(no subject)

I'm feeling pretty sad this morning.

The picture, above, is of Jack Layton & Olivia Chow.

Jack died this morning.

You wouldn't know it from the costume (in fact, I have no idea why he & Olivia are dressed in Star Trek uniforms ETA - it was the 1991 Star Trek Convention, held at City Hall! Here's another pic), but he was the Leader of the Federal Opposition in Canada, a position he won in the last election, after his party, the NDP, blew through to an unbelievable number of seats.

We all thought he'd be Prime Minister five years from now.

( Because of him, they called it a truststache - things I know about Jack Layton )

Tonight I'm going to go to the pub in his riding where his first federal campaign started, and raise a beer for Jack. It's possible I'm going to cry in it, but I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one doing so.

(no subject)

Also, Jack Layton designed the post-and-ring bike posts that Toronto uses. They look like this. The design was created so that you could weave your chain through it and keep your bike upright (this is in the days before Kryptonite locks), and was also built to accommodate one bike on either side.

It's simple, it's genius, and I use them daily.

So yeah. Thanks for that, too, Jack.