Val’s photo of the lunar eclipse on March 14, 2025, taken with his mirror lens. The bright part is lit by the sun.
Author: Ms. G
Risa Gluskin is a history and student success teacher at York Mills CI in Toronto. She loves horses, figure skating and all animals. She is married to avid cyclist and tech guy Val Dodge. They have three cats.
Course Fair – History Courses at YM 2025-26
If you are interested in taking history at York Mills, you have come to the right place. History is a very valuable subject; it’s not about memorizing factoids and dates. It’s about thinking, interpreting, discussing, and inquiring. The skills you gain in senior history courses will help you with any education path you choose because Read More…
Year-End Birds
Can you identify the following? northern cardinal: male, female, juvenile mourning dove blue jay hairy woodpecker
Best Books of My Year Off
It is difficult to write about The Hanging of Angelique (2006) because it is both so thorough and so sad. Though it is a biography of sorts, it’s an unconventional one in that so little is known about the subject, Marie-Joseph Angelique, a slave in New France in the 1700s. Yes, slavery existed in Canada. Read More…
Highlights and Shadows
The Showman
What a book! A biography of a certain time in a person’s life with historical context – how perfect. If Anne Applebaum loved it, I was in (she’s the author of two incredibly detailed and horrifying books on eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Gulag: A History and The Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Read More…
No Biographies, Eh?
I always write that I don’t normally read biographies (and autobiographies). It turns out I do! So far this year I have read four. Not sure why??? Maybe they’re less intense to read on the subway than my usual historical fare. Maybe I just like complaining that they are not contextual enough. I can learn Read More…
Eclipse From Presqu’ile Provincial Park
Well, it was cloudy, but we did see some cool stuff! When it went dark, the horizon out on Lake Ontario was glowing a beautiful pink. After, we stayed around and waited to see the chunks of the sun returning. Unfortunately, Val didn’t get to use his fancy filters, but he got some great shots Read More…
Montreal Trip of a Lifetime – World Figure Skating Championships
Pairs were first up! All the pressure was on Canadians Deanna Stellato-Dudek (age 40, yes, you read that correctly!) and Maxime Deschamps, who live and train in Montreal. They had two great skates. Their fellow Canadians Lea Pereira and Trennt Michaud and Kelly Ann Laurin and Loucas Ethier also had great short programs! The crowd Read More…
Oppenheimer
Back in October I finished American Prometheus, an intricate biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer. I had planned to see the movie in November but that didn’t happen. All these months later, it’s only playing in one theatre in Toronto: the Kingsway in Etobicoke. Val and I finally saw it yesterday. I had purposely not read Read More…