Jammin' it

TORONTO, ONTARIO -- My friend Margaret and I had nothing better to do on a blustery Friday afternoon.  

"Let's check out the traffic on the 401," I said.

"Suits me." 

So from our respective homes, we arrived at the agreed-upon location and parked our cars. As we lugged camera equipment over our shoulder and battled cross-winds, we trudged onto the Keele Street overpass that spans the 401, once referred to as the Trans-Canada Highway.

Now you may think we're nutcases. And you're entitled to your opinion. But the reality is we had a pending assignment for a course in photojournalism. Does that make our behaviour more acceptable?

Margaret and I found what we were looking for: lots of traffic on a miserable, snowy Friday afternoon. Perfect. Except for the nearly-frozen fingers.

I now share my finest with readers who really know how to appreciate a good highway jam. Special thanks, too, to all the trucks that enhance the congestion, due to the new JIT modality, or 'just-in-time inventory' as a result of online sales to the 'I-want-it-yesterday' customer base. 

We are the authors of our own misfortune.

Bonaparte's Brie

The other day, I picked up a wheel of Brie. Two things attracted my attention: its sale price - I'm a sucker for a good deal, and its name - it evoked memories. I thought of my late uncle, Pedro Pablo Benedetti. His Corsican ancestry demanded that he wax poetically on a fellow paysan, none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. My Dad being his good friend - meaning my uncle's, not Bonaparte's - would follow through by bringing home the stories of Napoleon and his soldiers. Not surprisingly, I paid homage to the effigy of the Emperor, when I visited New Orleans, years later, and sipped kir at Napoleon's Bar, nearby. But I digress...

As Bonaparte unfurled the glories of France, from the late 1700's to the early 1800's, he cemented his mark on history. Today, his military and legal legacies are legend. For one, the Napoleonic Code forms the basis of law in many regions around the world.

But there's a more sinister side that rarely surfaces. Bonaparte's rapacious exploits were of such magnitude that, at the time, Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia branded him as 'an enemy of humanity'. As a result of his conquests, Bonaparte caused an estimated number of deaths, ranging from 3.25 million to 6.5 million. It is a total that does not include the maimed, nor the missing, among civilians and the military of five countries.

Over a century later, another fellow with delusions of grandeur caused the death of 50 milion people and involved over 50 countries.

Clearly, Hitler and Bonaparte shared more than megalomania, overconfidence, and a disrespect for the Russian weather.

If we were to compare the number of untold inhumanities of each of these men, using the same time frame, we might do so on the basis of population growth. As such, we might estimate that between the late 1700's and the mid 1940's, the world's population rose by 275 percent. Applied to the estimate of deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, we could deduce that, had the Emperor lived in the mid-1900's, he might have caused fatalities in the neighbourhood of 18 million.

One can readily understand why there'll never be a Cambozola called "Hitler". Still, the atrocities of Napoleon were so extensive that one wonders why a cheese maker would choose to name his Brie "Bonaparte". 

Maybe the realities of history get erased over time. Or, maybe they don't apply to the naming conventions for cheese. 

Regardless of polemics, allow me to say that Brie Bonaparte is delicious and hails, not from France but from la belle province, Québec, home to great cuisine and other distinctions, including the Napoleonic Code.

The night has a thousand eyes

TORONTO, ONTARIO -- It was Friday evening in the GTA. As traffic bumped along the 401 eastbound, a thousand lights advanced from the western horizon. How many cars, do you figure, had a sole occupant?

I'm in

True to my nature as an ox — slow but sure — I'm not an early adopter of technology. And yet, I'm not that far behind. As others jumped on the bandwagon to blog away, I chose, instead, to stay on the sidelines. Until now. For ...

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings."

This blog extends my photography and aims to polish my writing. May you enjoy a selection or two, whenever you drop in.