The South Bayview Bulldog

Now that the Bagel House at 1548 Bayview is open 24 hours a day we have to think of a reason to work in some midnight dining there. As legions of Montreal Bagel fans know, the two genial baker-owners, Jessie Sahdra and Sat Chouhan, have built a fantastic business on quality and superb chewy, flavourful bagels. They began in 1999 when they migrated from traditional Montreal bagel bakeries Fairmount and St. Viateur where they learned their craft. We don’t know whether its ‘the simple ingredients, the hand rolling, boiling in honey water or the wood-oven baking. Together however, the Montreal Bagel is a South Bayview treasure. Correction Make that a national treasure.

CityNews CHANNEL has launched and it’s “Game On” between Rogers and CTV’s CP24 for your eyeballs, mostly in the morning (where the money is). Of course CityNews is on Rogers Cable here in South Bayview and that means the cable operator is giving its new service the royal treatment as it debuts

Ford Motor Company is pushing hard to keep the police cruiser business it has dominated for decades with the Crown Victoria. As reported a few days ago, the Crown Victoria is now discontinued, the last one rolling off the line at St. Thomas in September. The 2013 Ford Police Interceptors have begun a tough round of testing at the hands of police, and the early results say they are “pursuit-rated.” Ford says the Interceptor sedan (based on the Taurus) and utility vehicles (the Explorer) passed stringent Michigan State Police tests last week.The Interceptor sedan is equipped with a 280-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 engine, a major shift away from the 4.6-liter V8 in the outgoing Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. But it comes with a booster package that ups horsepower to over 350. The utility is equipped with a 300-hp 3.7-liter V6. And while Chevrolet is trying to grab off some business with a Caprice cruiser, Ford says it has extras not available elsewhere like standard four wheel drive and optional bullet proof doors for those nasty gun fights.

It’s not an alarmist question as so-called “veterans of the G-20” are said to be joining up with others who will launch something called Occupy Toronto at the corner of Bay and King on Saturday October 15, 2011. The linked story from CTV raises the same concerns the public had with the G-20 bunch. In New York the “against Wall Street” protesters are leaderless and have no coherent explanation of what they want. So far, Occupy Toronto seems to be heading down the same vague road. This is the kind the kind of flypaper that attracts self-involved people looking for an opportunity to feel important. Frequently, if the question “what do you want?” were answered honestly it would be “to mix it up with the cops” or maybe “break some windows.” There will be a newly elected provincial government barely sworn into office when this happens. Will it be ready?

Just to prove that National Day in China (see below) isn’t the reflection of a sombre people, here is the Obama Fried Chicken restaurant in Beijing. And, of course, things like this remind us again of how the world changed when the Chinese re-discovered capitalism some 30 years ago. It’s said the president is amused. Fun.

The value of the mud under the house is revealed as homes that appear quite nice looking are knocked down to build new ones. Top, very sweet and well cared for 30s home at No 64 is just a facade now. Below, only the Gothic doorway arch remains at No 16. The neighborhood sets the price as the old real estate law of location prevails.