A sad dispatch from the Midtown traffic trap comes from a driver who was sent literally in a circle as he tried to get across Yonge St from east to west during rush hour. Construction at Yonge and Chaplin/Davisville has cancelled left turns west. The next legal left is at Berwick Ave.  From here it is normally possible to turn right on Duplex and left on Eglinton to then head west. But no. Construction on Duplex required all traffic to go south again past many westbound streets where right turns are forbidden. Welcome back to Chaplin Crescent.

Perfect circle

Metrolinx will cut Bombardier out of a little-understood contract in which the Montreal firm has a role in the operation of GO and UP trains, says Canadian Press. Bombardier has apparently had this arrangement for decades — the history is not stated — and collected $100 million taxpayer dollars annually for the work. CP says Metrolinx announced it will seek new operators to take over the commuter and airport rail services after the current contract expires in 2023. The winning bidder to be chosen in about a year will first review the current operations by Bombardier and two other Canadian companies and then operate the services as it quadruples in size to 6,000 trains a week from 1,500. At the same time, Metrolinx more or less surrendered to dealing with Bombardier for the delivery of LRT vehicles after a court found that the train maker had not breached its contract, notwithstanding its late and sloppy performance.

St. Lawrence Market is open Saturday with the help of back up power provided by a generator which was brought in after the old building went off grid about 2 a.m. Early shoppers arriving for the official 5 a.m. start of the market found the place in darkness. Lights came back on about 8 a.m.

Shipping firm FedEx has decided to close all 24 of its retail office stores in Canada. It seems to be the end of a losing battle against more numerous UPS locations. Some 214 people will be out of work at FedEx. It will continue to ship within Canada but its copy and office supply stores will close Aug.18. The nearest store to South Bayview is on the east Danforth.

Helping Michael Garron Hospital

Commodious house with parking

Total fav

Those near St. Clair Ave. and O’Connor Drive Saturday may wish to catch breakfast and/or lunch at Rise and Dine, 2714 St. Clair as the new eatery holds the first of a three-day Grand Opening event to help Michael Garron Hospital. Barb DiGiulio of Newstalk 1010 and Canadian Olympic Medallist Dylan Moscovitch will assist Saturday and be present for the ribbon-cutting at 11 a.m. Rise and Dine is a commodious place with lots of parking just east of the corner of O’Connor and St. Clair. And they have eggs. 

Happy shoppers at Scarborough

If you need one, it’s a bargain

Toys at 20 percent off

They say the Internet’s first big year was 1994. A bit more than 20 years later, Sears Canada liquidation sale at 54 stores across Canada was proving again how real the impact has been. Happy people lined up in Scarborough off the Golden Mile and elsewhere to see what they might like at the advertised 20 to 50 percent off. It seemed like mostly 20 percent off to many shoppers. Eager to avoid bankruptcy, the one-time retail giant is counting on hordes of shoppers to scoop up discounted merchandise, fixtures and equipment as soon as possible. But despite the everything-must-go sales Sears still has to survive as a company once restructuring is complete, marketing professor David Soberman of the Rotman School of Management told CBC. “They have an obligation to their shareholders,” says Soberman. “They’re not trying to squeeze every last penny (but) just like any company they’re trying to make themselves as profitable as they can.”

For those watching closely, Penny Oleksiak has proven to be more than an astonishing sports phenomenon during her short time in the limelight. It’s also clear the 17-year-old student at Monarch Park Collegiate is in no hurry to give up her birthright to life as a teenager, at home with her family, in the Beach. Her father Richard has echoed this mature approach to his daughter’s success in a CBC update.

Two months old

This looks like “Sassy”

Bird-like chirping sounds

Toronto Zoo has posted pictures of the two clouded leopard cubs born in May on Facebook. The account of their growing personalities is excerpted here. “One cub is slightly darker in colour, and is more energetic and ‘sassy’, always taking the bottle very quickly when offered. The second cub is slightly lighter in colour, and although also energetic, is not as bold as its sibling. Both cubs vocalize in a bird-like ‘chirping’ sound and love to leap, run, explore and climb anything and everything they can find. Wrestling with each other is another favourite thing for these siblings to do. Both clouded leopard cubs have very long tails and their teeth are getting to be quite big in size, which is bringing out their teething behaviors.”

Six children

Found hanged

Chester Bennington

Demons have chased Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington to a rope gallows of his own making. The 41-year-old singer hanged himself at a private residence in lush Palos Verdes California a mere two months after friend Chris Cornell did exactly the same thing. Bennington had many hard luck stories and the remarkable success of Linkin Park and a family of six children were not enough to console him. Odd. The singer struggled with drugs and alcohol for years. Linkin Park has had a string of hits over the years, including “Faint,” “In the End” and “Crawling.” Linkin Park crossed music genres, collaborating with Jay-Z.

The people have spoken. Long live the People McPeopleface. Regards, Bulldog McBulldogface.