rfmcdonald | Entries tagged with statues

I was walking last weekend west past Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church, in the west of the neighbourhood of Parkdale, when I saw this statue of the Virgin Mary. I had wanted to take a photo of the tatue, framed so nicely by the window behind it and with a coat painted in an earnest sky blue, for aesthetic reasons. I also recalled the old tradition of asking the Virgin Mary to intercede with Christ for mercy in--for instance--times of plague.

This image has turned out to become one of my most popular photos on Instagram, largely because of apparently Lebanese users finding the image via hashtags.

Our Mother Mary in blue #toronto #parkdale #queenstreetwest #ourladyoflebanon #virginmary #blue #statue #maronite #maronitecatholic

In memory of the fallen (1) #toronto #downsviewpark #liuna #liuna506 #chesswooddrive #statue #latergram

In memory of the fallen (2) #toronto #downsviewpark #liuna #liuna506 #chesswooddrive #statue #latergram

In memory of the fallen (3) #toronto #downsviewpark #liuna #liuna506 #chesswooddrive #statue #latergram

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

Virgin Mary #toronto #roncesvalles #roncesvallesave #dundasstreetwest #virginmary #statue #stvincentdepaulchurch

Architectuul profiles architectural photographer Lorenzo Zandri, here.

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes a new study suggesting red dwarf stars, by far the most common stars in the universe, have plenty of planets.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares 11 tips for interviewers, reminding me of what I did for anthropology fieldwork.

Centauri Dreams notes how water ice ejected from Enceladus makes the inner moons of Saturn brilliant.

The Crux looks at the increasingly complicated question of when the first humans reached North America.

D-Brief notes a new discovery suggesting the hearts of humans, unlike the hearts of other closely related primates, evolved to require endurance activities to remain healthy.

Dangerous Minds shares with its readers the overlooked 1969 satire Putney Swope.

The Dragon's Tales notes that the WFIRST infrared telescope has passed its first design review.

Gizmodo notes how drought in Spain has revealed the megalithic Dolmen of Guadalperal for the first time in six decades.

io9 looks at the amazing Jonathan Hickman run on the X-Men so far, one that has established the mutants as eye-catching and deeply alien.

Joe. My. God. notes that the Pentagon has admitted that 2017 UFO videos do, in fact, depict some unidentified objects in the air.

JSTOR Daily looks at the origin of the equestrian horseback statue in ancient Rome.

Language Log shares a bilingual English/German pun from Berlin.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reflects on the legacy of Thomas Jefferson at Jefferson's grave.

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution looks at a new book arguing, contra Pinker perhaps, that the modern era is one of heightened violence.

The New APPS Blog seeks to reconcile the philosophy of Hobbes with that of Foucault on biopower.

Strange Company shares news clippings from 1970s Ohio about a pesky UFO.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why the idea of shooting garbage from Earth into the sun does not work.

Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps explains the appearance of Brasilia on a 1920s German map: It turns out the capital was nearly realized then.

Towleroad notes that Pete Buttigieg has taken to avoiding reading LGBTQ media because he dislikes their criticism of his gayness.

Arnold Zwicky looks at diners and changing menus and slavery.

blogTO notes that there is, for a short while, a Toronto-themed version of Monopoly available for sale.

The iconic Toronto sign in front of City Hall is set to be replaced with a more cost-effective one. The Toronto Star reports.

I like the controversial statue of a man 25 feet tall placed in front of a new condo development on St. Clair Avenue West. The Toronto Star reports.

The National Post reports in depth of the plans of Google's Sidewalk Labs to transform the Portlands.

Sean Marshall looks at how the concrete barriers put up in front of Union Station disrupt, particularly, non-car traffic there.

A statue of Queen Victoria has been vandalized in Montréal, the act claimed by an anti-colonialist coalition. Global News reports.

Guardian Cities profiled an Instagram account, thedoorsofnyc, concentrating on the unique doors of New York City.

Billionaire urbanism is identified by this article at The Stranger as the downfall of the waterfront of Seattle.

CityLab notes that the government of Amsterdam is now requiring owners of new homes to live in their property, limiting the ability to rent them out.

The Atlantic notes the criticisms of many urbanists in Istanbul that restorations of the city's ancient heritage are actually destroying them, at least as survivals from the past.

CityLab wonders how the new CAQ government of Québec will come into conflict with Valérie Laplante in Montréal, a city that wants mass transit not highways and that voted against the CAQ.

CityLab considers what could become of The Mall, the neglected central park of Cleveland.

Osaka just cut its ties with San Francisco over that city's erection of a monument honouring the comfort women of Second World War Japan. VICE reports.

This article in Guardian Cities examining the Chinese creation of a virtually new and highly autonomous city, Port City, on Sri Lanka to support China's aspirations in the Indian Ocean is revealing.

Kris Janssens at the Inter Press Service looks at how the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville is being transformed by Chinese investment and trade into a regional metropolis.

Croatian-Canadian fans in Mississauga were definitely organized and ready to celebrate the Croatian team playing in the World Cup finals. Global News reports.

People in Kahnawake are looking forward to an upcoming powwow, as a celebration of indigenous culture and a vehicle for reconciliation. Global News reports.

CityLab notes the progress that environmental initiatives in Madrid have had in bringing wildlife back to the Spanish capital.

Politico Europe reports on the mood in Helsinki on the eve of the Trump-Putin summit there. Avoiding a repetition of Munich was prominent in locals' minds.

Namrata Kolachalam at Roads and Kingdoms reports from Mumbai on the negative environmental impact of a controversial statue of Marathi conqueror Shivaji on local fishing communities.

The statue of the Virgin Mary standing by the corner of Parkdale's Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, at King and Close, stands hands open and illuminated in the night.

"Pray For Us" #toronto #parkdale #holyfamilychurch #statue #virginmary #night #kingstreetwest #closeave #closeavenue

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.

King Jagiello Monument, from the south #newyorkcity #newyork #manhattan #centralpark #poland #statue #kingjagiello #kingjagiellomonument #latergram

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.

The fact that a jury--carefully selected to have no jurors of First Nations background--found the killer of Cree man Colten Boushie innocent is a horror. The Toronto Star < a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/02/09/hanging-over-my-familys-head-colten-boushies-family-await-verdict-in-gerald-stanley-trial.html">reports.

MacLean's takes a look at the reasons for Cree sensitivities regarding the inclusion of Chief Poundmaker as a character in the new iteration of Civilization.

The Inuit of the northern Québec region of Nunavik, when sent south to Montréal for medical treatment, have an enclave in the city, the building of Ullivik. The Toronto Star reports.

This opinion piece in The Globe and Mail makes an excellent case for the removal of the statue of General Cornwallis from Halifax. Societies evolve; statues, alas, cannot.

This statue of Theodore Roosevelt stands before the museum he helped make.

Theodore Roosevelt on horseback #newyorkcity #newyork #manhattan #americanmuseumofnaturalhistory #amnh #theodoreroosevelt #horseback #statue #centralparkwest #latergram

VICE notes that Félicette, the first cat in space thanks to the French, is going to have a monument built in her honour through fundraising.

Marc-Antoine Fardin explains at The Conversation why the question of whether cats are, in fact, liquid is a useful one to ask.

Nigel Kendall at the Guardian explains how he ended up finding himself companion to a stray ginger cat.

In memory of the dead of Earlscourt, Toronto

Toronto's Prospect Cemetery extends as far south as St. Clair Avenue, touching Earlscourt. Back when this neighbourhood was a newly-annexed municipality on the northwest fringes of the City of Toronto, Earlscourt was a new communiy, home to many recent British immigrants. These people volunteered by the thousands to serve on the Western Front, and died in the hundreds. After the First World War, this memorial was built in Prospect Cemetery, Earlscourt's local cemetery, in honour of the neighbourhood's dead. Future king Edward VIII lent his presence to the ceremonies surrounding of this cenotaph in 1919.

Torontoist takes on Galen Weston and the $15 minimum wage and poverty in Toronto (and Loblaw's contribution to said).

At the Toronto Star, Shawn Micallef describes how high property values in Toronto discourage open-air parking lots.

Noor Javed looks, in Toronto Star, at the question of who authorized the cathedral elevated cow statue in Cathedraltown, in Markham.

The Star's Fatima Syed shares some old memories of Torontonians of the Centreville carousel, soon to be sold off.

At The Globe and Mail, Dakshana Bascaramurty takes a look at Jamaican patois, Toronto black English, and the many complex ways in which this language is received.

Mother Mary in the front garden #toronto #wallaceemerson #lansdowneave #virginmary #statue #garden

This blue-and-white statue of the Virgin Mary standing in the front garden of a home on Lansdowne Avenue, in the heavily Portuguese-Canadian (and even more heavily Roman Catholic) west-end neighbourhood of Wallace Emerson, caught my eye when I was walking down the street on the Saturday before my flight.