[PHOTO] Looking west at the CN Tower, Bay and Front

Even well past 9 o'clock on a Sunday evening, Bay and Front is a busy intersection.

[PHOTO] King Jagiello Monument, Central Park

The King Jagiello Monument, commemorating the battle won by the 15th century Polish king Jagiello and his (mainly) Lithuanian allies over the Teutonic Knights, stands at the east end of Turtle Pond.



The bronze monument was created for the 1939 New York World's Fair's Polish pavilion by the Polish sculptor Stanisław K. Ostrowski (1879–1947). It stood at the Fair's entrance at Queens' Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. It is a replica of a King Jagiello memorial in Warsaw that was converted into bullets for World War II by the Germans after they entered and occupied the capital of Poland.

As a result of the German invasion of Poland that marked the beginning of the Second World War, the personnel and equipment of the Polish World's Fair pavilion was forced to remain in the United States. Unlike much of the rest of the pavilion which was sold to the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, the monument stayed in New York, thanks in part to mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia publicly lobbying to keep the statue. The statue was presented to the City of New York by the King Jagiello Monument Committee, with support from the Polish government in exile in July 1945, when it was permanently placed in Central Park with the cooperation of the last consul of the Second Polish Republic or pre-communist Poland in New York, count Józef Kazimierz Krasicki and unveiled by him.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the oddly recognizable shape of the Horsehead Nebula, and the reasons for this.


• Bruce Dorminey notes how exceptionally difficult it is for current astronomers to track the transformation of stardust into planets.


• Gizmodo notes a new theory for the formation of the Moon suggesting that, instead of condensing from the debris left by a Mars-mass object's collision with the Earth, it condensed along with the Earth from a synestia.


• JSTOR Daily notes an Indian entrepreneur who developed a generator transforming rice husks into electrical power for an entire village.


• Language Hat takes a critical look at some of the claims made in a recent article suggesting Icelandic is at risk of extinction.


• Elaine Showalter writes at the NYR Daily about the power of feminist fantasy and science fiction literature.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the apparent detection of the earliest-forming stars in the universe and their relationship with dark matter.


• Strange Company notes the mysterious 1885 disappearance of New York City editor Samuel Stillman Conant. What happened to him? Why did he apparently abandon a happy life?


• Whatever shares an idea for a fantasy universe from Tobias Buckell, imagining a world where magic has individual benefits but a terrible cost to the world at large. How would it be used?


• Arnold Zwicky notes the death of Broadway and television star Nanette Fabray.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Yoko Ono, cars, St. Clair, York Region, First Nations, Quayside

• At NOW Toronto, local artist Jean Yoon reviews Yoko Ono's new conceptual work The Riverbed, currently being exhibited at the Gardiner.


• John Rieti at CBC notes the oddness of an observation by mayor John Tory that it is rare for parents in Toronto to not own a car.


• Transit Toronto notes the installation of beacons to guide the blind at St. Clair station.


• Apparently York Region's school board does not pay students' foster families enough. CBC reports.


• A new study suggests that First Nations people in Toronto experience above-average levels of poverty and hunger. The Toronto Star reports.


• Developers of a huge office-dominated complex in planned for emergent Quayside are seeking funding. The Toronto Star reports.


• blogTO has a cute little item noting how author Elan Mastai is promoting his new book using the Little Free Libraries of Toronto.

[NEWS] Six LGBTQ links: violence, The 519, William Whitehead, art, pink triangle, Janelle Monáe

• I have been sitting on, thinking of, this R.M. Vaughan essay in The Globe and Mail reflecting on the high levels of violence queer men have to deal with for some time. All I can say, really, is that in the years I've lived in Toronto, I've felt what I've come to realize is a sense of safety that I never had living on PEI. The essay is here.


• The Globe and Mail reports on how the 519 Community Centre, in Church and Wellesley, is facing criticism that it has lost touch with its roots in the LGBTQ communities, especially marginalized ones.


• William Whitehead, a writer of documentaries for CBC perhaps most famous as the partner of the late Canlit giant Timothy Findley, died this past week. The Globe and Mail eulogizes.


• CBC reports on a new exhibition of queer art in Thunder Bay.


• The Forward reports on how, in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, artist Avram Finkelstein repurposed the pink triangle of the Nazis into an iconic badge for our era.


• As Janelle Monáe continues moving on out (she seems to have a nice girlfriend), Vulture looks at the interesting trope of bisexual lighting.

[MUSIC] Four music links: Prince and Janelle Monáe, Shirley Manson, Fischerspooner, Madonna

• VICE reports that the late great Prince had some input on the new album of Janelle Monáe.

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[MUSIC] Madonna, "The Power of Good-Bye"

"The Power of Good-Bye", a stand-out song on a rather strong Ray of Light that became a lovely gentle classic as soon as it was first heard. This song is a good way--a mature way, a pensive way--to say good-bye to a partner who is no longer.

Watch on YouTube