Is there another city in the world where the Flag Clown Show prevails on the Eve of the Olympics. Call it a slow news day. The Rainbow flag flies at City Hall to show support for LGBT athletes in a country that is altogether quite prejudiced against the same sex way of life. Much is made of Valdimir Putin’s taste, but his fellow Russians are thoroughly in agreement with the repressive state of things. Too bad. And you may be sure the former KGB crookster gives not a hoot about what Toronto thinks.  Back at City Hall, the strange mayor might have stifled himself but he could not. He is wandering around with a Canadian flag. He wants the Rainbow pennant down. But that’s not going to happen because “procedure was followed” although there is scarce word on what or who enacts procedure. Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34) was a little more closely reasoned. You can take his position for what’s it worth. It’s Canada, and the Canadian team, so the Canadian flag would have been in order. Or perhaps, said Minnan-Wong, the Olympic flag.  The raising of the Rainbow flag, or any others, should have come before council he said. Paula Fletcher (Ward 30) loves the Rainbow flag  outside her window. She has one in  her own office she said. John Parker (Ward 26) sort of danced about how this wasn’t his first interest but he was happy to have support shown for LGBT people. Video at the left is the pilot (beta?) of a new YouTube program called (what else) Ford Nation. We’ll see how long it lasts. Our graphic shows the Maple Leaf flag, Rainbow, Toronto and East York (yeh!) flags.
MAYOR TALKING GIBBERISH AFTER WASHROOM VISIT 
The Toronto Star says Mayor Ford went into the staff washroom of a Vancouver bar, stayed there an hour and when he emerged, he was speaking gibberish. Toronto Star

It is 50 years to the day since the Beatles landed at Kennedy airport to an adoring throng of 10,000 teens. Two days later (Sunday, February 9, 1964) came television and show business history as the group appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. The embedded video is a very high class production from the Wall Street Journal. It unearths a lot of Beatles facts and gives credit to Brian Epstein who made the Beatles sound so good.

A man said to be in his 30s was hit by falling ice at the corner of St. Clair and Yonge at noon hour Friday (February 7, 2014).   Ice and snow on high levels of the office building on the northwest corner of the intersection melted in the sunny weather. The man was treated by EMS and allowed to go on his way. Lucky fellow. The very busy piece of sidewalk on St. Clair Ave W. continued to throng through the business day despite the yellow tape warning pedestrians away from the wall of the building, which houses NewsTalk Radio 1010. Signs every few feet  on the windows of the  Royal Bank branch warned of falling ice. CP24 had a camera positioned in the snow and cabled to its truck, which had the motor running by the curb. The crew was taking a page from the Boy Scouts — be prepared. Can’t tell when a lump is going to bounce outside the yellow tape and take out another citizen.   

Sutherland and Hanna

The sinkhole that took pavement six feet down on Monday (February 3, 2014) at Sutherland Drive and Hanna Road is just about filled and stabilized. Paving should occur between now and Monday, workmen said. The sinkhole appeared as the result of the frigid weather, according to those fixing it. The concrete support for the manhole in the centre of the intersection collapsed, dropping the sewer cover and surrounding pavement too far down for comfort. It wasn’t big enough to swallow a car but it would certainly have put most cars out of commission. TTC re-routed the 88 Leaside bus for a few days. Elsewhere with our weather, the city continues to dig out of the heaviest single fall of snow this winter.  The city has 200 salt trucks, 600 road plows and 300 sidewalk plows in its snow-clearing arsenal. A terrible accident near rural Orangville has killed a nine-year-old boy. He was pulled unconscious from a large snow bank by his mother after she went looking for the lad. He had somehow become buried in the collapse of the snow. Pictures courtesy rudy.ca

Reporters arriving in Russia to cover the Sochi Winter Olympics are sending out pictures of unfinished and largely unlivable hotels. Officials are saying that the hotels are 95% complete but this is what some media are finding. The rubble shown above is piled in the corner of the lobby of one hotel. In another, there is no floor in the lobby but the reception desk has the inset picture of Vladimir Putin there to cheer the guests. One reporter found the Internet connection hanging from the ceiling. Water from the hotel taps is a sinister yellow and everyone has been warned not to even put it on his face. More 

Andy Elder

South Bayview area retailer Andy Elder has taken to his FaceBook page to voice concern about the long-term traffic misery that will be created by the tunneling work for the  Crosstown LRT. Read here and see the many comments.  Andy says: “Okay Leasiders. It’s time to take a minute to fully comprehend what is about to take place at the throat of Eglinton between Brentcliffe and Leslie. Sometime in the next few weeks that stretch of road will become two lanes, one in each direction. It will stay that way for about 5 years as the Eglinton transit is tunnelled out. All of the tunnel material dug out to Yonge St. will be picked up at this access point. An engineering marvel. but think about how the narrowing to 2 lanes will change your commute and travel patterns. There will be other disruptions on Eglinton over that time. It’s hard to think of the next 5 years as short term pain but that’s what it will be”. Grilltime

The downcast-looking young lady may wish she had cancelled Wednesday too. This picture was tweeted by the CBC. At the right, a glimpse of South Bayview Ave. before the afternoon snow got even deeper. Friends at Bonnie Byford Real Estate ducked out of their storefront at 1536 to grab this video snippet.