Help Save Toronto Public Libraries

We are under attack - from our own mayor. This man is an embarrassment to our noble city. I bet he has not read a book in recent memory.
He sees no merit in keeping our public libraries supported, and his brother who sits in council complains there are more libraries than Tim Horton s in his neighbourhood. Poor man. He might stumble upon a library by mistake looking for a donut and be presented with a book instead, and there where would the city be?

What to do: keep pestering the city with our petition, keep the talk going, and don't let go. Click on the link, write personal comments, be as eloquent as you possibly can with your arguments, passionate, informed.

If you can come up with a plan to get a new mayor, more of a Renaissance Man than our current Middle Ages man, tell me about it.

Lets all remember 1933 Germany - burning books. That alone should remind us why libraries need to be publicly funded.

Oh, and don't we love that he is erasing the new bike lanes, at great expense, to make the city more car friendly?
This is the new face of Toronto, for those who have never laid eyes on this man:

Baby it's Hot Outside

Wednesday was the hottest day on record in Toronto, 39 degrees with a humidex over 40. I admit it was uncomfortable and all I wanted was to stay home with an ice cube pressed to my temple.
This week I kept reminding myself that one of the reasons I live here, is that I can't live like this 5-7 month of the year, bathing in my own sweat and going about my business feeling like a wilted flower;
That there are Places in the world where people sweat like that all the time - how do women keep their makeup on?
But I also remind myself that here, a heat wave passes away within a few days and a beautiful comfortable summer weather is just around the corner, at least for another month.
Also just around the corner are the fall and winter. So lets all suck it up, and soak the heat to store in our bones until then.

Whale of a Tale

I have to share, many have seen this already but for those who have not - watch how a small group on a tiny boat saves a whale from death, and the show of thanks they get in return:

Resting Places

I got a call from my mother in the middle of the night - her best friend passed away, Leukemia, fast an furious.
My mother spoke with her a few days earlier. She says she was not afraid to die. She was a brave woman, my mother says, in life and in death.
I knew the woman well, she is the mother of a childhood friend and I spent much time in her home when I was a little girl. Our fathers were colleagues. I met them when my father was dying, they came to his beautiful memorial, sad and loyal.
My mother wrote her dead friend a beautiful parting letter she wants to be read on her grave, she says she knows the dead can hear us. I doubt that very much of course - people have difficulty listening to each other in life, the skeptic in me has a hard time thinking that we improve upon death.
Farewell.
A friend who dies, it’s something of you who dies. –Gustave Flaubert, Pensées de Gustave Flaubert

Quote

Bernard Shaw, chauvinist pig that he was (could I say Shawvinist?), knew how to throw words together:

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them. –George Bernard Shaw

Negatives

Shoplifters BURN IN HELL!!!
Today it was a woman.
And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Positives

* Sitting on a dock under a large brimmed hat, the sun out, the wind in the willows, the lake swishing around and a mystery book at hand.

* Summer holidays are here, no more homework.

* Warm nights in the city, when the moon is up and all you wish for is good Italian gelato.

* Walking around a city you know well, still discovering things, such as Sugar Beach - fake sand but fun place by the waterfront, with silly waterspouts and lights.