#KobeBryant takes the mic before his final All-Star Game #NBAAllStarTO https://t.co/YDJmV9bdz9

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 15, 2016

Twitter furore of Nellie Furtado rendition of O Canada    NBA game final on Twitter

A funeral service was held January 31, 2016 for Joseph John Lippert Jr. at the  Heritage Funeral Centre on Overlea Blvd.  He died on January 28 in his 90th year. Mr. Lippert was the founder of the Lippert Music Centre at 970 Pape Avenue and was known to generations of East York children and their parents as a kind instructor of great talent. The service in his memory featured music of the harp, cello and his personal instrument the accordion. Mr. Lippert founded his music instruction business in 1957 after studying music at what was then the Ontario Teachers College on Carlaw Ave. The music centre is now run by his daughter, Charleen Beard. The well-attended service saw friends and former students present as well as local representatives MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) and Councillor Mary Fragedakis (Ward 29).

One lady says it felt like waiting for "carnival ride" #UPExpress pic.twitter.com/x1qWtxBbsg

— Anna Vlachos (@AnnaVlachos) February 14, 2016

It was absolute love as more than 10,000 people crowded the UP Express Saturday for the Valentine’s free weekend service to Pearson airport.  The day’s ridership, which Metrolinx guessed was composed of 30 percent travellers and 70 percent curiosity seekers, seemed to prove that people like the idea of a train to the airport but don’t like the fare of $27.50 (one way). Spokesperson Anne Marie Atkins said the service will be launching a new program to encourage ridership soon. That sounds like a decision to reduce prices which would make sense because it represents some revenue as opposed to very little. It is said that the trains normally run at about eight per cent of capacity.

Loblaws at Maple Leaf  Gardens will be open on Family Day as will Summerhill Market at 446 Summerhill and at the satellite store at 1048 Mt. Pleasant Rd. These openings reflect a pattern of holiday food shopping options that has been set in the past year or so by these two stores. Other full-service grocery stores will be closed including Metro, Loblaws and Longo’s stores.

PRESSURE ON WHOLE FOODS TO OPEN

Whole Foods at 87 Avenue Road (in Hazelton Lanes) will also be open but it is a little further away from South Bayview. The pressure is on Whole Foods to stay open. It is experiencing a sag in business related to consumer resistance to prices, although this may be somewhat unfair. When the new Whole Foods opens this spring at 1860 Bayview it will be interesting to see if it opens on holidays, and if so, what pressure that puts on nearby competitors.

Mt. Pleasant Village is profiled in the Toronto Star online and in Saturday’s paper (February 13, 2016). Shawn Micallef who should glory in the title Living Columnist has observations about the old street. He notes the traffic lanes and concludes there are 1.5 in each direction. This is an odd leftover from the 1948 road widening (and sidewalk narrowing) which accompanied the Mt. Pleasant extension down to Jarvis St.  Shawn Micallef goes on to discuss much other Mt. Pleasant history in his column which is worth a read. That history recalls a parallel time when the Town of Leaside was able to put up the fight of the century and save Bayview Ave and its wide sidewalks. The two lanes of traffic remain on Bayview but the angle parking is gone of course. It can still be seen just as it was then on McRae Drive at Trace Manes Park.

Marlboros 21-year-old Brendan Leipsic got the news by phone that was dressing with the Leafs for the game against Vancouver Saturday night. His mother and father, Kathleen and Greg, turned the world upside down to get from Winnipeg to Vancouver by way of Minnesota and Seattle to see Brendan play. Their reward came as Leipsic scored for the Leafs (video below) in a 5-2 victory over the Canucks. Were Mom and Day happy? Is the game played on ice?

Whole Foods is about to open a chain of lower-price stores starting on the west coast of the U.S. It’s called 365 by Whole Foods and according to Consumerist, the cheeky consumerism site run  by Consumer Reports, Whole Foods is thinking about maybe putting tattoo parlours into these food stores. It is said that 20 percent of the U.S. population now has a tattoo of some sort but the phenomenon seems to have polarized the civilized world into those who have tattoos and those who would rather eat broken glass for breakfast. Consumerist 

You know it’s cold when Canadians complain about it. The staggering polar readings of minus 23 celsius will grip us overnight tonight and into Saturday but during the day it will get milder. Sunday is predicted to see a high of minus 12 and Monday a high of zero. .