Lightning show at CN Tower as you tried to sleep

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Here’s the visual evidence of that bumpy night we mostly slept through. Wonderful pictures from Twitter of some lightning hits to the CN tower. Lightning is a benign thing if you are in a modern building with a metal structure. All that otherwise fatal voltage goes zipping right into the earth. From the perspective of the inset picture, it might have been snapped off the brow of the height at the end of someone’s garden in Bennington Heights, Moore Park or South Leaside.

Twitter-trove of Leaside fancy and wacky cars

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Twitter lit up over the weekend for those on the Leaside search where Maradene Wills posted several pictures of the wildly painted Cadillac she saw in the Loblaws lot on Redway Drive. It’s plate is So Wacky attesting further to the owner’s sense of humour. And dear friend Rudy Limeback was briefly out of the ravines and river beds of Leaside to snap a very nice 60s Buick. Thanks all. 

Lady Ga Ga’s Clamshell Girl has talent

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Magdalena Kincaid was picked out of the audience by Lady Ga Ga during her performance at Ottawa Bluesfest yesterday (Saturday, July 5, 2014). Ms Kincaid swears she didn’t expect to pulled up and asked to sing but as this video attests she exhibited a strong seemingly well-trained singing voice and a most impressive self assurance. Kincaid is 18. She will be a student at Ryerson this fall pursuing fashion design. Her talent is evident there too as she appeared in an alluring costume of white floral underwear, a see-through pink latex skirt and a pink and silver bedazzled seashell bra, which has given her the nickname “Seashell Girl.” She designed it all herself. Canada has talent! 

Den Tandt: Media is addicted to Ford faux news

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National Post columnist Michael Den Tandt diagnoses the media — as do many — as hopelessly addicted to the empty, self-pitying “disease” talk of the mayor. Rob Ford’s rehab hitch was two months long, but it took the media mere seconds to fall off the wagon. It was a brutally swift relapse, says Den Tandt. He asks: “Can anyone, honestly, be truly surprised – as opposed to the faux shock and wide-eyed, studied consternation that has characterized much of the coverage of Ford’s return – at anything Toronto’s chief magistrate has said and done since Monday?”  No. Reporters are behaving like shivering supplicants in front of their trafficker, fools begging for a fix.   

How Others Live: Skin-whitening in Pakistan

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It is a sharply mind-expanding moment to see the importance of whiter skin to Pakistani women. This BBC report tells us graphically in a video about How Others Live. 

Jaw-dropping $6.5 million for Jackes condo

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This was published June 24 online by Toronto Life but it is yet more area real estate with absolutely jaw-dropping money at stake. It is a 4,000 square foot condo in the well-known and private 33 Jackes building for $6.5 million. Toronto Life 

City ponders raising road to avoid DVP flooding

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The City of Toronto is pondering the cost and disruption of raising the road level of the Don Valley Parkway to reduce the pattern of flooding. Metro

Brainy penalty kick stopper wins it for Dutch

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It was a fine evening for watching the critical match between the Netherlands and Costa Rica at McSorley’s Saloon Saturday night. The game ended 4-3 in what CBS News has called “a cruel lottery of penalty kicks.” Costa Rica’s run at the World Cup was stopped by the super-human work of Netherland’s “closer” goalkeeper Tim Krul.  Krul, who has played just one minute at this World Cup, stopped two penalties for the Dutch. He was brought on in the final minute of the second extra time in place of Jasper Cillessen. Krul’s reputation as a specialist at saving penalty kicks is well won.  He was seen trying to play head games with Costa Rican penalty takers and guessed correctly on two shots, which proved to be the difference in the game.  Here is how CBS described the game: 

Over 120 minutes-plus of actual soccer, there was little to separate the two teams. Costa Rica dug in and withstood Dutch attacks that almost always went through the feet of Arjen Robben. His penetrating dribbles led to a barrage of corner kicks, set pieces and shots for the Netherlands. Time and time again, though, it was Navas and his very well positioned back line that proved to be too much for the Dutch to get past. In the final minutes of regulation, the Netherlands had a variety of chances. None were clearer than a Van Persie shot that was turned away at the goal line by midfielder Yeltsin Tejeda with his goal keeper Navas out of the net. The shot somehow was deflected straight up in the air and hit the bar before going out. The Ticos did not venture out past midfield in the first extra time much and absorbed some more attacks by the Dutch as it seemed they were merely trying to hold on for PKs. However, in the second extra time it was the Costa Ricans who got out on the front foot, which opened up the game for both sides. Ultimately, it would be the cruel lottery of penalty kicks that would decide the final quarterfinal game of the World Cup. Misses, or rather Krul saves, on shots by Bryan Ruiz and Michael Umaña ended Costa Rica’s run and sent the Dutch into a final four of World Cup heavyweights with Brazil, Germany and Argentina.

Photos: Crowds at McSorleys follow the Netherlands-Costa  Rica game on sets positioned all over, including on the sidewalk. Bottom, penalty shot specialist Tim Krul.  

What a British tab says about Eugenie Bouchard

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Eugenie Bouchard, 20 years old and Canadian, is gloriously blonde with perfectly regular, brilliantly white film-star teeth, a pair of oiled thighs that could crack walnuts, half a million fans on Facebook — and a Twitter profile which ranges from the flirtatious to the, frankly, provocative. Indeed, the new face of women’s tennis — who will be fighting to be crowned Wimbledon champion today — likes to post pictures of herself lounging seductively in bikinis and pouting in fancy dress.  MailOnline

Memo to CBC: We learned nothing from Ford

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Like CP24, the CBC local news is busy trying to turn its interview with Rob Ford into something important. It says breathlessly that among “five things” it learned from the interview is that Ford has been addicted for 15 years. No. Really? In another CBC story, behavioural experts pronounce upon a “plateau of unhappiness” they have detected. Once again the tortured ethics of journalism (the right to know, the right to drool, the right to goose the numbers — oh sorry — don’t know how that got in there) are making monkeys of otherwise sensible news organizations. What any reasonable person wants — even the screaming shirtless jogger — is for Rob Ford to go. If he were not so shamelessly pig-headed he would have gone months ago. It is unimportant now to whom he gave his cars keys in Muskoka. Unless Leanne McRobb decides to run for mayor. This appetite may be fed by All My Children. 

Our Eugenie loses to Czech powerhouse Petra

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Eugenie Bouchard took a thumping today (Saturday, July 5, 2014) from Czech Republic powerhouse Petra Kvitova, losing at Wimbledon 6-3, 6-0.  Princess Eugenie, after whom Canada’s Bouchard is named, watched from the royal box at centre court. With it all, Bouchard was gracious in her defeat and found some satisfaction in her play overall at Wimbledon. It raises her ranking among the world best tennis players from 13 to seven.

Burned car, bodies sent to Ontario forensics lab

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The bodies of three people found in a burned out car near Barrie have been brought to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Toronto. In fact, the entire vehicle was moved with the bodes inside to preserve any  evidence that might be there. The car was bearing Ontario plates and police say they feel sure this discovery has nothing to do with the disappearance of Calgary grandparents and their grandson this week a case that continues to baffle police there. The charred bodies were found early Friday morning after firefighters responded to a vehicle fire north of Barrie. They put out the fire and then realized that the car, sitting on Holick Rd. north of the 4th Line of Oro-Medonte Township, had what appeared to be three bodies in it. OPP detectives have taken over the investigation.They say they still aren’t sure whether this is foul play or a bizarre accident of some kind. No doubt the forensics specialists will find something to direct the police.