Authorities in the Sydney suburb of North Curl had to use loudspeakers from shore to warn surf boarding sightseers to get away from a full-grown Southern Right whale that came coasting toward shore. The mighty mammal is fairly tranquil around humans but it began to get skittish as the surfers moved in close for a better view. One rather fooloish man had his son on his board with him. As seen in the pictures inset, and in the video, the whale lashes out at one of the surfers with its tail. It then moves quickly and lunges toward the same surfer. But the whale’s actions all seem defensive and it did not pursue any of the surf boarders.  “To be honest,” said one witness, “they were harassing it a bit. They were so close it had no room to move. If I was the fish, I’d be harassed too.”  By Australian law, surfers should stay 330 feet away from a whale. “I was pretty worried to see one guy out there with the kid on his board,” said Hansen. “It’s a big animal, one tail flick and we could have a death on our hands.” Southern Right whales can weigh up to 70 tonnes and grow up to about 50 feet long.

The old schoolhouse on Glenrose Ave. in Moore Park which for decades was the home of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle is on the market for $4,800,000. It seems like a staggering price for a home which is, to be sure, both historic and beautifully refinished inside. Still, the lot is 50 by 145 and large homes on the street could not command more than 2.5 million at the upper pinnacle of pricing. The building dates it is said from the mid to late 19th century and, in what has become local trivia, was not a former church even though it appears to be one. It was the original school of Deer Park United Church which at the time was a Methodist congregation. It became the home and studio for two subsequently famous sculptors and artists, Loring and Wyle, who fled their homes in the midwest United States to hide their love affair and became famous in Canada through much distinguished work. As celebrated as they were, the couple sometimes barely eked out a living. Some who knew them personally say the old schoolhouse was frequently dangerously cold for lack of coal to heat it. Loring and Wyle died within a few months of each other in 1968. The parkette at St. Clair Ave. and Mt Pleasant Rd. in the former streetcar turn contains a number of copies of Loring and Wyle sculptures. Most of the originals are in the national gallery in Ottawa.   

Can I help?

The McMaster University study which says that dancing with your baby can make the child more helpful is interesting but the science seems to have a way to go to prove that children are learning a long-term life skill. Researchers found that dancing with a child either in your arms or with the toddler’s feet on the floor tended to make them more helpful. There seems little doubt that this healthy interaction would be entertaining for the child. The researchers noted that after such a session the child would typically scramble to pick up a dropped pen or similar object and return it to the parent. This might be an attempt by the child to extend the pleasant engagement. That would be a healthy reaction but not necessarily one that identifies on-going helpfulness. As in all things, however, small steps lead to great accomplishments and that may be true with the findings of this study

Mayoral candidate John Tory has issued a statement on the return of Mayor Ford to City Hall. It calls on the mayor to resign. In all the circumstances this is an entirely reasonable demand. A recent poll found that nearly 60% of Torontonians want Mr. Ford to get out of their lives for good. But the statement is more than just a righteous response to the mayor’s appalling behaviour. It is a matter of life or death for Mr. Tory in this election. It seems true that neither Mr. Ford nor Mr. Tory can win the election as long as they are both on the ballot. It is for this reason, no doubt, that Tory pointedly notes that Olivia Chow, almost alone among mayoral candidates, has NOT called on Mr. Ford to quit. It seems a curious oddity of niceness on the part of Ms. Chow considering as she is a woman and polls find that women particularly (and logically) dislike the boorish Mr. F. We cannot be corrected on this. Olivia Chow refuses to call for Mr. Ford’s removal because he is her ticket to the mayor’s office.

Our sister blog Yonge and Roxborough News snapped a picture of a booth at Pride Week (on Isabella Street) for the Communist Party of Canada. There are few events indeed where the Communist Party would bother (or dare) show its face and it can’t be a prideful moment for a lot of LGBT folks that it showed up at Pride. Same goes for the whacky “apartheid” gang with their incoherent shriek against Israel. But as to the Communists, it’s a free country and for all we know they may have actually paid Pride organizers to be there. That must have been a tough acknowledgement of the market system for these heirs of Stalin and Lenin. Point is, there seems to be room for Pride to, shall we say, grow up a little. It is a fact that LGBT, just like other secular ways of life, is not a monolith. Mature Pride-goers might find it liberating that their culture attracts discredited political fringes, but in the end it can’t be a source of, well, pride.