If you keep on driving up Yonge Street, North, out of Toronto, after about two hours, you will be in Muskoka, or "God's Country" as Pop used to call it.
Friday, June 24, 2011
God's Country - At The Top Of Yonge Street.
If you keep on driving up Yonge Street, North, out of Toronto, after about two hours, you will be in Muskoka, or "God's Country" as Pop used to call it.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Rain, LIghtning, Thunder? That Might Just Be BoBo Talking To You!
Friday, June 17, 2011
John Corapi: I Think A Smart Network Executive Has A Spot For Him!
Today, twenty years after his ordination, John Corapi is packing it in as a priest in the Catholic church.
This is very sad as this is a person who had such a fine message and so much to share with all of us, no matter our belief.
If the mainstream networks are “on the stick”, they will give this man his own program and hopefully in a time spot similar to what he had – 10:00 p.m. Eastern on Saturday nights. (EWTN)
An anonymous person sent a letter of accusation against this man and in the Catholic church, the priests are now guilty until proven (if ever) innocent. This is a direct contravention of the American legal system.
It has been so long with nothing happening, that it is indeed time for John Corapi to now move on with life and help others as he has been doing all these years.
To listen to what John Corapi says himself, here is the link:
There is a special John Corapi Facebook page, just put in The Black SheepDog at the top of FB.
So Letterman can retire and John Corapi will bring us some real solid programming. (In case no one has Saturday night open . . .)
God Bless!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Bone Marrow Doners - Do Read About this 15-year-old's Bucket List
Friday, June 10, 2011
Happy Birthday, John Edwards . . . and a Few Others!
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Nothing Reminds Me Of Home Like Don Cherry
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Feeling Happy Today . . . and Younger, Too!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Funeral That Was A Gift
Church window, cross and bible verse stained glass window., originally uploaded by Sans Soucie Art Glass Studios, Inc..
Sunday, May 22, 2011
From Dome To Dome
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Birthdays Past . . . Birthdays Present . . .
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Peter Mansbridge: A Canadian Fixture Comes To Our Living Room
News Anchor Peter Mansbridge of The National at CBC Vancouver Open House, originally uploaded by susan gittins.
Monday, May 2, 2011
God Bless America and Let Us Pray for Peaceful Times Again
Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Special People In Our Lives
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
What Is It About Hats?
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Yonge Street Texan Discusses Some Differences
Skydome with Ritzy Harbourfront Condos, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, originally uploaded by Bencito the Traveller.
I have been thinking a lot this week about the differences between where I came from and where I live in East Texas, 100 miles from Houston.
I chose this picture this time because it shows a place Hubby and I have gone to walk, have lunch and browse shops. It is at Lake Ontario and has been built since I was an adult. If it were panned a little further, it would include the CN Tower which is a communications tower, sometimes claimed by some to be the world's tallest building. (Surely, some taller buildings have risen since.) This area is for pedestrians and helps Toronto keep it's nickname of "People City".
The Skydome was built to house the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club and was home to the Toronto Argonaut Football Club. It is now called Rogers Centre (Canadian spelling there).
Toronto has a population of about 5.5 million in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GTA) which is a little more than the 500,000 people living there when I was kid living in central North Toronto, near Eglinton and Avenue Road. I used to be able to walk down two blocks or across one block to catch a bus to the subway (underground train) which was originally built in the early 50s. The subway part of the transportation system now has many routes going in every direction. Cars are best left home when going to work or college.
Transportation is one major difference where I live now. My neighbour had a wreck (Canadian: accident) two weeks ago and she really had to rely on her friends to give her lifts to anywhere she went.
Our Community College sure could use a parking garage and one is being built in the next town at the University. If you have lots of cars, Toronto likes to "stack" them and there are many, many parking garages.
There are also some parking lots with attendants so they can get the optimum number of cars into the smallest amount of space.
The land is premium in Toronto because that is where everyone wants to live because that is where the jobs are. So, a forty foot lot across the frontage of a residential house is considered pretty good. (All due respect to Vancouver which is now a hub for jobs in Canada as well.)
The house I grew up in had a 29 foot frontage and today is still considered a nice house in a nice and convenient area. Virtually all houses have basements and are more than one storey. If there is enough land, in the outlying areas, there are split level layouts and some bungalows (one storey). (In East Texas, most houses are one storey and have no basement.)
Torontonians are pretty much tidy people who are known for not littering. People in all of Ontario do a lot of recycling. Some have compost piles in their backyards and most people have larger amounts of recycle than trash at curb on pick-up day.
A Torontonian parks his car on the street or in a driveway and can expect a ticket for parking on the lawn.
The Canadian population - especially in Toronto - is very diverse now. But when I was a kid, Canada was still a British Colony. Even as a youngster, I studied French in School which was what you would hear in Paris, France not Montreal, Quebec.
Because we were a British Colony, our ways were a little stiffer and we grew up having stricter ways of doing things. East Texas is a very laid-back area which sometimes reminds me of our beautiful Muskoka Cottage Country where we used to vacation.
Today, Toronto is ethnically diverse with many languages being spoken with foods available to many different groups as well as mosques and temples and special groups. Toronto just "grew up" as it were.
Toronto is a great place to visit and in fact, has a lot of similarities to Houston, if you forget weather! Shopping, theaters and restaurants are plentiful.
Tied in with the subway transportation which is mostly underground are shops and theaters and restaurants: an underground community as it were.
After 14 years, you would think I would no longer tack "eh?" on the ends of sentences, but actually, what has happened is that Hubby does that now also.
I would tell you to book a vacation in Toronto but would caution you that it is a pretty expensive place to visit, although not quite as costly as to live there.
Just a few differences . . .
Friday, March 25, 2011
Father John Corapi
"It is my personal opinion, one which is in accord with the mind of the Church, that you will profit very much by praying the holy Rosary every day. The prayer of the Rosary is the prayer of the holy Gospel, the Good News Who is Jesus. My best piece of spiritual advice to you, no matter who you are,…PRAY THE ROSARY EVERY DAY! You will be blessed beyond your wildest dreams. God bless you." Father John Corapi.
Hubby and I came across Fr. John Corapi several years ago on EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network). His life story is one of having been to hell and crawling his way back to become priest (ordained by Pope John Paul in the Vatican) about twenty years ago. He speaks with knowledge and clarity and although we are not Catholics, his message came through to us loud and clear.
If you go to Father Corapi's website you can see his message of how on Ash Wednesday, his world fell apart with charges from a former staff member of Santa Cruz Media, the company who markets his DVDs and CDs as well as booking him for his speaking engagements. Fr. Corapi has written a book due to be presented in the fall in October.
It is my hope that some fine lawyer will see this as a time to offer his services to Fr. Corapi pro bono.
I am more than disturbed by the application of guilty until proven innocent which is opposed to the laws of the United States of America.
To learn more about Father Corapi, visit his website at www.fathercorapi.com.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Elizabeth Taylor - R.I.P.
I do remember seeing Elizabeth Taylor in the audience at the then O'Keefe Theater in Toronto where Burton was playing King Arthur in the stage production Camelot in Toronto before it opened in New York City. So, they honeymooned in Toronto. (In school, we had studied Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson which was the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table including Sir Lancelot.)
Everyone has a moment in Toronto, right? So did Elizabeth & Richard. (That theater or "theatre", was not on Yonge street, but Front Street near Lake Ontario, east of Union Train Station.)
No matter her many husbands, I do think Elizabeth Taylor will be remembered for her flawless complexion, jet black hair, unique violet-colored eyes and fabulous jewelry. She probably defined the term "Hollywood Star".
In latter years, she turned her interests toward helping others although she endured a lot of ill health.
For me, the passing of Elizabeth Taylor is more the passing of an era . . .




