“Young people today are able to cope with and process more information and attend to more sources of new information and knowledge than any other generation,” said Vaccarino. But being constantly inundated with information from our smartphones, tablets and laptops makes it even more important to take the time to stop and think.

Vaccarino compared this deluge of data to a river flowing with new ideas and knowledge. “We need to think faster” to process this information while considering its long-term impact. U of G teaches students how to engage in both reactive and reflective thinking to improve life for themselves, their community and their world.

The University graduated more than 1,000 students during winter convocation ceremonies in February. Six ceremonies were held over two days at War Memorial Hall. –SUSAN BUBAK

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But in another way, those gourmet potatoes in your supermarket or on your restaurant dinner plate might owe something to that popular named variety developed a half-century ago at the University of Guelph.

Even just naming a potato suggested that “it was special, it tasted better than the average potato,” says Vanessa Currie, a plant agriculture technician. “It opened the door for the idea of the potato going from just being a potato with no name to something special.”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the potato bred by Gary Johnston at U of G. In 1966, two years after the University’s establishment, Johnston bred Yukon Gold, which reached Canadian growers in 1981.

Johnston, a graduate of the Ontario Agricultural College, died in 2000, but his idea — a potato with a name — lives on.

Earlier, a potato was just a potato. “It was sustenance,” says Currie. “Potatoes were something people ate every day.”

After the Second World War, new immigrants arrived in Canada from Europe, particularly Belgium and the Netherlands. They brought with them different tastes.

Currie says Johnston worked to accommodate those changing tastes. In the mid-1900s, that idea was a bit revolutionary.

Today consumers can still buy an ordinary 4.5-kilogram bag of generic potatoes for two dollars. But you can also buy a premium bag weighing a third as much for more than twice the price.

And many of those new potatoes are marketed with monikers that sound more like something in the beauty products aisle rather than the produce aisle.

Referring to a variety sold by one supermarket chain, Currie says, “They wouldn’t have gotten to Strawberry Blonde without Yukon Gold in between. A generation of consumers has grown up thinking of Yukon Gold. Now the bar is raised.” –ANDREW VOWLES

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Portico wanted to get in on the fun, so we asked Rotsztain to draw U of G’s McLaughlin Library, which he likes because of its “quiet bustle” and the delicate balance expressed in its architecture: “A brutalist concrete structure that nevertheless lets in lots of light.”

Just like Rotsztain’s collection, we’re also presenting it to you as a colouring page — tear it out (or download the image), dig out your favourite pencil crayons and take some time to be creative this summer. We’d love to see your finished creation — email or tweet us a picture (@porticomag) and we’ll share it online.

–STACEY MORRISON

To view all of Rotsztain’s library illustrations, visit allthelibraries.ca

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Arrayed on glass shelves, dozens of bell jars display unusual delicacies and associated paraphernalia collected by the U of G researcher from five continents over the past two decades.

On his office shelves are Kopi Luwak coffee beans harvested from an Indonesian civet cat’s feces to make the world’s most expensive java, selling for $600 a pound. He also has argan nuts excreted by tree-climbing goats in Morocco and pressed to yield salad dressing oil. Elsewhere are ant eggs, putrefied shark meat, Italian cheese made using maggots and morel mushrooms hunted in North American forests.

Marcone, a three-time Guelph grad, has used his biochemistry background to probe these foods’ contents, including how coffee beans change inside the civet’s digestive tract. He wrote about the allure and science of world delicacies in his books In Bad Taste? (2007) and Acquired Tastes (2010).

$3,600: Highest price Marcone has paid for a single antique light bulb — it’s the bulb used as an exhibit in a court case won by Thomas Edison over patent infringement.

Also in Marcone’s cabinet of curiosities are hundreds of antique light bulbs, including a collection of carbon-filament lamps made between 1885 and 1910. One private collector says Marcone’s bulb collection might be worth up to $50,000.

Flicking a switch, he turns a wall cabinet of bulbs aglow. “I’m working in light that goes back 130 years,” says Marcone, who started his collection about 20 years ago.

The collection is partly a nod to the perseverance of Thomas Edison, inventor of the first long-lasting light bulb in 1879. “Without his invention, I would be working in the office with a candle or lantern. It’s pushed us forward by light years.”

– ANDREW VOWLES

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As the city’s 2015 artist-in-residence, Denton was commissioned to complete a public art project marking the centennial of the writing of In Flanders Fields by Guelph poet John McCrae.

For “100 Portraits/100 Poppies: Sitting in Remembrance,” Denton, an instructor in U of G’s School of Fine Art and Music, painted portraits of local military personnel, veterans and cadets, as well as people affected by war or inspired by the century-old poem. Each subject is in uniform where applicable, and wearing a poppy.

Lining up 100 portrait sittings over two months this past summer was the easy part, although a few appointments had to be rescheduled, including a sitting for one war veteran who underwent heart surgery.

Besides the exhausting daily regimen, painting in various public locations across the city also saw the artist contending with fickle outdoor light, over-inquisitive passersby and other distractions. Despite the challenges, Denton found the experience deeply rewarding.

“I thrived on the stress and frenzy, and the immediacy of public feedback, participation and engagement made it an overwhelmingly positive experience,” he says.

By early September, Denton completed the array of works for a pop-up storefront display at Guelph’s Market Commons with portrait No. 100: Second World War veteran and former U of G president William “Bill” Winegard, pictured here.
–ANDREW VOWLES

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