A ticket sold in Ontario is worth nearly $40.5 million as the winner of the Lotto 649 jackpot. The ticket was purchased at a so far undisclosed location in Ontario. The draw’s guaranteed $1 million prize went to a ticket holder in Quebec. The jackpot for the next Lotto 649 draw on November 1 will be approximately $5 million.

Toronto Fire was called to St.Clair Ave west of Yonge St about 7 p.m. Saturday. A smoky fire required a second alarm. It turned out to be a pizza left in an oven a little too long and was quickly extinguished. The street was closed briefly.

Danforth Ave. will be closed from 12:45 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday from Donlands to Broadview Aves. for the parade celebrating Greek Independence. The parade will form at Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute and proceed northbound on Euston Avenue and westbound on Danforth Avenue to dispersal at Danforth and Broadview Avenue

Horses relax in PEI pasture

Newman watch record auction

Drone Shepherds at work

Don’t touch that KitKat bar

Breastfeeding emoji

News pictures we liked Saturday starts with the two beautiful horses lying down in lovely autumn weather in a Prince Edward Island pasture. It’s not all that common to find horses, which usually sleep standing, taking life so easy. To the right, the actor and race car driver Paul Newman received a Rolex watch from wife Joanne Woodward which was inscribed Drive Safely Me. This week it sold at auction in New York for a wristwatch record of $17.8 million US. Lower left, a company called Drone Shepherds is making a difference in the battle against big game poachers in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Killing has declined substantially as the drones, which can see at night, are in the sky over sanctuaries. Lower right is a shot of a Polar Bear taken by Ken Gillespie at Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg. Someone suggested the bear had spotted someone stealing the last KitKat bar. Finally, below that, is the breast-feeding emoji created by London neonatal nurse Rachel Lee and recently released by Unicode

Amy Barbeau has posted to Leaside Community Facebook account that she has seen many cars waiting at the barricaded Millwood Rd. exit “to go around the barrier by basically driving on the grass.” This brief post is accompanied by others complaining about the traffic pileups caused by uncoordinated construction in the area and especially the re-making of the corner at Millwood and Laird Drive. There’s a couple of references of waits of 20 minutes — one to get to Loblaws on Redway Rd. and another to get out of the arena parking lot after a swimming session.

Two woman adventurers have been rescued after five months lost at sea. It began on day one when they departed Hawaii for Tahiti as one of them dropped her phone overboard. Then, what appears to be a hugely ambitious plan to house homeless people in Vancouver will use “re-purposed container units”. Have to say these containers look a lot nicer than any we’ve seen before.

DELICIOUS CARPETS

Rich Azerbaijan carpets are on display at a “carpet symposium” in the City of Baku on the Caspian Sea. They will make you want one or two of these beauties in your home. Lovely. Finally, they are raising money to re-build the Hospital for Sick Children. Take a look.

The Sheraton Centre Hotel on Queen Street opposite City Hall been purchased in a $335-million deal by Brookfield Asset Management. The 115 year old firm with headquarters on Bay Street calls itself an Alternative Investment Asset Manager. The seller was Marriott International. It represents the largest-ever single hotel transaction in Canadian history, said CBRE Canada, which acted as the broke. The purchase also marks Toronto-based Brookfield’s first push into the hospitality sector at home. The alternative asset management conglomerate’s hospitality portfolio has largely been focused on the U.S., but also includes assets in the U.K. and the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas.

The trial of former aides to Dalton McGuinty has heard the Liberal Party of Ontario paid a consultant $11,000 to wipe clean computer hard drives in the Premier’s office to get rid of emails that related to the cancellation of gas plants days before the 2011 general election. The trial of the aides, David Livingston and Laura Miller, heard from that consultant Friday. He is Peter Faist and his employment in this came matter came  about because he is also the common-law spouse of Ms. Miller. He testified that she asked him if he knew someone who could wipe clean the 20 or so hard drives and he told her that he could do it himself. The party’s refusal to hand over documents related to the cancellation to a legislature committee triggered a contempt debate that eventually saw McGuinty resign as premier in the fall of 2012.

Sorry buddy, turn around

One lane east Friday

Backed up beyond Hanna Rd. at 12.45

Patrick Rocca was messaging readers Friday that the plan so far to close off the exit to the Leaside arena parking lot is “an epic fail.” For the closure to work it requires a sign at the Southvale/Millwood entrance to the arena that announces that the exit is closed. Rocca says he was at the arena Thursday and again Friday where he found many vehicles which had been turned back at the exit piled up at the main entry and exit trying to get out. “I understand trying to stop cars from cutting through due to all the kids but put a sign at the entrance off Southvale saying other exit/entrance is closed!  What’s happening now is cars are cutting through only to realize once inside that the exit is closed so they have to turn around and come back out…Line up was 20+ cars deep at 2.30 p.m. exiting the rink due to this. Crazyreally.”

PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN CONGESTION

The streets east of Sutherland Dr are witnessing previously unseen congestion because of simultaneous construction. The long line of vehicle at all hours on Southvale, Millwood and Laird are caused by the narrowing of lanes at the corner of Millwood and Laird (one lane each way on Friday) plus impassable conditions on side streets like Randolph and others. At 12.45 p.m.Friday traffic eastbound on Southvale was backed up beyond Hanna Rd.

A public opinion poll by Forum Research among 946 Ontario voters suggests that more than four in ten (45%) say they support the PC Party of Ontario. One quarter (24%) say they would support the Liberals at the next election with the NDP statistically tied at just over two in ten (22%). Just under one in ten (7%) say they support the Green Party.  “The PCs continue to hold a big lead across the province,” said Dr. Lorne Bozinoff, President of Forum Research. “Despite the positive outcome for the Liberals in Sudbury, it hasn’t yet changed any minds, and as the election creeps closer and closer, it seems like the PCs are going to need a major stumble to give the Liberals a chance at re-election.”

Short cut to the Millwood Bridge closed

The Millwood Rd. exit from Leaside Memorial Community Gardens has been closed. This picture was snapped and posted Friday morning by Lynn Carroll from what appears to be the driveway of All-Canadian Self-Storage. She says there was a pileup of thwarted drivers who had to turn around and head back out to the light at Southvale and Millwood. Some posters suggested this was perhaps temporary because of the Liberal Party nomination meeting at the arena. Further inquiries at the arena however do indicate that this move is aimed at short-cut traffic caused by area construction. The arena parking lot has become a through route for frustrated drivers piled up because of the construction at Millwood and Laird as the City re-makes the intersection.

Sutherland Drive, Photo: Graham Shirley/Facebook

Belsize Drive

Best Decorated House Award on Rolph Rd. Photo: Shannon Lamanna/Facebook

Any why not, it’s the time of year. Left is the detailed and compellingly scary clown on the lawn of a Sutherland Drive home off Bayview. On Leaside Community they say it is home-made. Remarkable.  Up Bayview and around the corner on Belsize Drive (upper right) we find the annual triumph of macabre fable-telling from Hayley. Tyson. Tell me a story daddy!  Scary “Stone Cold Forest” chills children, parents on Belsize  Lower right, is  the Spooktacular home of the Lamanna family on Rolph Rd. which is the winner of the Best Decorated House Award. The highly entertaining video below is the Riverdale Halloween Show held annually on October 31 on Howland Rd between Langley and Victor Aves. “It’s like an Amish barn raising, but we make theatre. I don’t know of any other neighbourhood in Toronto that does anything like this,” Sammy Ray Welch, tells Joanna Lavoie of the Beach Mirror. Worth a read.