[PHOTO] First snowfall, Yonge and Eglinton

[PHOTO] Map of west Toronto, 1868

This map, displayed at the Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden parkette in the west-end neighbourhood of Roncesvalles, depicts territory that was--one year after the formation of Canada--still substantially rural. The map clearly shows the great arc of Dundas Street West as it curves north, avoiding what were then swamps and other lowlands and now substantially High Park, as well as the shallower curve of east-west artery Davenport Road to the northeast along the base of the escarpment marking the shoreline of the Ice Age's Glacial Lake Iroquois.

These territories have all been transformed radically, densely urbanized and booming. Even the Humber River that was once a boundary has become an internal waterway of the City of Toronto, Etobicoke on the western side being part of the legal city.

[PHOTO] Virgin Mary, St. Vincent de Paul

This statue of the Virgin Mary outside St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church on lower Roncesvalles was serene.

[PHOTO] "The Pope and Doctor"

This sign advertises the parish pub of St. Vincent de Paul.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Centauri Dreams notes how gas giants on eccentric orbits can easily disrupt bodies on orbits inwards.


• Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber suggests that the political culture of England has been deformed by the trauma experienced by young children of the elites at boarding schools.


• Dangerous Minds looks at the haunting art of Paul Delvaux.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the work of Tressie McMillan Cottom in investigating for-profit higher education.


• Far Outliers looks at Tripoli in 1801.


• Gizmodo shares the Boeing design for the moon lander it proposes for NASA in 2024.


• io9 shares words from cast of Terminator: Dark Fate about the importance of the Mexican-American frontier.


• JSTOR Daily makes a case against killing spiders trapped in one's home.


• Language Hat notes a recovered 17th century translation of a Dutch bible into the Austronesian language of Siraya, spoken in Taiwan.


• Language Log looks at the origin of the word "brogue".


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the payday lender industry.


• Marginal Revolution notes a new biography of Walter Raleigh, a maker of empire indeed.


• The NYR Daily looks at a new dance show using the rhythms of the words of writer Robert Walser.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how, in a quantum universe, time and space could still be continuous not discrete.


• Strange Company looks at a court case from 1910s Brooklyn, about a parrot that swore.


• The Volokh Conspiracy notes an affirmative action court case in which it was ruled that someone from Gibraltar did not count as Hispanic.


• Window on Eurasia notes rhetoric claiming that Russians are the largest divided people on the Earth.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at lizards and at California's legendary Highway 101.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links

• blogTO notes the maps made by artist Peter Gorman showing the strange intersections of Toronto.


• This imagining of a wholly pedestrianized lower Yonge Street looks attractive. blogTO has it.
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• Jamie Bradburn tells how couples in Toronto during the Second World War expressed their love, here.


• This condo at 701 Dovercourt Road looks amazing. blogTO reports.


• Toronto Pearson Airport failed in its obligation to provide services for French-language travelers, the Official Languages Commissioner has ruled. CTV News reports.


• So-called "unicorn poutine" is offered for sale at a north Toronto restaurant. Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: ottawa, Montréal, Moncton, Detroit, Vancouver

• The mayor of Ottawa is suggesting freezing Confederation Line fare increases in light of the system's problems. Global News reports.


• La Presse looks at the problems faced by the Marché Jean-Talon, here.


• Greater Moncton, arguably the leading metropolis of New Brunswick, wants to double its intake of immigrants. Global News reports.


• Jamie Bradburn looks at Lafayette Park in Detroit, designed by Mies van der Rohe.


• Will Vancouver be connected to Washington State by a high-speed train route? Global News reports.

[AH] Five r/imaginarymaps #alternatehistory maps: Turks, Prussia, Prussia-Poland, Austria, Bavaria

• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines the creation, via migration in the 13th century, of a Turkic Christian minority akin to the Gagauz concentrated in northwestern Germany. Nice map, if questionable borders.


• What would have happened if, as nearly occurred in 1762, Prussia was crushed by its neighbours and divided? r/imaginarymaps shows the outcome.


• Could there ever have emerged, after the partitions of Poland, a dual-nation kingdom of Prussia-Poland? r/imaginarymaps shows this country.


• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a southern Germany unified under Austria, separate from the sphere of Prussia in the north.


• Could a union of Bavaria with the German-speaking lands of Austria after 1919 have worked? r/imaginarymaps shows it.