I still want the bastards who send these things to all to go out of business and be forced to find honest work to feed their kids, but this one seems to capture the mood of the times, or anyway illuminate the current level of political discourse.

(Larger version at flickr)

This past Sunday we found ourselves practically on Rudy’s stoop and I found myself ravenous, and I proposed we slake my year-long Rudy’s-focused curiosity, and my wonderful girlfriend declared with some amusement that the exact same thing had already happened, and that I had, in fact, already been to Rudy’s. I simply could not recall this.

So I’m documenting the visit, in case my memory lapses again. Rudy’s codfish tacos are almost completely unlike Polly’s catfish tacos (which featured un-breaded catfish and a mayonaiseless slightly spicy jicama slaw OMG they were so good). But I really enjoyed Rudy’s version anyway (and got two meals out of the generously-portioned order). My friend Pat would surely have turned his nose up at the margarita, but it was cold and wet and had a perfectly adequate quantity of salt crusted on the rim, so my nose did no turning up.

An odd thing: the next time I turned my camera on after taking this photo, it also displayed a “no media” message (it had space for maybe 1 or 2 more exposures at the time). I thought it would be funny to juxtapose the two, so the next time I had another camera handy, I tried to photograph that display. But I can’t reproduce it. I can get it to say “card full” and “no card” and “lens cover,” and that’s about it.

Did the pitch cross the plate?

(I might need to see the replay.) Looking down on Rogers Centre from the observation deck of the CN Tower.

Marty on the glass floor

It makes creaky noises when he steps on it. I’m not a steeplejack or anything, but I don’t generally classify myself as “afraid of heights.” I thought this was pretty freaky, though. None of the trompe l’oeil art on the walls even registered with me at the time.

Me on the glass floor

I really do have both feet on the glass, it only looks like I have one foot on concrete — that’s the thickness of the floor below the pane. It was surprisingly hard for me to get both feet on the glass.

Toronto mosaic

Rogers Centre redux:

This shot is from the “Sky Pod” a second platform 100 metres above the main observation deck. At 446 metres, this is currently alleged to be the highest public observation deck in an artificial structure.

As it turns out, I think dusk was a pretty good time to shoot.

“Excuse me, is this Blade Runner?”

The building where we ran our tests is attached to the big flat building with the two red circles on it. Our hotel is visible at the top as well.

People with fancier cameras were doing fancy exposures showing multiple sky-to-ground lightning strikes, but I thought the approaching storm was plenty dramatic anyway

Mist over Lake Ontario

We’re back on the main deck on our way out.

An accidental shot of the glass floor area that I liked

Looking up from the base

It doesn’t look like a building as much as an abstract composition. I took similar sharper shots, but I liked this one best.

On the way back to the hotel we passed this sculpture, which seemed to combine elements of totem pole and woodpecker-victimized tree. Plus, lights! Next time, I want a closer look.

One last shot of the tower, from a few blocks away. See what I mean about how monstrously tall it really doesn’t look?

(There are bigger versions of these photos on summervillain’s flickr site)