Upsilon Sigma Phi World Reunion
Upsilon Sigma Phi World Reunion |
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Did you know....
| Canadian Trivia |
| Toronto derives its name from the Huron word for “meeting place”. |
| Toronto is the 5 th largest city in North America after Mexico City, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. |
| Yonge Street is the longest street in the world. Construction began in 1795 and today, Yonge Street is the dividing line between east and west Toronto. |
| Marriott Hotel, venue of Otso Otso, is connected through a short walkway to the Eaton Centre, the biggest and most popular mall in Toronto. |
| The Rogers Centre( formerly known as The Skydome) stadium, site of baseball games and large celebrations, is the first retractable dome to be built over a ball park. Both the Roman Coliseum and St. Paul’s Cathedral could fit comfortably inside the Rogers Centre Stadium. |
| The Toronto Stock Exchange is the largest in Canada and is North America’s 3rd largest Stock Exchange by value traded. |
Toronto is frequently referred to as “Hollywood North”. It ranks third in North American TV and film production. |
| The CN Tower is the world’s tallest self-supporting tower. |
| There are 6 Chinatowns in greater Toronto. |
| Toronto is a multicultural city where more than 100 languages are spoken. |
Asian fruits abound in the various Chinatowns and Little Korea of Toronto. When in season, lanzones, mangoes, atis, sampaloc, durian, santol, mangosteen, chico and lanka can be purchased. |
There are over 140,000 Filipinos throughout metropolitan Toronto, over 77,000 claim |
The Philippines is the 3rd top ranking country of birth for immigrants in the City of Toronto. And you thought you were going to be homesick? |
| The province of Ontario derives its name from an Iroquois Indian word for “Shining Lake” or “Beautiful Waters”. |
| There is a castle in Toronto called Casa Loma which has one of the first private elevators in the world. Today, it is one of Toronto’s biggest tourist attractions. |
| Ontario has 250,000 lakes. More than 19% of Ontario’s surface area is water. |
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone while living in Brantford, Ontario. |
| The glass floor of the CN Tower’s observation deck can withstand the weight of 14 large hippos. |
| The underground railroad was a secret route abolitionists used to bring slaves in the United States to freedom. The final destination was Canada. |
| Canada officially adopted the dollar as its monetary unit in 1858. Dollar comes from the German word thaler (thal, meaning dale or valley) adopted from the Joachimsthaler, a coin minted in St. Joachim Valley in Bohemia in 1519. Over the years the spelling of thaler changed to daler and dalar and eventually to dollar. |
| Canada has hundreds of volcanoes but most of them are found in remote areas. |
| Harry Stranger, a reporter for The Montreal Gazette, was the first to break the story that the Titanic was sinking. |
| Ernest Hemingway was a reporter for the Toronto Star. |
| Sonia Bata has more shoes than Imelda. Sonia does have more shoes than Imelda and the Bata Shoe Museum, in Toronto, does the honors of polishing Sonia’s collection. For a view of what early Canadians wore as shoes go to www.batashoemuseum.ca. |
| Upsilonians and Sigma Deltans Trivia |
Brod Julius Torres ’72 is the Philippine Consul in Toronto. |
Sis Rubi Talavera ’65 is a newpaper guest columnist and broadcaster in the local Filipino media. |
The two biggest Philippine newspapers in Toronto are owned by Upsilonians. Brod Eddie Lee '53 owns Atin Ito and Brod Ruben Cusipag '57 owns Balita. |
| A Sigma Deltan inspired the song that goes: “People, people who need people…” Broadway composer/lyricist, Bob Merrill, was married to Dee Marquez when he wrote the song and lyrics for Funny Girl. In 1964, the show won the “Musical of the Year” award. It also made Barbra Streisand and the song famous. Dee Marquez is the cousin of Upsilonian Jake Marques (who spells his last name with an “s”). |