Kent Duncan, Northern coach, dead at 62

Kent Duncan, 62, a solid East York left-hander and coach of the Northern Secondary School baseball team passed away Saturday. Duncan coached at Northern for 31 years coaching various sports including baseball from its inception and won several Toronto championships. As well he coached Leaside juniors for three years winning the Toronto championship in 2009-10. Duncan retired from teaching in 2005 but continued with some supply teaching and assisting with Northern’s team.Visitation will be at McDougall & Brown Funeral Home (2900 Kingston Rd.) Tuesday (2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.) with the service at 1 p.m. Wednesday. In lieu of flowers, donations in Duncan’s memory may be made to Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart Program. Toronto Sun

We like to look on the bright side of things

South Bayview and all around is wet, for sure. We’re forecast to get as much as 10 cm of rain tonight and a similar amount tomorrow night. We only know what we are told by Wikipedia but if it’s true that 2 cm of water translates into 20 cm of snow, you can see how we should be grateful for this wretched drizzle. We like to look on the bright side of things.

Sunshine and Sweetie arrive in Edinburgh

A giant panda couple from China’s Sichuan province arrived today (Sunday Dec 4) in Edinburgh as part of a programme that will see them spending the next 10 years in their new home in Edinburgh Zoo. Yang Guang (Sunshine) and Tian Tian (Sweetie) travelled from the provincial capital of Chengdu. ITN’s Katie Lemborn.

DC-7 flight full of nostalgia for Sully Sullenberg

One of the world’s last DC-7 passenger planes has flown to its resting place at an airline museum in Charlotte, NC. The flight was fully loaded with aviation buffs as it took off from Miami. One notable passenger was Capt. Charles (Sully) Sullenberger (left) the pilot who successfully landed his U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River in 2009. He recalled making models of the DC-7 as a kid. This DC-7 dates from 1958 and belonged to Eastern Airlines. It remains in very good condition. Some of the enthusiasts on board remarked that the hat racks along both sides of the cabin had been removed. “We used to hang on to them,” one lamented. In Canada, the DC-7 was the workhorse of Trans-Canada Airlines, predecessor to Air Canada. TCA called them the North Star. They were renowned for their reliability and sheer deafening engine noise. Below, some TCA DC-7 pictures including an ad that ran in New York City offering a flight to Toronto for $22.65, one way of course. Interestingly, Toronto had a premium attached to it even then as the flight to Montreal cost only $21.30


Bennington construction chronicled by rudy.ca

The construction work being done by Hydro One at the extreme south end of Bennington Heights has been chronicled on a local website, rudy.ca. It’s run by Rudy, naturally, and in this case his extensive labours have yielded information of very considerable interest. The most visible and perhaps contentious aspect of this work is the set of traffic lights installed on the Bayview extension south of Moore. The project requires the removal of 1920s era tension towers (inset) along the CPR main line and their replacement. It’s a job that Hydro One has estimated will take about three years. Hence the air of doubt as to whether these lights may properly be called temporary. It’s a fact however that they are not intended to be there after the work is done. They are there to allow Hydro vehicles to come and go safely. Local residents received a circular from Hydro One in September announcing the work. It was added to the website of Councillor Parker. But information given to the local homeowners has been generally unknown to the tens of thousands of motorists who make their way up and down the extension every day. Some have offered rather tart commentary (see post below) on the odd placement of the traffic lights.

Yonge re-paving south of Manor Road

Residents on the western fringe of South Bayview Land will probably be aware of the re-paving work on Yonge Street between approximately Manor Road and Merton Street. This is a heads up for everyone else.

Temporary lights south of Moore are “insane”

A reader has complained that the new temporary traffic lights on Bayview south of Moore are not safe. He comments as follows: “These new lights are quite possibly the most dangerous that I have seen in my 43 years of driving. To put lights in the middle of a blind, downhill, reverse-camber corner is nothing short of insane. All of the driver’s attention needs to be focused on the road and the corner, preventing him from looking up to see the traffic signals. The worst thing that you can do when navigating a corner like this is to apply the brakes. If it’s even a little slippery, the car will end up skidding right over the divider and into oncoming traffic. Or worse, you will end up running down a pedestrian or pushing them into oncoming traffic. I predict countless fender benders will occur at these lights. I hope, but I’m not optimistic, that there won’t be any fatalities.The whole problem could have been avoided by putting the lights and the stop line before the corner instead of just after it.” Ed — Thanks for the comment. You make sense.

Sun TV Photoshops out ex-anchor, inserts new

The National Post reports that rather than retake a group photo after the departure one of its anchors, the Sun News Network simply decided to “erase” the ex-employee and paste in anew one.In a Tuesday Web post announcing the channel’s return to Bell TV, the network’s anchors are featured at an April 1 ribbon-cutting with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.To account for the June departure of Theo Caldwell, third from right in the second photo below, image editors pasted over the former anchor with a discoloured, mildly out-of-proportion image of his replacement, Michael Coren.

This practice has a long history in the former Soviet Union where ousted members of the Politburo were simply retouched out of group photos.

Mayhem, “Mazda sandwich” block Bayview

A six-car property damage accident blocked Bayview between Hillsdale Ave and Soudan Ave this afternoon. It’s no mystery that it was a mess, although just how it happened was the source of much speculation. Upper left, two vehicles sideswiped, upper right, a badly damaged Toyota, Lower right and left, a Mazda Mx-5 sandwich (ouch!) with two heavy SUVs on either end. Once again, all six cars are said to be part of the same accident. Our colleague Rudy at rudy.ca has some good pictures too.

Williams to replace George as Suncor president

Suncor Energy Inc. Chief Executive Officer Rick George (left) will retire next year after leading the oil- sands producer for more than two decades and transforming it into Canada’s largest energy company. George, 61, will be replaced in May by Chief Operating Officer Steve Williams, 55, the Calgary-based company said in a statement today. Williams was also promoted to president and given a seat on the board. Bloomberg

What does Ford owe the Star? And vice versa

Mayor Ford would have to be pretty arrogant to deny the Toronto Star access to municipal releases because it had published a story which was accurate in all respects. Of course, the mayor says the story the Star published about him was false. The Star says that it stands by its story (which is frequently a way for newspapers to say they aren’t going to retract no matter what). And while there may be an administrative duty on the mayor to give official releases to the Star, it is indisputable that there is very little attention being paid to Mr Ford’s complaint. The Star has cast Mr. Ford as a bully and invoked its renowned importance as the largest newspaper in Canada. This is unfortunate. It would do far better to try to reconcile its original story to agreed upon facts rather than wage its present pompous campaign. The Star is a hugely powerful organization that almost daily thunders its way to conclusions which fit its own special point of view. It should stand down on this campaign. At least send an emissary to the mayor and try to agree on the facts. The facts are supposed to be important to newspapers.

Removal of old trees in Moore Park

The City’s accelerated program of tree removal was in full force in Moore Park today. Since the storm in August when maple trees came crashing down all over South Bayview, Toronto has been active identifying and removing older trees.