Man stopped with 94 iPhones strapped to body

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So embarrassing. But it’s what happens when you strap 94 iPhones to your body and try to take them from Hong Kong into China. They cost about 80 percent more on the mainland than in the island territory.This kind of stuff must make the Chinese crazy. Chinese customs officials caught this fellow on Sunday. After finding nothing suspicious in his two plastic shopping bags, officials asked the man to pass through a metal detector — and the alarm went off. Photos released by customs authorities show dozens of neatly shrink-wrapped shiny iPhones strapped around the man’s chest, abdomen, crotch and thighs with duct tape. 

Local Eatery Pub at 180 Laird is now hiring

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Recruiting site  Previous post 

Deadline for Macphail award is Thursday, Jan. 29

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Nominations for the Agnes Macphail Award close in barely two weeks on Thursday, January 29, 2015. If you have someone in mind, time to get busy.  Previous post 

J. Pepper exhibition at Leaside Library in January

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East York’s Jack Pepper painted local scenes during the 50s and 60s. A dozen or so of these charming works are hanging at the Leaside Public Library 165 McRae Drive through the end of January. Thanks goes out to Elaine Snider, an East York Foundation board member, for facilitating this exhibition. 

Trace Manes Park outdoor skating rinks are open

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Leaside’s open air seasonal rink at Trace Manes Park is open and ready to use in this is snappy cold weather we’re having. Geoff Kettel reports that both the hockey and pleasure rinks are ready for use and send thanks to Gary Rollerson and the volunteers who flood the ice  Then, says Kettel, they pray for continued cold weather. These guys know how to pray, apparently. 

Denials Amanda Lang tried to block RBC story

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The linked story, written with a juicy flair, takes readers back to April, 2013 when the CBC was about to break the story of how the Royal Bank of Canada was in the process of about laying off permanent Canadian employees and replace them over time with foreign workers. The follow-up revelation comes today, 18-months after the events, from a  blogger named Sean Craig that the influential Lang fought tooth and nail to kill the story. Way down in this yarn is a mention of a man at RBC who at the time it is said was friendly with Ms Lang. CBC denies any attempt to kill the story and reminds the world that it ran “on all platform” as intended by the news organization. Canadaland 

Darn those illegally parked electric stoves

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Sometimes even an all-out “new normal” campaign to make traffic go away just doesn’t do the job. Take these pesky electric stoves all over Bayview Ave at the height of rush hour Monday evening. The stoves were being delivered to the Kelvingrove apartments by two rather harassed and hard working guys. There may have been an easier way to get them into the units. Who are we to judge. PKE24 made it his business however. We don’t know just how that worked out. We stay clear of PKE24. He’s a hard-working guy of a different sort.  

Chevy Bolt unveiled at Detroit Auto Show Monday

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This video of this morning’s events reveal first the 2016 Volt, then the 2016 EV Bolt. Stay with it.

Nopants Subway Ride has no known purpose

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Listen, it makes as much sense as a lot of things to ride the subway on a Sunday in January without your pants on. This is a custom started by Improv Everywhere in New York a few years ago. This picture was tweeted  by Spencer Wynn on our own TTC (Trouser Tease Convention). The no pants event appears to be the second Sunday in January if you want to mark your calendar. Or not. 

Police stopping cars on Bayview Sunday night

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Police were busy on Bayview Ave. last night checking cars in a hunt for someone or something. Posters to Reddit said a friend had been stopped twice between Moore Ave. and Eglinton Ave. Officers looked inside her car but apparently no arrests were made.  If you saw or experienced anything, let us know 

Chevy Bolt to be unveiled at Detroit Auto Show

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Later post. Believe it or not, the new Chevy Volt is to be called the Bolt. Many news agencies are using that name  with a straight face tonight. The re-designed Bolt, newly fashioned with a 200-mile per charge capacity, will be on display at the Detroit Auto  Show. The show opens tomorrow, January 12 and runs to  Sunday, January 25, 2015. The Volt has been on the market since 2010 and has had lot of bad news to fight off in the form of fires.  The Bolt has new features. It can switch to a gas engine and has the ability to travel four times as far on a charge as the Volt. The Bolt will compete with a new Tesla electric vehicle, also expected out in 2017, called the Model 3. That vehicle is expected to sell in the $35,000 U.S.

PM marks 200th birthday of John A. Macdonald

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper has marked the 200th anniversary of Canada’s founding father — Sir John A. Macdonald — at a modest but glittering ceremony at Kingston City Hall. Macdonald lived in Kingston and represented it in the Commons. Harper’s praise of  his famous predecessor took a wide turn, entering through a back door in a sense. He said so much good came from what he called an ordinary man of whom little was expected. “Without Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada — the best country in the world — simply would not exist,” Harper told a crowd of dignitaries under tight security. Comments on the occasion contain resentment from some that he was in Canada and not in Paris, at the unity parade. It is easy to see, however that Harper could easily be criticised for abandoning a planned event to seek greater limelight in the French capital.