The South Bayview Bulldog

Fifty poles caught fire last night

The head of Toronto Hydro Anthony Haines says that last night’s little ice pellet event combined with salt-covered hydro poles to cause 50 utility standards to catch fire and burn to junk in Toronto. As explained by Mr Haines to CP24’s Stephen LeDrew it was “a bit of ice and a whole bunch of salt at the top of these poles” that caused arcing, an electrical phenomenon where electricity leaps through the air between two good conductors.  Salt water is an excellent conductor. The poles were well-caked with salt from days of road salting Thousands of residents in and around the city remain without power this morning after a messy mix of precipitation caused widespread outages on Tuesday evening. As of 10 a.m. Toronto Hydro said that approximately 12,000 to 14,000 customers in Toronto were without power, with areas in North York and Etobicoke the hardest hit. Hydro is offering a educated guess that those still without power may have it by 6 p.m.

Plans were unveiled last night at the Park Hyatt Hotel for the redevelopment of the Honest Ed’s site at  Bloor and Bathurst. That what the developer, Westbank, has called it. Boor and Bathurst. Nice. The sketch at left shows how higher buildings will sit on Bloor St and Bathurst St with a downward slope of all development to the south. That’s Lennox Street shown in the depiction on the right as a low rise trendy walking street. Markham Street, which marks the westward boundary of the development, would be closed on weekends for walkers, shoppers and whomever. Remember link above to see more. Also here for a well done video story of the event.  

The Canadian Bankers Association has issued a $10,000 reward for a felon known to Toronto police as the Well-Dressed Bandit. He has robbed at least four banks in Toronto in recent months, two in Etobicoke and two in west-central locations. He is described as white, 5’11”-6’2″, 45-60, wearing sunglasses, tan gloves and a hooded jacket. In each robbery, he is carrying a tan-coloured carrying case. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7350, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637), or Leave A Tip on Facebook. Download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World.

Torstar Corp., owner of Canada’s largest newspaper, has reported results which seem to show it is living off the proceeds of the sale of its former assets such as Harlequin Publishing  At the same time, the publishing company reported further losses in print advertising . With all of this however, Torstar says it made a fourth quarter profit of  $20.6 million or 26 cents per share, almost unchanged from a year ago despite the lower revenue.

Did a weasel really hitch as ride with a woodpecker? An eager media world wants to believe it and amateur photographer Martin LeMay of East London says that it is absolutely so. Let’s be clear, if it happened, this was an act of attempted woodpeckercide.

CTV Toronto newscast contains Austin Delaney’s account of the most shocking testimony in the matter of the former deputy education minister.

Transformer blows near Yorkdale Tuesday. Courtesy Tom Stef @vaughanweather

Ice and snow caused transformers to overload across North York tonight. Yorkdale Shopping Centre has regained power but remains closed Police say many traffic lights are out and that roads are treacherous. Tom Podolec of CTV notes Toronto Fire responding to dozens of hydro calls. Use caution near downed wires

There was a time, ten years or so ago, that it was not possible for a jerk to defame respectable people because he had no megaphone. Now every jerk has got one. It’s called Twitter. Leaf captain Dion Phaneuf and his girl friend, Elisha Cuthbert and fellow Leaf Joffrey Lupul. were subjected to a despicable defamation during last night’s hockey game. Unfortunately, the guys at TSN thought it would be a great idea to just run the tweets unedited and unchecked. Now the parties are suing TSN, which is owned by Bell media. Bell also has an interest in the Leafs. Did we say that Bell is too big?. “We have sent a letter to TSN demanding that TSN issue a formal apology and pay a significant amount of damages to each of our clients for broadcasting a false and defamatory tweet during their trade deadline show yesterday,” lawyer Peter Gall says in a statement. During the broadcast on Monday, TSN was airing tweets at the bottom of the screen with the hashtag #TradeCentre. One of the tweets that made it to air mentioned Phaneuf, Cuthbert and Lupul. TSN’s director of communications later tweeted an apology to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization and those impacted, saying that the tweet “should have never, ever gone to air.” Gall says that his legal team has also sent out a similar letter demanding an apology and damages to the author of the tweet, Anthony Adragna. “It is bad enough that there are people who spend their time using social media to publish such false and malicious stories, but it is made much worse when a reputable media outlet like TSN gives broad circulation and credibility to these false stories by republishing them as TSN did,” Gall’s statement says.

Captures from CBC video show kids in frame as woman tries to cover herself

A woman is using Windsor public library branches to stream video to  paying customers as she exposes herself and does other lewd things. It is apparently the availability of the computer equipment and cameras that prompts the woman, known as Little Secret, to use the libraries for this purpose. Otherwise, it would seem there must be a better place. Everyone is shocked and it is especially concerning to see children bouncing around in the background trying to get the woman’s attention while she covers up.  CBC Video