The South Bayview Bulldog

Most people react strongly to their mother’s voice – whether being talked to lovingly or being punished, all children become sniffling little babies when their mothers are around.  But if your mother sings to you, are you moved to tears? In a YouTube video that’s gone viral, one baby is, and the emotion in the little girl’s eyes would make the coldest person weep. The video, posted by YouTube user Alain Leroux on Oct. 18, shows a 10-month-old baby become moved by her mother singing to her. The video currently has more than 3 million views. The mother is singing Rod Stewart’s My Heart Can’t Tell You No. The young child’s eyes well up with tears from the second her mother starts singing, and those tears quickly become streams flowing down the sweet baby’s smiling face. The baby girl doesn’t seem to be in pain or upset, just generally moved by her mother singing an emotional song. Why can music turn us into sniveling babies, dictating all emotive feeling in our bodies? According to the Scientific American, a study completed in 2009 showed that music “powerfully influenced the emotional ratings” of subjects who were given music clips to listen to and then given photographed facial expressions to view and rate, based on the sad or happy music they listened to. The baby might also be experiencing appoggiatura, defined by Merriam-Webster as “an embellishing note or tone preceding an essential melodic note or tone and usually written as a note of smaller size” that could invoke overwhelming feeling of emotions when used in music and singing. In February 2012, National Public Radio in the U.S. produced a two-part story on appoggiatura when it was used in reference to the song Someone Like You by Adele, after the news organization suffered backlash from many for improper use of the term. More often than not, crying while hearing music is connected to the classical genre, but in modern times, emotionally listening to music is as universal as music itself. Although nothing concrete has been discovered on why music is so emotive and powerful for many, the baby’s reaction to the power of her mother’s voice shows that music is as priceless as it is touching and sweet. RNN

Hey, it’s not too late to enter the Annual Leaside and Davisville Pumpkin Carving Contest. Mind you, the deadline is 5 p.m.October 30, 2013, so you have to get carving. First thing to do is email Charlene Kalia your address and put Carving Contest in the subject line. Next step, get busy making a creative and fun pumpkin. Then put your pumpkin outside your house by 5 p.m. Wednesday night. Charlene will take pictures of all entries and the judges will decide who carved the most creative pumpkin. Contest winners and photos will be posted at Charlene’s site linked here. The prizes are pretty good. 1st Prize is $250.00 RBC Visa Card, 2nd Prize a $100.00 Scholar’s Choice Gift Certificate  and 3rd Prize is a $50.00 Cineplex Gift Certificate. Good luck. 

There will be a candidates debate for those running in the Toronto-Centre byelelction. It will be held in the Cody Room of St. Paul’s Anglican Church at 223 Bloor Street E on Thursday, November 21, 2013.  It will be a two hour debate — 7 to 9 p.m.  The deadline for candidates is Monday November 4, 2013.  Candidates so far are:  

United States Steel Corp said on Tuesday it will permanently shut down iron and steelmaking operations at its Hamilton, Ontario, mill at the end of this year. The integrated mill was idled in 2010, but the steelmaker had not ruled out restarting production if the market improved.

The Slaight family has once again made a large donation to the city’s hospital system. This time, five  hospitals will share a $50-million charitable gift from the Slaight Family Foundation. They are the University Health Network, St. Michael’s Hospital, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Mount Sinai Hospital. The Slaight family patriarch Allen Slaight built a radio empire which was sold to Astral Media Inc. Astral was recently sold to Bell Media.  

It appears that the graffiti artist Banksy, who somehow continues to maintain his anonymity in the presence of intimate business with the media, has upset many people by saying in an unpublished op-ed piece that the World Trade Centre is bland. It is so bland, said this elusive spray-paint virtuoso of bomb-throwing misfits, that it looks like something they would build in Canada. Yawn. The New York Times is said to have refused to publish this article. That’s their business. What astonishes is that once again the media finds it is just fine to play dumb about Banksy’s identity.   

Sears Canada will abandon its flagship store at the Toronto Eaton Centre and also close four other stores in a so-called leaseback deal with landlord Cadillac Fairview. Analysts gulped back the shock and said this seemed to be the first part of a plan to move Nordstrom stores into these spaces. There is no confirmation of that although, as is known, the southwest U.S.  retailer has already said that it is coming to Canada. Sears will exercise an option to sell back the leases for the spaces. They are Eaton Centre,  Sherway Gardens and Masonville mall in London. As well, Sears’ outlets in Markville Shopping Centre in Markham and Richmond Centre in Richmond, B.C. will shut in 2015. Both Nordstrom and Saks Inc. are looking around the suitable locations. Cadillac Fairview Corp. is said to be anxious to get more rent for the Eaton Centre location.At present, Sears leases permit it to pay as little as about $1 per square foot in rent. Look here for BNN story with video of analysis by anchors and others this morning.

The community development and recreation committee is has voted 5 to 1 to cancel the fees paid for recreational programming and instead to provide them free across the city. The motion was moved by Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 26).  It would take the city back beyond the amalgamation year of 1998 to time when the City of Toronto offered such programming free, but all the suburban cities applied what many call a token payment. The Wong-Tam proposal, now goes to full city council.  The argument seems, on the basis of news reports, to have been fuelled largely on ambient emotion. Joe Mihevc (Ward 21) declared “Every child has a right to an education, every child has a right to health care, and we’re saying it be the right of everyone that we take the cost of recreation out of a common pot.” The city earns $30.6 million from the fees,