Revelers have brought in 2012 in Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi, Athens, Rome, Paris and London at this writing (7.50 pm EST). Still to come are New York and Toronto, with great centres like Vancouver and San Francisco more or less last. Above is an arresting picture of a fireworks effect in Hong Kong. Rockets appear to be shooting out of this high-rise office.

The changing face of Laird Drive has prompted speculation about future locations of the Big Five Banks. The arrival of the Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal at the SmartCentre completed the “flock” effect on this street. Most notable as possible banks to move, according to the wisdom of our little parlour game, are the Bank of Nova Scotia, now housed in a small shop at the corner of Eglinton Ave E. and Laird and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce at Laird and MaRae Drive. Reasonable, although not necessarily correct, speculation would suggest one or both of these two might find their way into the new Leaside Village centre down at Laird and Esandar Dr. TD has already moved off the Eglinton-Laird intersection. TD renovated the 1951 historical building at Laird and Vanderhoof Avenue in 2010.  Scotiabank might well feel the need to move to larger quarters down the road where the new retail action is located. Incidentally, the old TD branch building sits quietly uninhabited and not for rent on the northwest corner of Eglinton and Laird.  Is someone waiting for redevelopment? (Just asking). As for the CIBC, its old branch, dating from the days when the banks built and owned their premises, is sitting in the way of re-making the corner of Laird and Wicksteed.  Maybe CIBC doesn’t care about that and maybe the City can’t afford the price.

Chile’s Supreme Court has ordered a newspaper to pay out more than $120,000 to 13 people who suffered burns when they attempted a recipe the paper had published for churros, a snack of deep-fried dough dusted in sugar (inset) that’s popular in Latin America. Days after the recipe was published in 2004, hospitals around the country began treating people for burns after the dough had shot out of their pots, showering them with hot oil. The high court found that the newspaper failed to properly test the recipe before publication. If readers followed the instructions, their churros had a good chance of exploding once the oil reached the suggested temperature, which was too high. “The explosions were so violent that in some cases the splashes hit the ceiling and covered the person who was cooking,” the ruling said. “Faithfully following the recipe published in the newspaper, this damage could not have been avoided.” The publisher of the newspaper, La Tercera, will pay damages ranging from $279 to $48,000, the latter to one woman whose burns were especially severe.