Weekend Roundup

Welcome to The Weekend Roundup...hosted by Tom The Back Roads Traveler
Skywatch Friday
ABC Wednesday

1. Starts with "M."
2. A Favorite
3. MANY

For the letter of the week for this round I am going to go with all things TTC, Toronto Transit Corporation.

Starts with "M"

Probably my favourite, and considered one of the most beautiful stations is Museum.

The station structure was created in the middle of the road using cut and cover, while immediately south of the station the line goes into a bored tunnel to run under Queen’s Park, passing east of the Ontario Legislative Building to reach Queen's Park station. The concourse is located under the roadway, one level above the north end of a centre platform, with entrances from either side of the road. There are two stairways on the west side adjacent to the southern end of the Royal Ontario Museum and two on the east, just south of Charles Street. Pedestrians are encouraged to use the station as a pedestrian underpass to cross Queen's Park, a wide and busy thoroughfare without a centre median.

Renovations to the station's platform level were completed in April 2008 to evoke exhibits in the Royal Ontario Museum.

They incorporated painted 1/4" fire-rated Lexan into the panels composing the large "MUSEUM" lettering on the walls with a historical hieroglyphic inscription from the ROM.

The station sign incorporates beautifully another inscription, which is visible within the outline of the station’s name. It is an excerpt from an Old Kingdom (2,543-2,120 BC) relief from the tomb of the official Met-jet-jy from Saqqara. The ROM purchased this piece in the 1950s and it is now on display in the museum. 

Supporting columns have been remade to resemble the ancient Egyptian deity Osiris.

In temples dedicated to deceased kings, rulers were often featured as columns in the form of Osiris, the god of the dead and eternity. The upper half of the pilaster, featuring the royal headdress, the crook, and the flail, identifies a king. The wrapped lower half identifies the god Osiris, who is typically depicted as a mummy in Egyptian mythology. The hieroglyphic inscription on the back of the pillar is copied from a relief found in the Egyptian gallery at the Royal Ontario Museum.

This column is a replica of one of four warrior columns located atop a temple in the ancient Toltec capital of Tula, central Mexico. The Toltecs dominated this area from around 900 to 1150 AD, influencing the cultures of the Maya and Aztecs. The figure on the column is believed to represent the warrior-god Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli in the guise of the evening star, Venus, which is often associated with warfare in Mesoamerican cultures.

This column is modelled after a house post from the Wuikinuxv Nation at Rivers Inlet in British Columbia. The original post supported one end of a home’s massive roof beam. The post was carved from a single cedar log, and the bear is a traditional family crest figure that identified the home’s family and their status. Acquired by the ROM after the house had been abandoned and dismantled, the original artifact can be found in the Daphne Cockwell Gallery dedicated to First Peoples art & culture.

From the time of its inception in ancient Greece to present day, the Doric column has remained an important structural and decorative architectural component. The fluted white double columns are derived from the columns used in ancient Greek temples. Doric columns are characterized by gradually tapered shafts that stand directly on the floor or foundation of the temple. The shaft is made from a series of stone drums placed one on top of the other.

These columns are based on the columns surrounding the Hall of Perfect Harmony in the Forbidden City, the palace of the Chinese emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Like most Chinese imperial palace and temple buildings, the columns are painted red, a colour that traditionally represents happiness and good fortune to the Chinese. The ROM houses a full-scale reconstruction of a corner of a large palace hall in imperial style of the Qing dynasty.

FAVOURITE

The name “Merchant Lane” relates to the hardware merchant, The Cochrane Dunlop Hardware Limited, who occupied the site at 1379 Bloor Street West starting back in 1944.

MANY

I had another idea for MANY this week, but the Elton John concert, Farewell Yellow Brick Road, topped that.

The Scotiabank Arena (formerly ACC) holds 19,800 people, and we were two of many.