Juggler/Toronto Sun

Act Naturally/YouTube

Act Naturally/YouTube

Toronto Sun/YouTube

Oriental drum corps/Toronto Sun

The Toronto Beaches Lions Club Easter Parade is among the oldest in Canada and from all appearances it did not disappoint the community this year. Jugglers and uniformed bands from military to oriental lifted spirits all along the route. There were ladies handing out free candy and a sunny Easter Bunny in a convertible. Toronto’s streetcar history from 1920 Witt trams to Bombardier articulated was trundled past generations of riders. There were stretchie-clad people doing exercises and music with lyrics that are no longer heard (or permitted) outside the Beach. “Wolfe the dauntless hero came and planted firm Britannia’s flag on Canada’s fair domain.” Have a look.

Georgio Mammoliti’s plan to run for a seat in the Ontario Legislature has lasted less than two weeks. The Ward 7 Councillor announced Monday that he is going stay at City Hall, contesting the municipal general election on October 22. Mammoliti dressed up his change of mind in stories of how his constituents begged him to stay. That may be true but it’s unlikely to be the whole story. Sources have told Sue Ann Levy of the Sun that Mammoliti would have had a tough fight on his hands winning the nomination for Brampton Centre.

CBC

• Mammoliti to run for PCs in new riding of Brampton-Centre
• Christine Elliott to seek Ontario PC nomination in Newmarket-Aurora

Expensive joke

Titans square off

Fight with Amazon

Elon Musk played an expensive April Fools joke by posing drunk with a bankrupt sign as he slumped against a Tesla. No one thought it was funny. Analysts say the firm is struggling and investors wiped out $5 billion in value or five percent off the value of the stock. But the headline act in Monday’s bloodletting on Wall and Bay was fear of a trade war between China and the US. Both sides are talking tough. And finally a searing attack from Donald Trump on Amazon for its deal with the US Postal Service. Trump is determined to make the service profitable. The Americans have been chicken about the cost of snail mail. First class delivery in US costs 50 cents compared to $1 in Canada.

Prices in South Bayview

Regular test gasoline is pumping at 132.9 a litre at the Esso station at Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Merton St. Monday but you may be able to get it for a penny less a litre at others stations, including some Esso locations. We’re in the switch-over period from winter to summer grade fuel, a period of about ten days. Prices may yet rise to 133.9 before slackening a bit. Dan McTeague, the man who has made a lifetime out of following gas prices, says he suspects prices will soar this summer. He told the CBC he foresees prices as high as 139.9 close to the all-time high of 142.9. The reasons for this appear to be demand and the cost of summer additives.  Prices in BC are already above 1.39.9 related local pipeline repairs.

23 CENTS HIGHER THAN LAST YEAR

“Those additives are quite expensive and they usually mean a four cent across-the-board increase for most Canadian drivers, starting at about the first few days of April all the way to the middle of September, at which point we then revert back to less expensive to make winter gasoline,”  Mr. McTeague told the CBC. “It means, of course, that prices in Toronto will pass, likely, marks that we haven’t seen at the pumps going back to about August of 2014.” He said prices today are about 23 cents per litre higher than this time last year when consumers were paying as little as $1.03.9 for a litre. “For average drivers, that amounts to well into the vicinity of an additional $10 to $12 a tankful weekly,” he said.

Torstar Corp. says it will hire 20 reporters in Western Canada and rebrand the “digital offerings” of its five free daily Metro urban newspapers across Canada. It says that as of April 10, the Metro tabs will be called StarMetro Vancouver, StarMetro Calgary, StarMetro Edmonton, StarMetro Toronto and StarMetro Halifax. Irene Gentle, the Star’s managing editor, has tweeted that StarMetro coverage online will be “richer, deeper.” Hey, go deep.

STELLA  ARTOIS RECALL

Stella Artois is recalling beer packaged in 330 millilitre glass bottles as a safety precaution related to bottles that may shed pieces of glass into the beer. Stella Artois said the bottles were manufactured by one of its many suppliers, which wasn’t identified.The recall applies to packages of six, 12, 18 and 24 bottles of Stella Artois and “Best of Belgium” multi-packs sold in the U.S. and Canada.

PATIENTS WARNED AS NEEDLES WRONGLY RE-USED

Toronto Public Health is advising those who underwent blood glucose testing at a Scarborough health fair last week to follow up with their doctor after the needles used to do the testing were “not consistently changed.” TPH told CTV News confirmed that a complaint was filed following the Vision Infinite Foundation’s health fair at the Scarborough Village Recreation Centre located at 3600 Kingston Road on March 25. After further investigation, public health said it was determined that the lancets/needles used to do blood sugar testing were mistakenly reused.

If you reside in the Ontario Liberal Party back room you might have known that Premier Wynne reportedly was ready to appoint Will Falk, “a consultant with a history tied to the eHealth scandal” as the candidate in St. Paul’s. That’s where Eric Hoskins reigned for so long. But this link reveals at least some folks were miffed enough that Wynne’s plan is now history. Obscure reference to “the Wizard and the Board” flies right by The Bulldog.

The Royal Air Force is 100 this year. Two veterans, a man who was a fighter ace and a woman who ferried aircraft to the front, were on hand for this ITV report. Then, it seems that the photographic deposit of cheques is a problem because the bank doesn’t take possession of the actual paper. Guess what? Some cheques are being cashed twice. Below that we have Kim Jung-un at a K-Pop concert of ROK performers. And a natural history bonanza at scientists discovered 1.5 million previously uncounted penguins in the Danger Islands in the Antarctic. Love that.

There is a long discussion on Leaside Community Facebook Monday morning after these pictures of a man who looks like Jimmy Carter returned a bag belonging to the lady of the house were posted there. The story is sparse but it appears the couple were at Creeds Sunday and came home without the bag. But this silver-haired gent in a Mercedes had arrived and left it on the porch. Now they’d like to know who he is. Leaside Community.

Jollibee restaurant at 15 William Kitchen Rd., Scarborough

The was a huge crowd of customers waiting for the opening Sunday of the first Jollibee restaurant in Ontario. (There are two in Winnipeg). The Toronto location is at 15 William Kitchen Rd in Scarborough near Kennedy and Progress Rds. You will see the mob in the City News report at left. Jollibee is a Filipino favorite and customers were saying things like “soon we’ll taste Manila” as they waited for the place to open. The video at the right shows Jollibee-mad customer Nikki Salas knocking on the door. Read how Spam became a national favorite in the Philipinnes in the 2015 archive post here.  Jollibee outlet would be welcome in Thorncliffe Park

That "CLUTCH" gene? Justin Smoak has it. #LetsGoBlueJays https://t.co/XuCRIYF0wP

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 1, 2018

Another look at the wonderful winning grand slam homer executed by Justin Smoak Sunday to earn a 7-4 victory over the New York Yankees. Smoak was the force behind six of the Jay’s seven runs. The victory gave Toronto a 2-2 in the series. Reporters are saying Smoak said he felt like he had let the team down in the first inning when he struck out with two men on and nobody out. Hey, it’s okay. Smoak slammed a two-run homer in the seventh and then powered the grand slam in the eighth.

A New York-based cybersecurity firm, Gemini Advisory, has said that three Canadian branches of Saks Fifth Avenue stores were exposed to a data breach of customer information. Gemini found that the stores are Sherway Gardens, Bramalea City Centre and Pickering Town Centre. Word first came Sunday from Hudson’s Bay Co. which said customer payment information may have been stolen from shoppers at certain Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off Fifth and Lord & Taylor stores in North America.

It’s past noon so no more jokes but early Sunday and late Saturday the world was treated to some enjoyable and apparently fake news. Swiss Chalet trumpeted the non-stop and possibly unhygienic “sauce fountain” on each table. And Burger King announced the all-chocolate Whopper. One comment on YouTube regretted that it was a joke because “It’s really what I want.”

STILL JOKING:

• BBC Breakfast falls for newspaper’s April Fool’s Day Brexit joke
• Parents fool children with Easter ‘treats’
• The woman who gave birth to rabbits (and other hoaxes)
• Sixty years of April Fools on the BBC