If it were not for one redeeming feature, today’s visit to the taste of the danforth would have been a total loss.

As a synopsys, this event is an annual public gathering on one of Toronto’s main streets, pedestrians and peddlers replacing cars for about a one-kilometer stretch in “greektown”. It is supposed to give the visitors a taste of greek this and that.

The greek part was not actually bad. The greek language street signs reminded the resident of the many valuable (?) projects their municipal taxes pay for. The vendors (official and not) selling water at usurious rates were just fleecing the silly members of the public. The restauranteurs providing meal morsels (at nearly full-meal prices) were in a way teaching about capitalism. The mob provided a metaphoric biology lesson, recreating the mad rush of sperm on the way to an absent utopia. Their robotic faces hid the deeper current of bewildered inner monologue: “is that all there is?”. Yes, that’s all there was.

The redeeming feature? One of Trenton’s C-130 Hercules aircraft did a low pass over the area. Other than ourselves, I saw no one look up at it. Maybe those four turboprop engines are too quiet. When the CWHM Lancaster flies by, people look up.