I want to wish our American readers a very happy and safe Fourth of July holiday celebration! For non-Americans this is the day the USA celebrates their freedom, and independence.

Here is some Independence Day trivia for you!

"Trusted by the delegation with making some last minute revisions, John Hancock finished the Declaration of Independence with only the secretary of Congress, Charles Thompson, present. Though Hancock is popularly credited with having completed the last stroke of his bold signature with the phrase, "There, I guess King George will be able to read that," neither Hancock nor Thompson, the only ones who would have known, left any record of the famous one-liner."

I would make a joke about a current King George, but that would be in poor taste!

Happy Independence Day!!!

A replica of Argo, the mythical ship that bore Jason and the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece, sails through the Corinth Canal, Greece. The ship carries a crew from all 27 EU states.

Image Credit: BBC

Wishing all of our fellow Canadians a very Happy Canada Day!

This entry is for both the Tuesday, and Wednesday editions of WW.

Happy Wordless Wednesday! And Thank You For Stopping By!

For a list of other Wordless Wednesday participants please click here.

Perhaps the most colossal understatement in all of history was made by one François-Marie Arouet, better remembered by his pen name Voltaire.

Voltaire 1694-1778

Voltaire was a famed French writer, and philosopher who on learning that Canada had been taken from France by those pesky British said it was no great loss, after all Canada was only......

"A Few Acres Of Snow"

I wonder what he would say now......

Happy Canada Day!

The work of the firemen on the early trains was a dangerous undertaking, and something I personally would never have been able to do no matter how great the pay. The firemen had to frequently crawl along the running boards as the engine thundered onwards. They had to do this in order to place grease in all of the bearings. This work became extremely dangerous in freezing or rainy weather. Yikes!

Early Train Fireman At Work

For a great resource on old railroad jobs, and their descriptions have a look at this page located on the excellent genealogy website RootsWeb.

The Massey family were very prominent Toronto citizens that contributed greatly to arts, and culture within our fair city. The grand mausoleum you see above is their final resting place, which is fairly close to the Didier family plot. The latter is decidedly far less grand, but far more important, at least to us.

Happy Wordless Wednesday! And Thank You For Stopping By!

For a list of other Wordless Wednesday participants please click here.

Over this past weekend I started reading former Toronto police chief William McCormack's memoir entitled Life On Homicide. The book gives a chilling series of accounts of Toronto the Good more darker side, specifically through the years 1969 - 1979.

So far it has helped in restoring my faith in Toronto coppers that was severely shaken after reading Derek Finkle's book on the Robert Baltovich case entitled No Claim To Mercy which ended up showing how bad policing amongst other problems within our Canadian criminal justice system can result in innocent people going to prison for crimes that they did not commit.

William McCormack writes of a different era, and a different Toronto that includes a city core that is long gone and pre-Eaton Centre.

He does not glamorise the job of a homicide detective at all, and gives a realistic, and in my opinion thus far a compassionate look at the way crimes such as murder have impacted our city. A great read so far, and a must for those interested in true crime, and the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.