Category: Toronto

Long live the Thunder Pit

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I worked from home today, so I could see the “construction” workers milling around in the condo building site across the street. I’ve mentioned this hole before: my brother named it the Thunder Pit after some pipe bombs went off there, and I commented on how freaking long it’s taking to build. It’s now been 4.5 years since I visited the sales center, and the site is still just a hole in the ground. Oh, they make plenty of noise in there, and built pretty ramps into the pit, and weld lots of stuff…but there’s still no building there!

Our condo was sold, begun, built (all 45 floors) and is about to receive the first occupants, all in the same amount of time it’s taken these guys to square off the corners of the Thunder Pit. I feel better about our decision every time I look out my window.
[tags]bloor street neighbourhood, spire, condo construction[/tags]

56.41%

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I’m all stats-d out and it’s only Wednesday morning. I spent about 3 hours doing sample problems last night, and today should be pretty much the same thing, so…whee!

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What the hell are Cobra Boxes?!?

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This story bugs me:

A Toronto councillor has earned a powerful ally in his fight for a ban on panhandling in the city’s tourist areas.

Because where tourists come from they don’t have panhandlers? Because a tourist’s right to a beggar-free stroll from the Holiday Inn to Milestone’s trumps the beggar’s right to ask for change?

You want to make the entertainment district more tourist-friendly, Case Ootes? STOP THE MURDERS!! Also, keeping fratboys from puking on the street as they stumble out of clubs would probably help.

[tags]stats, cobra boxes, panhandlers[/tags]

"Because of this, she is not a real Seeing Eye bitch, and is also mentally deranged."

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The Onion A.V. Club sums up what’s wrong with 21st century game shows:

There’s something about Deal Or No Deal that’s more insidious than its molasses-pace and spotlit emptiness. Like 1 Vs. 100—like our culture, increasingly—it neither encourages nor rewards actual intelligence and talent. It rewards hope, self-regard, and blind persistence.

Idiocracy, here we come. Really, when you consider the success that game shows like Deal Or No Deal and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire have enjoyed recently, it’s a tribute to ABC that they’ve kept Jeopardy on the air for so long without dumbing it down.

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While the story about Toronto Transit Commission chair Adam Giambrone accepting a challenge to let the public make suggestions for the TTC website revamp was in all the Toronto blogs last week, it’s finally seeped into the mainstream media. This story makes my inner geek all warm and fuzzy. Congratulations to Robert Ouellette of Reading Toronto for getting something done, and well done Adam Giambrone.

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The Doha round of World Trade Organization talks may still have some life, though the clock (on President Bush’s “fast-track” authority, specifically) is ticking. Ultimately, this is a case where a lame-duck president could come in handy; if Bush were facing re-election in 2008 there’s absolutely no chance he’d cut $20 billion in farm subsidies.

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The Canadiens are now mired in what can only be called a slump. They’ve lost 3 straight, partly because of the flu bug that’s floored half the team, and partly because New Jersey just has their number. The Habs need to locate their scoring touch, and soon, because the Senators and the Rangers are turning on the jets.

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Last night we watched Everything Is Illuminated (imdb | rotten tomatoes), the movie adaptation of a book I read a few years back. I wondered how director Liev Schreiber would deal with the third, most fantastical storyline; it turns out he ignored it altogether. It was the right choice, if also the boring one; there was no good way to put that on the screen and still hold the other storyline(s) together, and yet that storyline was the only thing that made the book stand out from the rest of the story which had been told hundreds of times before. What remained in the film was good, but not new.
[tags]deal or no deal, 1 vs 100, who wants to be a millionaire, jeopardy, ttc, adam giambrone, robert ouellette, wto, doha round, canadiens, everything is illuminated[/tags]

S'warm

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

It’s eleven freaking degrees outside. This is ridiculous.

It’s not just today either. It’s the second time this week — the first week of January — that Toronto’s had temperatures around ten degrees (Monday’s high was 9.2 degrees), I can only remember two days so far this winter that actually felt cold, and 2006 was the lowest year for Toronto snowfall on record.

I’m not really a fan of winter, but…when it’s not around I kind of miss it. Or at least worry about where it’s disappeared to…

[UPDATE] This crazy weather seems to be hard on the wildlife too.

[tags]toronto, warm weather, snowfall[/tags]

That's reassuring

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The National Post has declared our nearly-completed condo building to be “the most beautiful new tower in the city”. That’s nice to hear. It was a little nerve-wracking, wondering if our tower would end up being considered a blight on the skyline.

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From an old issue of The Onion which somehow showed up in my feed reader today:

WASHINGTON, DC—Telephone logs recorded by the National Security Agency and obtained by Congress as part of an ongoing investigation suggest that the vice president may have used the Oval Office intercom system to address President Bush at crucial moments, giving categorical directives in a voice the president believed to be that of God.

$5 says this is one of those Onion articles that ends up being true down the road.

[tags]national post, most beautiful new tower, toronto, onion, bush, cheney, intercom[/tags]

Big brands, dinky trinket shops and the Scientology building

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Torontoist, not content with examining neighbourhoods, has begun examining intersections. They kicked things off with my local, Yonge & Bloor. I think I’m going to like this series.

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The Economist’s FreeExchange blog mentions an interesting idea: that the EU should impose tariffs on products imported from countries who don’t comply with Kyoto. It doesn’t sound like it’s going to fly, and it was probably political posturing by the French as much as anything else, but it’ll be interesting to see where that thread goes. We impose tariffs and trade embargoes for a lot of things; why not environmental recklessness?

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Speaking of environmental recklessness, American schools will be given 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth. Fan-frigging-tastic idea. Students should watch the movie and then be given the assignment to prove (or disprove) one or more of the claims Al Gore makes in the documentary.

[tags]yonge, bloor, kyoto, tariffs, inconvenient truth[/tags]

Hah bumhug

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

The war on Christmas exists mainly in my head right now. I like buying gifts for people, I like knowing that I’m heading back to Nova Scotia soon for several days of relaxation, and I like the general idea of a time of year when people are meant to be nicer to each other.

However, judging by what I saw today, the vast majority of the population turns into jerks around the holidays. Our first few shopping stops — Toys ‘R Us, Future Shop, Indigo — were fairly uneventful. But then, walking along Yonge near Rosedale, some fuckass threw his gum from a moving car and hit me in the head. I would’ve given almost anything to be holding a can of pepsi or a baseball right then; unfortunately all I could do was watch the car drive away. A few minutes later in a bakery I was waiting my turn in line when I was butted in front of not once, but twice. Once I could tolerate; it was busy and exactly where the line ended might’ve been unclear to an addle-minded customer. The second time, though, was blatant: some big-haired big-spectacled Rosedale matron bullhorned her way ahead of me in line. A third person tried to do it; fortunately the clerk waved her off and pointed to me just as I was about to lose my holiday spirit. Pa rum pa pum pum.

Though we had only one more stop it was a killer. Note to self: avoid all yuppie furniture stores after December 1st, if not altogether. We left with giant bags piled atop smaller bags, and by the time I got home, because of the way I had to carry one of the heavy bags, I’d pulled something in my left forearm. We ate our lunch and went back out to finish off our errands, but in one of the stores the lineup was at least 30 people long, so I’ll have to do that one Monday.

“Hell is other people.” –Sartre

“Especially when they’re carrying shopping bags.” –Dickinson

Fortunately, we were able to hole up in the apartment to do some cleaning before friends come over tonight — Swiss Chalet and Die Hard, baby! — while listening to my indie holiday music mix, and now I have a few hours to relax before they arrive. It may not feel much like Christmas (especially the weather: 11 degrees and rain tomorrow!) but at least I’m ready to jump on board when it gets here.

[tags]christmas shopping[/tags]

"Aw yeah. That golden rule."

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We finished season 4 of The Wire last night. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: best show on TV. And I cannot wait for season 5.

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I see that someone has claimed my old Radiodan blogspot URL. In case anyone’s worried that I’ve lapsed into writing long treatises on the subject of radio dramas, t’ain’t me. Update your links & readers.

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Use transit in Toronto? This map is quickly going to become indispensable, methinks. [via Torontoist]

[tags]the wire, radiodan, toronto transit[/tags]

Common sense indeed

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Another pedestrian killed on Toronto streets. It’s getting scarier out there. However, it’s nice to see the police blaming the pedestrians first.

“You have to use common sense,” advised Acting Staff Sgt. Doug Surphlis of Traffic Services. “It is the festive time of year and it is important to think before you cross the road. Also, to the mot orists to be courteous to our pedestrians. Look around as well (and) be careful out there.”

Granted, this last victim was crossing at an unmarked part of the road, but in Scarborough it’s not easy for a senior with a stroller to walk all the way to a proper light.

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Montreal wins (snapping their first two-game winless streak of the season) and Toronto loses (to Boston…again), so balance is restored to the sporting world.

[tags]toronto, pedestrian killed, canadiens, maple leafs[/tags]