Well, I’m back from my time off from blogging. It’s been quite interesting. Went out for lunch recently, something quiet, something good to nosh on, a time to relax and let the mind go blank. But then a young woman came breezing in and plunked herself down at the table beside me, opposite a very patient man. He’d been waiting about the time it took me to order, get my meal, make serious inroads into it, and watch him finally order a bowl of soup. He quickly ordered a main. She was talking through her own soup when his steaming hot lunch arrived. She stopped waving her spoon around and dove it into the end of his loaf, the end closest to her, and said, “This looks so good, you don’t mind if I try some.” Now, what’s a guy to do? He was gracious and said, “Go ahead.” I wonder if he just didn’t care about her slobbered-on spoon desecrating his meal or decided to eat up to but not that portion of his loaf. I left before I discovered the answer to my question.

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Sitting semi-comatose on the subway train, waiting in the station for who knows what reason, I stared mindlessly out the open train doors. Into view scurried a little hump-backed, deep brown-furred creature with a thin, long tail. Blink. Pause. Blink, blink, blink. The hallucination didn’t disappear. Instead it sniffed between the raised yellow circles on the yellow warning band that edges the subway platform, and it went hither and thither on the trail of crumbs and kleenex bits dropped by your typical TTC patron. I sat up. Was it coming closer? Nope. It swooped away from the doors and scurried out of view. The chimes sounded, the doors closed, and I had no photo of this first-in-a-lifetime event. (Acutally it’s the third rat sighting I’ve had late this year, and I don’t think I’ve seen 3 in all the decades before that.) The shock made me forget all about getting a photo! It even struck me dumb. And I became rather nervous when I had to leave the train, looking hard to the floor to the left and right of me. I should’ve shouted, “RAT!”

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The Toronto Maple Losers, um, Leafs have apparently become a hot topic. I’ve long since grown bored with the Leafs. They never win, they never even look like they’re going to win, and their owners clearly don’t care as they’re raking in the cash in bumps and hikes of millions and millions. At least in Harold Ballard’s day, his antics and controversies — which makes today’s look like so much milky mush — overshadowed their perennial losing and kept us amused. Now the faceless corporate entities don’t even do that. They just hide in their counting house, ca-chinging the money flowing in. Rats!

The smog yesterday was awful. It wasn’t just its texture and taste, it was the immediate and unpleasant effect on my lungs. Later, sitting indoors, watching the news, my lungs not feeling squeezed anymore, I started thinking about the usual warning all media give out on smoggy days, about how our leaders urge people with asthma and respiratory diseases to stay indoors. That’s prudent advice, but why are our leaders content to simply give out that warning and not take action to eliminate smog? Throught their lack of effective action, they seem uncaring of the effect smoggy air has on the lives of a whole group of people.
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photo by Carl Weaver

My wife and I were walking with some friends down at the Leslie Spit and came across this sign. Why were we there? Simply because we had heard of it and knew nothing about it. Take my word on this - no need to go exploring down there.

It’s a post-industrial wasteland. It’s what Taylor would have seen around the bend at the end of “Planet of the Apes,” had the cameras bothered to follow him there. And if it were a true story. As it is, the movie is only a prophecy. Granted, the Spit is being overgrown by trees and brush, which will make it a much nicer place, but it still has that wasteland look to it.

What does this sign mean? It is a relatively flat section of land until you get to the shore, where there is a drop off. Even more curious is that we found the sign coming back toward our car after walking a bit, so it wasn’t a warning for the drop-off into the lake.

Have you seen this before? Come on, Toronto - help me out here!

seems like pakistan isn’t the only place where freedom of the press is an issue. the ugliness of it has come across to canadian borders where thugs and morons combine their brains to do stupid shit like this. it’s shameful to see this come over here. at times like this i don’t even blame people for stereotyping us pakistani’s, because admittedly such ignorance and idiocy is not helping us out.

Journalist Jawaad Faizi says he can still feel broken glass showering over him in his car as he fended off blows from a cricket bat in a surprise attack he blames on “religious fanatics.”

A writer for the Pakistan Post, Faizi said he was beaten by three men because he mocked a Pakistani cleric in a column.

Faizi said the men smashed the windshield and driver’s window of his car as he arrived at his editor’s home about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday. He said he was struck by the cricket bat and was cut on his forearm.

“They were smashing and smashing, hitting and hitting,” Faizi said. “I could not stop them.”

Faizi said both he and his editor, Amir Arain, recently received phone calls warning them to stop writing defamatory articles about the religious group Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran and its leader, Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri.

Faizi said he wrote a column two weeks ago mocking the cleric, who he said told a gathering in Pakistan “that he could write the name of Mohammed on the moon with his finger.”

Keep reading. Thanks Hugh.

So here we are 103 years later to the day, April 19, 2007. In a previous post I posted a “years ago today” post regarding the fire that struck Toronto (or York as it was known back then) in 1854. That fire was a big one for its time, but another fifty years later Toronto would ignite again in of the worst fires the country had ever seen, The Great Fire of 1904. What burned down? Basically the whole downtown core, mainly today’s Financial District, York Street over to Yonge and from Front up to Queen was ground zero. Mayor Thomas Urqhart was given warnings from the Fire Chief weeks before that a great fire is almost definite due to the lack of funding the fire department was receiving. Funding pleas were ignored and soon enough the city was in flames.

The fire started around 8pm on April 19th, 1904 and burned right through the night. Help was called in from Buffalo but it was too late. By the morning the heart of the was nothing more than rubble.

How did the city rebuild? Well, the area which burned to the ground is now the country’s economic engine. Amazing! When ever the Toronto seems fall it always gets back up.

More info regarding the Toronto’s Great Fire of 1904:

Toronto Archives, 1904 Fire
Ontario Archives, 1904 Fire
Wikipedia, 1904 Fire
Toronto Before, 1904 FireMap of effected area

Photo: Ontario Archives (I0006700), Reference Code: F 2178-1-0-22, S 5198

I saw a news item the other day on how Grenadier Pond has not been inspected for ice thickness since the time of amalgamation. Before then, the city regularly drilled holes in the ice to assess it for skating safety and open it to skaters when safe to do so. But one councillor justified the change in rules by claiming it would be too expensive to drill regularly (why wasn’t it before?) and open the city to liability if someone fell through the ice (and why wasn’t that an issue before amalgamation)? Bureaucrats and lawyers once again make decisions for all of us based on rules, not on real human behaviour, common sense, and urban quality of life.

Fortunately, one councillor, Paula Fletcher sees the need for regular inspections so as to open up the Pond once again to skaters, officially. After all, people are out there skating and playing hockey despite the flimsy and permanent “no skating” sign beside the Pond and the stern bold letters on its website. It’s Toronto’s civic duty to ensure that those skaters are on safe ice, not to run and hide cause the lawyers are clanging the warning bells. Besides which, because of the weather, we’re increasingly skating on outdoor hockey rinks or indoors in arenas and becoming separated from our natural environment. Even the in-between arena and pond ice of local park rinks are extinct. If Ottawa can open the Rideau Canal and have a winter festival on it, why can’t Toronto open Grenadier Pond to those Torontonians who want to skate in the fresh air, on nature’s ice, away from the artificiality of our city?

I guess that besides the Guardian Angels some others are laying down the law too…

Taken in the Cloud Forest walkway west of Yonge, south of Queen.

*WARNING*

The group ATSA (Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable) have announced that the launch of their attack (#12) against Toronto will be carried out on Friday, February 3rd.

The public is invited…
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A look ahead for the next few days in Toronto courtesy Environment Canada.

Warnings
City of Toronto
4:33 AM EST Thursday 15 December 2005
Snowfall warning for City of Toronto continued

Snowfall amounts of 15 centimetres west of Toronto today to 30 centimetres over areas adjacent to eastern Lake Ontario and St Lawrence Valley by Friday evening.

A Major winter storm with the centre over western end of Lake Superior this morning is expected to bring heavy snowfall to regions just north of the lower Great Lakes and St Lawrence Valley. The heavy snowfall is expected to start over Windsor and Sarnia regions later this morning reaching Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe area by this evening then spread farther eastward to Cornwall Morrisburg area overnight. Snowfall amounts will vary from the 15 centimetres mark over the western sections of the warning area to 20-30 centimetres over the east. In addition there is a risk of freezing rain near the shore of Lake Erie today.

Snow will end overnight over the southwest..Friday afternoon over Toronto area and move out of eastern sections by Friday evening.

Snowfall warning in effect.

Today
Cloudy. 40 percent chance of flurries this morning. Snow beginning near noon. Amount 2 to 4 cm. Wind southeast 20 km/h except 30 gusting to 50 near Lake Ontario. High zero.
Tonight
Snow at times heavy. Amount 15 cm. Wind east 30 km/h except 30 gusting to 50 near Lake Ontario. Low minus 4.
Friday
Snow ending in the morning then cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries. Amount 2 cm. Wind east 30 km/h except 30 gusting to 50 near Lake Ontario in the morning. Wind becoming west 20 early in the afternoon. High minus 1.
Saturday
Cloudy with 40 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 6. High minus 2.
Sunday
A mix of sun and cloud. Low minus 9. High minus 3.
Monday
Cloudy with 40 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 11. High minus 4.

STAY WARM AND DRIVE SAFE!

Yesterday a woeful East Asian collegue of mine told me about the Bean Sprout issue currently unfolding in Ontario. Bean sprouts can possibily be tainted with salmonella, a bacteria which could potentially be fatal for the young, elderly or people with poor immunity. Personally I always thought it was restricted to poultry and eggs. My mom used to discourage eating raw cake batter because of the raw eggs. But eitherways according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency the situation is bad enough to warrent a public warning against the consumption of sprouts. According to The Globe and Mail around 379 people have already suffered from bean sprout related poisoning.

So from what I hear Toronto is planning to do away with this item completely at some point or at least for the moment many sprout loving people are finding it hard to procure said item. How many of the people who read this blog have actually eaten bean sprouts? Other than ones used for only decorative purposes?