The South Bayview Bulldog

An unpleasant confrontation at the Tim Hortons in Leaside Village on Laird Drive is the subject of a long thread at Leaside Community Thursday. (Warning: language, anger)

Foreign call centre usually the source of scam calls/Wikipedia

Bell and Rogers are required by government directive to begin call-blocking methods Thursday against the many wild numbers used to contact potential victims of money frauds. But opinion seems to be mixed on just how effective it will be. Those who still possess residential landlines have found that the once essential devices are now a source of non-stop harassment from criminals and peddlers. CBC

SUV heads for utility pole and house in dashcam released by York Region Police/YRP

York Region Police have released a dashcam video on Twitter showing an SUV veering into a utility pole and house at Red Maple Road and Bantry Ave. in Richmond Hill on December 8. They say a woman in her 70s apparently had her foot on the gas, not the brake. She was shaken up but otherwise okay. Note the van at left that just drives off as if nothing had happened. See it here.

https://t.co/6Iy0bE0RQe

— SBayview (@SBayview) December 17, 2019

This scene was captured by Nest Cam somewhere in Toronto it appears.

1617 Bayview Ave.

Sign says “Closed for renovations”

A Facebook discussion Tuesday deals with the five-year Bayview Ave. stay of Rowe Farms. The store closed in September 2019 with signs that stated the company was doing renovations. Few seasoned retailers believed that. Now a thread on Leaside Community has been started with a post that asks “what happened?” The very first reply says “Cumbre’s happened to them.”  That’s surely true, but some may think it was more like the final blow. The evidence suggests Rowe Farms struggled from almost the very beginning with both high rent and a business model which, while morally elevated, wasn’t sufficiently compelling in a field so competitive.

Cumbrae’s is nothing if not an unabashed butcher

The big Cumbrae’s opened in 2017, three years after Rowe Farms. But as early as 2015 the ethical seafood market Hooked quickly shut down a “partnership” with Rowe Farms at the Bayview location. After the fact, they called it a pop up. The closure caused speculation that Rowe Farms marketing strategy of sustainability and respectable, friendly sourcing, while laudable, was not as compelling as that of other meat and grocery stores. Cumbrae’s is nothing if not an unabashed butcher. Loblaws staff say off-the-record that organic products, for example, are shunned by many people who simply don’t see value in them.

The eclectic Bulldog Video Wheel begins the week with the challenge of keeping track of all those Amazon boxes being plopped down on doorsteps this season. Then, Hallmark has had trouble making up its mind about two same-sex brides kissing in a commercial. Below that, the size of Boris Johnson’s UK election victory is just beginning to hit home. Finally, December 16 begins Beethoven 250. The great German composer and defender of personal freedom was born this day in 1770. Long after Beethoven’s death, the British delighted in poking Hitler in the eye each evening by introducing their daily news to occupied Europe with the rousing Fifth Symphony.

Woburn Playground at Woburn Ave. and Jedburgh Rd.

An alert posted by a member of the Yonge and Lawrence Parents Facebook page has been re-posted to Leaside Community. It tells of an approach made to her son near the Woburn Playground at Woburn Ave and Jedburgh Rd. She says the lad was approached by a man and woman in a car. The woman asked him if he would like to get in the car. The boy ran straight home. Quite scary.

Hackers attacked the payment systems of some North American gas station pumps and gained access to customers’ credit card data, according to Visa. The credit card giant has issued multiple warnings to gas station owners over the past month, alerting them that it learned of one successful attack in August and another in September. Visa describes the summer attacks as “significantly more advanced” than skimming, in which unauthorized devices are attached to debit or credit card readers and record information related to all cards subsequently swiped through the reader.