This is my favourite of all the photographs at the online Toronto Archives.

So many elements combine here:

• The people perfectly — dare I even say it — posed.

• The car (it had to be a taxi) seemingly poised to pull away.

• The attended newspaper box representing lost — and never to return — street furniture.

• Two of vintage Toronto's most ubiquitous businesses (Secord, United Cigars).

• The perfect period 'players' as if in a movie scene, and their accoutrements. The news 'boy' alert to the activities around him. His cap and and his changemaking apron. The headscarfed (don't see those anymore( woman cyclist poised to mount and ride off. Her conversation companion with rakishly pushed back cap...

...all combine to make a charming historical tableau vivant.

It's late afternoon judging from the shadows, and Toronto of May 14, 1951 has finished another Day in the Life.

Now. May 2013.

Ha. I spent a good hour standing here before the call of nature (for me that would be a caffeine fix) prevented me from staying longer to capture a modern scene of remotely equivalent charm. I do reserve the right to return with a remotely better picture.

I'm going to take some time off from our thread.

Don't worry, I'm not mad at anyone at UT or anything about UT and I'm not starting my own Then and Now blog or going to another site to post pictures. It's such a nice online community here.

I'm helping a family member get a business off the ground. I will post occasionally in the future when things are settled.

—Moose