Thursday, March 30, 2006

3/15/2006 - The kindness of strangers in Henrietta

As some of my readers may remember, some time ago I passed through Henrietta where I discovered the RIT National Technical Institute for the Deaf. In looking through their website, I discovered 5 school sanctioned bloggers and asked them if they would be willing to share observations on the city and school.

Here's what I wrote:


Hello, I am the Virtual Tourist (link), just passing through Henrietta on my way from Cambridge, MA to Alaska. I was hoping that you could e-mail me something cool about NTID, something you wouldn't mind me posting on my blog.I've sent this e-mail to all 5 of the blogs hosted on the NTID website, but I'd be pleased as punch if I was able to combine several of your responses into a future post.Cheers,J. G. Fellow
And here's response #1 (from Josh):

Sure thing, Mr. Fellow. From the NTID web site: NTID is the oldest and largest technical college for students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. As of the 2005 school year, it had 1,256 students, including those in our interpreting program.Regarding Henrietta, I can only mention one thing - Henrietta Hots. Now, I have no idea where the Garbage Plate originated, but for all I know, it was spawned in the depths of Henrietta Hots' grill. This is the best late-night grease joint within staggering distance from RIT.Hope that helped!- Josh

And #2 (from Lizzie):

Hiya-Something cool about NTID... that's tough. I'm not exactly involved in NTID per se, just mostly the deaf community via my sorority. I'd have to say that the cool thing about NTID is its deaf community, especially how there's over 1,000 deaf students here (I don't know the exact figures) and that the community is very diverse, yet very open minded about each other. The social life at NTID is, in my opinion, the best part of NTID. There's so many clubs and deaf sororities/fraternities and yet, we're not even stuck in cliques at all. Hope this helps! Cheers.- Lizzie

Lizzie gets extra points for ending with the word "cheers," but Josh gets extra points for actually telling me where I can eat on my way back. Many, many thanks to both of you. Check out their blogs and the school's website in general.

Now some of you (and I won't mention any names) have risen to my "youngest blogger" challenge.

13,200 connected steps today. Cheer,

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

3/14/2006 - Baby's first gigapixel

My eldest has a toy camera. When you press it's button, it alternatively says

  • Ready?
  • Ready?
  • Smile!
  • Ready?
  • Ready?
  • Ready?
  • Click!

After he has taken the picture, he turns it around and shows me "the display*"

* - not an actual feature of the toy camera

I wonder whether he has ever seen a non-digital camera.

That does it. I'm laying out the challenge. I want to find the absolute youngest blogger producing real content. Feel free to post in with links to such prodigies.

12,100 precocious steps today. Cheers,

3/13/2006 - Tea'd off

I have embarrassed my wife. She's very pleased that I have joined the ranks of the genteel (a.k.a. people who drink tea) but she's less than pleased with my choice of teas. Apparently, it doesn't count if it's "flavored with REAL FRUIT JUICE."

Next she'll be telling me that my microwaved diet pepsi doesn't count as tea either.

15,000 faux steps today. Cheers,

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

3/12/2006 - Basic instinct

I wake up at 6:30 on almost every weekday.  I spend the next 90 minutes getting me and my eldest ready for the day.  I am constantly amazed that these 90 minutes can yield anywhere from 500 to 2,500 steps.  I'm not really sure what drives the difference.  I do know that on days where I get a lot of steps I tend to be good at finding stuff to do on another floor.  I think of that as my "walking instinct."  An extra dimension in this game is how to walk a lot with annoying the wife (very important).  When I am on top of my game I can find things to do all over the house without appearing shiftless.

21,700 visceral steps today.  Cheers,

3/11/2006 - Chatham, ON

Today I pass through Chatham, home of Ontario's largest indoor amusement park. My best guess is that Chatham has about 40,000 folks in it, it's around 600 feet higher than Cambridge, MA.

It was near Chatham that the Battle of the Thames (War of 1812) took place. In this battle, General William Henry Harrison lead the American forces against a fairly week British army and a fairly strong Native American army, the latter led by Tecumseh. Tecumseh was a chieftan of the Shawnee tribe who worked to unite other tribes against the Americans.

As the legend goes, in dying, Tecumseh put a curse on Harrison. In 1840, Harrison (also known as old Tippecanoe) won the U.S. Presidency under the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too." At his inaugural address he spoke for 100 minutes in the snow without hat or overcoat and died 32 days later.

And you wonder why I wear a hat when I go walking.

18,000 well dressed steps today. Cheers,

Sunday, March 26, 2006

3/10/2006 - ... that would have me as a member

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. So says Oscar Wilde. Why do I bring this up? I finally talked the Wife into getting a membership to the Museum of Science. It seems like good value for a fairly significant price, but I must confess that I'm not 100% clear on exactly how much value.

The standard economist's take on value is as follows: Let's say that I have pink-flamingo lawn ornament and my friend, Nenad, has $2 and we agree to swap. I must value the flamingo at less than $2 or I wouldn't have bothered. Nenad must value the flamingo at more than $2 or he wouldn't have bothered.

Now for the membership. Let's say the member ship costs $10 and allows up to 5 people to go to the museum on any given day. Let's say a day long ticket to the museum costs $2. If me and my eldest go to the museum 3 times next year, we get $12 of value for $10. Or do we? If we had not bought the membership, we definitely wouldn't have gone 3 times, so we must not value a trip as highly as $2.

So how many times do we have to go next year before it was worthwhile getting the membership? I don't know. I guess I'll find out when I decide how badly I want to renew...

15,300 empyrical steps today. Cheers.

Friday, March 24, 2006

3/9/2006 - Diversion

A little political humor for your blogging pleasure:

Version 1. A man is walking in a dark alley. A scoudrel with a gun jumps out of the shadows.

"Who you gonna vote for?" says the scoundrel, menacingly.

"Go ahead and shoot."

Version 2. A man is walking in a dark alley. A scoudrel with a gun jumps out of the shadows.

"Who you gonna vote for?" says the scoundrel, menacingly.

"Well, gee, I haven't voted in the last 10 years, but I'm going to try this year. I'll probably vote for the Republicans because they care about welfare and stuff. Is my senator a Republican?"

Needless to say, scoundrel shoots self.

Version 3. A man is walking in a dark alley. A scoudrel with a gun jumps out of the shadows.

"Who you gonna vote for?" says the scoundrel, menacingly.

The man answers. The scoundrel aggregates his data and publishes his results (sampling error of +/- 2.4%). While the pundits debate whether the open form question or poor sampling procedure was more deleterious to the result's credibilty, scoundrel steals their wallets.

Version 4. A man is walking in a dark alley. A scoudrel with a gun jumps out of the shadows. "Who you gonna vote for?" says the scoundrel, menacingly.

"Who you gonna vote for?" says the scoundrel, menacingly.

"You, Mr. Burr, you!"

Blogger's note: In 40 years, that last joke will be regarded as "wry" and "subtle." Today, it's probably still in poor taste...

12,000 Steve Reich steps today. Cheers,
12,000 Steve Reich steps today. Cheers,
12,000 Steve Reich steps today. Cheers,
12,000 Steve Reich steps today. Cheers,
12,000 Steve Reich steps today. Cheers,
120,00 Steve Reich steps today. Cheers,
120,00 Steve Reich steps today. Jeers,
120,00 Steven Reich steps today. Jeers,
120,00 Steven Reich stops today. Jeers,
120,00 Steven Reich stops toady. Jeers,
120,00 Steven Wright stops toady. Jeers.

I don't walk my dog anymore, I walked him all at once."

3/8/2006 - West Lorne, ON

My journey brings me to the town of West Lorne, Ontario today, population about 1,500. It was in these lovely environs that I discovered the West Lorne Dramatic Society's production of "Creature Creeps," an amateur production that was written in town (opening March 31st for my readers in the area -- tell them J.G. sent you).

As my father once told me, I have grease-paint under my skin. I took part in a few productions in high school and college. It's fun to have the spotlight on you (did a blogger just say that?) but it's also just fun to watch this gigantic production come into place. I often wondered what drew people to the lighting, the painting, the curtain management (already understanding what drew them to the chorus) and I loved watching how the stage hands interacted with the actors.

Now that I have the kids, my Oscar aspirations are somewhat limited, but it's fun to remember the good times I had.

11,700 sentimental steps today. Cheers,

3/7/2006 - Good heavens!

I'm 2.5 weeks behind! Most recently, I fell behind a number of days due to the whole family being under the weather. My goal is to be substantially caught up by April 10th (at which point I shall resume the process of falling behind). Will I succeed? Probably not.

20,200 optimistic steps today. Cheers,

Sunday, March 19, 2006

3/6/2006 - Tillsonburg redux

A big shout-out to Macaroni, who corrected me on the population of Tillsonburg (15,000, not 100,000). As always, I greatly appreciate those strangers who take the time to chat.

But this brings me to a problem that I have been having. Canadian websites can often be a little murky to follow. In another city, I had some difficulty differentiating between county stats and city stats (that may have been what went wrong in Tillsonburg). So here's my plan, my Canuck readers...

I'm about to cross back into the states, where I will be for a good 2,000 miles. That gives you almost a year to get your Yukon and Northwest Territory webistes put together. Deal?

14,400 wheeling and dealing steps today. Yee-ha!

Friday, March 17, 2006

3/5/2006 - Walking in the cold

As March goes out like a lamb, I am happy to report that I have successfully met the challenge of walking in the cold. Last year, when I wasn't going out of my way to walk too much, I often felt chilled an uncomfortable just going on errands. This year I was more meticulous about bundling up and it paid off. My biggest achievement was walking for 2 hours in 20 degree weather. Every once in a while I would take off a glove to answer my phone and get a sense for what was out there. My longest walk below 10 degrees couldn't have been more than 20 minutes. I think that I could have gone longer, but I had other things to do. Maybe next year...


21,900 frigid steps today. Brrrrr,

Thursday, March 16, 2006

3/4/2006 - Bloggers unite!

The blogosphere, apparantly, is up in arms. Why? It seems that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 may apply to internet communications after all. What does that mean? It means that, if I spend $250 in the maintenance of my blog, and express political views on said blog (e.g. Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!) I may be guilty of illegally exceeding a financial contribution to a political race. And so Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) has proposed legislation that would explicitly exclude we bloggers from the BCRA.

There are some who fear that exempting bloggers from creates a major loophole that could be exploited. I'm not sure I agree. There are 30,000,000 odd blogs. I estimate that mine gets hit by 3-4 actual people every day. A well placed add on TV can reach millions, and well placed 500,000 adds in the blogosphere may achieve the same thing.

But there are 2 things I have forgotten. The first is that some blogs have a wider distribution than others. For example, every presidential candidate had a "blog" as do many other political entities. Second, money can create readership.
For example, if Ted Stevens (R-AK) happened to give me $9,600 to publicize the advantage of domestic oil in these crazy days of risk from abroad, and the word got out, hundreds, no thousands of viewers might flock to my website daily to escape the madness of such oil-producing countries as Venezuela, Russia and Saudi Arabia. These readers would agree when I commented that nuclear energy requires too much start-up funding for too little return and they would vote their conscience when crazy liberals tried to stand in the way of progress, development and all that the American People stand for.

For example.

Yes, I suppose that blog posts are speech, but money is money. I and my lawyer eagerly await the results from this upcoming vote.

21,400 steps today. Solar energy is not the answer.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

3/3/2006 - St. Thomas, ON

Welcome to St. Thomas, home of the oldest and smallest jail in North America. I can't find any measurement but the site claims that the building holds two small cubicles. When I first started working, my cubicle was about 9'x7', so I shall assume this building to be a little over 10'x16'. Built for $200 back in 1890 it is the soul of budgetary efficiency.

No longer home to inmates, it now holds approximately 1,000 books, presumably including "Where's Waldo," "Romeo & Juliet" and "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."

From the smallest jail, to the largest elephant, we next move on to the monument of Jumbo the Elephant, the largest elephant in captivity (who was part of the Barnum and Bailey circus). Why is there a monument in St. Thomas?

Did the B&B start here? No.
Was Jumbo born here? No.

Actually, it was in St. Thomas where Jumbo had an unfortunate collision with a steam engine and perished. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of this event, the city put up a monument.

I am reminded of Princeton, New Jersey, who's town hall proudly displays the bell of the first U.S.S. Princeton. And what did that noble ship do in its course of duty?


"The first vessel named Princeton was a sloop of war, commissioned in 1843. She was the first Navy vessel to be powered by a steam-driven screw. On February, 28, 1844, while demonstrating a new type of cannon to the President and numerous dignitaries, ten people were killed when the cannon burst. Among the casualties were the Secretary of State and two senators. The ship was decommissioned in 1849."
Had that been the president, they probably would have demurred.

13,000 ironic steps today. Cheers,

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

3/2/2006 - Revenge of the Haman

Gosh, I have quite a few cities to blog, but no time to do the research. One of these days...

In the meantime, I finally tasted one of my hamantaschen. Was it a cookie? No, it was pie crust. Actually, that's kind of cool, since I wasn't sure whether it would be possible to do a decent pie crust without eggs. This was nice and flaky and rolls well, so I can imagine even doing some rudimentary lattice work.

In other news, I had a 6-hour meeting at work today. Ugh. The topic was actually fairly interesting, keeping me engaged. However, I probably didn't put up 1,000 steps between 9:30 and 3:30. Happily, the wife has recently suggested an alternate way for me to pick up footage (her ulterior motive: she can't stand watching me pace. You can probably sympathize). So once my chores are done for the evening, she sends me out for a 30 minute hike around town. I can do more than 1,000 steps in 10 minutes when I put my mind to it, so everyone's a winner.

14,000 symbiotic steps today. Cheers,

Saturday, March 11, 2006

3/1/2006 - Haman's ears (the sequel)

For those dying to know, the ear cookies appear to have come out ok. Boy, those cookies are labor intensive...

20,000 steps today. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

2/28/2006 - Haman's ears (cookies)

On Wednesday night, I got a book
And in that book was "how to cook."
I spread the book across my legs
To find some cookies without eggs.

No peanuts, butter, sesame
It must be poppy- and nut-free;
Allergenically pure
But are they cookies? I'm not sure.

15,000 ncmplt stps tdy. Chrs,

2/27/2006 - If you like this blog...

Here's an odd podcast post. One of the podcasts to which I like to listen is WNPR's Science Friday. Ira Flatow is knowledgable, opinionated and enjoyable. Occasionally I catch the show on the air, maybe at 2pm? But mostly, I don't, which was why I was so pleased to see it show up on ODEO. The podcast is essentially a rebroadcast of the show, with an addition at the beginning in which Ira thanks you for downloading the mp3. Now for the strange bit. At the end of the show, he suggests that, if you enjoyed the podcast, you might enjoy listening to the show on the radio.

If I could do that, I wouldn't listen to the podcast.

Speaking of which, if you like this blog, you might enjoy walking with me in the Blue Hills.

Actually, you might also like this one. Someone who read both of our blogs pointed it out to me. I noticed that we had some tastes in common (Snopes and Kids in the Hall) but more importantly, his blog is all about the pictures of Alaska that he has taken. I would have waited until I got to Alaska to share this blog, but I just couldn't.

12,400 cross-advertised steps today. Just do it!

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

2/26/2006 - 1,000,000

Last night, I finished counting to 1,000,000 for the baby, just in time for his first half-birthday. Why? I don't know. When I counted for the eldest, it was pointedly because of all of the 2 am drives. I needed something to do late at nights and the endless stream of digits filled the void.

And the baby? Well I wouldn't want to have spared him the pleasure... While it took me 6 months (4 months fewer than the first time round) I really should have finished in 5. For some reason, my stamina for counting petered out after 950,000 (I averaged more than 6,000 numbers a day). In the next month I managed little more than 1,000 a day. But I finished.

Typically, I now find moments of time that could have involved counting. Funny, 3 days ago I couldn't wait to be finished...

25,600 steps today (and counting). Cheers,

Monday, March 06, 2006

2/25/2006 - Tillsonburg, ON

Tillsonburg is named in honor of George Tillson, who basically bought the land and turned it into a town. Tillson put in much of his effort developing the roads in the area. The town was incorporated in 1872 and Tillson's son, Edwin, became the first mayor. It has a lovely waterpark, a theatre and a business centre. It's almost 900 feet above sea level and has more than 100,000 citizens. I hope that I have more to say about Detroit when I get there.

Having run out of Tilsonburg anecdotes, I thought I would throw in a few notes from the surrounding environs, courtesy of this site.

Waterloo, Ontario - Known as "Silicon Valley North," Waterloo is the home of such technological powerhouses as "Research In Motion," better known for those guys who enslaved us through Blackberries. Waterloo also happens to be Mennonite Country.

Brantford, Ontario - Brantford’s famous citizens have included hockey great Wayne Gretzky, comedian Phil Hartman, and telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Bell worked on his famous invention at his family's home here at 94 Tutela Heights Rd, and he made the world’s first long-distance phone call from this location in August 1876. Gretzky clearly would have been better off if Bell had left well enough alone.

Sudbury, Ontario - Two kilometers beneath the surface of the earth, just 10 km from downtown Sudbury, scientists have set up a 10-storey observatory to study Neutrinos. I think that neutrinos are cool. One of these days I blog about particle physics. Why? I don't know.

Whitby, Ontario - This is where there used to be secret agent training camp called "Camp X." This happens to be the camp in which James Bond author, Ian Fleming trained. Nowadays, Camp X is marked a 17-acre waterfront park, presumably with neon signs.

18,900 cool steps today. Cheers,


Sunday, March 05, 2006

2/24/2006 - Round numbers

Keen observers may have noticed that I frequently walk exactly x-thousand steps. In case you worried that I round up, I should explain that I sometimes pace a few extra minutes to finish at the next thousand up. It sounds cooler.

14,209 precise steps today. Cheers,

2/23/2006 - Time to put my money where my blog is

I recently claimed that I would be willing to pay some amount of money for podcasts. So, yeah. One the blogs I like (History according to Bob) is offering his prior blogs at $10 for 25 (or $40 for all 160). That's in the price range I mentioned. Have I bought them yet? Of course not.

First off, he's selling his archive but still making the last 10 or so available for free at any time. Second, while he might be one of the ones I like, that's one of 15 or so. I don't have time to listen to all of the blogs I like, so it might be a blessing if I were forced to drop one, because it happened to charge.

Of course, this isn't the case. I am still freeloading, listening to the most recent podcasts that are available.

What is this podcast? Bob is a high school history teacher who publishes 15 minute segments on pretty much whatever he likes (most recently, Mussolini's mistresses). What he really reminds me of is those great college professors who lecture so well because they speak from experience, like my Astrophysics professor who nearly won a Nobel (not that he's bitter), or my Psychophsyics teacher who paralyzed his eyes to see what would happen (they stopped working).

His folksy, knowledgable style drew me in immediately and I would kind of like to hear some of those older podcasts, but I just can't justify buying the older broadcasts instead of, say, taking the wife out to dinner (Eggs 'R'nt Us).

For now I'll probably just continue to freeload, but it's nice to know that I have the option.

Blogger's note. I just listened to another of Bob's podcasts. He has taught on the college level. It really shows.

12,600 disproven steps today. Cheers,

2/22/2006 - I'd like to be under the sea

Technical note -- I am pretty sure that I have passed through one of my cities, but I will probably not blog it for a few posts, since I have other things on my mind. I apologize for any inconvenience.

I specialize in odd hobbies that can be done here and there on relatively little amounts of time. One involves birthday cakes. I have long enjoyed baking desserts, as I have a sweet tooth and enjoy the pride of accomplishment. Relatively recently, I discovered that one of my eldest's friend's mother had a skill for designing impressive birthday cakes. You know, the one that looks like a dress with a barbie in the middle, or a realistic 3-dimensional tyrannosaurus.

So I started hitting her up for tips and have recently delved into the hobby myself. My first attempt was a space shuttle, which looked accurate enough, but wasn't really impressive looking, partially because I ran out of frosting. Today I made an octopus, complete with 8 legs and smily face. It was impressive enough that the wife, who generally thinks this hobby is a bit silly, had to comment on the smiling cephalopod facing her in the fridge.

The only problem was that it tasted like, well, octopus. The cake was okay (as okay as can be when you have to avoid chocolate, eggs, milk, nuts, sesame and poppy, as I do). I should have baked it for a few more minutes, but that didn't really detract from the taste of the well baked part. The whipped cream filling wasn't horrible (rich's whip). It was the frosting which (a) had too much salt (hence the octopus like taste) and (b) had virtually no other taste. The wife and I are going to explore ways to spruce it up before my next attempt, which will be a zamboni for the Priest's son.

I only hope that it doesn't taste too much like zamboni.

10,800 tentacles today. Cheers,

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

2/21/2006 - Future giants of podcasting

I can't see a good reason why media giants won't eventually be significant players in the podcasting world, but they aren't yet. As far as I can tell, all of the most popular podcasts are goofy independent labels run on little money and less producing.

It's not that the giants haven't tried to break in, just that they haven't figured how to deliver "got to have" content. Of course, they face the additional barrier that the goofies are willing to give their content away for free, making it a little less worth the effort. But I would definitely pay $0.10 for a rebroadcast of a radio program or even $1.00 for a 30 minute installment of a serial (maybe).

After playing around with some of the goofies, I was disappointed with the hit or miss quality and decided to go fishing among the existing media giants. Here's a few examples of what I have found.

NPR. I'm a little worried that I'm dealing in contraband, but I have found some NPR re-broadcasts on ODEO. It's not that NPR ever charges for their broadcasts, as far as I can tell (except indirectly through their XM station) but all of the official NPR links to content on line I have found have been streaming. ODEO has downloadable mp3s. It feels wrong. On the other hand, it makes me feel better about my donations to NPR, given that I listen so infreuqently to their stations these days (too much time spent on podcasts).

Newsweek. Newsweek has a decent 40 minute news survey. They dive into pieces from their magazine and get interviews and stories. It's not bad; probably the best original content I have seen from media giants on podcasts (NPR doesn't count since they are simply transferring radio shows to mp3).

CNN. Just terrible. Well, their news headlines are terrible. It's kind of like getting AP headlines + teasers - anything else. For example:

"Republicans are thwarting President Bush's attempts to transfer control of 6 ports to Dubai. The White House says it has 3 good reasons why the sale should go through. In other news a puppy got stuck in a tree..."

Still, it's fun carrying my radio shows with me for whenever (they fit on my cell phone). I'm happy to give up quality for convenience... for now.

10,000 critical steps today. Cheers,

2/20/2008 - Haiku to you, too

I received an e-mail from my God Sister today, which looked something like this:

when you asked
about my phone--
i thought you wanted
my cell.
i never answer
that number
call me at home.

Not quite a haiku, but definitely among the prettiest e-mails I have received recently. It got me thinking that I should develop my own unique voice in my e-mails. Perhaps sending them in the form of limericks:

Conclusive analysis shows
The sources of all of our woes.
Stock losses so large and
Precipitous margin
Have sunk profits to their new lows.

Perhaps not.

12,100 missteps today. Cheers,

2/19/2006 - Walking in the moonlight

The virtual scene: It's a cold, clear night, perhaps 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit.  After a good day of walking, I rummage through my backpack.  I dine on cereals and dried fruits, boiling water for tea and reconstituted soup.  After dinner, I pack myself into my sleeping bag.  Listening to the wind from the safety of my tent, I gradually drift off to sleep.  Around 1am, I am awakened by a nearby howl.  Through the fog in my head, I manage to collect myself, pick up my tent and other belongings and drag them all 1,000 feet down Provincial route 403 in Ontario.

Sometimes I like to imagine myself to be truly on these roads.  I think about the drivers going by, the feel of the pavement, the excitement of passing through inhabited areas.  Of course sometimes, it's hard to connect my actual walking to my reverie. 

In order to maximize everyone's sleep, I tend to sleep with the baby.  When he sleeps with his mummy, he squirms and splutters and she sleeps very poorly.  So every night, I put him in his crib and sleep next to it, waiting for the series of howls that alert me the nightly meals enjoyed only by babies and sophomores.  In order to ensure the Wife her sleep, I pop on my pedometer and pace the halls until the baby is asleep, so I can lift him out of bed and back into his crib.  During a typical feeding, I can pick up over 400 steps.  It's a strange way to envision progress, but it makes for a good blog.

16,000 shuffling steps today.  Cheers,

2/17/2006 - Simcoe, Ontario

As I reach the one third mark of my march through Ontario, I come to the city of Simcoe. Among other things, a quick survey of Simcoe's web presence reveals this sweet photo album. So I press my face against "The Toy Box," wondering what might appeal to my eldest and think about this city.

Simcoe was named after the lieutenant governor John Graves Simcoe a British Soldier with a passion for developing the province of "Upper Canada." Simcoe's achievements ranged far and wide including

  • Abolishment of slavery in Upper Canada
  • Establishment of common law and trial-by-jury in the province
  • Construction of roads among major cities
  • I think he may also have established a provincial college.

Simcoe has about 16,000 folks in it and seems like a lovely town through which to walk.

13,600 steps today. Cheers,