Joe Matthews receives honour from Jennifer Keesmaat

Muzik shooting on August 8, 2015

TPS member Staff Sergeant Joe Matthews has been given the Toronto Board of Trade’s Police Officer of the Year Award for 2016 for his successful efforts at helping a shooting victim at the Muzik nightclub at Exhibition Place on August 8, 2015.  In presenting the award, Chief City Planner Jennifer Kessmaat recalled how Matthews was punched by a woman bystander and harassed by a hostile crowd as he administered first aid to the wounded person who was bleeding badly. Release 

Ginella Massa of City News was at the meeting Wednesday night where a plan to provide protection for pupils at John Fisher School on Erskine Ave was approved. Construction of a 35-storey condominium is set to begin next door to the school this summer. The meeting was held at North Toronto Collegiate

At the heart of what is called by some Sunshine Valley, it’s easy to get a sense of what it was like to live in East York 70 years ago. CBC

David Bryant will once again organize a fireworks show for families on the field of Leaside High School on Monday, May 22, starting at 8.45 p.m. Mr. Bryant is welcoming all and adds that anyone who wants to have a word with him or his wife, Ashley, about the cost of the event, and perhaps make a contribution, would be welcome. See them before or after the event. This fireworks display, which also took place on Labour Day, seems like a very public-spirited thing to do. Those viewing should remain on the hills for safety sake.

Dina Rock, Chief Pickling Officer

Classic New York Yum

Mighty Fine

A Balliol Street mom who trained at Tulane University for a career in public health has decided to become a pickling entrepreneur instead — and she loves it. From reports (and personal tasting) Dina Rock’s Mighty Fine Brine pickles set a new standard in old-fashioned Jewish dill pickles. Rock grew up on Long Island and later moved to Manhattan where one grandfather owned a delicatessen. The other granddad had a butcher shop in Brooklyn. When public health didn’t seem to be quite right for her, Dina, wife of Re/Max Hallmark Brokerage agent Jess Martenfeld, dug into her roots and came up with her grandfather’s dill pickle recipe. Thus was born in the Spring of 2015 the Mighty Fine Brine pickle line with Dina’s Classic New York cukes leading the way from her rented commercial kitchen in Etobicoke.

WHERE TO BUY

Mighty Fine dills were first offered at the Appletree Markets weekly market  in June Rowlands (Davisville) Park. Their popularity quickly began to build an in-store clientel. Locally Mighty Fine Brine products are sold at Andy Elder’s Grill Time on Laird Drive, but they are also fighting their way onto shelves at places like Whole Foods (Leaside) and Summerhill Market (Sherwood Park) on Mt. Pleasant Rd. Rock’s enthusiasm for her work commits her to busy days on the phone and email finding new clients. Her two children, a boy 5 and a girl 8, need a mom too. They don’t seem to mind that she comes in the guise of Fine Brine’s “Chief Pickling Officer.” It is the kind of whimsy that only your own business will permit. We will visit Dina Rock again when Ontario’s brief pickling season hits again in August.

It may be brief but it certainly is balmy. Highs Wednesday were put at 28 with a foecast high of 24 tonight. Thursday will see the same, says Environment Canada. The warm spell will moderate with the Weather Network predicitng 15 and 19 over the weekend, and rain on Sunday.

Markets fell sharply Wednesday as media and political opponents speculated about the future of the Trump presidency. In recent days. Trump has been beset by stories leaked to news outlets that he divulged super secret information to the Russians and that he asked the former director of the FBI James Comey to stop investigating the Russian connection of Michael Flynn. Pundits pronounce this to be an impeachable offense. In New York the Dow Jones index fell 277 points and in Toronto the TSX was down 214.

Courtesy Nicole Golubok

Moving him out

Brandon Michael Courneyea

The FBI took charge after an Air Canada Rouge plane from Jamaica bound for Toronto diverted to Orlando Sunday night because of the antics of disturbed man. He threw things at other passengers, including a coffee pot, threatened crew and passengers, tried unlatch a door and talked in a threatening manner about how a single person could bring down the aircraft. Among those who attempted to calm him was Scarborough Councillor Michael Thomson, on his way home with his family from a vacation. Finally, crew and passengers decided to subdue the man, who as may be seen, is  tall and youthful looking, while they waited for officers to board in Orlando.  Brandon Michael Courneyea is charged in the U.S. City. City News 

Nestlé has lost its appeal against a decision to deny it a patent on the shape of the KitKat bar. That would be the four-fingered confection known to millions around the world. The attempt to patent the shape of the bar was part of the on-going battle with Europe’s other chocolate titan Cadbury. Nestlé owns the KitKat name but wanted to be sure that you-know-who would not come out with something that looked similarly four-fingered.

A senior mental health care worker in Hamilton has condemned the Netflix series which follows a teen girl flirting with romanticized suicide. Gord Davies, an employee of St. Joseph’s Healthcare suggests the soap opera-like series Thirteen Reasons Why has coincided with a tripling of calls about kids in jeopardy in recent weeks. He says the series romanticizes suicide and suggests nothing good can come out of it. Davies told the CBC’s Duncan McCue the series does not instill any hope in those who are hopeless. “It’s actually giving them an idea that maybe there is no hope. Maybe the things they were thinking, about trying to talk to somebody, that wouldn’t go anywhere good. That reaching out to a mental health worker, a guidance counselor, that wouldn’t actually be beneficial. And it actually seals the case in their mind that there is no hope. And that’s just a very sad thing.” Davies said  “It also dramatizes suicide, saying there is something good that comes out of it, because after they’re dead people will talk about them more, they’ll think about them more. It romanticizes suicide in a way that just is not healthy.”

There will be a black-legged tick media event Thursday at Morningside Park to share information about the City’s tick surveillance program and offer tips on how to prevent Lyme disease. What can we say.  Be there. As part of the event, media will be provided with a demonstration on how ticks are collected from the environment through a process known as tick dragging. It starts at 10 a.m. at 390 Morningside.