The South Bayview Bulldog

A growing thread at Leaside Community Facebook Tuesday morning has a report and comments on a coyote seen this day on the Heath St. footbridge between Hudson Dr. and Brendan Rd. The post says in part: “Just a heads up to all the people that walk the ravine during the day with their dog(s) like me – today, 9:00am at the pedestrian bridge that crosses the ravine at Heath (so south of Moore) was a huge coyote. I had just got out of my car, a woman was walking towards me with her dog – and unbeknownst to her just 10 meters behind her she was being followed by a very large coyote. Coyotes have been spotted in the last couple of weeks throughout the ravine area – middle of the day – even when busy on weekends with people walking to the Brickworks.”

Police will no longer fill in for crossing guards

Neptune Security ad

The City has hired Neptune Security Services to provide “backfill” — the emergency replacement of school crossing guards — for the school system beginning this fall. A notice from Toronto Police tells of this change. It is related the reorganization of the TPS and the use of police officers elsewhere. Neptune guards will be screened and trained for the job. They will be identified by a card that will be present on the left chest and a vest that contains a “Neptune Security Services” logo on the left chest and the letters “Crossing Guard” at the back. For the 2018-2019 school year, TPS will continue to manage the administration of the School Crossing Guard Program. The School Crossing Guard program transitions fully to the City of Toronto, Transportation Services Division, in September of 2019.

St. Augustine’s BBQ Sunday

Eli of the Ritz and popular Lena Feng

Hillside Drive

Monarch loves polin-laden sunflower (Twitter / @DebLaceKelly)

Leaside won fair and square

Corn roast and Dog Show

Saint Augustine of Canterbury Anglican Church will have its annual barbecue Sunday. You must drop in. On Saturday, enterprising homeowners on Hillside Drive just across the Don will hold a street-wide garage sale starting at 8 a.m. You can bet some hunters will be flying around before that. Centre left, the midnight flit of Sport Clips from 1538 Bayview Ave. has permitted a modest barber shop shake up. Eli the barber at 1693A Bayview has posted a sign on the front of the Sport Clips storefront. Many men have taken their business to Lena Feng since the death of Leo Cornacchia last year. She’s in the little plaza at Millwood Rd. and Sutherland Dr. Bottom left, Deb Lace-Kelly snapped this Monarch butterfly hanging around a sunflower in her garden Sunday morning. Nice. At right, Deke Macdonald posted this 1964 clipping from the Leaside Advertiser telling of how private eyes were hired to make sure the Leaside hockey peewees had not cheated in their 11-0 thumping of Loretteville, Quebec. Very amusing. Finally, mark your calendar for the annual Rotary Club Corn roast. This year there will be a dog show too.

Greagan Geldenhuys , 7/Facebook

RCMP in Saskatchewan say they are treating the death of Greagan Geldenhuys, 7, as accidental. The lad’s body was found Sunday by a couple walking on the beach at a campground near Fort Qu’Appelle northeast of Regina. His mother, Tamaine Geldenhuys, was found dead, apparently washed up on a nearby beach, on August 24. The boy’s uncle, Darcy Pantel, posted the following to Facebook:

“There could be more details, but in reality, a mother and son perished after being at the beach on a windy, windy day. They were at the beach because they enjoyed being there together. Our plea to you is to love your children, teach them to be safe. Don’t turn our sadness into fear of the water, but rather to help them understand the seriousness of water safety,” he wrote, adding it’s also important to teach appreciation for first responders, police and firefighters. “I can’t think of any way that anyone could have been more supportive throughout the entire process. I could not have asked for more.”

Fan Expo is underway at the Toronto Convention Centre until Thursday. It’s appeal to widely diverse age groups as a source of make-believe, adventure and good old-fashioned commerce can make the mind spin. Here are a couple of videos which reveal this phenomenon. City News profiles people old enough to be parents who like to dress in Star Wars (and other) regalia and rent themselves out. They are the 501st Canadian Garrison and the money goes to charity. On the right, the astonishing YouTube business of a whirlwind personality named Michael, of Toronto (you guess his age). He talks about, discovers and generally lives a life of pop dolls made mostly by a firm called Funko. Here he visits Fan Expo.

High-margin business

Quaint London Costa

Coming here?

Coca-Cola has purchased the coffee brand Costa Coffee and has positioned itself to cash in on the stimulating market of high-margin lattes and pre-paid cards. That’s where customers fork over millions of dollars for coffee that they intend to buy — someday. What a deal. Anyway, Costa is a growing name in the UK and China. The price was $5.1 billion US. There is much speculation Coke will be launching storefronts to compete with Starbucks, Tim’s and McCafe. The coffee business is hugely profitable. In additon to getting many customers to pay months in advance for coffee, the margin on most Starbucks products achieves or exceeds 100 percent. Yes sir, that’s business.

• Coffee-card customers make $1.4 billion loan to Starbucks
• Coca-Cola buys one of the world’s largest coffee chains for $5.1 bln
• Coke brews an instant coffee rivalry with $5.1 billion Costa buy 

No winning ticket was sold for the $5 million jackpot in Saturday night’s Lotto 649 draw. However, the guaranteed $1 million dollar prize was claimed by a ticket holder in British Columbia. The jackpot for the next Lotto 649 draw on Sept. 5 will be approximately $7 million.

Police are speaking out after Drake, rap darling to many, is seen wearing a Hell’s Angels hoodie. Then, the amusing get-ups among dreamers and doers at Fan Expo. Below that, gird yourself for Germaine Greer’s candid view that boring sex with her husband is worse for an obedient wife than one-off forced intercourse (rape). Hey, we don’t make up this stuff. Finally, Indigenous culture rules and the purity of the product counts, you may have heard. Now there are too many white directors working on their films. Only in Canada.

No winning ticket was sold for Friday night’s $34 million Lotto Max jackpot. That means the jackpot for the next draw on Sept. 7 will grow to approximately $50 million, and two Maxmillions prizes of $1 million each will also be offered.

Pinch hit go-ahead Grand Slam for Justin Smoak, definition of clutch. #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/uuupcyNFan

— Andrew Hockridge (@DrewHockridge) September 1, 2018

Justin Smoak whacked a 9th inning grand slam home run in Miami Friday night to propel the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-5 victory over the Marlins. It was a rare flash of sunshine in a lacklustre season for the Jays. Toronto trailed 5-1 heading into the ninth. The Blue Jays loaded the bases on Danny Jansen’s one-out infield single before the Marlins replaced Kyle Barraclough with Drew Steckenrider (4-4). Aledmys Diaz then struck out looking, but Devon Travis forced in a run with a walk and Smoak drove Steckenrider’s 0-2 pitch over the wall in right for his 22nd homer. It left the Miami crowd silent as they watched the Marlins lose the lead they had held throughout the game. Play-by-play announcer Dan Shulman was reduced to a simple “Wow!” Play by play.

I'm packing up my apartment while watching the #BlueJays game and trying to come to terms with the Donaldson trade. But in the midst of this gloomy evening, Justin Smoak crushes a #GrandSlam in the 9th to take the lead. So I got that going for me.

— William Ross (@wross6) September 1, 2018

The Ontario government said Friday it is pushing ahead with the takeover of how, where and at what cost subways will be built in Toronto. It has appointed Michael Lindsay, who has worked on several public infrastructure projects, to head a panel of up to three experts to make recommendations on the building and maintenance of new and existing subway lines, a statement said. The operation of the system will remain with the TTC and revenue from it will continue to flow to the City. “An upload of the subway would help the province to implement a more efficient regional transit system, reduce costs and build transit faster,” the PC government said. “It could also allow the province to fund and deliver additional transit projects sooner.”

ONE-STOP WONDER

The upload idea raises a clear question about the future of the notorious one-stop subway scheme, now estimated to cost $3.5 to $4 billion. The subway was endorsed by the previous Liberal government which had an enormous political vulnerability in Scarborough. The June election erased all Toronto support for the present government. Such freedom from politics both local and provincial plus its absurd cost, might see the one-stop plan changed or eliminated, some think.  Ford said during the election campaign he wanted to add two more stops to the one-stop Scarborough subway plan.