Sounds Like Ottawa

A fun thing to do late at night (wandering home from a pub, perhaps) is to walk through the sound sculpture called V.I.P. on the grounds of the new Ottawa City hall (110 Laurier Ave. W.), on the walkway from Laurier running between the two buildings. Designed like a kind of walk-in theremin, the piece is activated by
motion, and plays a range of sound depending on where you stand and what you do between them (the city seems only to turn it off as winter approaches). Currently owned by the City of Ottawa, the piece was made by Michael Bussiere in 1994.

Ottawa—Not the World’s Coldest

Despite Canada’s meteorological reputation, Ottawa is not the world’s coldest capital. Though it did reach -38.9°C (-38.0°F) on December 29, 1933, this is only the second coldest temperature recorded in a world capital, after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, which has an average annual temperature of -1.3°C (29.6F°). Otherwise, Ottawa’s annual average of 5.5°C (41.9°F) ranks it the seventh coldest world capital city, but third by mean January temperature, after Ulaanbaatar and Astana, Kazakhstan. This is why I spend most of January and February indoors.

Ottawa Inventors

Inspired by the CBC-TV program The Greatest Canadian Inventions, we thought we’d present a list of a few of the great concepts devised by some of Ottawa’s citizenry.

Green Genius

University of Ottawa professor and chemist Dr Abdelhamid Sayari and his research team spent three years developing a material that can absorb carbon dioxide contained in various industrial gases and prevent it from being released into the atmosphere, thus reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global climate change.

Keeping Up the Pace

Dr John Alexander Hopps—originally from Winnipeg but a resident of Ottawa for many Years—is known internationally as the inventor of the world’s first heart pacemaker, introduced in 1951. In collaboration with Dr Wilfred Bigelow and Dr John Callaghan as part of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), he spent most of his career at the Montreal Road branch of the NRC. Their creation was first implanted in a human body in 1958. Poignantly, the very device Dr Hopps had developed was implanted in his own chest 30 years after its invention to correct his erratic heartbeat.

R-r-r-roll up the R-r-r-rim

After three years of developing a different invention, Ottawa inventor Paul Kind introduced his “Rimroller,” created to cleanly slice and unroll a Tim Hortons coffee cup rim in one motion, thus giving coffee drinkers easy access to the coffee chain’s promotional give-a-ways (the notifications are hidden under the cup rim, which can be difficult to unroll). Considering that Tim Hortons sells in the area of 300 million take-out cups of coffee a year, the invention is not nearly as foolish as it may seem. With the help of L-D Tool & Die in nearby Stittsville, the Rimroller became a reality in 2006 and is available at Lee Valley Tools, and at $1.95, is just a bit more than the price of a cup of coffee. This is not the only creation from the fertile mind of Mr Kind. He also invented the Handyfold, to perfectly fold letters to fit into envelopes, and the Bookhug, to hold your book open for you while you read.

Ottawa Clairvoyants

You’d think a really good psychic wouldn’t need to be called; she should just know to call you. In case that doesn’t happen, make an appointment with palm and tarot card reader psychic Diana (who describes herself as a “European gifted fortune teller and spiritual healer”) to find out about the rest of your life.
235-9697 or 521-2424

Low Self-esteem, Ottawa?

Clearly, Ottawa needs to come to terms with its self-image. When UK poet Jem Rolls performs, he likes to poll his audiences on their “favourite” and “least favourite” cities. At the 2004 Fringe Festival in Ottawa, the audience’s least favourite city was: Ottawa. According to Rolls, it was the first time an audience considered its hometown the worst.

Fifth Avenue Court, Convent Sun Dials, Pubs

At the corner of Sussex Drive and Bruyère Street, on the Mother House of the Grey Nuns of the Cross (the current Elizabeth Bruyère Health Centre), check out the sundials just overhead. Erected in 1851 (at just about the second-storey line at the corner), the vertical sundials were designed by Père Allard, geometry teacher to the nuns.

A Hidden Retreat

Even though it earned an award for excellence for the developers who created it in 1980, the Fifth Avenue Court at Bank Street and Fifth Avenue is almost completely empty most of the time. It’s a quiet place with indoor patios for the businesses that surround the fountain and courtyard, including the British-style pub, the Arrow & the Loon. They’ve been known to host the National Arts Centre Orchestra in their courtyard from time to time.

Ottawa Cemetaries

The most famous eternal resting place in Ottawa is Beechwood Cemetery (280 Beechwood Ave., 741-9530). Established in 1873 as a Protestant counterpart to nearby Notre Dame cemetery, Beechwood is a National Historic Site, and only one of four cemeteries in the country to be designated as such. Have a look at the sections where veterans from the Northwest Rebellion (1885), World War II, and recent United Nations campaigns rest in peace. Also interred here are our eighth prime minister (and the handsome fellow on our $100 bill), Sir Robert Borden (1854-1937); the father of Canada’s Medicare system, Tommy Douglas (1904-1986); the inventor of standard time, Sir Sandford Fleming (1827-1915); Ottawa lumber baron J. R. Booth (1827-1925); the Saskatchewan poet John Newlove (1938-2003); and Confederation poet Archibald Lampman (1861-1899). Lampman even wrote a poem that suits this place:

Here the dead sleep, the quiet dead. No sound disturbs them ever, and no storm dismays.

Meanwhile, Pinecrest Cemetery (2500 Baseline Rd., 829-3600) is a veritable hockey hall of fame. Some notable skaters spending their eternal off-season here include: Boston Bruins’ left winger Arthur Gordon Bruce (1919-1997), former Bruins and Ottawa Senators players Harry Alexander Connor (1904-1947), Cyril Joseph “Cy” Denneny (1891-1970), one of the top-scoring left wings of his era (when he retired, he was the top goal getter in the history of the Ottawa Senators), and Senators players Erskine Rockcliffe Ronan (1889-1937), Gerald Edmund Shannon (1910-1983), Allan “Big Pete” Shields (1906-1975) (who won the Stanley Cup with the Montreal Maroons in 1934-5), and Alexander “Boots”
Smith (1902-1963).

The most prominent Catholic cemetery in the city is Notre Dame Cemetery (455 Montreal Rd.), the final resting place of hockey greats Alex Connell (1902-1958), Tommy Smith (1885?1966), and Aurel Joliat (1901-1986), as well as photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002), World War I hero (awarded the Victoria Cross) Filip Konowal (1886-1959), statesman Louis-Felix Pinault (1852-1906), and Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier (1841-1919), along with his wife Zoé.

Birth of the Mulligan

A “Mulligan” is a golf term that refers to a “do-over,” or free shot to substitute for a mistake. But who was the original “Mulligan,” the lax linksman who gave the shot its name?

Turns out it was David Bernard Mulligan, who during the 1920s ran the Lord Elgin Hotel on Elgin Street for a while before moving to the United States. Originally born in Pembroke, Ontario, Mulligan was a member of a number of clubs, including the St Lambert Country Club in Quebec. A real comedian, he insisted on repeating failed swings during his games, and for whatever reason, he not only got away with it, it also became a running joke.

Pestalozzi College: The People’s University

Looking at the unassuming apartment complex now, who would’ve known that a college once existed here at 160 Chapel Street? Known as the “People’s University,” Pestalozzi College was a student-run cooperative residence that existed in the late 1960s and into the 70s as a free-thinking, open-concept school, based on the model of Toronto’s infamous student-run Rochdale College. Some of the extracurricular activities that occurred in the building included literary readings and the Ontario Provincial Gay Liberation Conference in 1973 as well as Ottawa’s first public gay dance, hosted by GO (Gays of Ottawa, who also had their headquarters there). Existing as an alternative school, the entire building was a strange mix of open education, residence, and “free love and good drugs” that eventually fell apart in much the same way that Rochdale did. By the late 1970s, both school and building existed as a community centre of sorts, offering facilities for artists’ studios and yoga classes before the entire building (with very little notice) was converted by its owners into an apartment complex, Horizon Towers. A holdover from the Pestalozzi days, the Sitar Indian Restaurant on the ground floor still exists (417 Rideau St., 789-7979).

Thomas Fuller: Architect of Parliament

Born in Bath, England, Thomas Fuller was trained in the office of architect James Wilson and was, by his twenties, the designer of the Anglican cathedral in Antigua in the West Indies. By 1855, he had his own firm and designed the town hall at Bradford-on-Avon. Soon after, he won the competition to design the new Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. He later became Chief Architect to the Dominion of Canada, designing hundreds of buildings in Canada and the United States, including the New York State Capitol in Albany, the San Francisco City Hall, and the All Saints’ Anglican Church at 347 Richmond Road (built in 1865). Fuller died in 1898 and was returned to his family in Ottawa (he was buried in Beechwood Cemetery), where some of his descendants run one of the city’s leading construction firms, Thomas Fuller Construction.