt you put on your front walkway eventually ends up in the lake. blech. so if you live in this city & you don't want Toronto to be out-classed by Cowtown (of all places)...and if you're tired of washing your dog so its paws aren't turned into smoked herring by the salt...then sign Laurie's petition. here.