Photo dump, Jan 11, 2015

These are some photos from an older homepage

 Arthur Ashe, November 9, 1992, before speaking at SUNY Potsdam. He was asked by someone in the audience if having AIDS was the worse thing that had happened to him. He said no, that experiencing racism was worse. He shook hands with all the reporters. It was the first time I'd shaken hands with someone with AIDS. I did think that just a thickness of skin separated me from the virus.

Bats, Temple of Bats, Penang, Malaysia - The bats fly out at night. According to a drawing in the bat cave, originally there was a crane, a bird that symbolizes immortality in Chinese culture, at the location of the temple, but it flew away and was replaced by bats. The word for bat, at least in south Chinese dialects, sounds similar to the word for good luck and decorations of bats can be found fans. — at Bat's Cave Temple 蝙蝠洞大伯公.

 From 1999: Sleeman's Cream Ale with lemon at St. George's Square, Guelph. Signs it's 1999: headline about end of the world in eye magazine, signs it's anytime: headline "Talentless SNL Crew Make Another Crap Movie"

 Cooper's Marsh, near Lancaster, Ontario

Bjork, 1992, Toronto. Eyes are just red from the flash! I thought it made a nice contrast/compliment to her lipstick and green eyes.

 Can on cedar tree, Guelph, late 90s

 Monks chanting, 1998, Kek Lok Seh Temple

 Fall Colours, University of Guelph, 1999

 Queen's Park, 1998

 Fortune telling nun, Penang, 1998

 Kek Lok Seh Temple

Double Rainbow, corner Dundas Spadina, Toronto c. 1998. I remember two girls dancing in the rain when they saw this. Another view: 

Michigan, near the Lake Superior shoreline, 1999

Ice Storm, January 4, 2015

Holly Berries in ice

Uncle Bob's Pop a Cob

Kind of a fun thing I bought at a shop near Niagara-on-the-Lake, a purple corn cob is microwaved and pops the corns - some stay on the cob but most pop off - getting them off makes a lot of crumbs, so this might be an outdoor food!
Pop a Cob website

Festival of Lights, New Year's Eve, Alexandria, Ontario, 2014

Island Park, Alexandria

Christmas Spider - possible fakelore ?

According to the supposedly German (or Ukrainian or Finnish) legend, the Christmas spider story is about some spiders who decorate a Christmas tree with their webs during the night, and Jesus, not wanting to disappoint the people in the house or insult the spiders' artwork, turning the webs into golden threads.
Christmas trees were first introduced into Canada at a party given by Frederika Charlotte Louise von Massow, Baroness (Freifrau) Riedesel zu Eisenbach in Sorel during 1781. She and her husband had just been released by the American revolutionaries, after spending years in captivity after being captured  while he was commanding German and First Nations troops in New York during the Revolutionary War.

The spider was bought at the annual Christmas market at the Maple Leaf – Almrausch Club near Ottawa.

(Update, Dec 17 - I've heard back from some Germans (and a Finn) that they have never heard of this story, and all the references to this legend are in English - I myself only got the story from the vendor's table, and that was only a few years ago. I also thought that spiders would be dormant in houses in Germany at Christmas back when houses were only heated with fires.)