View from the top (again)
Posted on December 5th, 2011 – Comments Off on View from the top (again)Shangri-La tower (under construction) at Wellington and University.
Shangri-La tower (under construction) at Wellington and University.
Here’s a brief collection of some of Newstalk 1010’s resident loudmouth Jerry Agar’ quotes. I’m starting to see why he lost his job as a radio host in the states in 2009.
Jerry on who should make up Congress (he’s not being ironic here):
Just imagine a day in Washington D.C. when the new Congress shows up and it’s all new people. They don’t have any deals in place…they arrive in Washington not knowing what they’re doing. How good is that?!
A pleasant view from work.
As a source of information, I’ve never been a huge fan of the Sun newspaper, a tabloid rag that panders to the lowest common denominator with a few blurby bits of print parading around on each page awash in seas of advertising. The vast majority of their content comes in off the wire via AP or Reuters, often to the point where you can read entire articles — verbatim — in other local papers.
The Sun “newspaper” carries skimpily-clad Sunshine Girls on the back page, features way more sports coverage than international news, and is filled to the brim with bright, colourful photos, eezee-to-read sentences, and sensationalist headlines up the wazoo.
Basically, if you want to have your news predigested and regurgitated for mindless consumption along with a heaping bowlful of red-blooded stereotype, the Sun is for you!
Normally, I wouldn’t give a toss about the Sun. Live and let exist to wipe my ass with, I say. But recently it’s become painfully clear that this “newspaper” is a reflection of the myocardial infarction we currently have sitting in Toronto’s mayoral chair, as well as his ruddy-faced lap dogs like Giorgio Mamolitti who whine like little girls whenever their precious feelings have been hurt by public opinion, contradictory free speech, or that terrible terrible thing we call a democracy (I’ll have to post his bitchings during the last marathon depositions on YouTube).
And to be honest, I’m getting fucking sick and tired of hearing clamoring idiots calling for myopic, one-dimensional, all-pennies-and-no-brains bullshit with which to fix this city’s problems with.
Most meat-headed partisans like to think they’re in the clear, the “he was voted in so he must have majority support” fallacy. Except that only 47% of the people who voted actually voted for Rob Ford. That means that less than half of the people who voted directly support His Rotundness. Moreover, only about half of Toronto actually voted, so the bellowing loudmouths milling around in Ford Nation account for only about 25% of Toronto. And guess what, most of downtown didn’t vote for Ford — the people who will be most affected by his actions are the ones who can’t stand him the most.
The other fact that Fordites continue to forget is that there are 44 councillors at City Hall which must approve stuff before any of Ford’s ridiculous plans can ever come to fruition. “But Ford is going to do blah blah blah…” Yeah, no he’s not, because he’s a bully and he can barely make friends with a fire hydrant let alone a thinking councillor.
Fordites also can’t seem to come to grips with the fact that their portly hero is full of shit.
There are some who think that what’s been happening in London over the last week or so couldn’t happen here.
Well, last year’s G20 fiasco notwithstanding, the doubters really should think again. The many parallels are hard to ignore:
The Toronto Police Service launched their social media initiative this afternoon with a live presentation from Deputy Chief Peter Sloly.

In a nutshell, they’ve put / will put a few services online that were traditional in-person — background checks and such — but mostly the announcement was about the TPS’ now-official use of social media like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Chief Bill Blair was a bit more detailed:
Despite having more people on the force with Twitter accounts that you can follow, the police are still saying that you have to call 911 for emergencies or get a hold of a specific division if you have less serious stuff to talk about, but this will allow you to follow what cops are doing on the streets as well as giving you a more direct channel for general questions. I’ve chatted with a few of them via Twitter over the past year and they definitely are approachable (and they respond!), so that could work out real well in the community relations department.
The only concern I’d toss out there is in seeing these new channels become saturated and eventually becoming stagnant as responding to everything becomes impossible (you can see this with very popular Twitter accounts). Guess only time will show how prepared the TPS is for this possibility.
Elwy Yost passed away at age 86 today. He was the host of TVO’s “Saturday Night at the Movies” and “Talking Film” series where he delivered effortless insights on the actors, directors, and personalities of Hollywood and featured films through in-person interviews, clips, and neat factoids.
To say he was a warm and inviting host would be a gross understatement, and his dedication to his craft would be difficult to question. I’m sure I’m not the only nerd in Toronto to have curled up with a bowl of popcorn and enjoyed his personable introductions on Saturday nights. Now that he’s gone, I’m sure I won’t be the only one to feel his absence.
Rest in peace, Elwy.
The Toronto Star reports today that in their hour-long “Red light test” (at what appears to be somewhere around the intersection of York and Queen’s Quay), the majority of cyclists broke the law and ran the light.
Unbelievable! I mean, who would’ve been able to guess that something like this could happen in a city like Toronto?!
There were probably even more laws broken but the numbers shown in the video are enough in and of themselves.
No longer relegated to credit or bank cards, a new bank note being released by The Bank of Canada this November (more to follow in 2012) promises to seem just as flimsy and worthless as the mag stripes you destroy in your back pocket today. Progress!
The C.N. Tower’s new $175 EdgeWalk attraction set to open in August. I shat my pants just watching the video.