The South Bayview Bulldog

A Leaside man has offered fellow residents who complain about their close escapes from bad drivers his secret of success for staying alive for, as he puts it, two-thirds of a century. “Here’s my secret: I figured out when I was very young that any interaction between me and a giant hunk of metal weighing several thousand pounds would not end well for me. So, I made up my mind to avoid those interactions. I guess that’s not really a secret, more of a life plan. If I’m walking and come to an intersection and can see a car coming towards me, I wait. That’s it. Not rocket science, just wait. My thinking is that any car in motion might just decide to stay in motion. So I wait until it stops. If it does, I cross. If it doesn’t, I just avoided death. And what did it cost me? About 3 seconds, maybe 4.”

Free fries

Long-shot lovelies

There seem to be a lot of weepy stories today over revelations that McDonald’s underestimated the number of three-point shots the Raptors might score this season. That’s because they agreed to give any fan free fries the day after the game. Please dry your eyes (unless it’s a crocodile boohoo). The sum unrecoverable from free fries so far is something like $5 million Canadian. That’s pocket change to the arches. But it’s a good story about trying to guess how a team will play. Tricky.  Financial Post

The owners of Passion Fruits at 1537 Bayview say the New York-based Netflix series being shot at their store this week is called Grand Army. This is no doubt what the producers said and it may be factual, but there’s nothing to be found online about Grand Army. In addition, producers are known to give their productions working titles or simply fabricate names for their own purposes. There’s speculation that Grand Army may refer to a fabled Brooklyn bar, but who knows. The term Grand Army of the Republic is an historic name created after the US Civil War by victorious veterans of that conflict. Netflix shoot eats Bayview Ave from Millwood to Fleming

Police are alerting the public to events taking place Sunday which will cause traffic congestion in certain areas.

• Toronto Challenge Run, Sunday, June 9, 2019
• Portuguese Day Parade, Sunday, June 9, 2019, Dundas Street West And Lansdowne Avenue Area

One or more arsonists set fire to cars and a tow truck at three locations in East Toronto and Scarborough early Friday. The first was a car fire at a home on Glen Ames near Kington Rd and Woodbine Ave. about 12.45. Shortly after, a fire was reported at an auto body shop on Sinnott Rd near Eglinton Ave and Birchmount Rd. As many as five vehicles parked there were gutted by fire. Then about 2.30 a.m. a third call summoned fire personnel to Bellamy Road near Eglinton and Birchmount Rd for what turned out to be a fire in a parked tow truck. Lighter fluid was found at the scene.

KITTENS THROWN FROM CAR

OPP are searching for a driver who allegedly threw kittens onto the QEW in Niagara Falls on early Friday. .Sgt. Kerry Schmit said officers have found several dead kittens on the roadway. Police believe the suspect vehicle is a red four-door Toyota, with a license plate ending in the numbers 4-6-9. The driver is described as a woman in her 40s or 50s who was wearing glasses — City News

Two young women working for the Toronto-based Youth Challenge International, 585 Dundas St. E., have been kidnapped from a golf course in the inland Ghanaian City of Kumasi. The Canadian government acknowledges the matter but says only it is working with the families. This appeared in Ghana Today:

Kidnappers within the Kumasi Metropolis in the Ashanti, have escaped with two Canadian women who are on an exchange programme in the country.

News circulation in the social media indicated one of the two Canadians name has been identified as Lauren, were forced into a vehicle at about 8:20pm just when they stepped out of their apartment at Silver Spring Avenue in Kumasi Metropolis.

The issue has raised tension in the Kumasi Metropolis, especially among foreigners as this appeared to be a new trend of business by kidnappers.

Information gathered pointed that, no demand for ransom have been made to the family of the victims or the Canadian embassy in Accra by the kidnapper.

OTHER NEWS FRIDAY

• Air Canada Rouge A321 Collides With Weather Balloon
• Toronto man survives skydive plunge after parachute tangles

The Golden State Warriors fan who pushed Raptor Kyle Lowry during Game 3 of the NBA Finals has been identified by Axios as Mark Stevens, a minority owner in the team. Warriors officials confirmed to a reporter for The Athletic that Stevens was the man who shoved Lowry. The Warriors told reporter Shams Charania that Stevens will not attend any remaining NBA Finals games. In a statement, officials from the Warriors said they were “extremely disappointed in his actions” and apologized to Lowry — Global News

Facebook topics piling up comments Thursday range from the return of the Leslieville Hum to (yes) speeding in Leaside. As to the hum, one comment asserts that a likely cause is a “huge industrial vacuum in the Greenwood (TTC) yards (used) when they are repairing the tracks or track bed….cannot do it by digging due to all the wiring The transformer will be louder under heavier than normal load.” Just another advantage of streetcars one might say with muted sarcasm. As to Leaside speeding, a woman has posted a photo of the license plate of a car she says sped through the stop sign at Millwood and Bessborough at 60 km.  Shocking if true but there are many doubters and the thread seems to fall apart with recriminations. Lastly, Ann Brown’s Leaside Chit Chat has many readers commenting on a South Bayview Bulldog story about the Ford government’s directive that buildings at Bayivew and Eglinton should rise to 35 storeys.

Elsa Lessard at Battle of the Atlantic ceremony earlier this year

Codebreaker Elsa listened in on German U-boats

So many stories, so few years. But here’s Elsa Lessard, 94, a member of the Women’s Royal Canadian Navy Reserve (the Wrens) who tirelessly put in days and nights at a remote wireless hut on the Newfoundland coast during WWII. She and her sisters intercepted and translated German U-boat messages. The information was used to find and destroy the submarines. If Elsa got the same warning about secrecy as other women engaged in such work, she was told that if she ever broke her vow of silence she would be shot as a traitor.

Rider walk out of subway to Union Station/Julien Chagnon-Zimmerly

The aging Line One subway system was hit by a so-far unexplained disruption Wednesday which caused a train to lose contact with the third rail power source for the system. The incident occurred when the train became stuck in between Union and St. Andrew stations. TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the train was heading from Union to St. Andrew after 1 p.m. when it suffered damage to the “shoes” on the bottom of each car that make contact with the electrified rail. A second train also has trouble but apparently did not become stranded. Passengers from a disabled rain walked out to Union Station with the help of the fire service. There were 54 aboard. No one was injured. The disruption was felt all along the subway system as passengers flooded the streets to find buses.

Passengers flooded streets/City News