Bucs own Super Bowl, mutts turn Puppy Bowl into dogfight

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were decisive victors over the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday. The score was 31 to 9. The Puppy Bowl (number 17) was hard-fought but ended in an inconclusive dogfight.



Holy flying garbage trucks! Here’s trash crash retrospective

Here are a few aftermath pictures from the flying garbage truck incident on Dixon Rd in Etobicoke Friday morning. Watch the video in an earlier post here.

Matthews fiery 7-game streak keeps City hot in Feb freeze

Auston Matthews has extended his goal-scoring run to seven consecutive games as the Leafs defeated the Canucks 5-1 at Scotiabank Arena Saturday night. There were of course no patrons in the otherwise vacant hall and we note that many rinkside blue seats were covered with advertising. Talk about making the best of a bad situation.

Mabel’s Family Day event with music by Sharon and Randi

Josh Matlow (Ward 12) will provide a Facebook broadcast of the Family Day storytime from Mabel’s Fables children’s bookstore at Mt. Pleasant Rd and Hillsdale Ave. The event is set for 3 p.m. Monday, February 15 on Mr. Matlow’s page. Several authors will tell stories and the recent mother-and-daughter pairing of Sharon and Randi Hampson will perform the favorite Skinnamarink (Dinky Dink). Should be fun.

TPS probe reveals no luring attempt of girl in Scarborough

Toronto Police have announced Saturday that there is no longer any concern that a young girl was being lured by a person who apparently spoke to her outside her home Wednesday near Neilson Road and Ellesmere Road. They say investigators reviewed video, interviewed witnesses and spoke to the person of interest. The investigation has been closed. Fears were raised Friday on an earlier report.

Unmasked Canadians have tales of dedication, fun and skill

Faces, faces and we’ve found pictures of some appealing Canadians who are happily unmasked in this time of mandatory cover-ups. At left is the late Madame Bette-Joan Rac. The much-loved Edmonton piano and music teacher has made headlines for the treasures and vintage fashion found in her Edmonton home. Fascinating. At centre, let’s hope happy rollerblade kid Alexei Morita, 21, is careful as he blasts through vacant halls at the Eaton Centre. Finally, the exceptional woman at the right is Alex Bastiany MD. She is the first black woman to graduate in Canada as an interventional cardiologist. Listen to how gracefully she carries this distinction. Well done, doctor.

Acting giant Christopher Plummer, 91, was born in Toronto

Christopher Plummer, the Toronto actor who played Captain Von Trapp in the 1965 movie The Sound of Music, has died at the age of 91. Plummer was a veteran of stage and screen, portraying characters like Shakespeare’s King Lear at the Stratford Festival and starring in independent films like 2012’s Beginners, which won him an Academy Award at age 82. Plummer died early Friday at his home in Connecticut with his wife of 53 years, Elaine Taylor, by his side. Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer was born on December 13, 1929, the only child of John Orme Plummer, who sold stocks and securities, and his wife Isabella Mary (née Abbott), who worked as secretary to the Dean of Sciences at McGill University. Plummer’s parents divorced shortly after his birth, and he was brought up mainly by his mother in the Abbott family home in Senneville, Quebec, outside Montreal. He spoke English and French fluently. As a schoolboy, he began studying to be a concert pianist, but developed a love for theatre at an early age, and began acting while he was attending the High School of Montreal.

Football cupcakes from Longo’s a Super Bowl dummy’s treat

It’s always good to make the best of a bad situation and if you wouldn’t know the Kansas City Chiefs from Ketchup, try the chocolate cupcakes in the form of a football. It’s $15 at Longo’s. The game begins at 6.30 Eastern on Sunday but you can start eating the football earlier. Down the right side of this local gallery is a cute-beyond-belief puppy snapped by Leslieville’s Colin Mcconnell. Below that is the long-time Starbucks in the historic old Davisville post office building at Yonge St. and Davisville Ave. It’s set to join many other Toronto green mermaids closing up shop soon. Lower left is an innovative invitation to do business by the Rebel House bar and restaurant on Yonge St at Roxborough Ave. Her sign reads “I’m just a girl standing in front of the Rebel House asking you to order takeout.” Lastly, we just love this all-ages salute posted by the Leaside Wildcats hockey club. It was taken by the Provincial Women’s Hockey League Players Association to mark National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Airborne truck on Dixon gives new meaning to Garbage Day

A security camera at a house on Kentroyal Drive captures the moment a garbage truck loses control on a sloped stretch of Dixon Road Friday morning, striking trees, vehicles, and homes. The wreckage gives new meaning to the term Garbage Day.

4 a.m. doorbell cam alert results in Donlea car-theft arrest

An informative post to Leaside Comunity Facebook tells of a resident’s quick action in calling 911 when she heard her Nest doorbell cam notification that it had seen something funny outside. It was nearly 4 a.m. Her quick action resulted in the arrest of the person seen in the above picture a few minutes later on Donlea Drive.

Canada’s problem? No capacity to make the vaccine at scale

Older Canadians will longingly recall Connaught Laboratories in Toronto as they hear the pitiful explanation that Canada could not get manufacturers to make a vaccine here because it doesn’t have a place to do that. Connaught, where they did the odd world-shattering thing like discover insulin, was sold off to the Europeans decades ago. Ugh.

Child luring alert after incident near Neilson and Ellesmere

Toronto Police have issued an alert to parents in the east end after an apparent attempted luring of a child Wednesday. It occurred about 5:30 p.m. near Neilson Rd and Ellesmere Rd when a 7-year-old girl reported that a man had approached her in front of her home. He tried to lure her away. She ran inside her home and the man fled. He is described as having a brown complexion, in his 20s, 5’6″-5’7″, with an average build, and was clean shaven. He had short wavy black hair. He was wearing a grey long-sleeve sweater and black pants. He was also carrying a circular black plastic food container and was not wearing a mask.