Thursday, October 31, 2024

Model Lisa



Photo shoot for Centron Self Storage here in Toronto.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Teri Garr (1944 - 2024)



I heard the sad news yesterday about actress Teri Garr's passing after a long battle with multiple sclerosis — she was a few weeks shy of her 80 birthday.

Over the decades the actress and dancer would joke that she would receive more questions about her appearance on Star Trek ("Assignment: Earth") than any other of her career highlights.

However, Garr credited her quite-substantial guest role on that stellar series for really launching her career. The day after the original broadcast of "Assignment" she visited a popular LA jean store; a producer saw her, approached and said: "You were great in Star Trek last night." (Ms Garr's agent's telephone started ringing off the hook.)



Sunday, October 27, 2024

Picturing: Flair Airlines 737 MAX 8 Nearing Pearson

click to expand


Toronto had blue skies yesterday, but at times with dramatic patches. I was standing in an area below a flight path, which meant an aircraft would pass overhead every couple of minutes. Airliners were on their landing circuit to Toronto Pearson International Airport.

This 'civil aviation' nut would not let this pass: out came my trusty Canon.


Postscript:


Lester B. Pearson (Canada's 14th prime minister) 

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Picturing: Conical Red Peppers Stuffed with Cheese



Today I saw these behind the deli counter and I could not counter the powerful pull of such delicious-looking morsels of spicy-hot goodness — they are good, as they've had me before.

Three please!

Picturing: Walking Up Lower Walmer Road Today

click to enlarge

At a little past 2pm today — about an hour ago — I walked up Walmer Road from Bloor Street with my Tim Hortons coffee in hand. For a moment I popped out of my stupor, looked up, and saw a lovely fall street scene. Out came my Canon camera: well, it was hanging around my neck, so it was more a case of taking the lens cap off.

Toronto's "Annex" neighbourhood is pretty wonderful, especially this time of year.

Hit Counter Data and a Mass of Conflicting Impulses

This website/blog has now garnered over two million pageviews. What the?....

A few years ago a friend of mine told me that while he likes my blog and enjoys reading it, he finds my posts to be all over the place. "You should concentrate on one subject, like Star Trek." First of all, he would have meant the original show as it's the only one in the too-long chain that I know well enough to post regularly about, but even then there's no way I could write about one thing... like Star Trek. For one thing, I'm not quite a geek.

No doubt the source of a lot of those 'hits' is non-human.

"V'ger requests information!"

(It could be Voyager One. "The Queller Drive! No!")

Even worse: Nomad.

"Listen, M**********r, I did not create you! Go a-way!"

"I am the other. I am Tan Ru. Tan Ru. Nomad. Tan Ru!"


Monday, October 21, 2024

Ready to Read: Heaping Coals (Michael Coren)



Today I picked up Michael Coren's new book, Heaping Coals - from Media Firebrand to Anglican Priest, and I'm raring to go!

His previous book, The Rebel Christ (2021), is excellent. Take it from this card-carrying atheist....


Postscript: My subway reading list tends to be non-fiction books, as they allow me to pop out at any time. With fiction I need to curl up: kinda hard to do on the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission). Oh, my subway reading right now is bouncing between Star Trek: The Making of The Trouble With Tribbles (1973, David Gerrold) and Room to Dream (2018, Kristine McKenna and David Lynch). Get this train moving!....

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Humorous: Streaming Fibrous Material

While scrolling through titles on Amazon Prime Video, recently, I stumbled upon an odd-sounding documentary series....

"Did that say Toronto Maple Leafs All for Nothing?"

Go back!

"Oh... All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs."

No doubt there's a lot of mean-spirited humour on that production. I couldn't have been the first....


Friday, October 18, 2024

Book Launch Signing: Michael Coren & Heaping Coals



I've been looking forward to reading Michael Coren's new book, Heaping Coals - From Media Firebrand to Anglican Priest. The author is signing between 1 and 3pm today at Toronto's lovely St. James Cathedral (at 106 King Street East).

Unfortunately I had not known about today's event till this morning, and there's no way to shift my schedule at this late juncture. But that won't stop me from buying Heaping Coals... which has been my intent since first hearing about the book months ago.

Mr Coren has had an interesting life journey.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Athot for the Day: Waste Product

Minutes ago I was listening to BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show. The discussion concerned UK municipalities incinerating rubbish.

The telephone guest said something that caught my ear: "There are some fugitive emissions."

The first thought I had was: "If those are anything like 'nocturnal emissions', then it must be concerning."



Tuesday, October 1, 2024

We've Entered the Last Quarterly Block at Warp Nine!

It's October 1st, or the 1st of October; just three months to go before we hit 2025. My dad was right: After this then teen complained one day about how fast time was going, he said something that gains more and more traction as I get older... I wish it did have more "traction", instead of sliding ahead uncontrollably at warp speed.

"If you think life is going fast now, wait till you hit twenty. Every time you turn around another year has gone."

I just wish Scotty would pipe up with: "Captain, the engines canna take it!"