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By Ms. G, October 27, 2019 8:48 am

In addition to giraffes, dogs, cats and horses, I also LOVE figure skating. Here are my favourites for this season, so far.

The Broadway theme in ice dance (my personal most loved discipline) is bringing out a lot of interesting routines. Though Papadakis and Cizeron (current world champions from France) don’t always have great rhythm dances, in my opinion, I absolutely love their 80s workout to ‘Fame.’ Their speed is incredible.

I like Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier’s ‘Mack and Mabel’. This part of the competition isn’t always as strong for them so I love their attack on it this year.

Anything by the new Canadian dance team of Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen! Their edges are beautiful and smooth.

Now, the judges seem to have a lot of messages for American champs Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue. In the past I have agreed with them – I quite disliked last year’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ free dance. However, I like their free dance choice for this year: ‘A Star Is Born.’ It really suits Zach’s skating. But once again their work is being picked apart. They were just defeated at Skate Canada by Gilles and Poirier.

Though ice dance is my thing, I do follow the other disciplines. My biggest complaint about pairs and singles is that so many skaters don’t seem to listen to their music. So I really like the skaters who do:

Everything Sataoko Miyahara does is a work of art.

Rika Kihira is effortlessly musical, in a floating sort of way.

Nathan Chen, men’s world champion, is showing his musical side in conjunction with those big quad jumps.

The new Canadian pair of Lubov Ilyushechkina and Charlie Bilodeau has a lovely lightness and musicality to their skating. They skate like they actually enjoy what they do.

American Jason Brown (who trains at the Cricket Club where I used to skate when I was young) has a heartfelt rendition of ‘Schindler’s List.’

Lastly, Piper and Paul have set themselves a really difficult task skating to Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now.’ The version they put together is incredibly difficult to skate to because it’s somewhat dissonant, but they have somehow made it a masterpiece.

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By Ms. G, September 29, 2019 2:27 pm

There are bits of red here and there at the cottage.

Unfortunately, this Economist cover for Sept. 21-27, has an unmistakably red section, too, representing how much we have worsened temperature creep since the 1990s. Even The Economist admits: “It [climate change] is not a problem that can be put off for a few decades. It is here and now. … Its losses are already there and often mourned – on drab landscapes where the glaciers have died and on reefs bleached of their coral colours. Delay means that mankind will suffer more harm and face a vastly more costly scramble to make up for lost time.”

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By Ms. G, September 24, 2019 9:03 pm

We all know I love giraffes. So does this woman: Dr. Anne Innis Dagg was the world’s first giraffe biologist. She studied giraffes in the wild before Jane Goodall studied chimps in the wild.

cbc.ca

I just read an article about her in Canadian Geographic and found her to be an amazing person, scientist and conservationist. Val tried to get us tickets to see the movie about her, The Woman Who Loves Giraffes, but they were rightly sold out.

Our beloved giraffes are at-risk. We should all care.

And look who she has at her home!

https://www.waterloochronicle.ca/whatson-story/9044305–the-woman-who-loves-giraffes-at-princess-cinema-nov-27-to-dec-2/

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By Ms. G, September 2, 2019 2:58 pm

Hello new students. I’m Ms. Gluskin, your World History teacher.

Ms. G in Hagersville, Ontario on her recent bike trip.

I like history, horses (I am a wannabe dressage rider), cats (I have two), bike-riding (only in the summer), and reading (mostly non-fiction). I am married to a wonderful guy named Val. I do not have a smartphone. Yes, you read that correctly.

This is Shadow. There are plenty of pictures of my other cat, Richard, on this blog so I won’t put one here.

I usually try to think of something interesting for students to do to introduce themselves to me rather than the standard questionnaire.

This year I’m going to try a new activity. First, I’d like you to pick a website or YouTube video related to history (a time or place you’re interested in). Then, I’d like you to mull over why you think this site or video is (or is not) reliable.

Be prepared to discuss it tomorrow.

That’s it. See you in class tomorrow.

Ms. G

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By Ms. G, August 25, 2019 2:10 pm

Val arranged an amazing bike trip for us again this summer. We just got back after six days of riding, starting in Cambridge and ending in St. Catharines.

Since the last day is freshest in my mind, I’ll start with it: the Welland Canal. Both Val and I (but more Val) love large industrial things. For instance, we enjoy going to the lift lock in Peterborough. Well, it’s mini compared to the gigantic locks in the Welland Canal which I have never seen. Val, he’s an old hat at it. We spent at least an hour, maybe more, watching a ship – the Algoma Equinox – enter into  Lock 7 at Thorold, rise as the lock filled, and exit on its way to Thunder Bay to pick up grain. It was awesome to see.

All photos by Val Dodge, with permission.

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By Ms. G, August 18, 2019 2:33 pm

As summer whittles away, I try to appreciate the time I’ve had with Richard and Shadow. While Shadow is not photogenic and doesn’t actually like interference in her affairs, Richard is only too happy to look up at the camera with his big green eyes.

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By Ms. G, August 3, 2019 3:15 pm

Truly beautiful works of art, sculptures by Zimbabwean artists at Edwards Gardens. Each one is perfectly placed in just the right location in the extensive gardens. There are a few other photos in my July post. I’ve been twice now and would love to go back at dusk.

https://torontobotanicalgarden.ca/enjoy/special-events/zimsculpt/

This is not the first time I’ve seen Zimbabwean sculpture. Near our cottage is ZimArt: Rice Lake Gallery, another fantastic place to see outdoor art.

I love the variety of subjects: human, animal and geometric.

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By Ms. G, July 31, 2019 5:59 pm

A few pics from July.

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By Ms. G, July 20, 2019 7:51 pm

With more time to read, I’ve recently finished Ross King’s Mad Enchantment. It’s the story of Claude Monet and the painting of his water lilies. Obviously I’m a fan of Ross King having read five of his other art history books. I quite liked the style of this one but I can’t quite say the same for Monet. A person can love his art yet think he was a big whining old fart. At least in the later stage of his life, Monet was a disagreeable codger who got a lot of favours done for him during World War I. Otherwise, it’s an interesting portrait of Georges Clemenceau, a figure I knew little of.

I’m nearly done Jack Weatherford’s Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, a really intriguing book. To say that Temujin had a hard life is a gigantic understatement. But to say that he was smart is too. The author is fairly heavily biased toward the great khan, but he backs it up with a lot of details about how he unified the Mongols. Unfortunately not all of his children and grandchildren were so intellectually inclined. I’m just at the part now where Kublai Khan takes over China. It’s quite a different story than what we read in the textbooks. Where the truth lies, I’m not sure. I’ll have to research that more. One thing that has struck me is the religious openness of the Mongols – aside from their own form of spiritualism, there were also Mongol Christians, Buddhists and Muslims. In this book the Mongols are painted as early globalizers. Fascinating and timely.

I’m well into The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. However, I can’t seem to keep with it. I absolutely love the writing and am enamoured of the main character, Aminata; it’s just too sad. It’s rare for me to read fiction so I’m kind of daring myself to finish it despite the horrible subject matter.