Thanks to Finnie, my favourite poodle, for sending this one in.
Meanwhile, the new off-leash park at the RL Clark filtration plant was supposed to open in January. I don’t see any signs or any sign of activity that would indicate the City is getting on with it.
Mr. Salinger was 91. He hadn’t published in a really long time. He only wrote a small number of books. He was apparently an odd reclusive fellow. His books are great.
First let me say that I rarely post anything related to basketball on this blog. This is mostly because it’s boring. I think the biggest problem with basketball is that it’s too easy to get points. Everybody seems to just run back and forth scoring at will. Maybe they should raise the net a few feet – or lower it and add a goalie. I heard some commentator somewhere (I just can’t remember who or where – sorry) suggest they should have a height cap in basketball, so each team gets a total number of height inches. If you want a really tall guy, you have to make up for it with some short guys….
All that said, this post isn’t really about basketball. I just felt compelled to comment about the two players who got suspended for messing about with their guns in the locker room. Apparently there was a little gambling dispute that got out of hand. These guys should know better. If they kept their sidearms safely stowed in their locker, perhaps the league would have overlooked that little rule they have about toting guns on league property. I recommend arm wrestling for settling gambling disputes. A sore shoulder beats getting your brains blown out any day.
Now that the league commissioner has pointed out that guns in the workplace will not be tolerated, I’m sure the problem has been straightened out. To all you young players out there, just leave your guns at home.
And here’s the Baccalieu Rovers playing Star of Logy Bay, a tune I enjoy playing as well.
There have been an alarming number of pedestrian fatalities on Toronto roads so far this year – 14 in fact. This has got our local politicians looking for solutions. Bill Saundercook, who co-chairs the City’s pedestrian committee is lobbying to lower speed limits in spots with high pedestrian activity. That in itself won’t help. However, it will attract several cops every day to ticket speeders, and the presence of the cops will slow down the traffic. Will slower speeds translate to less fatalities? Who knows.
It is now illegal for drivers to talk on a cell phone (unless it is hands-free) while driving in these parts. From what I see every day, that law is mostly being ignored. Maybe that’s because it isn’t being enforced, I don’t know. I don’t know if it is reasonable to draw a link between drivers using cell phones while driving and drivers hitting pedestrians. Sometimes pedestrians are distracted too, either on the phone or plugged into some tunes.
We’ve also noticed an increase in recent years of those people Tuffy P calls “floaters”, people who wander out into the street seemingly oblivious to their surroundings, crossing without even looking. As a driver, it’s hard to predict what a floater is going to do at any time.
Mayor Miller has talked about expediting “a plan”. One good thing the City has done and continues to do is install countdown signals. I think these are really helpful because it lets both drivers and pedestrians know exactly when the light will change.
Some will advocate getting cars out of the City completely. Perhaps that’s the way our cities will evolve. The question is how to make it work. It isn’t something that is likely to gather nearly enough support in the short term to become a reality.
Meanwhile, as my friend Dinners says, be careful out there.
Copies of Webster’s dictionary have been pulled from a school in California because they contain words terms like oral sex. I guess some parents out there really think that if they pull the dictionaries their kids won’t learn those words. Could it be they think the kids won’t learn about oral sex if they can’t see a dictionary? I presume their children have no access at all to the internet. Geez Louise, that seems pretty stupid and naiive to me. What if they actually talked to their kids instead?
We need a uke version right this second…
Some of you will have seen the now famous photo of the Toronto Transit employee snapped while catching a few zeds on the job recently (if you really need to see it, you won’t have trouble finding it). I feel bad for the fellow. Sure he shouldn’t have fallen asleep on the job regardless of how boring it really was. Still, did he deserve to have his picture and name splashed all over the country? The punishment, the glare of public scrutiny, seems pretty severe, don’t you think?
Local residents are getting restless. Check out the photos at the Torontoist.
27th Street 