Category: Toronto

PeanutAllergy Inc.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

If the Globe and Mail weren’t such dicks about their online content, you could read this interesting article by Russell Smith about the recent spate of anti-religion books, Christopher Hitchens’ (which I talked about here) being the latest. Smith made the point that, even if it’s not dressed up as a cult/religion, slavish devotion is still hard to take. He even comments about how allergies that never used to exist suddenly afflict half the population: his example was half the population of Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood claiming to be allergic to wheat gluten; I’d suggest that the current generation of children all seemingly being allergic to peanuts is another good one.

Update from the comments: Joe dropped this great quote from the recent Lou Dobbs interview with Hitchens: “Religion ends and philosophy begins, just as alchemy ends and chemistry begins and astrology ends, and astronomy begins.”

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Google Analytics has revamped their reporting engine. Holy crap. Magnifique. I’ll never use StatCounter again.

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Walking home from the grocery store tonight we noticed that a bakery is going in on the ground floor. Sweet. Dangerous, but sweet.

[tags]globe and mail, russell smith, christopher hitchens, google analytics, bakery[/tags]

Down swingin'

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It was a great game last night, but the Raptors lost to the Nets, and fell out of the playoffs. The Raptors played about as well as they could, on the road in an arena they haven’t won in all year, with two busted-up point guards, but in the end came up just short. And I mean that literally; if Jose Calderon had gotten his entry pass to Bosh just six inches higher, Bosh would’ve had an uncontested dunk to win the game. Alas, ’twas not to be. At least there was no sense than Vince Carter knocked the Raptors out of the playoffs; apart from a few hard drives to the rack in the 4th quarter, Carter was pretty much an empty shirt.

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I woke up early this morning (or rather, was woken up by furry beasties) so I saw the sunrise. I’m still getting used to how amazing it looks in the morning; we have an unobstructed view (for now) to the east, so it’s a pretty pleasant way to wake up.

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We’re gonna go have some breakfast, run a few errands before coming home to do some more unpacking & setting up. It’s nice to be able to do that stuff, after a pretty crazy month.

Aaaaaand Sonny almost knocked the TV over just now when he attacked an in-flight golf ball that he saw on Sportscentre. I guess that could be an advertisement for Sharp.

[tags]raptors, nba playoffs, toronto sunrise[/tags]

Kinda-stranger in a slightly strange land

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Forgot to mention: just after I printed my exam (I was one of the few people who typed it, which I think led me to type twice as much as anyone else wrote) I walked back to the computer and closed MS Word…which promptly crashed the computer. Like, Blue Screen Of Death crash. Good thing I printed first. That would have been a suck.

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It feels good to be home. As soon as I got home I went and grabbed some lunch, and I realized it’s the first time since we moved that I had to chance to actually look at any of the new neighbourhood. I know it well enough so it’s not like things are a mystery,  but I like the idea of discovering all the shortcuts and back alleys and hidden spots. Now I’ve just gotta find some time…

[tags]blue screen of death, st. lawrence market, toronto neighbourhoods[/tags]

56.465%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The Raptors barely held on last night, sending the series back to New Jersey. After watching the first quarter, after which Toronto had a 20-point lead, I figured it would be walk. Instead, Toronto’s two point guards got injured and the Nets clawed back into it, missing their final shot of the game to let the Raps sneak out of the building with the win.

The problem now will be playing in New Jersey with, potentially, your two best point guards in street clothes.

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Nothing brings out the histrionics of Toronto city councillors and merchants like a proposed streetcar right-of-way. “Restaurant could go bankrupt”, Adam Vaughan? It’s a two month test! Drop the inflammatory statements and find some statistics.

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Christopher Hitchens and I have not always gotten along, but I think I need to buy his new book called God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

[tags]raptors, king street streetcar, toronto city council, christopher hitchens, god is not great[/tags]

16.181%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

No sooner do we move away from Hayden Street than a woman is found murdered (presumably) in a TTC stairway there. We walked by that stairwell every time we took the subway, as the exit’s just a few steps from our old place, but never actually took the stairs as homeless people camped out in there and it was usually pretty foul-smelling.

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Time Canada has an article about Porter, the airlines flying out of the Toronto Island airport. It doesn’t seem to be the best-researched article, but it caught my eye because we’re starting to consider Porter as an option. If we want to fly to Montreal, the prospect of a quick trip from our condo to the island airport is more attractive than the $50 cab ride and 90 minute wait involved in flying out of Pearson. And if Porter starts flying to Halifax (which they plan to do) and New York (which they’re applying to do), the idea gets even more attractive.

[via Spacing]

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OK, must brush teeth and head off to class. I think today we’re talking about teh internetz. I believe it is a series of tubes.

[tags]murder, hayden street, porter air, toronto island, city centre airport[/tags]

Let's all personally groom in a public place

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Tonight we saw the world premiere of Let’s All Hate Toronto (hot docs), a funny & quirky little documentary about Torontonians confusion as to why the rest of the country dislikes them. I read the blog kept by Rob Spence (aka Captain Canada) when he was travelling across the country holding Toronto Appreciation Days, much to the anger and dismay of Canadians everywhere. There was nothing groundbreaking or insightful about the documentary; it was just good fun.

Except for the really loud lady sitting behind us who, unless I’m mistaken, was cutting her fingernails during the film. Awesome.

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Why, why does our environment minister look just like Lester from Mississippi Burning? And why does he spout alarmist rhetoric like “meeting our Kyoto targets will put us in a recession”?

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All Quiet On The Western Front might be remade. It’s one of the few movies I’d look forward to a remake of…if it’s done right. All this talk about making it into a “big budget, sweeping Hollywood epic” smacks of Pearl Harbor, and nobody wants that.

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On the eve of the Toronto Raptor’s playoff series against New Jersey, I feel nervous. While confident that Toronto is the better team, should New Jersey pull off an upset, the psychological scarring that would result from losing to Vince Carter in the playoffs would be deep and long-lasting. Here’s hoping Bosh hangs a triple-double on them tomorrow, and that Kris Humphries or Joey Graham put sissyboy on his ass once or twice.

[tags]let’s all hate toronto, john baird, kyoto, recession, all quiet on the western front, toronto raptors, vince carter[/tags]

We have no room to stand, but we have a plan

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The apartment is now a disaster zone. It’s pretty small to begin with, so with all our possesions get crammed into piles of boxes — empty, unsorted, ready to go — it doesn’t leave much room for moving around. Duarte came by to get the printer tonight and I think he felt he’d stepped into early-90s Sarajevo. I’ve taken half the desk apart, all the bookcases have been emptied, the bathroom is all but cleaned out and the storage locker is bare, save for the electronics boxes. Tomorrow is the kitchen, Friday is clothing, Saturday is everything else, and Sunday is the electronics.

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Torontoist says: Happy Birthday, Camros (the organic food place across the street from me). If you live in the neighbourhood and vegan/organic is your cup of tea, you should give it a try. If it’s not but you like sweets, you should stop in and grab a brownie or a piece of carrot cake, courtesy of Sweets From The Earth. So good it hurts (eventually).

[tags]packing, moving, camros, sweets from the earth[/tags]

Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib

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We very stupidly bought tickets for a Hot Docs screening 36 hours before we move. I know, I know. We’re not the swiftest of cats sometimes. Anyhoo, we’re now selling those tickets so that we can stay home on Saturday night and pack our socks and frying pans. If anyone would like to buy our tickets (for a discount, natch) to the following screening please email me or leave a comment:

Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib (description)

Saturday April 21 @ 9:30

Bloor Cinema (Bloor & Bathurst) Isabel Bader Theatre (Charles & Bay)

Dang…I really wanted to see that one too. Any takers?

"Crack & hookers. That's how to keep reformed suburbanites out and prices low."

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Dropped off the paperwork & cheques at the lawyer’s office today, for which I expect we shall receive an impressive invoice. Monday we will have keys!

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I’m sorry…Ice Girls? Ice girls?!?!? Look, nobody deserves to get spit on, but…c’mon. There should be no bare midriffs on the ice.

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Great post on BlogTO about the shift, if only a slight one, toward Torontonians requiring less living space. Whether to save money or spare the environment, it seems like a few more people are foregoing the suburbs for the downtown.

The ever rising cost of housing in the city, along with increasing concern on how our lifestyle and choices affect the environment has got a lot of home buyers asking themselves, ‘how much space do I really need?’.

The National Post is running a three part series this week that examines the backlash against ‘living large’. People are coming back to the city by choice, and their leaving their white picket fences and second cars behind.

I’m of this mindset, obviously. For the last five years we’ve lived in a 650 square foot (it’s not like we have kids or a car to park) apartment downtown. My love for living downtown ruled out buying in the suburbs, and I never wanted to own a house (or a car) anyway. I grew up surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland, so living an hour from the city so that I could own a tiny patch of walled-in grass never appealed to me. We could’ve bought houses in mature, just-outside-the-core neighbourhoods like our friends CBGB and T-Bone did, I guess, but I like being right in the core…and I love my new view.

[tags]henrik lundqvist, blogto, toronto urbanation[/tags]