[PHOTO] Sir Isaac Brock Bridge, Bathurst Street, April 2012 (2)

Here's another picture of the Sir Isaac Brock Bridge, this one looking south at Bathurst Street at Front. Compare it to this photo taken looking north from the opposite end of the bridge, blogged by me back in August 2012.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Crooked Timber has two posts on David Cameron's announcement of a referendum, hopefully, on British membership in the European Union, to be held in a few years.


• Eastern Approaches had two posts on the recent Czech election, noting that the defeated candidate, Prince Schwarzenberg, was hobbled as much by his German associations as by his links to the previous government.


• Far Outliers notes the Americanization of Buddhism, and of the Japanese-Americans who practiced it, in post-Second World War Hawai'i.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money's Dave Brockington also comments on Britain's relationship with the European Union.


• Norman Geras notes the hatred of Mali's insurgents for music.


• Registan's Nathan Hamm warns that a post-Karimov Uzbekistan might intervene on behalf of Uzbek minorities in neighbouring states.


• Torontoist posted an excerpt from Edward Keenan's new book about Toronto, Some Great Idea.
  
• Might Iran buy water from Tajikistan? Windows on Eurasia notes the statement of interest.

[URBAN NOTE] On the unexpected survival of Rob Ford

Torontoist's roundup of reactions on Friday, the day it turned out that judges thought that Toronto's city council did not have the right to impose particular penalties on Ford like dismissal, is the best roundup I can think of. The full text of the appeal decision is at CBC.

The best reaction to this news--and also the funniest--was put together by the National Post's Steve Murray in his minute-by-minute account of affairs at City Hall Friday morning, "Mayor Rob Ford fails to learn anything from his legal battle".

11:53 Ford arrives at the podium and doles out thanks. Cites people at every restaurant and every gas station for their support.

11:54 Says he’s going to keep working (as mayor) for six years. You can hear everyone in the media whisper “Yes!”

11:55 This is the saddest victory speech I’ve ever heard. He’s delivering the same Ford platitudes we’ve come to love, but he’s delivering it like it’s a eulogy for a cousin he used to hang out with a lot as a kid.

11:59 What Ford’s learned from all of this is that a lot of people support him, showing he’s learned nothing.

12:08 After his statement and only a handful of questions, Ford leaves and it’s all over. Reporters track down random councillors for their thoughts, especially on the fact that Ford didn’t really acknowledge learning anything from all of this. The councillors are reluctant to put words in his mouth, but seem to agree that he must have learned something. He simply must have.

12:11 The feeling in the room is that Ford’s like a dog who gets smacked in the nose for peeing on the rug and thinks “NOSE PETS MEANS ME DO GOOD.” And the “Days Without Threat Of An Ousted Mayor” board gets reset to zero.

[BRIEF NOTE] On Kathleen Wynne, premier-designate of Ontario

Over the weekend, Kathleen Wynne was voted in a Liberal Party of Ontario assembly to be leader of the provincial party. In Canada, operating under British parliamentary rules, since the Liberal Party currently forms the government of Ontario this means that Wynne is now premier.

Over at his blog, Jeff Jedras blogged about his experience as a non-voting delegate watching the three rounds of voting.

Elsewhere, Wonkman notes that it's a sign of the success of the gay rights movement in Ontario and Canada as a whole that Wynne's sexual orientation and her female partner was not a strike against Wynne. A certain amount of celebration, in fact, is called for.

[LINK] "A third of Barnes & Noble stores may close in next decade, report says"

This Los Angeles Times report disturbs me, but is unsurprising. The only bookstores that seem likely to survive, in my opinion, are bookstores that can carve out niches for themselves, somehow, whether for particular interest groups (Toronto's Glad Day Bookstore comes to mind) or neighbourhoods. Might chain bookstores find it more difficult to master these niches than smaller ones?

Barnes & Noble will shut up to a third of its brick-and-mortar bookstores over the next decade as reading habits change and digital publications evolve, according to a new report.

The chain will end up with 450 to 500 stores in 10 years, down from the 689 physical stores it has now, according to Mitchell Klipper, chief executive of Barnes & Noble's retail group.

That evens out to about 20 stores shuttered yearly over the period, Klipper said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Over the last decade, Barnes & Noble has balanced an average annual closing rate of 15 stores with 30 openings each year through 2009.

"Of that number, some of the stores are unprofitable while others are relocations to better properties," spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said of the closures.

Since then, however, the growth rate has shriveled, with the company opening just two stores this fiscal year. Klipper told the Journal that the smaller physical footprint is "a good business model."

“You have to adjust your overhead, and get smart with smart systems," he said. "Is it what it used to be when you were opening 80 stores a year and dropping stores everywhere? Probably not. It's different. But every business evolves."