Christmas Day sunset, 2024

 

Jimmy Carter 1924-2024

 Jimmy Carter died today. Although he's most famous for being US president he also help save a nuclear plant that had melted down and was on the river that flowed past Ottawa.

Jimmy Carter as midshipman, date unknown

 Naval History and Heritage Command Photo Archives Branch, photo no. L38-14.02.01.

Chalk River Laboratories is a nuclear research plant in Deep River, Ontario, 180 km up the Ottawa River from Ottawa, Canada's capital. In December 1952 the control rods were accidently removed and three jammed, causing the reactor to overheat and flood the containment building. Carter was doing working on a nuclear submarine program in Schenectady, NY, not far from Ontario, and he and 150 other US Navy personell came to Chalk River. Carter and his team worked to dismantle the reactor in an environment with so much radiation they could only stay in the building for 90 seconds. He was told that due to his exposure to radiation, he would not be able to have children, but he went on to have four.

How a future U.S. president helped avert nuclear disaster near Canada's capital - CBC News, 2021

He came back to Canada several times, including one stint building affordable houses in Kitchener, Ontario in 1993 with Habitat for Humanity. He also corrected the impression left by the 2012 film Argo that the CIA operative did everything in extracting the US embassy staff from Tehran when most of the work was done by Canadians.

Merry Christmas 2024!

There was a postal strike this year so I didn't mail out any cards!

I did a story on Christmas Day in 1993 or 1994 about the Cappuccinos, a family that had adopted 21 children. They're still around!

 

Eggnog à la belge

 

Eggnog made with buttermilk and crème fraîche. I read that Marguerite Yourcenar drank it every day so I looked for Belgian recipes and got this from RTBF. Sweet and sour.

Toronto Star building to be demolished

1 Yonge Toronto Star Building 2017, By Arild Vågen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63354645

1 Yonge was the first address on Toronto's main street. The Toronto Star was published from there from 1971 until it moved in 2022. It marked how important newspapers used to be. I'd rush in with film, past the blown up copies of front pages from years gone by, one with bank robber Eddie Boyd's conviction in the 50s with a bible verse, "The way of the transgressors is hard." beside it, and a plaque dedicated to a reporter who died flying into a hurricane, and ride a slow elevator up to the editorial floor. It was supposed made slow by the publisher's wife's request. The building will be demolished and replaced with a 105 storey tower, part of a three tower complex, one of which has already been completed, called Pinnacle One Yonge. It seems like three smaller towers are or were planned to go on the site as well in this older article, but this article says only two

Me outside 1 Yonge, c. 1994. The street begins at Lake Ontario. 

Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant , a large boat that was converted into a restaurant and permanently moored was just behind the building.

The larger towers are supposed to be primarily residential with a hotel in one. This could be a good thing as that part of Toronto was dead after 5 pm since it was mostly offices even though the Harbourfront attractions are an easy walk.

An earlier Toronto Star building was at 80 King Street West, until it was demolished in 1972. Joe Shuster, original artist and co-creator of Superman, said he named the paper where Clark Kent worked, originally called the Daily Star, after the Toronto Daily Star, which he sold as a paperboy in Toronto, and is thought to have used the building as a model, but by the time Shuster left Toronto, the building hadn't been built yet. Smithsonian Magazine

 

 

Indian Time

 Sad to hear Indian Time is ceasing publication, It was a newspaper published since 1983 on the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve that sits between upstate New York and Canada. I wrote one article for it in the early 90s. Newspapers are dying everywhere! 

Lawn Tractor Parade of Lights - Morewood

Lawn Tractor Parade of Lights - Morewood Recreation Association - Lawn tractors and similar vehicles made into Christmas Parade float for the benefit of  Naomi's House, a woman's shelter and family resources centre in Winchester, Ontario. Began and ended at Morewood Community Centre, Morewood, Ontario.

Donations collected

Krystal on Memory Tree

I put Krystal's picture(by arrow) in the decoration for the Memory Tree of Bereaved Families of Ontario at the Benson Centre.

 

It's Here!! Cybertruck even more hideous in real life!

I remember the Edsel. I was behind the Iron Curtain and saw the lumpy glory of the Soviet Lada and the East German Trabant. Nothing like that prepared me for seeing my first Cybertruck. It's so much more hideous in real life. It's only been available this year in Canada and the photos I saw of it did not do it justice. And to  make it look even more like it was in a 90s video game, it was parked outside of the new No Name Grocery Store in Brockville. It's the winter so there are salt stains on the stainless.

Santa Claus Parade, Lancaster, Ontario, December 7, 2024

 

Dany Laj and the Looks, November 29, 2024

 at  Cornwall Stamp Co. - Rock & Roll Print Shop, with Stacey Case 

Dany saw me wearing a hoodie with lyrics from Ron Hawkin's 'Bleed a Little While Tonight" and took the photo to send to Ron whose 60th birthday was that day. 

photo by someone in the crowd

Rainbow over Cotton Mill Street and McConnell

Rainbow over Cotton Mill Street and McConnell Ave, Cornwall, Ontario

 

The Odd Stop Antique Store, Chesterville, Ontario

Fun antique and curio shop in Winchester, Ontario 

Yashica 24 twin lens on shelf! It take 220 film, no longer made, but it can be adapted to 120.

613-986-2589 

theoddstopl@gmail.com 

The Odd Stop

501 St. Lawrence Street,

Winchester, ON.

KOC 2K0