For the next week, I’ll once again be at the helm of the offical CBC blog, InsideTheCBC.com, while Tod Maffin is away. If you have any CBC-related ideas I should write about, please let me know.
I love this gig - what blogger wouldn’t like to get paid for it? - but it has its amusing pitfalls. Last time I filled it, I got called a “corporate lapblogger”, and I believe the current description of the job is “strange arm’s length sycophancy” (link, if you’re on Facebook.)
Last entry of this kind for a while, and a puny one to boot. Thanks for indulging me.
Not many line items here, so I’ve added comments.
Commuting by Numbers: Animals Edition
Commuter: Paul Gorbould
Location: Downtown Toronto
Commuting time: 45 minutes
Route: Queen/King Streets, via streetcar
Dogs: 10
Two varieties: big, rambunctious dogs going for an early-morning romp in the park by my house, and tiny, ornamental things being carried to the small patch of urine-burned grass outside the condos by CBC.
Cats: 3
All within 50 feet of my house. The lady a couple of doors down feeds strays - her backyard is like some festering cat commune. Perhaps they ate the squirrels.
Squirrels: 1
I simply can’t fathom how this number is so low. Normally I can’t open my back door without seeing a platoon of these little buggers scampering across fences and falling from trees. Yet on my morning commute I hardly see any - and I pass half a dozen parks. Maybe they get up late. Maybe my eyes are too blurry. Maybe they are up to something.
Canada Geese: 3
OK, I’m cheating here - I see these when I ride my bike and deviate from the route to follow the Lakeshore path. Where I also see…
Ducks: 4
These creatures defy logic by swimming in the murky brown brine at the foot of the Don River. Exposure for more than 10 minutes will set feathers ablaze. Today I saw them swimming between two bike tires, a Pepsi bottle and a grungy pool noodle. Nature at its best.
Cows: 0
I come from the self-proclaimed “Dairy Capital of Canada” - we even have a cow statue - so their absence is felt. Not that there’s much good grazing along Queen St. East (West isn’t bad, though.) Compare and contrast farm animals to the Cx# Netherlands Edition.
Elephants: 0
I could pad this list by adding all the other animals I don’t see, but even my tiny mind isn’t amused by the concept.
Pigeons: 55
I expected this - the winged rats are, like City TV, everywhere. The only animal that might possibly outnumber them is sparrows, which are just too small and flighty for me to effectively count.
Seagulls: 22
I didn’t expect this at all - in fact, I wasn’t expecting any. But there are dozens of them wheeling around in the sky. Which leads me to believe that somewhere, on the other side of the condos, Toronto may in fact be near a body of water.
Roadkill: 0
Contrast to the Cx# Rural New Brunswick Edition. It amazes me that, despite the number of dumb animals and insane traffic, there is almost never any roadkill in downtown Toronto. Maybe we have highly effective city works people to pick them up. Maybe there’s som much traffic that the remains are instantly ground into the asphalt. Maybe those cats eat them too.
(Today’s entry is written by Vivian, who sometimes takes the same streetcar that I do, but takes it twice as far. Her data was originally posted as a comment in my last entry, but I think it merits its own post. I particularly enjoyed her methodology - I tend to be more discrete when counting, to avoid angry stares!)
OK, here are my results for this morning’s commute. I sat near the front of the streetcar, waited until it was quite full, then headed down the isle inventing a tallying system as I went. A few people looked concerned (it’s hard to hide the fact that your are observing people: you look up, look around, then look down to take notes, then look up again etc.), and one clever-looking woman who had been reading a paper game me a peculiarly penetrating and knowing look over the top of her glasses. I squirmed a bit, but forged on in support of this worthy cause!
Commuter: Vivian
Location: Downtown Toronto
Streetcar: 501 going East from the Beaches on Queen Street
SITTING (total of 60)
Reading a book: 8
Reading a paper: 5
Listening to iPod: 5
Listening to other MP3: 6
Doing nothing: 21
Talking to person beside them: 6
Talking on phone: 1
Doing important-looking work: 3
Knitting: 1
Sleeping: 2
Listening to MP3 while reading paper: 1
Staring piercingly at me over glasses: 1
STANDING (total of 48)
Reading book: 5
Reading paper: 5
Listening to iPod: 3
Listening to other MP3: 3
Doing nothing: 28
Talking: 2
Looking over my shoulder to see what I’m writing: 1
Counting passenger activity: 1
Thanks again, Vivian!
More on the “mass observation” theme… here’s a tally of the modes of transport seen on my trip in to work.
I’ve had a thing for cars ever since I was a kid, so this one came easily. (Sidebar: Last night someone offered to let me drive their BMW 850, and I couldn’t think of a way to say yes without feeling like a total loser.) Fortunately, as you’ll see below, in this town my own Honda Civic carries the same level of exclusivity as BMWs (all models combined, but still.) I suspect other parts of the country are less reliant on Bavaria, and more accepting of rust.
It’s also interesting to note that if you really want to stand out, you should either buy an Aston Martin, or a Lada.
Commuting by Numbers: Transportation Edition
Commuter: Paul Gorbould
Location: Downtown Toronto
Commuting time: 45 minutes
Route: Queen/King Streets, via streetcar
Taxis: 154
Honda Civics: 49
BMWs: 48
Mercedes-Benz: 14
Cars with any visible rust: 9
Porsches: 4
Beer delivery trucks: 4
City TV “everywhere” vehicles: 2
Ferraris: 1
Gears used by said Ferrari: 1
Aston Martins: 1
Ladas: 1
People on bikes: 79
Approximate percentage wearing helmets: 60%
People on bikes with no helmet, listening to an iPod and carrying a small dog: 1
People on motorcycles: 10
Parked Ducati motorcycles (oh yes, one day you will be mine…):4
Babies in strollers: 5
Vespa scooters: 4
Electric mobility scooters: 4
Old ladies on a child’s aluminum scooter: 1
People looking cool on a scooter: 0
Next up: Animals!
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