CBC has figured out some details on the case of vodka bottles filled not with vodka but water. Security video has revealed the same person returning several bottles that had been drained and refilled with water. There is also a plastic bottle angle. The stories don’t go into how such containers might be easier to open and then close in such a way that it is not obvious but now the LCBO says no plastic bottles will be accepted for return. Smirnoff and other makers sell a 750-milliliter lightweight “traveler” size. The clear PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles feature a unique “keystone” design on the necks and what Smirnoff calls an aesthetic appeal that enhances the rigidity and performance of the container. There is comment online about how bottles can be resealed to keep liquor by using a capsule shrink wrap. The advice says they are quite easy to apply and require heating a pan of water in which to dip the bottle.

Walmart will close 269 stores most of them in the U.S. with a large number in Brazil but none in Canada. The stores being closed are a small part of Walmart’s 11,000 stores.  Nearly all of the stores to be closed in the U.S. are within 16 kilometres of another Walmart. Many are the Walmart Express locations launched in 2011. The closings begin in February.

Toronto Zoo’s two-month-old baby girl cub is to love and nothing but. She still has a bit of trouble walking. But she will learn and just a reminder that such  cuddly creatures grow up to be quite formidable. Courtesy CBC 

Councillor Jon Burnside has gone to bat for pedestrians using the peculiar traffic signal system at Bayview Ave. and Manor Rd/Fleming Cres. As described by a post in the South Bayview Bulldog in September the green Walk signals here operate on what is called a semi-actuated mode of control. Translation, you don’t get a green Walk signal to cross Bayview unless you push the so-called “Beg Button” strapped to a utility pole nearby. If pedestrians push the Beg Button, the Walk light will come on and they can cross more or less with confidence. It is complicated, like a lot of modern life, especially when the engineers get finished with their long-form explanations.

Hardly working lights

The Councillor has been trying to get a longer crossing time on Bayview but this was not possible because the entire street is on a system known as SCOOT, which automatically assesses traffic and changes times to suit. But because of Mr. Burnside’s inquiry Transportation Services has requested a change which will permit the green Walk signal in concert with the green light for vehicles (i.e. all the time). The terms used by the “engineering technologist” (yes really) are confusing but the sense of the reply to the Councillor is clear enough to those of us in this office. It is worth noting that the semi-actuated “hardly working” signals are very common and in fact show up at Bayview and Merton St/McRae Drive. No word on them although this tricky intersection with its off-set side streets might benefit from a change too.

The Toronto Star has confirmed that it will  close its 25-year-old printing plant in Vaughn and outsource the printing of the daily paper. The company continues to lose money as advertising shifts away from paper products to digital. In a release on Friday the parent firm Torstar said its plan is to sell its Toronto-area printing plant and outsource the work to Transcontinental, Canada’s largest commercial printing company. The closure will affect 220 full-time and 65 part-time people employed at the plant. The switch to Transcontinental is expected to begin in July and produce about $10 million of annual savings for Torstar, one of Canada’s biggest newspaper companies.

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See later report.

Celine Dion’s husband René Angélil has died. Mr.Angélil had undergone cancer treatment several times over the past 20 years. He was 73. He is credited with transforming Céline Dion from a little-known teen francophone chanteuse to international pop superstar.

Marriott Hotels is removing the desks from rooms at all its hotels. It is doing this worldwide. The hotel chain says that as far it is concerned young people don’t use desks because they work on their phones. The decision, as reported by the CBC, has caused a firestorm of reaction from travellers who think “working on your phone” is like riding a pogo stick from Toronto to Vancouver. The move seems reminiscent of the early Internet days when offices were about to vanish.  Dan Wetzel a sports columnist for Yahoo has written that he was told by staff at a Marriott that the absence of desks was caused by the habits of millennials (born 1980 to 2000 more or less) “who don’t use desks’ but rather prefer to “hang out”. Don’t we all.