Plenty of Nothing

Ladies Scottish Climbing Club

My brain must have been installed backward because I still don't get why men are so much more interested in men's athletics than in women's athletics. Women have been engaged in organized sports for over a century, and doing amazing things from the beginning.  As an example I submit this photo of the Ladies Scottish Climbing Club, taken in 1908.   (And stolen by me from www.johngill.net.)  Douglas

Tatooine

Okay, this is the last Star Wars anniversary related post.  But I wanted to get in this shot of the two suns of Tatooine.  One, just because it's a fantastic special effects shot.  Two, because it's so calm, unlike so much of the recent cgi Star Wars trilogy.  And three, because some exoplanet is bound to get named Tatooine some time soon, if it hasn't already, because it has two suns.

Douglas

Awwww!

Princess Leia! Photo Reuters.

May 25, 1977

Star Wars opened thirty years ago today.

Pine Tree and Red House

This Lawren Harris just went for $2.8 million.  And you know what?  It's worth it.  Beautiful house, beautiful pine, beautiful snow, beautiful blue sky.  And, as houses like this get scarcer, and snow becomes mythological, it can only appreciate in value.  Read about the auction here.

Douglas

The Moon, Enormous, Bright

I love the Moon.  I'm so glad we have it.  It's in space, but it's in the world too.  It refills the tidal pools.  You can walk the paths through grassy fields by it.   It causes poems.  It teaches us black-and-white photography.  It's only three days from here by rocket.  For $200-million the Russians will take you there.  There's a whole gallery of moon photos here.

Douglas

NWHL Collapses

CBC is reporting that the eastern portion of the National Women's Hockey League has suspended operations.  The plan is to come back with a new economic model after one year.  The Oakville Ice owner compares the situation to the NHL lockout year, and lists several changes that need to be made, including restricting free agency.  The western division, which was part of the NWHL on paper only, will carry on. 

So, it's more Olympians going back to university, or to Sweden, and stronger rosters for the WWHL.  Unless the OWHA steps in and organizes its own senior league for the Toronto-area teams.  A small Montreal-Ottawa league could work too.  Well, work in the sense of drawing 100 fans per game.  Now would be a good time for the NHL to get involved and set up the hockey equivalent of the WNBA.

Crab Apple Blossoms

Personification of Canada (1917)

Here's a WWI-era personification of Canada by British Pre-Raphaelite John Byam Liston Shaw.  Canada emerges from a heap of emblems representing her economic and martial role in the Empire to strike a Wagnerian pose.  The figure herself is straight out of Victorian medievalism, but the bountiful foodstuffs show the influence of the poster art created for the Department of Immigration and Canadian Pacific Railway.  I feel Byam Shaw is guessing about the mutton, but Canada was renowned for her cheese, and was a major apple exporter at the time.  Wheat and fish are so closely associated with Canada as to be heraldic.  The same goes for the beaver, though it appears to be wondering why it's in this tableau, as a symbol of industriousness or the historic fur trade or what.  It's pretty easy to see why Canadian art about the Empire gets increasingly ironic from this point forward.  It's hard not to think of this gal as a member of a travelling opera company, touring the provinces and soldiering on through the barrage of apples.

Douglas (Image lifted from here.)

Personification of Canada (1894)

Imperious and babacious at once, this bronze figure guards the base of John A. Macdonald's statue on the east side of Parliament Hill.  Sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert has given her a slightly concerned expression.  There's stress in her chin and forehead, and the beginning of bags under the eyes.  Is she thinking about the revolving door Tory leadership since Macdonald's death, the Panic of 1893, or the impending Liberal election sweep?

Douglas