commodorified: an image of an old woodenhulled icebreaker in a narrow open channel (northwest passage)
commodorified ([personal profile] commodorified) wrote2011-08-23 02:36 am

"Think we'll turn back? YOU DON'T KNOW JACK."

City Hall was good. No pre-organisation to speak of, no speeches; just a big quiet hugfest.

Someone read Jack's letter, and at one point there was a piper; I don't think anyone appointed him, as such, he just showed up and played. Later, a woman up on the ramp began to sing O Canada, beautifully; everyone joined in.

I saw/talked to/hugged/ended up at the pub with/check as many as apply [personal profile] zingerella, [personal profile] chickenfeet, [personal profile] lemur_catta, [personal profile] northbard, [personal profile] tormenta, [personal profile] trouble and several more friends, plus there were some I expected to see but who were out of town or couldn't get there or we just missed each other.

And this happened:

I wanted to take ... I don't know, something. Flowers didn't seem right. So I bought a couple of boxes of chalk.

And, as both [personal profile] benet and [personal profile] fairestcat texted me to say, I accidentally ended up on the CBC website.



When I was done I left the chalk on the ground by the ramp, and ... things got sort of splendidly out-of-hand.






I tried at one point to count the languages on the wall, but gave up. Mostly English, but French, Spanish, Greek, and I think Mandarin, as well as Vietnamese and I know not what all else.

Other sizes and the rest of Blackbird_012's great pictures of today are here.

ETA: and [personal profile] zingerella made the Globe and Mail.



And Blog T.O. has some great photos, including this one:

rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)

[personal profile] rydra_wong 2011-08-24 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Via [personal profile] james_davis_nicoll:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6065/6076393292_1b87fd7d39_o.jpg

Holy crap.

You started something amazing.

I admit I hadn't heard of Jack Layton before this, but he must have been truly special to have earned this kind of tribute.