[PHOTO] #Canada150 at the Galleria Mall

Though short years away from being razed to make way for new developments, the Galleria Mall, too, is celebrating #Canada150 with the rest of the city and the country.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Apostrophen's 'Nathan Smith talks about "cis", "trans", and the non-obvious meaning of this classification.
  
• The Big Picture shares photos of a recent sailing festival in Boston.


• blogTO reports on the trendy charcoal-black ice cream of a store across from Trinity Bellwoods.
  
• Centauri Dreams considers the idea of a "runaway fusion" drive.Crooked Timber wonders how a bad Brexit agreement could possibly be worse than no Brexit agreement for the United Kingdom.
  
• D-Brief warns of the possibility of sustained life-threatening heat waves in the tropics with global warming.
  
• The Everyday Sociology Blog considers how sociology majors are prepared, or not, for the workforce.


• Language Hat links to a wonderful examination of the textual complexities of James Joyce's Ulysses.


• The LRB Blog looks at how British big business is indebted to the Conservatives.


• Marginal Revolution reports on China's emergent pop music machine.


• Steve Munro reports on the latest on noise from the 514 Cherry streetcar.


• The NYRB Daily has a fascinating exchange on consciousness and free will and where it all lies.
  
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on a successful expedition to Argentina to examine Kuiper Belt object MU69 via occultation.


• Peter Rukavina celebrates Charlottetown school crossing guard Dana Doyle.

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links, from Toronto Island students to Ontario Place park to the TTC

• Caroline Alphonso reports in The Globe and Mail about how Toronto Islands students have been displaced to school on the mainland, in Regent Park.
  
• Robert Benzie and Victoria Gibson describe in the Toronto Star a new waterfront park in a revitalized part of Ontario Place.
  
• Torontoist's Keiran Delamont notes how Metrolinx's sharing of data with the police fits into the broader concept of the modern surveillance state.
  
• Steve Munro tracks the evolution, or perhaps more properly devolution, of streetcar service from 1980 to 2016.

[NEWS] Seven Toronto links, from queer and Irish history to new infrastructure to a serial killer

• Lisa Coxon of Toronto Life shares eleven photos tracking Toronto's queer history back more than a century.


• Michelle McQuigge reports for the Toronto Star that the Luminous Veil does save lives. I would add that it is also beautiful.


• In The Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee thinks it makes perfect sense for there to be a dedicated streetcar corridor on King Street.


• Ben Spurr describes a new plan for a new GO Transit bus station across from Union Station.


• Emily Mathieu reported in the Toronto Star on how some Kensington Market tenants seem to have been pushed out for an Airbnb hostel.


• In The Globe and Mail, Irish-born John Doyle explores the new Robert Grassett Park, built in honour of the doctor who died trying to save Irish refugees in 1847.

Justin Ling in VICE tells the story of three gay men who went missing without a trace in Toronto just a few years ago. What happened?

[LINK] Three links on the new phenomenon of the Drag Queen Story Hour

I am rather surprised that the phenomenon of the drag queen story hour, where children are ready stories by people in full drag, seems to be becoming mainstream. While I can see how it has become big, given the performativity of the best drag performances and the humour of these and the nature RuPaul's second ascent to mainstream celebrity, I am still surprised.

NOW Toronto's Kelly Boutsalis writes about the spread of the Drag Queen Story Hour from Church and Wellesley to Toronto at large, from Yorkville to Leslieville.

In MacLean's, Katy MacKinnon explores how the Drag Queen Story Hour has taken off in Winnipeg.

Erin McCormack writes for The Guardian about how this is becoming a worldwide thing, even.