DNA test hopes to tell who owned secret smile

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Researchers are searching  a family tomb in Florence seeking a suitable DNA sample to compare to bones believed to be those of Lisa Gherardini, the woman long thought to be the model for the timeless Mona Lisa. The tomb is said to contain the remains of Gherardini’s children. No one knows how reliable any testing might be using ancient remains. Bones thought to be those of Gherardini’s were previously found in a Florentine convent. Geologist Antonio Moretti told reporters in the Santissima Annunziata basilica the tomb had an inscribed stone indicating it belonged to the family of Lisa Gherardini’s husband and sons. In her prime, she lived across the street from da Vinci. Gherardini died around 1542, . If the DNA tests are positive, experts plan to reconstruct the woman’s skull and compare it to the portrait.

Bennington Rolph Soccer is getting ready

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Petra Grantham has written to say spots are available in all age groups for play this fall in the Bennington Rolph Soccer Association. BRSA is a community-based volunteer-run soccer house league for girls and boys aged five to 14 years. The season runs for six weeks in the fall, starting the first week of school. A tournament is held for all but the youngest age group at the end of the regular season. Games are played on the school fields at Rolph Road, Bennington Heights and Leaside High. Parents volunteer as Coaches and Managers. Fee is $95 per player. Applications forms are available by writing to the BRSA

Homes to be built on Bill & Vito’s lot in Leaside

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Signs have gone up on the northeast corner of McRae Dr. and Sutherland Dr. to say a redevelopment plan is underway for the property known for more than 60 years as “Bill and Vito’s”.  The plan for the corner, formerly owned by Castleton Homes, includes two original bungalows on Sutherland. The present lessee, Rocco Soramo, says Castleton has sold the property to another builder. An application has been made to build two detached and six town homes. The corner was known as a happy service station stop for generations of area families and a place to talk with Bill and Vito, two World War II veterans who started the station when they came home. They are both deceased. 

Danforth Dash Bed Race goes today at 1 p.m.

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Release (edited)  The Toronto East General Hospital’s Danforth Dash Bed Race will be run today beginning at 1 p.m. It’s on the Danforth two blocks east of Broadview.  More than  20 teams will be compete for the coveted 2013 Golden Bed Pan Trophy in a bed race that will feature teams from the Toronto Argos’ cheerleaders against Toronto’s mascots, Canadian Olympic athletes, NHL players Cody Hodgson, Brad Boyes and Jason Wilson, Emergency Services Teams, local businesses and community groups. Play-by-play calls will be performed by Roger Petersen from CityNews and Anthony Farnell from Global Toronto. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair will be starting each race and ensuring that all teams follow the rules. An all-star lineup. The Bed Race will raise funds towards Toronto East General Hospital’s $211 million capital campaign, to date over $1.2 million been raised through local business support through the Pilaros Taste of the Danforth Festival, Greektown on the Danforth BIA, sponsors and Friends of TEGH.

Thunderstorms spawn twisters across S. Ontario

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Environment Canada says three tornadoes touched down after a number of severe thunderstorms Wednesday. Some locations were Orillia, near Arthur west of Orangeville and near Carnarvon which is east of Bracebridge. Upper left,  some very ominous formations near Peterborough, upper right, looks like a twister is going to visit the Target near Orillia, lower left, just east of Arthur on Highway 9, lower right, the rather scary site from a cottage in the Kiwarthas. 

Andre Marin stars again in Groundhog Day

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There’s something dispiriting about the arrival of Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin on the scene to investigate a matter that is already being investigated. The death of SammyYatim at the hands of Toronto Police ten days ago has become it seems yet another occasion for Mr. Marin to write a florid report. He is already indignant. Having reviewed past recommendations of coroners juries the Ombudsman declares it’s like watching Groundhog Day. Waxing wise on the solution to such heart-breaking deaths, Mr. Marin asks why, as juries apparently recommended, the government has not “increased how police defuse such situations.” That’s getting to the bottom of things all right. Unfortunately, these imperfect human creatures who serve as our police are thrown into situations on no notice and most of the time they are scared as hell. Which is not to say there isn’t a brilliant human or digital mechanism which will always defuse such crises. It’s unlikely to be found in those aging coroner jury verdicts however. Mr. Marin’s current adventure seems to take him even further away from the true concept of an Ombudsman. The office was supposed to help those who have nowhere else to turn, who are ignored by the government. No one is ignoring the Yatim case.  Of course this young man did not deserve to die. But he put in motion events which deeply frightened dozens of people including the cop. Why is this a reason for Mr. Marin to reprise his role in Groundhog  Day?

Put all-news channels in one place says the CRTC

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The CRTC, Canada’s TV gatekeeper has turned down the application by Sun News to be seen on basic cable. But in doing so it has come up with an idea which seem so sensible you wonder why it has taken so long to come forward. Put all the news channels in one place on the cable menu. News consumers would have a convenient, coherent way of checking the news in multiple places and give every service a chance to strut its stuff. The CRTC is calling for public and industry in-put and adds it will “act swiftly” to create this “Information Alley” as the Bulldog has named it. 

“Small overlap” tests: Honda Civic wins top spot

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Small overlap test
The U.S. insurance agency known as the  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has said that the Honda Civic earned top scores in “small overlap” crash tests. “Small-overlap” is a test that sees the full force of a head-on impact against the driver’s side of the car. The institute says this replicates 25 percent of head-on fatal accidents. It says similarly sized cars from Kia and Nissan fared poorly. The Institute put 12 new compact cars through the test, including two- and four-door versions of the Civic and two Kia models. The Kia Soul and Forte, as well as the Nissan Sentra, earned the worst  rating of “Poor” in the test. Kia and Nissan both pointed out that their cars have performed very well in other Insurance Institute and government crash tests. Kia also noted that the “small overlap” crash test “goes well beyond federal requirements.”  

Bryant designs Scotiabank Carnival costumes

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A local man, Bryant Sinanan of Forman Ave. has just completed another exciting contribution to the Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival. Bryant, shown here with friends at the festivities, is a costume designer and producer, creating the stunning creations seen each year during the exciting times down on the lakeshore. But the real work is done well in advance of the Civic Holiday fun in warehouses in the Toronto suburbs. This year Bryant, 44, spent months designing costumes such as the one so well-shown by the reveller at the right. “It’s just part of  my culture,” say the upbeat Bryant. He came to Canada as a child and was schooled from primary to high school here in the South Bayview area. Bryant attended Maurice Cody, Hodgson Senior Public School and Northern Secondary School. After graduating from NSS he pursued his passion in design and graphic art, graduating from Seneca College. Bryant knew he had to be part of the annual festival at an early age. “I am from Trinidad,” he says proudly. He found his way into the carnival through a cousin who was playing in a band. That was many years ago. Now Bryant has his own ticket to ride at the Caribbean Carnival. 

From Snuffy the seal to a total whopper

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It’s a bad week to be Discovery
They say the so-called “mockumentary” about a fictional monster shark called Megalon is the kind of mistake that makes people ask: “What were they thinking?” As part of its annual summer Shark Week festival the Discovery network apparently set out to make viewers believe that it had evidence that Megalon existed. People are furious. Many of them have correctly skewered Discovery for a  collapse of journalism in the interests of bucks. The opening night program had the largest audience of any such program in 26 years — 4.8 million viewers. It was, as some Discovery members said, programming better suited to channels that sell scary “Martian stuff” to simple people who frankly don’t know any better. But here was the attempted hoodwinking of a high IQ and well-heeled audience. Discovery spent millions promoting opening night with its Snuffy the seal commercials in which a rescued seal about to be returned to the sea is eaten by a shark. In his defense Michael Sorensen, Discovery’s senior director of programming. said: “The stories have been out there for years, and with 95 percent of the ocean unexplored, who really knows?” 

“To door” enters the language riding a bicycle

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Now that the new verb “to door” has entered media usage thanks to cycling interests, one can see more such inventions from the same field of activity. For those who don’t read stories about “cycling safety” the latest term conveying opprobrium for a motorist is “dooring.”  It means that a motorist has carelessly opened his door and knocked down an unsuspecting cyclist. Will we be likely to hear about pedestrians being “sidewalked” by cyclists? Will drivers soon report “fender-riding” or cyclists who “bus-truck” in the doubtful space between such vehicles? Yes, it isn’t a terribly happy subject. But it makes a point about how language is used to colour the facts. The Toronto Star has written a few stories about dooring and they have even transformed previously unclassified accidents into examples of dooring. The horrifying death of a cyclist on Eglinton West near Avenue Rd. a couple of years ago is cited as an example of dooring. The driver opened her door and a speeding cyclist swerved to avoid it.  He lost control and went under the wheels of slow moving but lethal traffic to his left. The salient fact in this terrible accident is that the cyclist was speeding along in a narrow corridor between parked cars and traffic that was stopped for the light at Avenue Rd. This is forbidden by the Highway Traffic Act. Witnesses recounted the painful story. The driver said she just didn’t see the cyclist and maybe it was because he was going so fast. Call it dooring if you like, but be careful what you mean.