Campus Corner

     
     Here are a couple of university-related items I will attempt to post quickly before the sun shines.

1. Retirement Communities on College Campuses

     You are correct, I have mentioned this subject before, but will do so again because there is a good article about one of the latest examples which will soon be found on the campus of Purchase College (SUNY). Why colleges would be interested in old codgers and why retirees would be interested in roosting on a campus are questions answered in the article and in my earlier posts. Among them:

"Purchase is one of a growing number of colleges sponsoring retirement communities on campus or thinking about it. It is a marketer’s dream, monetizing spare land, while milking the baby boom generation’s affluence by appealing to their obsession with staying forever young."

"The schools say their motive is more educational and social — encouraging intergenerational mixing — than financial. But the communities promise a new revenue stream for institutions that are coping with reduced state operating support and declining college enrollment in many parts of the country. They are bringing a new generation (or old generation) to campus to fill classes, eat in dining halls, attend student performances and become mentors."

     Among the other schools mentioned are Arizona State and Lasell University near Boston.  If you look at my old post you will see examples ranging from Cornell and Dartmouth to the University of Florida and the University of Michigan. Additional articles and Canadian sources are also provided. In short, if this subject is of interest see:

Sources:

"At Colleges, What's Old Is New: Retirees Living on Campus," Anemona Hartocollis, New York Times, Sept. 10, 2019.

This blog: "Retiring Back to University: Bucolic College Towns".

To learn more about the Purchase College example see "Broadview - Senior Living at Purchase College.

2. Not A Touching Moment at Western

     You may recall that I posted about HEADLINES and how they can be misconstrued if not clearly written. The one that follows is fairly clear, but some readers could understand it to mean that London police were summoned because finally something less than crass happened on campus: "London Police Investigate Touching Incident."London Free Press, Sept. 8, 2019.

3. University Rankings

     The latest Times Higher Education rankings were released and there were many headlines such as this one in the Canadian papers: "Top Canadian Universities Rise in Global Rankings," The Globe and Mail, Sept. 11, 2019. There were many additional headlines issuing from those campuses that did well. Unfortunately Western did not. 

     Credit should be given to Western, however, since it was noted in a campus publication that the university had dropped out of the Top 200. Usually in such cases, universities only note the good news.

See: "THE [Times Higher Education] Reveals World University Rankings," Jason Winders. Western News, Sept. 13, 2019.

Post Script:

     There has been a lot of news from Hong Kong lately, but I have not seen any mention of the Ivey Business School Asia, which is located there. The times appear to be a bit rough for universities offering graduate business programs and surely the disruption there cannot be good for the School. I have seen no mention of it on the Ivey or Western websites. Years ago the local paper would have picked up on such a story, but, like most communities, we no longer have one. 

Birds & Eggs

The Feather Thief

     

     I do not often offer reviews of books I am reading, but I will do so in the case of The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession and the Natural History Heist of the Century, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I read it so quickly I am sure to forget what it was about even faster than usual, unless I attempt a brief summary for you. You also will enjoy it even though it is about the following things: fly-tying; the feathers of birds and a flautist (what the Brits call a player of the flute) who may or may not have Asperger’s. Hardly compelling ingredients, you’re thinking.

      At an early age Edwin Rist became obsessed with tying flies like the one pictured above which requires “the crest feathers of the Golden Pheasant from the mountain forests of China, black and fiery orange breast feathers from the Red-Ruffed Fruitcrow of South America, ribbon-like filaments of Ostrich herl feathers from South Africa, and tiny turquoise plumes from the Blue Chatterer of the lowlands of Central America". As an aside, such flies are rarely used for fishing, but they are highly valued piscatorial objets d'art that attract collectors.

      Such feathers are as rare as the birds from which they are plucked and it is illegal to trade in them. Fortunately Rist the flautist found himself at the Royal Academy of Music in London which is not too far from the Natural History Museum in Tring. It is full of feathers and Rist broke into it and “ stuffed into his suitcase 39 resplendent quetzals, 47 Indian crows, 98 blue chatterers, 37 king birds-of-paradise, 17 flame bowerbirds and so on.”

     Kirk Wallace Johnson the author becomes obsessed with Trist and the fly-tyers and with finding out what happens to the criminal and what became of the proceeds of the crime. It is a very interesting story and along the way one learns about Alfred Russel Wallace (the collector of the feathers held at Tring), Lionel Walter Rothschild (the original owner of Tring), exotic birds and the use of feathers in Victorian fashions. 

 For those of you who rely on opening sentences to choose a book, here they are:

“Alfred Russel Wallace stood on the quarterdeck of a burning ship, seven hundred  miles off the coast of Bermuda, the planks heating beneath his feet, yellow smoke curling up through the cracks. Sweat and sea spray clung to him as the balsam and rubber boiled and hissed below deck. He sensed the flames would soon burst through. The crew of the Helen raced frantically around him, heaving belongings and supplies into the two small lifeboats that were being lowered down the ship’s flank.”

Post Script:

     One of the funniest books I have ever read has the word 'Feathers' in the title. Consisting of several short pieces, my favourite is The Whore of Mensa. It is about intellectual call girls, the kind a man wants if he is more interested in the mind than the body and where in the whore house one finds "pale, nervous girls with black-rimmed glasses and blunt-cut hair [lolling] around on sofas, riffling Penguin Classics provocatively." Among the services rendered in such an establishment: "For a hundred, a girl would lend you her Bartók records, have dinner, and then let you watch while she had an anxiety attack. For one-fifty, you could listen to FM radio with twins. For three bills, you got the works: A thin Jewish brunette would pretend to pick you up at the Museum of Modern Art, let you read her master’s, get you involved in a screaming quarrel at Elaine’s over Freud’s conception of women, and then fake a suicide of your choosing—the perfect evening, for some guys. Nice racket. Great town, New York."

    You can read these short stories in the book below. Most of them appeared in The New Yorker and you can find "The Whore of Mensa" in the Dec. 16, 1974 issue (it is readable via the Internet, but I won't put the link in out of fear it will soon rot).


What About the EGGS?

     I mentioned that word in the title and will offer a few articles about some oologists who are even more obsessive than the feather collectors. Stealing and collecting birds’ eggs is big business. Start with the fascinating story in The New Yorker:

“Operation Easter: The Hunt for Illegal Egg Collectors", Julian Rubinstein, July 15, 2013.

See also:

"Inside the Bizarre, Secretive World of Obsessive Egg Thieves: Audubon talks with filmmaker Tim Wheeler, whose documentary exposes the underworld of Britain’s illegal egg collectors. Audubon, By Emma Bryce, January 06, 2016.

"Journalist Joshua Hammer recounts the story of egg thief Jeffrey Lendrum and his latest jail sentence," CBC Radio · Posted: Jan 23, 2019

See the entry in Wikipedia for The Jourdain Society, and the one for Colin Watson.

More Aids for Autodidacts

     At the beginning of this year I offered some useful suggestions for those who wished to improve the mind rather than the body. Short cuts to intellectual success were provided in the form of book series such as 30 Second Books and Very Short Introductions (see Intellectual Resolutions - 2019). 
     We are now more than halfway through the year and it is likely that my diligent readers have quickly burned through these very slim volumes. As a reward, I will now point you to some books that will let you know what really matters, and to some others that provide a little history. In keeping with the bespoke nature of this blog, the recommendations are loftier than the Whatever for Dummies...type books and appear under the imprimatur of a University Press - in this case, Yale.
     Although you sluggards should not be rewarded, I will remind you of a post that provides an excuse for those who buy books and do not read them, and a suggestion for the one book you should purchase: How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read. (see: TSUNDOKU)

Why X Matters

"Yale University Press presents the Why X Matters series, in which passionate authors present concise arguments for the continuing relevance of important people or ideas.The Why X Matters series aims to champion the cause of important disciplines and influential thinkers that are perhaps under-represented in modern discourse."

The Titles 

Why Architecture Matters Why Acting Matters Why Arendt Matters Why Baseball Matters

Why the Constitution Matters

Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters

Why Niebuhr Matters

Why Poetry Matters

Why Preservation Matters

Why the Romantics Matter

Why Translation Matters

Why Trilling Matters

Little Histories

"The Little Histories are vivid storybook introductions for the young and old alike. Inspiring and entertaining, each short book lays out our greatest subjects in deceptively simple, engaging tones. With charming and personal insights each expert gently takes the reader from ancient times to the present through bite size chapters, ideal as bedtime reading or on the journey to work."

The Titles 

A Little History of Economics

A Little History of the World

A Little History of Religion

A Little History of Philosophy

A Little History of the United States

A Little History of Literature

A Little History of Science

Sources: 

   The "X Series" is easily found on the Yale University Press site along with additional information about each title. A rationale for the series is offered in the blog post of the London branch of YUP: "Introducing Yale's Why X Matters Series."

   The "Little Histories" are found here: littlehistory.org.

   In some cases, podcasts and video interviews are available. 

Post Script:

   If you feel a little embarrassed about telling people you are reading A Little History of the World, mention that it was written by E. H. Gombrich and memorize the German title: Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser. By the way, it was written in 1935.

     

American Sportsman's Library

     I came across this series when I went looking for Upland Game Birds, which is the actual subject of this post. Given that I often provide information about books published in a series, I offer below a list of the titles in the American Sportsman's Library. If you are at all interested in nature, sports and literature about the outdoors, you will enjoy learning about such subjects as they were covered early in the last century. One of the books is authored by a U.S. President (he wrote it while in office) and the book under consideration was written by Edwyn Sandys from Ontario.

Upland Game Birds

If you are a hunter or a nature lover you will enjoy this book and if you are ornithologically inclined you will find it useful. One reason I am bothering to post about it is because it seems to me that more people should know about it. It covers most of the continent and the birds considered range from turkeys and ptarmigans to quail and whooping cranes. The other is that more should be known about the author.  If you go looking for “Edwyn Sandys” you will find a lot about a Bishop or the founder of Virginia, but not much about the one who was born in Chatham, Ontario. If you are a student of Canadian history Sandys is worth investigating. If you are more interested in environmental history you should have a look at Upland Game Birds. Although it  ranges widely geographically, there are often specific references to this area. Here are a few snippets: p.160. On the mating of Prairie-Hens "When I first heard this booming, it sorely puzzled me. It was in western Ontario, on what is known as Raleigh plains - an extensive tract of low, marshy land, lying for miles along the south bank of the Thames River….Spring shooting of geese, duck, and snipe was then both legal and amazingly good, guns were comparatively few, and the plains formed something very like an earthly Eden for those sufficiently game to face astounding mud and ice-cold water.”

p.249. On the Wild Turkey

"That such a bird, in the opinion of many the finest game-bird in the world, has been almost exterminated in miles of forested country where it might have been preserved, is a blot upon the sportsmanship of older states. Thirty years ago [c1870] one could drive in almost any direction through the woods of western Ontario and reasonably expect to see either the birds themselves or their tracks crossing the snowy roads. Twenty years ago the range had narrowed to the big woods of the western tongue of Ontario. Ten years ago, the last stronghold had dwindled to the wildest parts of about three counties. Today there is perhaps a single narrow strip where one might strike a trail and possibly catch a glimpse of a fleeing survivor of the old-time hosts.”

[ Things have improved. Now wild turkeys are seen routinely even here in the city].

The Titles in the American Sportsman’s Library

Listed below are the books in the series. The six titles that are bolded are found in the catalogue of the Western Libraries.

Anderson, E.L. and P. Collier, Riding & Driving: Hints on the History, Housing, Harnessing and Handling of the Horse. [One copy on microfiche as part of the Kentucky Culture Series.] Brownell, L.W., Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist (1904) [An electronic copy as part of Nineteenth Century Collections Online] Busby, Hamilton, The Trotting and Pacing Horse in America (1904) Crowther, Samuel and A. Ruhl, Rowing and Track Athletics (1904)

Graham, Joseph A., The Sporting Dog (1904)

Henshall, James A., Bass, Pike, Perch and other Game Fishes of America (1903)

[Copy in storage]

Holder, Charles F., The Big Game Fishes of the United States (1903)

Money, A.W. et al., Guns, Ammunition and Tackle (1904)

Paret, J.P. and W. H. Maddren, Lawn Tennis: Its Past, Present and Future, by J. Parmly Paret; to which is Added a Chapter on Lacrosse by William Harvey Maddren (1904)

Roosevelt, Theodore et al., The Deer Family (1902)

[copy in storage]

Sage, Dean et al., Salmon and Trout (1902)

[One copy in storage and one in ARCC]

Sandys, Edwyn and T.S. Van Dyke, Upland Game Birds (1902)

[One copy in storage]

Sanford, L. C. et al., The Waterfowl Family (1903)

Stephens, William P., American Yachting (1904)

Trevathan, Charles E., The American Thoroughbred (1905)

Whitney, Caspar et al., Musk Ox, Bison, Sheep, and Goat (1904)
Sources:
There is a Wikipedia entry for The American Sportsman's Library.

 Here are two reviews of Upland Game Birds: 

    "Because most remarkable changes are making in the life habits of many game birds in their native haunts, the second volume in the American Sportsman’s Library, a work entitled Upland Game Birds, is certain to prove of interest to those observers of nature who do not shoot as well as to gunners.….It is loaded to the muzzle with good stories, all founded (more or less) on facts." John R. Spears, "A Work on Upland Shooting", New York Times, June 28, 1902.

"Upland Game Birds cannot fail to interest alike the sportsman, the ornithologist and the general reader. Mr. Edwyn Sandys, who is the author of about seven eights of the volume, is a keen field observer and a pleasing writer, whose experience covers the whole field of his subject, including the natural history as well as the sportsman's side, with both of which he is in fullest sympathy."The Auk, Volume 19, Issue 3, 1 July 1902, Page 306.

There is not much information about Edwyn Sandys. At some point he moved from Ontario and became a writer. Many of his articles are found in Outing magazine, with which he was associated. There are brief mentions of him in Mount’s, When Canadian Literature Moved to New York. His date of birth was found in an entry for his sister, Grace Denison, who was a writer and on the staff of Saturday Night. See: Canada’s Early Women Writers. 

An obituary for Edwyn Sandys is found in the New York Times on Oct. 27, 1906 (under ‘Edwin’).

Post Script: 

I was pleased to find some of these books in the libraries at Western University and hope they are not discarded. The copy that was retrieved for me from the storage facility was given as a gift in 1907 to someone in Chicago. It ended up at Western in 1922. (It should be noted that titles such as these are often worth a lot of money, depending upon the edition or condition of the items. I spotted one set of the Sportsman’s Library for $5,000 (US).)

I would have preferred to see the Western Libraries full of books rather than students. I have to admit, however, that all of the Sportsman’s titles are available via the Internet since they are out of copyright. Sandy’s Sporting Sketches is available and you can read his children’s book, Trapper Jim. You can also read all of his articles in Outing magazine. There are a few Internet options, such as HathiTrust, but for nature and outdoor books see the very good Biodiversity Heritage Library. 

Parks Along the Great Lakes

[Those of you who are not interested in parks, nature, Savannah oaks and things 'Carolinian' can proceed directly to the Post Script where the frivolous material is found.]

Pinery Provincial Park

     A few weeks back we visited the Pinery which is located on Lake Huron a few kilometres south of the tourist resort town of Grand Bend. It is a large 'Carolinian' forest, complete with sand dunes and a long beach that is somewhat diminished given the high water this year. If you enjoy peace and quiet and solitude, but dislike camping and prefer fine dining, then finding a resort or cottage close to a park is a good option when travelling in the Great Lakes area. Gathered here is some information about such parks along the Lakes, on both sides of the border.
     Local readers of this blog (there is one that I know of) will be familiar with "Ontario's West Coast" or, as some brochures call it, "Ontario's Blue Coast" -- the water as you come over the dunes is often very blue. The Ontario Parks web site is the place to start and The Friends of the Pinery is useful. The Lambton Heritage Museum is not far from the gates to the Park.
     If you want a little history and some background about the 'Carolinian' nature of the park see these two short works by a classicist who was also a former President of what is now Western University: 'T Aint Runnin' No More: The Story of Grand Bend, The Pinery and the Old River Bed and Some Trees and Shrubs of the Carolinian Zone of Southern Ontario. Both are by Sherwood Fox.
     The title of the first work refers to the Aux Sables River which was damned, detoured and tampered with, like all rivers in pioneer days (remember my recent note about the Chicago River which was made to flow in reverse). One of the 'cuts' is pictured above.

Indiana Dunes National Park

You are probably surprised that there is a U.S. NATIONAL park so close by and that the state of Indiana has a short bit of coast along Lake Michigan. Although a state park survived for years between the abandoned steel mills and new casinos, it just became an actual NATIONAL park very recently (the 61st) even though the Trump administration was opposed. Over the years many were opposed because the sand and steel were more important than a few dunes.

I became aware of the Indiana dunes last year when I began reading some of the books by Edwin Way Teale. He spent his childhood years visiting grandparents who lived close by the dunes and he describes how he became interested in nature in the book Dune Boy.

For a recent article about Indiana Dunes see: "Visiting the Nation's Newest National Park: Indiana Dunes, Michael Schroeder, Washington Post, June, 7, 2019. The park site is here and there is a Wikipedia entry. The picture of the protestors comes from a good blog piece: "The Story Behind Indiana's First National Park", REI Co-op Journal.

Other Great Lakes Parks

Ontario

Batchawana Bay 

The drive along Highway 17 near Batchawana Bay offers outstanding views of Lake Superior. And Batchawana Bay Provincial Park is a perfect spot to stop and immerse yourself in this stunning scenery. A plaque erected by the Ontario Motor League highlights Batchawana Bay (at Chippewa Falls) as the mid-point in the longest national highway in the world - the Trans-Canada Highway.

Inverhuron 

Prized for its sandy beach, dunes and glorious sunsets.

Includes a wetland and a young hardwood forest

Diverse habitat nurtures rare plants and protects many woodland animals and birds.

On Lake Huron north of Kincardine.

Killbear
Kilometres of rugged, rocky shoreline mixed with numerous sand beaches
Beautiful views of windswept pines on rocky islands
6 km recreational trail for hiking and biking
Visitor Centre
Excellent sailing and windsurfing conditions
Georgian Bay sunsets
Parry Sound area

MacGregor Point 
MacGregor Point is one of the most ecologically diverse natural places along the Lake Huron shoreline. A complex ecosystem unfolds at this all-season park on a seven-kilometre stretch of coast, just south of Port Elgin.

Neys Provincial Park 
Enjoy one the finest sand beaches on Lake Superior’s north shore.View a model of a former prisoner-of-war (POW) camp at the Visitor Centre and the actual remains of POW Camp 100.
See Pic Island as it was immortalized on canvas by Lawren Harris of the famous Canadian painting team, The Group of Seven.

Pancake Bay
More than 3 km of beautiful sand beach and Caribbean blue water
Panoramic view of Lake Superior from the Edmund Fitzgerald Lookout hiking trail

The United States

Michigan 

   Isle Royale National Park 

   Isle Royale National Park is located in the northwest corner of Lake Superior. The island contains a roadless backcountry which prohibits the use of all wheeled vehicles and devices (except wheelchairs). Visitors traveling to Isle Royale must arrive by boat or seaplane. There are a variety of transportation services available that depart from Houghton, Michigan, Copper Harbor, Michigan and Grand Portage, Minnesota. Vehicular parking is available at all departure locations.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore 

   Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is located on the south shore of Lake Superior in Michigan's
Upper Peninsula, between the communities of Munising (west) and Grand Marais (east).

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

    Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is located in Northwestern Lower Michigan along the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan. The closest city is Traverse City, 25 miles to the east

Wisconsin 

 Apostle Islands National Lakeshore 

 The headquarters visitor center is one block off Wisconsin Route 13 in the city of Bayfield.

Sources:
If you wish to meander around this area of the Great Lakes, see these useful Michigan web sites:
Great Lakes Circle Tours
Great Lakes Circle Tour 
Pure Michigan Getaways
Post Script:
   When you saw that this post was about the Pinery/Grand Bend area, you probably wondered whether Mitt Romney did actually tie his dog to the top of the car when he drove to visit the family compound which is in the area.  I anticipated such a query and was fully prepared to do some thorough investigative reporting.  It is not necessary. Just see this: "Mitt Romney Dog Incident".

Bonus: If you noticed the Pure Michigan link above you probably thought of those good Michigan ads and "Yes" there is even a Wikipedia entry about them: Pure Michigan. 

Leaking Oil

The Gulf of Sludge

     Although I try to ignore current events, particularly negative ones, I will mention one here for two reasons. First, it strikes me as an important story that has been underreported. If that is true, then the second reason for offering it is that I am doing so as a public service. If you are a Snow Bird who is thinking of buying property anywhere along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Tampa, you may want to look elsewhere. 

     Anyone thinking about swimming in the Gulf or buying property along its coast would be aware of the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010 and would assume that by now the coast is clear and the water is mostly back to normal. That is not the case. There was an earlier marine disaster in 2004 and the underreported story is that oil is still leaking from the site and at a rate much greater than realized. MUCH, MUCH GREATER. I need say no more. Just look at the sources.

Sources: 

"New Estimate for an Oil Leak: A Thousand Times Worse Than Rig Owner Says," Lisa Friedman, New York Times, June 25, 2019. 

'WASHINGTON — A new federal study has found that an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico that began 14 years ago has been releasing as much as 4,500 gallons a day, not three or four gallons a day as the rig owner has claimed."

   The federal study is available, but to avoid link rot, I will just provide the title: "An Integrated Assessment of Oil and Gas Release Into the Marine Environment at the Former Taylor Energy MC20 Site," by Andrew L. Mason, J. Christopher Taylor and Ian R. MacDonald, June 2019.

I am not sure how this report got reported under the current administration which is pushing for offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

There are more articles to be found, but it seems to me that there should be many more given the apparent magnitude of the leak. Perhaps when cold weather returns in the north and we Canadians start thinking about heading south, there will be more reports about the health of the Gulf. If not, I suggest you restrict your swimming to the motel pool.

Post Script:

   I apologize to all golfers who were lured to this post by the title - "Leaking Oil". It was chosen deliberately to attract more readers and I couldn't think of any way to link Archie or his mom Meghan to the subject at hand. For you non-golfers: "leaking oil" is now part of the golf broadcaster's vernacular and is used to describe a golfer who is falling apart on the last few holes. For you golfers here is a bonus if you have wondered about the usage of the word "wheelhouse" during golf matches: "What's a 'Wheelhouse' and Why is Something in Mine?" Chris Higgins, Mental Floss, Sept. 27, 2015.

   While I am considering current events here are two headlines that caught my eye. This one could be misconstrued: "Man, Found Fatally Stabbed Near Van On Fire, Just Wanted 'To Make People Smile'".

For more on such headlines see my post about Headlines. 

This one has to do with the concept of the unintended consequences of practically everything: "Fatal Accident With Metal Straw Highlights a Risk: The Disturbing Death of a Woman in Britain Renewed a Debate That Has Followed Bans on Plastic Straws Around the World," Neil Vigdor, New York Times, July 11, 2019.

Toronto the Carbuncle

New Nickname For Hogtown

     I suppose it is okay to pick on TO since the citizens there are feeling so good about their NBA championship team. (Although I am not sure why. There are more local fish in Toronto's Ripley's Aquarium than there are Canadian players on the Raptors, some of whom were just purchased fresh this year and will be gone by the next one.) So I am suggesting as a new nickname,  "Toronto the Carbuncle" rather than "Toronto the Pustule" since a carbuncle is bigger and worse than a pustule. It seems to me closer to the truth than "Toronto the Good". 

     The reason for this rant now is because I just ran across a rather grim assessment of Toronto offered at the turn of this century. Things have not gotten better, although I must confess that real estate prices have gone up. For involved historical and economic reasons the "Big Smoke" seems to be where many Canadians want to be and have to go since there are not many other urban options. Citizens from other countries are also flocking there and "Diversity" itself seems a big draw. For now. 

     In any case, the rather negative account below is provided by someone who was simply trying to bypass Toronto about twenty years ago. Things have not gotten better. Among the many reasons not to like Toronto is that it is a major obstacle for those who are simply trying to go someplace more desirable. 

     

    "I don't know what the upper limit of population for a functioning human society is, but I do know that Greater Toronto exceeded it long ago. The city is a whirl of people constantly crossing each other's paths, like neutrinos in a cyclotron. The pace and volume of traffic, the raw, wounded-looking land beneath the new subdivisions and shopping centers, and the general sense of noise and hurry made me feel thoroughly jangled, like a mouse caught in a bagpipe. We turned north on 404 well before the city center, trying to escape the worst of it, and maybe we did: but if so, I would not want to see the worst. The freeway ended and we found ourselves facing traffic lights. Cars shuffled and crushed between them; trucks roared and fumed. Everywhere there was new construction - new homes, new strip malls, new office buildings. This, John Hartig had told us, was the finest agricultural land in Ontario. This has not stopped people from paving it. Hundreds of thousands of acres of it. The property-rights people have clearly won the war here. They can go to bed and sleep well. I wonder what they are planning to eat."
from: Great Lakes Journey: A New Look at America's Freshwater Coast, William Ashworth, p.250. This "new look" was taken in 2000. The author had taken an earlier tour of the area in the 1980s and the result was: The Late, Great Lakes: An Environmental History. 

Sources:
Toronto has so many nicknames there is an entry in Wikipedia  for "Name of Toronto".
See also: "Top 8 Nicknames for the City of Toronto".

Post Script: 
     About the only positive economic economic news here in London is found in the real estate sector. Torontonians are selling their expensive properties to buy cheaper homes here. As a result more fine agricultural land is being paved over and there will soon be nothing but tarmac from Tillsonburg to Tilbury. It makes you wonder what we are planning to eat.
     Not only is Toronto difficult to get through, it is a rather undesirable destination. I admit that I really don't know the city well and visit infrequently. When I do, I am disappointed. Given my harsh assessment I feel compelled to undertake some field research and will visit this summer. Although the lakefront will not yet be improved by "Sidewalk Labs", some scouts from New York have suggested a visit to the Sterling Road area. I am not overly optimistic: "In Toronto, An Industrial Stretch Has Its Breakout Moment," Michael Kaminer, NYT, July 5, 2019.
"Dismissed for decades as a postindustrial wasteland, Sterling Road, a zigzagging half-mile strip of old factories and warehouses, is getting a second life. Last summer, the North American debut of a splashy Banksy exhibition in an empty warehouse there drew a global spotlight. With the arrival of Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) last fall, Sterling Road is newly hip, its appeal broadening beyond the small cadre of tuned-in artists and bohemian types who for years have had it to themselves. The street’s cavernous structures have also quickly become hot real estate."