An attractive semi-detached home at 98 Merton St. has sold for $646,000. That’s a nominal $3000 discount on the asking price of $649,000. This home has that most desirable feature of the Merton Street homes between Mt Pleasant and Bayivew namely a deep lot. The taxes, as those who live there might guess, were $5,051 last year. It has three bedrooms and one bathroom. This home was on the market a mere eight days. There are more pictures a the National Post.
The honour killing trial that riveted the world has ended with all three of the accused being found guilty. Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammed Yaya and his son Hamed, 21, all of Kingston, were sentenced to the maximum penalty — 25 years in prison without the chance of parole. It’s fair to say that the cold-blooded and unnatural behavior of the killers has left the country shaken. One of those who died, Mohammed’s 13-year-old daughter Geeti, had been so concerned about her safety that she had asked police to place her in foster care. But that didn’t happen. Instead, a few months later the killers executed their plot to drown Geeti and her two sisters, as well as an older woman the girls looked to as a mother. Now comes the time when the national conscience will be examined asking how such a thing could happen in Canada. There should most certainly be a national debate — free from cheap guilt and long on practical action — about how best to detect and defeat this primitive behaviour.
SOUTH AFRICA — An ancient dinosaur nesting site, the oldest ever found, has been excavated in the Free State, the University of the Witwatersrand said on Wednesday. Paleontologists found clutches of eggs, many with embryos, as well as tiny dinosaur footprints Researchers said this was the oldest known evidence showing that dinosaur hatchlings remained at the nesting site long enough to at least double in size.The nests were from the prosauropod dinosaur known as the Massospondylus and were 190-million-year-old. At least ten nests were found at several levels. Each one had up to 34 round eggs in tightly-clustered clutches. The researchers said the distribution of the nests in the sediments showed the dinosaurs returned repeatedly to the site, and apparently nested together. The research was led by Canadian paleontologist, Robert Reisz, a professor of biology at the University of Toronto. Hans-Dieter Sues from the Smithsonian Institute in the United States, Eric Roberts from James Cook University in Australia, and Adam Yates from Wits, were part of the team. Reisz said he suspected there were many more nests in the cliff still covered by tons of rock.
A copper box time capsule buried under the cornerstone of Maple Leaf Gardens has been opened to reveal items both predictable and mysterious. One of the unexplained pieces is the ivory elephant shown above. Toronto residents are being asked to offer an explanation for the elephant. It does seem possible that this was a good luck charm of some type. Perhaps Conn Smythe was hoping for good fortune as he opened this arena in the darkest days of the Great Depression. Among the items inside, a four-page typewritten letter from the directors of Maple Leaf Gardens that describes the building and the technology behind the ice. And,
The contents of a time capsule found during the renovation of Maple Leaf Gardens will be revealed today in Toronto. The opening ceremony was to begin at 10.30. Above is a picture of the 1931 corner stone laying. The capsule may have been buried the same day. See previous post by clicking headline above. The time capsule was found by workers as the building was being remodelled to house a Loblaws grocery store and an athletic centre for Ryerson University. The box was found underneath a stone at the front of Maple Leaf Gardens. Maple Leaf Gardens was built by Conn Smythe in 1931 and the Toronto Maple Leafs played there until 1999. The time capsule contents are to go on display this afternoon at Ryerson University. More to come.
Bonnie Brooks (left) has been appointed to head up both The Bay as well as its U.S. sister department store Lord and Taylor. She replaces Brendan Hoffman at Lord and Taylor. He is said to be heading to another retailer, Bon Ton. As a news conference today Ms Brooks refused to deny the idea that Lord and Taylor would make a move to Canada, or what form that move might take. Trish Stuebing’s Homefront Diary
Hard on news that China House at 925 Eglinton West has closed for good, comes news that House of Chan, across the street, will also close. House of Chan will fall to the wreckers ball in a couple of years to make way for the Bathurst LRT station. Generations of Toronto families have dined on the traditional Cantonese dishes of these two restaurants. The changes are no doubt partly due to the profusion of Chinese cuisine elsewhere in the City. It is said that the valuable property where China House thrived for more than 60 years will now be developed into a condominium. House of Chan and a few other business on the northwest corner of Eglinton and Bathurst will come down to permit additional access to the LRT. At a public meeting before Christmas many of these details were presented to local residents. It was revealed that a small plaza at the northeast corner will be the site of the main station. Secondary entrance across Bathurst will require demolition of Israel’s Judaica and House of Chan. A third property, Halleluia Restaurant, which is situated between House of Chan and Israel’s Judaica and is now vacant, will also be torn down. A second public open house for the Bathurst Station design is scheduled for next spring.
A Canadian woman who was badly beaten in a Mexican luxury resort hotel over the weekend has been taken out of a medically induced coma but can’t talk because her jaw is wired shut, her family says. CBC story linked to headline above.
