The South Bayview Bulldog

An hour-long exhibition of bad behaviour on the road in Los Angeles ends with no one hurt. Did someone say drugs, alcohol? The traffic reporter is Stu Mundel.

Let’s Talk. An East York woman has been handed a large bill for a broken water pipe and water services caused by Bell Canada when it dug up her lawn in February and left a mess. Juixiang Liu of St. Clair Ave  E. found the horror when she came home from work and since then has been asking the City and Bell do the right thing. Among other things, she received a bill from the City, which apparently approved Bell’s digging, for $267.72 including an $82 fee to shut off the water. CBC

Photographer Mira Budd has a nice collection of photos from a recent exhibition game between the Leaside Junior Wildcats and Cambridge Rivulettes on her site. These appear to be from one of their recent exhibtion games played at Iceland rink in Mississauga. You may find someone you know in these shots.

The website MarketWatch has published the surprising value of the money that customers have loaned to Starbucks by packing money onto their pre-loaded cards. As of the firm’s most recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Starbucks currently has $1.4 billion sitting on its balance sheet, representing cash consumers have loaded onto apps and gift cards that hasn’t been spent yet. That’s an enormous free loan to the firm — it’s roughly one month’s global revenue — and the amount is growing about 20% annually.

A Gucci advertisement featuring “unhealthily thin” and “gaunt” models has been banned in the U-K by the Advertising Standards Authority.  The ad on The Times website — which appeared in December 2015 — included stills at the end of a video of two models — one sitting on a sofa, and another leaning against a wall wearing a long, printed dress.

CBC writer Jonathon Rumley has discovered a groundswell of interest in youth baseball apparently related to the competitive stance of the Toronto Blue Jays last year and, we hope, this year as well. Rumley speaks with two area baseball coaches, Leaside’s Howard Bernie and Jake Gallo, assistant baseball coach at Northern Secondary School. Nice read. CBC

A County Superior Court Judge in Georgia has seen her stern but inspiring lecture to some delinquent kids go viral. Judge Verda Colvin said she didn’t know a camera was rolling as she lectured the group of boys and girls on doing better. “Stop acting like you’re trash,” she lashes them. Colvin, the mother of a grown son, volunteers with the Bibb County Sheriff’s “Consider the Consequences” class, a program that bluntly shows youth where their early lives in crime are likely headed. On March 29, Judge Colvin was speaking to some wayward kids in the program who were brought into her courtroom. Her passionate lecture about the harsh realities of their futures if they didn’t change clearly touched many of them. Many were in tears Their choices, she said, jail, or “you can be in this body bag,” Colvin says in the video as she unfolded a white body bag. “And the only way somebody’s going to know you’re in here is because of this tag.”

In Downey, California the oldest McDonald’s anywhere is about to undergo a major change by getting a drive-through lane. The Downey Mac’s was rebuilt from a first version in 1957 and has been operating without the drive-through for more than 60 years. Fox News LA reports that McDonald’s has asked the Downey Planning Commission to approve a plan that would add a familiar order-and-pickup lane to the historic establishment. It was opened by Roger Williams and Bud Landon in 1953 and has always done things a little differently. Williams and Landon purchased franchise rights from the McDonald brothers (Richard and Maurice) themselves, prior to the brand being bought out by Ray Kroc in 1961. As such, the restaurant hasn’t always been subject to the uniform standards that govern most McDonald’s locations. The apple pie is still deep-fried there. And when the Big Mac was introduced in 1968, the Downey McDonald’s refused for years to add it to the menu. Kroc acquired the Downey location in 1990.

Toronto Staff has brought forward proposals for separate sets of rules for Uber vehicles and conventional taxis (like Beck) which will voted on by Council on April 14, 2016. Among the proposed rules are yearly inspections for Uber vehicles, criminal background checks for Uber drivers and the creation of a “vehicle-for-hire” license for Uber drivers. Uber would not be permitted to carry lights similar to a taxi or pick up passengers who hail them on the street. The City would also ease the burden on taxis by allowing taxi drivers to get their vehicles inspected at garages that meet the city’s requirements, instead of at city-run garages.

NO ENGLISH REQUIRED

One contentious recommendation is that drivers need not know English. Interesting. How does that work? Anyway, City Councillors think it is recipe for chaos and some hear the Uber Alles marching song of a rideshare Gestapo, in a manner of speaking.

The Women’s Network of St. Anselm’s Catholic Church Parish will hold its Spring Fling Craft Sale Sunday, May 1, 2016 with some 20 vendors in attendance. There will also be a bake sale and other items made by members of the parish. It runs from 9:30 to 1:30 at the church hall at McNaughton and Millwood Roads.

The Longest Yard at 535 Mt Pleasant will close at the end of April  A sister version of the Mt. Pleasant pub will continue to operate at 3313 Bloor Street West. The owners offered no particular reason for the closure but it is no secret that the struggle for dining and drinking business across South Bayview has sharpened in recent years. Places like Against the Grain and the Local on Laird Drive did not exist four years ago. These places a hugely busy. Regulars note that the Longest Yard has been on Mt. Pleasant for more than 30 years. Recollection of it in the early years of the Century as a crowded place are in keeping with the good times that rolled on before the economic collapse of 2008.  The pub will close on Sunday, May 1 2016 but will first hold a trademark lobster boil Monday, April 25 and a farewell party Saturday April 30..