Notes from the Aerospace Section
By Dave Hook
May 2005
Hello everyone and welcome to my last column as your Aerospace Chair. I
believe it’s customary to always start off your last column with something
along the lines of …’I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by…..’ So
there you go.
And now moving on to another customary sign of the last column – the annual
conference plug…..
The Aerospace Section has quite a bit planned for the conference. Once
again this year, we’ll be having the Aerospace Breakfast and Business
Meeting, at which I hope to see you all. We are also sponsoring a panel
discussion entitled "Self-Archiving, Information Repositories, and
Knowledge Management : What can different types of libraries learn from each
other?" The idea being that there are many libraries starting initiatives
to collect internally-generated information - are there similarities,
differences, best practices or lessons that libraries can learn from each
other?
As well, we are working with several other divisions to put on a great
selection of sessions. It’s going to be a great conference.
As you probably know, the conference for 2005 is taking place in Toronto.
And, as promised in my last column, for the rest of this column I’ll pass
along some completely random Toronto tips:
Here’s a bit of Toronto Aerospace trivia that you probably didn’t know:
Amelia Earhart learned to fly in Toronto.
One thing I have to mention is the correct pronunciation of the city name.
If you fully pronounce all three syllables of ‘To-ron-to’ you will
definitely be pegged as someone from out of town. To correctly sound like a
native Torontonian, you have to make it into a two-syllable word: something
along the lines of Trawno or Trawna. You’ll hear what I mean.
If you haven’t already booked your flight by now, one thing to consider is
to look for flights with Air Canada. They often have direct flights to and
from U.S. cities that U.S. flights do not.
For all you fame hounds, Toronto has a Walk of Fame (something like the one
in Hollywood) for Canadian celebrities. It’s located very close to the
conference centre. Anyway, they will be inducting 9 new people this year
and it will be happening on June 5th - while the conference is going on.
The 2005 Canada’s Walk of Fame Inductees include Paul Anka, Daniel Lanois,
Alanis Morissette, Kiefer Sutherland and Fay Wray. I’ve heard that Kiefer
Sutherland will be in attendance (I haven’t heard about anyone else). The
press release is available here:
http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/pressreleases/releases_2005.xml
Other places where you might also bump into a celebrity filming a movie here
(or at least so I’ve been told) include Yorkville, the Harbourfront Antiques
Market and some of the upscale restaurants such as Avalon Bistro 990 and
Sassafraz.
Many visitors to Canada are unaware that they may be able to claim a refund
of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) they pay on "eligible" goods and
short-term accommodation. To qualify, the goods purchased must be for
personal use outside of Canada (excluding alcohol and tobacco); each receipt
for items bought must be for $50 CAD or more before taxes; and the total
receipts claimed for eligible goods and short-term accommodation must amount
to $200 CAD or more before taxes. Your original receipts must be stamped by
Canada Customs or another approved agency, depending on how you are
traveling. The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency web site
(http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/) provides details on how to send in your claim
within a year of your trip.
On tipping - Provincial sales tax (PST) in Ontario is eight percent, and the
Goods and Services Tax (GST) is seven percent, so restaurant taxes will
total 15 percent, not including alcohol. Customary tipping in Ontario is
also 15 percent, so one of the very few benefits of a high tax rate is that
it is easy to calculate the amount you need to tip at a restaurant—just add
up the two taxes.
One relatively new tourist attraction (that you may not find in a guidebook
if it is more than a few years old) is the historic Distillery district.
Once the home of the Gooderham & Worts distillery established in 1832, it’s
been newly renovated as a pedestrian-only village entirely dedicated to
arts, culture and entertainment. More details can be found at
http://www.thedistillerydistrict.com/
Well that’s it for me and my columns for this year. I’d like to welcome
Marcia Rodney as the incoming Aerospace Section Chair for 2005-2006. Hope
to see you all at the conference!
