The South Bayview Bulldog

Everyone will have his own opinion about the strike by baggage handlers at Toronto Airport that is mainly prompted, the union says, by disrespect towards working stiffs by a callous management. Although there are no examples offered of the emotionally hurtful things done to employees, we are told these honest souls just can’t take it any more. “Our members have been so disrespected and I am just talking about common courtesies and simply being a human,”  said Harjinder Badial, vice president of Teamsters local 419. “It has gotten so bad that our members are fed up.”

Lawyer Boyd Balogh has died in Toronto at the age of 51. Mr. Balogh was a long-standing partner at the firm of Gowlings WLG. Friends are invited to call at Humphrey’s Funeral Home on Wednesday, August 2 from 5 to 8 p.m. A celebration of Mr. Balogh’s life will be held at Vaughan Estates, 2075 Bayview Ave (80 Armistice Drive), on Thursday, August 3 from 2 to 5 p.m. Obituary

Ghazal Rug Gallery

The Ghazal Rug Gallery has opened at 1693B Bayview Ave in the north block opposite Hillsdale Ave. Welcome to this new business. Ghazal is a word of Middle Eastern and Indian extraction meaning a lyric poem with a fixed number of verses and a repeated rhyme, typically on the theme of love, and normally set to music. Pleasant.

Neither police nor health workers are genuinely surprised that drugs tainted with the rogue killer substance fentanyl have taken four lives in Toronto in something like two days. The peril is well-known to anyone who might be a street drug user. But the reaction to these deaths among some is that somehow the City has failed. Perhaps, but as usual the “root cause” solution is hopelessly vague. One worker said the City should have taken “more actions.” What does that mean? Seizing people off the street and jailing them to prevent their habit, or simple stupidity, from turning fatal? These heart-breaking cases are proof again that those determined to take dangerous risks will do so as long as they are free to roll the dice. We’re told that fentanyl is easy to make, quite often made in China and smuggled into Canada in personal belongings. Are the Chinese as responsible as they should be about exporting death to the streets of Canada?

De La Mer salmon burgers, dogs

But today we sit here for a while

Man vs Lobster

South Bayview was bopping right along this Saturday with word that 2 Bros Cuisine is working hard to get open by mid to late August. People at the parent store on Royal York Road say they cannot wait to serve you.  At Mayrick, the eastern Mediterranean restaurant coming to the former Vero’s location, the opening date is now Tuesday, August 8. They too are working to stay on schedule. The former Tinto bar Tapas at 1581 is telegraphed to be a salad bar. This bit of news is contained in Facebook writings of the estimable Chantal Vaillencourt. And at McSorley’s Saloon, staff is already promoting the annual Man vs Lobster evening on August 12 beginning at 5 p.m. Tell the lobsters to be on time. Finally, De La Mer was doing good business as usual with its summertime grill of salmon burgers and dogs. Man and family always win here too.

July 7 wedding

“Two nerds in love”

Arriving at Jeopardy in 2013

A New Brunswick teacher, Maryanne Lewell, has married a fellow Jeopardy! contestant, American Michael Townes, this month and become a media sensation in the process. Lewell, a teacher of history and social studies at Saint John High School, says she’s surprised by all the attention they’ve received because she and Townes are “just two nerds in love.”  Lewell met the South Carolinian four years ago during the quiz show’s annual teachers tournament and fell for him after he visited her several times in Saint John. Their July 7 wedding in St. Andrews By-The-Sea, N.B., was featured in the coveted “Vows” section of The New York Times a notation that started a cascade of stories in publications ranging from People to Martha Stewart Weddings. “We are just a couple of boring nerds, who met doing something we love,” Lewell told The Canadian Press in an email from Texas where the new couple is visiting family. “And while the attention and support has been wonderful and affirming, it’s also overwhelming. But it’s cool that people love our story: we love it too.”

With Troy Tulowitzki set for tests, utilityman Rob Refsnyder is expected in Toronto tomorrow.

Troy Tulowitzki exits tonight's game due to injury. We will update his status when we have more information.

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 29, 2017

The ongloing watermain repair and replacement saw Millwood Rd. closed between Sutherland Dr. and Randolph Rd. Friday. Be aware.

You know who

Cedar Waxwing

Eastern Bluebuird

Brome Squirrel Buster Feeder

Nuthatch

Urban Nature, the birders’ store, has a sale just now on the Brome Squirrel Buster Plus, an effective way to save your feed for the birds not the squirrels. The feeder has a weight sensitive rest which is perfect for birds, but which moves with the weight of a squirrel, closing the feeder. Ingenious. Squirrels are said to quickly learn that they cannot feed at the Squirrel Buster and move on.  See it in action in this video and check it out at the Urban Nature Store at 900 Don Mills Rd. at Barber Greene Rd near Tilley’s. Also see ad, this page.

Further to the early Thursday criminal activity at the Credit Vally Town Plaza as reported earlier, video from the Pizza Pizza is now posted of one of the three perpetrators holding a weapon in the face of a clerk at the store. The fearless clerk gets away with grabbing the weapon before the perp fled. According to police this is the youth who was shot during an interaction with Peel police. He is alleged to  have tried to hijack a car but the woman driver faced him down. She said he seemed rather stunned (our word) so who knows what was going on with this kid. Two other youths took off in a car when police arrived.

A teen was ordered raped by a gang of so-called Pakistani elders as a form of revenge on her brother, who was accused of rape. Did someone say that’s un-Canadian? Next, when young Charlie corrected his betters at the Natural History Museum in London about dinosaurs they sort of scoffed. But then they said they were sorry and changed an exhibit in keeping with Charlie’s advice. Then, an interesting NBC examination of the downward slide of Uber this year. And finally, a last look at Justin Bieber hitting a photographer with his truck. We carry no brief for Bieber but this paparazzo’s dive was worthy of the NFL drama tour.