JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

An almost full moon. Its reflection shimmering on the waves of Lake Ontario. A local architectural gem. A fine destination for a stroll on a summer night. If only I had brought a tripod... I'll leave it to Squiddity to describe the evening's walk from Warden station down to the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant . Images that weren't 100% crystal clear, combined with the beauty of the site, provided an opportunity for fun with Photoshop. All images taken August 21, 2008.

Ever have an image or commercial burned in your brain for years and never found a way to prove that your mind isn't playing tricks on you? Until some random browsing on YouTube this weekend, I was almost convinced that Duke the Penguin was a figment of my imagination. Blame Toledo, Ohio for this brainworm. My suspicion is that I was waiting for other family members to finish trying on clothes at the Woodville Mall branch of Sears and watched a loop tape of a Duke ad several times to kill time. Five minutes is all I needed for this cool-lookin' dude to forever etch himself on my brain cells. These memories surface whenever I see the "Poochie" episode of The Simpsons , as Poochie and Duke share similar delusions of being "cool". Stevie Wonder utilizes a tune from the soundtrack of The Woman in Red for the public good. Lingering impression from childhood viewings: all the "no"s. Perhaps the drunk driver was driven to overindulgence that ...

Massachusetts Route 2 (Mohawk Trail) Since I had never been through northwestern Massachusetts, the route back to Canada followed Route 2 through the Berkshires. The scenery and hilltop views were beautiful, especially along the Mohawk Trail segment of the highway. Few cheesy tourist traps playing on the area's native heritage lined the roadside. The road's winding nature tossed my travel time estimations out the window, which was OK thanks to hotel reservations in Montreal. I stopped for a stroll in downtown North Adams and found this vintage theatre marquee. The Mohawk operated as a cinema for fifty years , then as an event venue before shutting in the early 90s. Efforts to restore the theatre have been going on for years. Once I reached Albany, I hopped onto I-87 and stayed on it most of the drive to the border. The exception was a short jaunt through Lake George to find one of the three remaining Howard Johnson restaurants (which may be down to two if the u...

Howdy all. Before taking the next six months to tell tales from the eight states (seven for Mom) my family wandered through last week, I figured these billboards from Detroit would make a nice, quick entry to ease my way back into posting. The first sign was located near Tiger Stadium, whose life appears to be ending after a decade of neglect. Strategic sign placement to hammer the point? Sign two was found north of the Ambassador Bridge at the upper end of the massive reconfiguration of the bridge interchanges with I-75 and I-96. While bemoaning cussing in general, the sign may refer to grumbling from drivers navigating the detours around Mexicantown. God should have suggested the W.C. Fields method of cursing , which involves muttering a name that sounds close to a swear word, such as "Godfrey Daniels!" Photos taken August 2, 2008 

A stripe of red paint substitutes for red brick as the Freedom Trail heads along the Charlestown Bridge (aka North Washington Street Bridge). The lightposts on the bridge were adorned with banners celebrating the Celtics' playoff run. My stay coincided with the Celtics' battle with the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Eastern Conference finals. Take a wild guess as to where my loyalties lay (hint: the team that lost to the eventual league champions). First stop over in Charlestown was City Square , where giant fish watched every move I made. A phoenix may be a more appropriate symbol, given the square's ability to resurrect itself from invasions, fires and elevated freeways . Boston firefighters put out blazes and quench the thirst of thirsty walkers. A memorial to those who fought in the Civil War stands in Winthrop Square. Simmering resentment against the British dies hard on Bunker Hill . I arrived too late to climb up the 221' obelisk but ...

Check out page 10 of today's issue of Eye Weekly (July 24th edition for future readers digging in library archives). Note the photo credit for a piece on the gentrification of Bloorcourt Village . This is the second time in as many weeks one of my photos has been published, which makes me wonder if I should have dove deeper into Dad's 1970s Time-Life Library of Photography set during my formative years (I flipped through the series, focusing on the annuals and their roundup/new photographer sections and dodging the technical volumes). You might say the first published work was a surprise birthday present...but more on that once I take the appropriate photos. Photo taken outside Toronto Free Gallery, Bloor and Lansdowne, March 20, 2008. The story behind the image .

Today, a dramatic presentation that combines tragedy, romance and humour in the name of selling soap. If only someone had forcibly impressed the message of this masterwork on my first roommate in university... Thanks to Lifebuoy, "B.O." became a catchphrase in the 1940s. Radio ads used a foghorn-effect to emphasize the nasty stench of people who didn't use Lifebuoy. This quickly became a stock sound effect for comedians, frequently heard on Spike Jones records from the era. It appears the young marrieds have greater problems to face than B.O. Notice how the groom is thinking the bride's thoughts in the last panel-does this mean he will be a domineering hubby? Perhaps the marriage will roll along in a stereotypical fashion for the era, with a few affairs in the mid-1950s chalked up to midlife crisis. In 1967, tiring of have all her thoughts devised by someone else, she spends an afternoon experimenting with the drugs her children have hidden in their luggage wh...

Video loaded by Retrontario Today on Torontoist, I wrote about this late 1980s Toronto tourism commercial from the late 1980s that aired frequently in the Detroit/Windsor market. This is a fine example of Tony Bennett's side career promoting cities located on the Great Lakes. In the late 70s or early 80s (date not verified) Bennett sang the praises of Detroit in a TV spot. I've searched unsuccessfully for a video or lyrics, which memory tells me began with "welcome to your city" and ended with "you're one of a kind"—I'll spare you from hearing me hum a few bars. It's conceivable that Detroit tourism officials hoped for an impact akin to "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," but Motown wasn't as lucky as Capital City .

After dodging heavy machinery to cross Harvard Square, I hopped on the subway and headed into downtown Boston. Everyone obeyed the sign not to run down the ramp even as the train was ready to pull away. First stop was Brattle Book Shop , whose bargain carts filled the adjacent lot. A series of author portraits hang above the $3-5 books - I'm partial to the take on Dr. Seuss. Disintegrating 19th century editions of The Atlantic were tempting but looked as if they would crumble before I reached the cashier. I soon discovered I wasn't the only Canadian roaming around Downtown Crossing. While checking out at an Eddie Bauer outlet, the cashier noticed my CIBC credit card and noted I was the sixth or seventh Canadian she had served that day. It wasn't difficult to find traces of home around Boston, if only in the TD logo and colour scheme on Banknorth branches. One of Downtown Crossing's retail landmarks was Filene's, which was famous for yearly "runn...