Odds 'n Sods
Toronto's snowiest winter on record was 1937/38 when 207.4 centimetres fell on my hometown, but this winter has been doing its best to beat that record. We're up over 130 cm so far, and there's more in the forecast for this weekend. I've got no problem at all with this form of precipitation. In fact, as fas as I'm concerned, winter is the best of the four seasons.
It does present one with a hazard or two, however, when you venture out into it and I encountered one this morning. I was walking home from dropping my car off at the mechanic's so he could work a little of his wizardry on the brakes. The walking was not too bad on the sidewalks, but when I got to one intersection, I found myself facing a high snowbank that I had to climb over.
I thought for a moment of what an obstacle this would present to a senior or someone who is visually impaired, and then I tackled the problem. I tried to make sure I had good, solid footing for my right foot and started to lift my left leg up and over. Halfway through the maneuver, however, my right foot slipped back from under me and I went down, flat out. At that point I discovered that it wasn't just a nice soft snowbank. It was icy hard and my left shin took a good hit.
When I went down there were two boys approaching me, making their way to the local high school. They moved apart from each other in order to walk around me, which they did without a word. No "are you OK?". Nothing.
I picked myself up and continued. It took me an hour total to walk home and my shin was painful the whole way. When I got home, I found broken skin and a nasty big lump already coming up. I'm sitting here with my leg up and an ice pack on it, while I type.
I'm OK with the icepack and the sore shin, but I'm not OK with the total lack of concern evidenced by those two boys. I wonder if they'd want someone to stop and offer help if a member of their own family went down in the snow?
Hannah Taylor of Winnipeg comes as a wonderful counter-balance to the who-gives-a-shit attitude displayed by the two unfeeling louts I encountered this morning. What an incredible example this girl sets of caring for others. Her particular concern is for the homeless, and it began when she was just 5. Out with her mother one day, she saw a homeless man eating out of a garbage can. The world changed for Hannah that day, and ever since then she has been busily working to change it for others. To date, she has raised over $1 million through her Ladybug Foundation. Her efforts are gathering attention from more than one source. In 2005, she became the youngest person ever to speak at the Empire Club in Toronto, and in 2007, she was made the recipient of a Brick Award for her fundraising efforts on behalf of the homeless, as well as the Gloria Barron Prize, for her leadership in making a positive difference.
The students I met this morning could land someone in a real funk if they thought of those twerps and their ilk as the only hope for tomorrow. Someone like Hannah Taylor could lift them back out of the funk. She really does represent hope.
Now, from one Taylor to another. U.S. economist George Taylor earned himself a dubious fame in 1926 by theorizing a connection between women's hemlines and the economy. I'm willing to assume that he made more of a contribution than that to his chosen field, but I don't know if he's remembered for anything as much as his theory that womens' hemlines rise and fall in line with the strength of the economy.
Taylor theorized that boom times meant higher hemlines because women could afford to wear expensive silk stockings, and they weren't about to hide them under a long skirt. In hard times, however, the hosiery might be worn and shabby or even outright conspicuous in its absence, and so hemlines crept further down to hide all that. In seeming support of the theory, hemlines cerainly did rise during the roaring twenties, and fall again during the great depression of the 30's. They rose again during the swinging sixties, but there would seem to be a snag running through the fabric of Taylor's theory now.
The silk stockings of Taylor's day are pretty much a thing of the past, replaced by bare legs or panty hose generally made of nylon. So many women wear jeans or slacks as daily routine, and those who wear skirts buy the ones with the hemline they prefer, anywhere from their ankles up to damn near their crotch. I wonder what good ol' George would make of these wandering hemlines today, and their connection to the economy.
It does present one with a hazard or two, however, when you venture out into it and I encountered one this morning. I was walking home from dropping my car off at the mechanic's so he could work a little of his wizardry on the brakes. The walking was not too bad on the sidewalks, but when I got to one intersection, I found myself facing a high snowbank that I had to climb over.
I thought for a moment of what an obstacle this would present to a senior or someone who is visually impaired, and then I tackled the problem. I tried to make sure I had good, solid footing for my right foot and started to lift my left leg up and over. Halfway through the maneuver, however, my right foot slipped back from under me and I went down, flat out. At that point I discovered that it wasn't just a nice soft snowbank. It was icy hard and my left shin took a good hit.
When I went down there were two boys approaching me, making their way to the local high school. They moved apart from each other in order to walk around me, which they did without a word. No "are you OK?". Nothing.
I picked myself up and continued. It took me an hour total to walk home and my shin was painful the whole way. When I got home, I found broken skin and a nasty big lump already coming up. I'm sitting here with my leg up and an ice pack on it, while I type.
I'm OK with the icepack and the sore shin, but I'm not OK with the total lack of concern evidenced by those two boys. I wonder if they'd want someone to stop and offer help if a member of their own family went down in the snow?
Hannah Taylor of Winnipeg comes as a wonderful counter-balance to the who-gives-a-shit attitude displayed by the two unfeeling louts I encountered this morning. What an incredible example this girl sets of caring for others. Her particular concern is for the homeless, and it began when she was just 5. Out with her mother one day, she saw a homeless man eating out of a garbage can. The world changed for Hannah that day, and ever since then she has been busily working to change it for others. To date, she has raised over $1 million through her Ladybug Foundation. Her efforts are gathering attention from more than one source. In 2005, she became the youngest person ever to speak at the Empire Club in Toronto, and in 2007, she was made the recipient of a Brick Award for her fundraising efforts on behalf of the homeless, as well as the Gloria Barron Prize, for her leadership in making a positive difference.
The students I met this morning could land someone in a real funk if they thought of those twerps and their ilk as the only hope for tomorrow. Someone like Hannah Taylor could lift them back out of the funk. She really does represent hope.
Now, from one Taylor to another. U.S. economist George Taylor earned himself a dubious fame in 1926 by theorizing a connection between women's hemlines and the economy. I'm willing to assume that he made more of a contribution than that to his chosen field, but I don't know if he's remembered for anything as much as his theory that womens' hemlines rise and fall in line with the strength of the economy.
Taylor theorized that boom times meant higher hemlines because women could afford to wear expensive silk stockings, and they weren't about to hide them under a long skirt. In hard times, however, the hosiery might be worn and shabby or even outright conspicuous in its absence, and so hemlines crept further down to hide all that. In seeming support of the theory, hemlines cerainly did rise during the roaring twenties, and fall again during the great depression of the 30's. They rose again during the swinging sixties, but there would seem to be a snag running through the fabric of Taylor's theory now.
The silk stockings of Taylor's day are pretty much a thing of the past, replaced by bare legs or panty hose generally made of nylon. So many women wear jeans or slacks as daily routine, and those who wear skirts buy the ones with the hemline they prefer, anywhere from their ankles up to damn near their crotch. I wonder what good ol' George would make of these wandering hemlines today, and their connection to the economy.
posted by aka.alias @ 12:16 PM 1 Comments 
1 Comments:
Ouch!
Maybe it was the fact that they were teenage boys ... maybe it's uncool to be helpful. But I see it all the time from a certain age group. Hopefully they grow into caring the world around them as they grow older.
The story of Hannah Taylor does leave us with hope for the future generation, however. That's an impressive young lady. Let's hope she can still keep a bit of herself for herself as she grows older. I'd hate to think of the burnout she could face.
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