Author: Dan Dickinson

That fresh-from-the-dentist's-needle feeling

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I guess I should have known this was coming: when Nellie was sick for five days, many of which were spent lying in bed and/or not going to work, it was only a matter of time before I got hit too. I felt it coming Thursday, started sneezing yesterday but managed to get through dinner at Fieramosca last night, and then finally got punched in the head this morning. Now I’m rifling through Kleenex and sucking cough drops that are making my entire tongue & mouth numb. Summer colds suck.

Luckily I don’t have that much to do today…maybe this is a good excuse to watch some of the movies clogging up the PVR.

[tags]summer cold[/tags]

Metrocide

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This week Torontoist is running a great series of posts about murder statistics in Toronto. Much needed, in my opinion, given the attention-starved headline on the latest issue of Toronto Life with a cover story light on data. The Torontoist series (researched and written by David Topping) has featured simple but helpful stats, much more helpful in identifying an actual trend than listing victim stories.

On Tuesday the data showed number of homicides, homicide rate and homicides versus traffic fatalities. Side note: what happened after 2002 to cut traffic fatalities nearly in half over five years?

On Wednesday the focus was central Toronto, as well as the downtown core, showing just how few homicides occur here — despite what media reports might suggest — compared to the rest of the city and the GTA.

On Thursday Toronto was lined up against other Canadian cities (Toronto has a lower homicide rate than Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Trois-Rivieres, Regina, Sudbury and Vancouver; its rate is the same rate as Saint John and just higher than Halifax) and North American cities, against which it barely registers:

Toronto’s numbers absolutely pale in comparison to American cities. Its metropolitan homicide rate in 2006 was lower than every American city with a population above 500,000 (charted above). And of the seventy-two American cities with populations over 250,000, Toronto’s 2006 metropolitan homicide rate (1.8 per 100,000) was lower than every other city except for Plano, Texas—the wealthiest city in the United States—which had a homicide rate of 1.6 per 100,000.

There’s far more information, nuance and source reference in the full articles, so I urge you to check them out. The commenters registered the the usual complaints — why all this analysis? more than zero is too many — with which Topping agrees, but data and information like this is crucial in addressing problems accurately in a rational way, rather than emotionally. Don’t get me wrong, emotion has a place in fighting violence, but it has to be tempered with reason. Topping and Torontoist have done a great job of that this week.

[tags]torontoist, david topping, toronto life, gun violence, toronto, homicide rate[/tags]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging…

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I have nothing important to say, other than to report that I am basking in the fleeting euphoria of having hit the ‘submit’ button on my term paper tonight. I am not particularly proud of it, but I feel good that was able to get it done under some ugly time contraints…and with 72 hours to spare, no less.

I now have 3 nights of reading, followed by a night off, followed by three nights of working on my very last assignment MBA ever, then a visit from KG, then a 5-day trip, then a holiday, then four nights of finishing off the last assignment, then three days to read the final preparatory cases, then three days of nothing (!) followed by my last intensive & exam ever…at which point I am done. And if it seems depressing that I have every day allocated like that, believe me when I say it’s even worse from this side. I’ve been living like this since June 20, and it’s going to last until the middle of September.

But then…oh ho ho, look out, general populace. You are not ready for the kind of shenanigans I will get up to with free time on my hands. It’ll be like Cat Thunderdome up in here.

[tags]mba[/tags]

"Godfather can't tell the general we don't do windows."

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Today was a good day. I finished writing my paper (just needs a final read-through and a second set of eyes), took care of some other little things, got a little work done and managed to keep the place in order while Nellie tried to sleep off a cold that’s knocked the wind out of her. Even got some school shit taken care of that I didn’t plan to complete until tomorrow night, so I’m a little ahead of schedule.

33 days left. Not done yet, but I can see the finish line.

.:.

We watched the second episode of the new HBO series Generation Kill tonight. It’s good so far, kind of what I think Band of Brothers would have been like if it were about a different generation and a different war. Still, there’s a lot that’s similar: logistical problems, incompetent officers, and so on…and that makes for good TV. But like my friend Stephen said, I’ll watch anything made by David Simon and/or Ed Burns now.

[tags]mba, generation kill[/tags]

This is our house.

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Today we went to our first Toronto FC game down at BMO Field. The weather called for showers and possibly even thunder & lightning, so we fully expected to get wet. I also expected to see a win, since FC were playing the expansion San Jose Earthquakes.

We took a streetcar packed with red-clad fans down to the exhibition grounds and found our seats; good view of the field, right in the middle, good sightlines. Last time I was there (for a non-FC game) I was on the other side, so it was good to get the other angle. We were in one of the calmer sections, far from the likes of the Red Patch Boys, U-Sector and North End Elite.

The game itself ended in a 0-0 draw, a disappointing result for Toronto. San Jose (more often than not described as “lowly”) mustered only a few moments of offense, so the game was Toronto’s for the taking…they just couldn’t find any scoring touch. Several failed runs, lots of crosses sailing right through the box with no one to put a head to it, even a missed penalty…nothing went right. The crowd was pretty vocal about their disappointment. It’s hard to watch your team struggle like that. They were also pretty vocal about the officiating, which was…questionable.

We lucked out with the weather. It never did rain, beyond a few sprinkles here and there…not enough to really get wet. And it didn’t get too hot either; when the sun finally broke through, the breeze from the lake kept it tolerable. A few minutes after we got home it really started to pour…glad it held off.

Pretty fun time, all in all. We have tickets for one more game in September, after the MBA is done and the film festival is over. I look forward to not having any pressing deadline on a Saturday afternoon other than getting to the soccer pitch on before the first goal.

[tags]toronto fc, san jose earthquakes[/tags]

Aw Come Aw Wry

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Whilst taking a break from writing my term paper I put together a little CD for my dad. I’ll bring it to him when I’m back in Nova Scotia in a couple of weeks.

  1. Barry Louis Polisar . “All I Want Is You”
  2. Black Keys . “Keep Me”
  3. Phosphorescent . “Aw Come Aw Wry”
  4. Neko Case . “Poor Ellen Smith”
  5. Track A Tiger . “Sound As Ever”
  6. Pixies . “Here Comes Your Man”
  7. Long Winters . “Cinnamon”
  8. Cat Power . “Song To Bobby”
  9. Avett Brothers . “Go To Sleep”
  10. Great Lake Swimmers . “Put There By The Land”
  11. Arthur & Yu . “1000 Words”
  12. Carrie Biell . “Don’t You Blame Me”
  13. Tallest Man On Earth . “Walk The Line”
  14. Band Of Horses . “Lamb On The Lam”
  15. Bonnie Prince Billy . “Master And Everyone”
  16. Blue Mountain . “Banks Of The Pontchartrain”
  17. Jose Gonzalez . “Heartbeats”
  18. Camera Obscura . “Razzle Dazzle Rose”

As with CDs I’ve made for him before, I expect him to love some and hate others. The Pixies and Camera Obscura might be wishful thinking, I grant you, but he’ll dig the Barry Louis Polisar…which happens to be the title song from Juno, so he’ll be cool without even knowing it.

[tags]mixed cd, music for my dad[/tags]

Well, there goes the neighbourhood

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Torontoist is reporting that an Ikea (of sorts) is opening on King Street East, just around the corner. Actually, I can see it from here. Seriously, right from where I’m sitting.

King Street East is known for its high-end furniture retailers like Roche Bobois and UpCountry, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see the logo for everyone’s guilty pleasure, IKEA, on a classy King Street storefront.

Torontoist reader Sofi Papamarko asked us to investigate this mysterious downtown presence of the eco-conscious Swedish giant, suggesting that it could be an office furniture location or a boutique IKEA (similar to the Leon’s planned for the Roundhouse or the downscaled Brick store at College Park). The windows at 143 King Street tease a date of July 31, 2008—which curiously is the same day that IKEA releases their annual catalogue.

“It’s not a store,” a rep for the company told Torontoist, “but it is a place where customers can check out products from the 2009 catalogue.”

But will they have the cheap breakfasts?

Also up for betting: Sam Javanrouh bikes past there every day; how long before he posts a picture on Daily Dose of Imagery?

[tags]ikea, king street, sam javanrouh, daily dose of imagery[/tags]