Mayor and Councillor thank Hall 322/Mayor Tory

Gingerdead Men/Apiecalypse Now

Busy Summerhill Market/Bulldog

Honour Emmy and give blood Wednesday

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Saturday at Regent

In-road signs at Davisille/Moke Lachbat @leach_leach

Leaside High bike theft/LHs

Mayor Tory and Councillor Fragedakis (Ward 29) began Good Friday by dropping in at Hall 322, 256 Cosburn Ave., to thank firefighters for the marathon job of providing water to tenants at 49 Thorncliffe Park Drive this week. Then upper right, who said Vegans don’t have a sense of humour. Certainly not the estimable Joanna Lavoie as she visited Vegan grocer Apiecalypse Now where they sell these Gingerdead Men cookies. It’s at 862 Pape. Below that, the busy scene at Summerhill Market on Friday. The store at 442 Summerhill was open from 9 a.m. til 7 p.m. Across the bottom from the left, important notices starting with a reminder to give blood Wednesday at the semiannual Leaside Blood Clinic at Northlea School. Next to that is a poster for movie fun Saturday (tomorrow) at the Regent Theatre on Mt. Pleasant Rd. Meridian Credit Union has arranged to show Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and it is free. Among the notable residents talking about these in-road safety signs is Holland Bloorview CEO Julia Hanigsberg. There’s one outside Davisville Public School. Lastly, the parking for cars and bikes is tucked away off Hanna Rd. at Leaside High School. A post to Leaside Community reports that one lad had his red mountain bike stolen Thursday after the lock was cut.

Yosemite Sam

Cornish pasty

Ri Sol-ju

It’s open season on mustachioed John Bolton, the new candidate for US national security advisor, as he is compared to everyone from Yosemite Sam and Captain Crunch. A Jeanne Moos laugh-fest. Then, maybe Ri Sol-ju didn’t have much of a choice in her marriage to Kim Jung-un. But Ri is now a fashion sensation in China since she accompanied Kim to that secret meeting in Beijing. Even little despots can ride the coattails of a pretty wife. Then, the CBC chronicles fears for the future of the Cornish meat pie (or pasty). And finally, truck terrorism protection comes to Toronto as authorities beef up barriers around Rogers Centre.

Looking north from Millwood on west side of Bayview Ave/Google

Avery Barker has posted pictures on Leaside Community which show the street at what appears to be the turn of the decade (1980). There are three photos posted and they are quite a wayback playback. They recall a time when there was a Shell station on the southwest corner and construction had not yet begun on the Canada Trust building. These shots look north from Millwood. They show the long gone “Jug City” and the Yeoman Steak House (soon to be McSorley’s). There is also a glimpse of the fairly recently opened Bonnie Byford Real Estate which is still there. For those with good eyes, the top shot shows a National Trust branch in the building now housing Scotiabank and further south on the east side what is probably Bruno’s. Long time ago when pictures were not taken with a phone. Many thanks to Mr. Barker for posting these pictures from Google. Bonnie Byford Real Estate

Nice parking

A pleasant Good Friday has dawned with most service businesses closed as usual. Summerhill Market at 446 Summerhill Ave. will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday.

Some restaurants on Bayview Ave and Mt. Pleasant will be open as will attractions like the Art Gallery of Ontario, Ripley’s Aquarium, Casa Loma, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario Science Centre, the Toronto Zoo, the CN Tower and the Aga Khan Museum. The Eaton Centre will be open all weekend with shorter hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The Easter Parade on Sunday runs along Queen Street East, from Munro Park Avenue to Woodbine Avenue. The 501 Queen streetcar route will turn back at Kingston Road, starting at 1 p.m. Regular service will resume after the parade ends, around 5 p.m. TTC will operate on holiday service on Good Friday.

Michio Kaku

Technicolour Toasty

Smokey Tusker

So Michio Kaku has an IQ that’s over the moon and maybe that’s where the unidentified objects that keeping startling airline pilots are originating. Michio’s head is quite well screwed on but he says that ten percent of reports leave him baffled. Then, at Selfridges in London you will certainly be wanting more than a simple grilled cheese sandwich with your lunchtime champers. The luxury department store is serving up “Technicolour Toasties” made from goat’s cheese, beetroot, rocket and caramelised onions. Finally, call this dandy curiosity Smokey Tusker. He’s an Indian elephant who likes sucking up ashes from the fire and blowing them out. Go figure.

Clean-Up Day April 21/Bulldog

Team Blue/Wildcats

Airbnb rental in Leaside/Toronto Life

Emmy Duff/Family

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Sun Stars/Bulldog photo

The photo upper left from 2016 showing old friend Simon Hanlon, Councillor Burnside and others sweeping up asks the question: “How About You?” Make a note on your calendar to help out on the Bayview Leaside BIA Clean-Up Day Saturday, April 21. Below that, congratulations to a jubilant Team Blue in the Wildcats Senior House League. They are champions of the Non-slapshot competition. Go you Blues. On the right, Toronto Life tells of a Leaside couple who are said to be making $60,000 a year renting via Airbnb. It may not be for everyone. Centre left, please remember to honour the memory of Leaside’s Emmy Duff and give blood this coming Wednesday at the semi-annual clinic held at Northlea Public School. That’s where Emmy was a pupil when word came that she had been struck by leukemia. Please think about this and do the right thing. Then, there are some April events on posters. The first is Easter in the Village on Mt. Pleasant. Take the kids to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Regent on Saturday. Those orange cuties at lower right are rain-drenched Sun Stars outside Passion Fruit.

Robertson shows front end damage caused when he was hit fron rear/CP24 capture

Vehicle hit the left rear corner/CP24 capture

Lloyd Robertson was unhurt Thursday morning when his SUV was hit from behind in a multi-vehicle collision on the Don Valley Parkway. In an interview with CTV, Mr. Robertson showed where a truck hit the rear-left corner of his VW SUV. It caused him to skid into a vehicle ahead and sustain the damage at the front. Toronto Star

It has long baffled those with bank accounts why anyone would advance money to Starbucks just so they could buy a cup of coffee someday. A 2016 study revealed consumers have handed Starbucks as much as $1.6 billion US for which they get the right to buy a coffee with their own money. The same is true in Canada. But now, as seen in this NBC report, there is stunning snooping going on too. Starbucks wants to know your friends, your contacts, your interests and your computer history. And why not? They’re getting your money for free.

The University of Toronto student’s union voted at a referendum on Wednesday to reject a measure that would have given students deeply discounted passes for the TTC, funded in part by additional student fees. Opposing votes ran to 65.6 per cent of those casting a ballot. CBC  TTC “U Pass” part of tuition for students at local universities

Opposum mom with joeys/Teri McGurk

Davisville and Pailton/Google

Bulldog reader Teri McGurk has tweeted an extraordinary picture she took late last year of this opossum mom and her joeys all aboard. We count seven. How about you? Teri snapped the shot on Annesley Ave. in darkest North Leaside. Upper right, parkettes are for building apartments on it seems. The space seen from above is at Davisville Ave and Pailton Cres. where the CAPREIT partnership has applied to build a 16 storey tower. Ugh. Below that, some posters you should check. Kids will want to get the Easter Bunny Colouring entries in at Tuft’s ValuMart by Saturday. In April, we have the Leaside Rotary Recycling Day and the Blue Radish evening over at Manor Road United Church. Parents who plan ahead will want to take a look at details of the Bamboo Bay Art and Lego Summer Camp.

Social spending promised in Kathleen Wynne’s pre-election budget will be paid for by nearly $20 billion in new borrowing over the next three years and a quietly introduced personal income tax increase affecting those earning $92,000 or more. That’s about two million people.  The 2018 budget indicates the deficit is projected to be $6.7 billion, and combined deficits for the next three years amount to $19.8 billion. The provincial debt is already about 312 billions dollars, the highest debt of any non-sovereign jurisdiction in the world.

• Wynne Liberals to run deficits for next six years
• Ontario Liberals bet big on seniors’ care, drug and dental coverage in 2018 pre-election budget

Andrea Giesbrecht, the Winnipeg woman convicted of concealing the remains of six dead infants is expected to ask to be released on bail while she awaits an appeal. Giesbrecht was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison last July for concealing the remains in a U-Haul storage locker.

• Andrea Giesbrecht, 42, guilty of trying to conceal six births