[PHOTO] East end of the AGO, as night falls

I snapped this photo of the east end of the facade of the Art Gallery of Ontario while I was crossing the intersection of Dundas and McCaul Thursday night to the Village Idiot Pub. Evening was turning into night, giving me a chance to capture something of the colours of this liminal moment.

(My apologies for the graininess. I really should start carrying around a proper camera again.)

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• blogTO celebrates High Park.


• Marginal Revolution celebrates the life and achievements of Benedict Anderson.


• Out of Ambit's Diane Duane shares a beautiful map of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States that she hand-drew in 1980.


• Towleroad discusses the mechanics of a same-sex couple's wedding.


• Transit Toronto notes upcoming meetings to discuss the future of transit in the Toronto area.


• Window on Eurasia looks at anti-Americanism in the Russian elite and suggests Ukraine should recognize the expulsion of Circassians and other Caucasians.

[NEWS] Some Sunday links

• Bloomberg reports that Switzerland and the European Union will hold talks on migration after the Brexit referendum.


• CBC reports that Canada can expect a warmer and dryer summer than average, and looks at the high cost of British Columbia housing (a half-million does not buy much in some parts).


• MacLean's has an oral history of Elbowgate.


• The National Post notes women drivers are signing up for Uber and reports on the exceptional unpopularity of both Clinton and Trump as candidates.


• Open Democracy argues that the Brexit referendum is nothing but a distraction.

[URBAN NOTE] Torontoist on the Raptors and #wetheother

On a bright warm day like today, why not talk about sports?



Joyita Sengupta's Torontoist post "Raptors Fans Were Always The Other" writes about the extent to which the Toronto Raptors, Toronto's NBA basketball team and the only such team in Canada, is a badge of pride for new Canadians. For people of recent immigrant background, this is the sport they connect with.

I grew up in a basketball neighbourhood. It was the stretch of Dixon Road between Islington and Kipling avenues, predominantly made up of Somali or South Asian immigrants. Despite our 416 area code, you would be hard pressed to see a Leafs jersey anywhere on my block. I can’t say I’ve met anyone from Dixon that was on a Little League team, either. However, without fail, as soon as school let out kids would run to the back of the local elementary school to shoot around whenever it was warm enough to. The older boys dominated the court, sandwiched between the six white, brick high rises, donated to the neighbourhood by iconic former Toronto Raptor Vince Carter in 2003. Despite never playing ball (or any sports, for that matter), I still get a tinge of hometown and neighbourhood pride when I walk by that court and see the VC logo on the now well-worn backboards.

At the core of being a Raptors fan is this sense you were always the “other” in Canada and Leafs-obsessed Toronto, long before the team was left out of CBS Sports’s poll, sparking #WeTheOther. Even with success of the “We The North” branding, the franchise hasn’t always received a lot of support outside of Southern Ontario. But as the Raptors wade deeper into the post-season than ever before, their fans are being put under the microscope.

Out of the words that have been used to describe Raptors fan, “young” and “diverse” are most used. An Indiana Pacers fan from south of the border was perplexed by all the “Canadian Indian Muslims” that travel town to town to support the team. They’ve also been described as some of the most dedicated, energetic fans in the league. “Not normal,” one Indiana columnist called them. These distinctions bring Raptors fans together.

[FORUM] What do you write?

Indulge my curiosity, if you would. Do you write at all? Is it for work only, or for pleasure? What do you write? Where do you write?