What’s with the icicles?

I’m Canadian.

The photo was taken on Christmas Day, 2013, after a massive ice storm in Toronto. There was a rapid buildup of ice on the trees combined with a howling wind, causing the destruction of trees all over the city. Some foolish philosopher went out for a walk just to see, and wound up scurrying home after only a picture or two (including this one). The sound of branches shattering in an ice storm is the Canadian version of a siren’s song: mesmerizing, but yikes once you realize what’s actually happening around you. Josiah Royce cheekily asserted that ‘Flat lands produce flat minds’. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out what Canadian weather does to our intellectual climes.