Storms

Yesterday, Toronto experienced several strong thunderstorms. These were not the awe-inspiring things of Kansas, but they were pretty intense storms for this part of the world. I left the apartment around 1 pm to go to Latin and the sky was ominous. I got downtown around 1:30 and decided I had time to stop into McDonalds for a quick lunch. While enjoying my burger, the sky opened up and it just began to dump rain. I finished lunch and steadied myself for the 15 minute walk to Latin when it started hailing. I had an umbrella, but walking around in hail still didn't seem like a good idea. I waited about 5 minutes, but the rain and hail did not let up, so I took my sandals off and walked to class. The water on the sidewalks was over my feet up to my ankle, and I didn't want to ruin my shoes. I figured the streets woul dbe pretty clean after all of that rain. At least it wasn't hailing anymore.

Oh, wait... it did start to hail again, when I was about halfway there. The hailstones were really cold under my feet, but they were about pea-sized, so nothing dangerous. Still, you never know when hailstones will suddenly get huge on you. I got to Latin a little late, but I was soaked. Despite the fact that I had an umbrella, it really only served to keep my upper half dry. My skirt was absolutely soaked. I could wring water out of it.

But walking around in the rain with my shoes off was sorta fun. I felt like a little kid. I could have done without the hail, of course, and I don't like being outside when there is lightning, since that is dangerous, but otherwise it was fun. I didn't like sitting in Latin all soaked, but what can you do? I hope the Canada Day celebrations tomorrow will not be rained out.

Correction: Horrifying Ontario Spiders

My worst fears have been realized. Thanks to a comment by nosetotale, who responded to my comment on the biting insects post below that I didn't believe there to be any spiders to note up here in Toronto, I learned about our friend the Dock Spider (Pisauridae Dolomedes for you scientists out there).

Dock Spiders skiff across the surface of the water hunting aquatic insects or small fish. That's right SMALL FISH. This is as horrifying to me as those Amazon spiders that hunt birds. They can reach sizes of up to 8 cm and are Ontario's largest spider. The picture to the left shows one with a Toonie, which is around 3 cm in diameter. They are apparently very abundant in Cottage Country. To be perfectly honest, this information is enough to keep me permanently out of Cottage country as spiders absolutely love to chomp on me, and knowing my luck, I would fall in a nest of these suckers. Their bites are not "medically significant," meaning they are not aggressively poisonous, but if they are in any way like a wolf spider, perhaps their bites would bother some people more than others.

Ontario also has wolf spiders, which are pretty ubiquitous throughout North America, as well as Crab Spiders. Now, in my stomping ground in the US, we have lots of wolf spiders and crab spiders, and the wolf spiders just love to bite me and they do grow to the size of yams. In fact, one that was in our house was so huge that I thought it was a picture of a spiders, since it was sitting on a piece of newspaper. Dock Spiders are found in neighboring states to mine, so I would image that watery areas there may harbor (hah hah) these critters, but I, thankfully, did not live near any and, frankly, I will not be a lake-dweller anytime soon.

Roo would actually enjoy living by a lake in Northern Ontario since his fur protects him from flying insects and he loves to eat large spiders. He eats the middles and leaves the legs.

The Trillium Controversy

The Liberal government of Ontario, the government everyone loves to hate, has changed the provincial logo at the tune of over $200,000 Canadian (that's around $5 for you Americans out there).

People are outraged. You can read the story here, and the reader reactions here. I can save you the effort of actually reading the reactions and say that pretty much everyone hates the new logo. I have to agree with this on this one. I prefer the cleaner, older logo designs to the new "corporate" one that doesn't really resemble a trillium so much as, as one reader described it, "a Christmas tree about to fall over." For those of you who do not know what a trillium is, here is a picture of one:

People are also complaining because the new Ontario logo resembles the Liberal party's logo. Personally, I don't really see a huge resemblance save for the slanty thing they have going... but perhaps I am looking at the wrong logo.

Anyway, this, along with the last Liberal corruption scandal with some advertising agency and a piddly amount of money, passes for controversy in Canada. Frankly, while I DO consider redesigning logos to be a huge waste of time, the fiasco with the University of Kansas versus Kutztown University is a case in point, I think the Canadans should count themselves as lucky that this is as bad as it gets.

The Newest Canadian

The Dalai Lama has been given honorary Canadian citizenship. I think in honor of this, the Enlightened One should make sure to say "eh?" at the end of all of his sentences.

From the Toronto Star: The Dalai Lama has been given honorary Canadian citizenship. Members of Parliament agreed unanimously today to an NDP motion to grant the Tibetan spiritual leader the honour. It's the third time Parliament has approved such a measure. The only other honorary citizenships were bestowed on iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela, and on Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Second World War. The Dalai Lama is scheduled to visit Vancouver in September — his second visit to Canada in as many years.

Canada's Biting Insects

Canada is famous for many things. Poutine, Mounties, and excessive politeness. However, within Canada, different aspects of Canada receive more attention, most especially the insects.

No one has bugs like Canada. Sure, the tropics have, on an organism level, nastier, uglier, and more Indiana Jones-worthy insects, but for sheer appetite and numbers, Canada gets the prize. Things aren't too bad here in Toronto as insect swarms tend to keep to more pastoral regions, but if you head north in Ontario, you will be utterly eaten alive.

This story in the Toronto Star reports about a man outside of Huntsville, ON, which lies about three hours north of Toronto, who attempted to evade police by hiding in the brush. However, he was forced to give himself into custody after being eaten alive by mosquitoes. The police used ample amounts of repellent and were able to wait the suspect out.

Besides your standard mosquito, Canada is also home to many other insects who enjoy biting you, and who also happen to live in large swarms thereby when you come across one of these little guys who likes to bite you, he brings along all five trillion of his friends (who also like to bite you.)

One of these insects is the Black Fly, pictured. The Canadian government even has a webpage about these critters here. In fact, they have many pages about all of the various sorts of biting flies this lovely country has to offer. They state (almost proudly) that there are more black flies here than mosquitoes. There's a reason to visit.

Black flies are so bad that Wade Hemsworth, a noteable Canadian, wrote a song about them after working in Northern Ontario on a surveying crew in the summer. The lyrics follow, taken from this website where you can download a version of the song to hear.

'Twas early in the spring when I decide to go
For to work up in the woods of North Ontario.
The unemployment office said they'd send me through
To the Little Abitibi with the survey crew

And the black flies, the little black flies
Always the black fly no matter where you go
I'll die with the black fly a Pickin' my bones
In North Ontar-i-o-i-o, In North Ontar-i-o

The man Black Tobey was the captain of the crew
He said, I'm gonna tell you boys, what we're gonna do
They want to build a power dam; we must find a way
For to make the Little Ab flow around the other way

So we survey the east, survey to the west.
We couldn't make our minds up how to do it best
Little Ab, Little Ab, what shall I do?
I'm all but goin' crazy on the survey crew.

'Twas blackfly, blackfly, everywhere
A-crawlin' in your whiskers, a-crawlin' in your hair
A-swimmin' in the soup and a-swimmin' in the tea
The devil take the blackfly and let me be.

Black Tobey fell to swearin'; the work went slow
The state of our morale was a-gettin' pretty low
The flies swarmed heavy; it was hard to catch a breath
As you staggered up and down the trail talkin' to yourself

The bull cook's name was Blind River Joe
If it hadn't been for him we'd 've never pulled through
He bound up our bruises and he kidded us for fun
And he lathered us with bacon grease and balsam gum

At last the job was over, Black Tobey said, we're through
With the Little Abitibi and the survey crew!
'Twas a wonderful experience and this I know;
I'll never go again to North Ontar-i-o

© 1957 Southern Publishing Co. Ltd.

Also famous even outside of Canada are the no-see-ums. No-see-ums are biting midges and they are so small that you probably will only know they are around when they start sucking your blood. Isn't that fun? An invisible blooksucker. Everyone's favorite party guest. One is pictured here.

Personally, I have yet to run in to any of these biting insects, though my experiences with mosquitoes in Kansas is that they are not that attracted to me. Not that I want to trapse into Northern Ontario to find out.

And at this point you are probalby asking yourself, why in the world would anyone live in Northern Ontario? The snows, the insects, the bogs, the bears... and I'll say right now that they don't. Hardly anyone lives in Northern Ontario, and those who do, well, yeah, I don't know either.

Terrorists in Toronto

So it seems someone, somewhere, wants Toronto blown up. The RCMP (Yes, the world-famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police) apparently foiled a bombing plot and broke up a terrorism ring right here in Toronto.

Now, I cannot, for the life of me, think of any reason someone would want to blow up anything in Toronto. Okay, the buildings are, for the most part, obscenely ugly, and the public transit isn't the best, though sources say the TTC was not the target. The CN Tower is sort of stupid looking, but it is useful as a compass of sorts, so you wouldn't want to blow that up or you'd get lost....

Anyway, we've seemingly been saved from something devistating, which is good since I'm not in Toronto to get blown up. Getting a PhD is hard enough without bombs going off around you. Still, blow up Canada? That is like hitting your little sister. I mean, Canada barely has a military and there is not a lot of support for Canada's activity in Afghanistan. Canada is not taking part in any of the Iraq situation. Perhaps this plot is in retaliation for the planned Tim Horton's in Kandahar... It is true, their doughnuts are dangerously addictive.