Riocan and Tanger Outlet to collaborate

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Riocan Real Estate, owner of the Laird Drive shopping centre, is collaborating with a huge U.S. outlet mall owner, Tanger Outlet Centres. They will turn the small mall at Cookstown, Ontario into a much larger retail centre. Cookstown is on Highway 400 about 50 kilometres north of Toronto. Tanger will bring in more high-profile stores, do more advertising, and offer shuttle bus service from Toronto, according to Riocan.

Democracy is messy — especially the U.S.kind

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This is a day when many Americans must feel ashamed. The trivially-named Super Committee (right) has produced nothing. Worse than that, both parties seem ready to quickly rewrite the spending sanctions contained in the committee’s mandate, revealing the entire process as a charade. As in so many others places, radically different social beliefs bred in the prosperity of the 20th Century, have made the U.S. a society at war with itself. And it seems fair to say that the seeds of gridlock were sown more than 200 years ago, even as the national sentiment was much more unified than it is today. That’s when the Constitution was crafted in a way that permitted one party to control the lower house and a different one to control the upper house. There was surely trouble in the making. It was part of an easily understood desire to keep anyone from seizing power. But in the end, it is a very serious flaw in the U.S process.

Push is on to meet funding target for arena

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The push is on to meet the $2.5 million community goal for expansion of the Leaside arena. City Council will vote on extended funding in the new year for the expansion and organizers want to get their share in hand before that. Paul Mercer, chair of the expansion committee, is quoted in the Toronto Observer as saying: “Although fundraising efforts will continue after Jan. 15, it’s critical that we reach our original $2.5 million target by that date in order to get City Council approval and get a shovel in the ground as soon as possible”. Sian Davies has a good account of the money situation in the linked story in the Observer. It is a publication produced by the journalism students at Centennial College.

Travellers told to pay for fuel or get off plane

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A flight by Austrian-registered Comtel Air was held on the tarmac in Vienna for six hours on a flight between Birmingham Airport and Amritsar in India. The 180 passengers were essentially “held to ransom” having to hand over hundreds of dollars in pounds or euros each because there was no money to pay for fuel to finish the journey. Around £20,000 was needed to complete the trip and those who could not or would not pay were escorted off the plane. Some passengers are apparently still stranded in Vienna.

Natalie Wood charmed a nation in 1947

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Full name: Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko )
DOB: July 20th 1938
DOD: November 29th 1981
Where born: Santa Catalina Island, California, USA.

Forgive us, but it seems seedy that a police investigation should be “re-opened” because somebody wrote a book that has no new information in it. But hey, that ‘s Hollywood. Better by far, we think to recall the story of Natalie Wood’s charming entry into movie stardom in the 1947 classic, Miracle on 34th Street. Here is much of the tale from the website Christmas Movies. By the time of her tragic death at the age of 43, Natalie Wood was one of the world’s foremost actors. Born in California to Russian parents, Natalie’s introduction to acting and the cinema came early. Before she had even turned five, Natalie made an appearance, albeit a very short one, in the 1943 film Happy Land. When she was seven Natalie appeared in Tomorrow is Forever, drawing plaudits from the star of the film, the great actor Orson Welles. Natalie’s mother Maria proved to be the driving force in the child star’s career. And her decision to sign up her daughter to 20th Century Fox proved fortuitous. Fox handed Natalie Wood her first ever starring role, as six-year-old Susan Gailey in the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street.

Yonge Street tree lighting November 26

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The Rosedale Main Street Business Improvement Association will again mark the lighting of the 50-foot Christmas tree near the LCBO on Saturday, November 26 with various festivities as part of Toronto’s Cavalcade of Lights festival. That’s the 2005 tree inset at left. The event takes place from 2 to 6 p.m.In case you are wondering about the association, they are the people who defied geography to declare Yonge Street around Yonge and Roxborough as”Rosedale’s Main Street.”

New logo just degrees different from original

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It’s different, but boy, not by much. That’s the new Blue Jays logo at left. It’s the club emblem we’ll be seeing everywhere in the new season and by the way, this team is now the Blue Jays, not the Jays. Okay? Look closely at the flashback (right) from the South Bayview Bulldog from September. The blue background logo was the speculative “new logo”. It sported a redrawn beak on the bird. That beak made the cut and was adopted for the new bird and actually looks a lot more bird-like than the original on the right. That beak looks like a pair of kid’s scissors. But apart from that, and the strong blue circle around the whole thing, the new logo is really the old one.