Martha McCabe

Bennington Heights Martha McCabe has won the 200-metre breaststroke in the qualifying events  for the Toronto Pan Am Games which kick off Wednesday June 10 in Toronto. Martha was in the water at the new Pan Am Sports Centre at 857 Morningside Ave. in Scarborough on Wednesday, April 1. Trials run through to Saturday, April 4, 2015. It a qualifying event for both the Pan American Games in Toronto and the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia this summer. Martha won the bronze medal for the 200-metre in 2011 the World Championships in Shanghai. The well-known local girl was Leaside’s first Athlete of the Year in 2013. Martha’s life, apart from university in Vancouver, has been here at home near her birthplace. Now she is in Toronto after graduating from the University of British Columbia with a degree in Human Kinetics. Morning heats begin at 10 a.m. each day at the new facility, with evening finals beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday’s finals will be followed by the live announcement of the national team for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games and FINA World Championships. Admission to the event is $5 for heats and $15 for finals with children 12 and under free and various packages available. Live webcast is available at: www.swimming.ca/2015TeamCanadaTrials

A nasty rear-end collision on the westbound lane of Moore Ave opposite Bennington Heights over the noon hour has snarled traffic in the area. We forget how much we rely on this lonely south-end link between Moore Park and points west and Leaside until it is all crunched up. No one seriously hurt in this one..

Don Cherry will be at the Petsmart in the Leaside Centre at Eglinton Ave. East and Laird Drive this morning at 10.30. He will be promoting his pet rescue foundation and perhaps showing some Petsmart products. Always fun. John Burnside has tweeted that he will there too.

This is a very complete and well-done report on the unusual death of Andrew Getty at the age of 47, his estranged girlfriend and his famous father and grandfather. Tells a great story.

As above

The big jar of Vegemite doesn’t quite rank for gullible “you’re kidding” rights with changing the name of the national airline. Take a look. Mashable

West Jet April Fool’s joke tells customers they can go straight from the airport concourse to the aircraft sitting on their #SmartSeat all the way. Very funny.