In the first visit by a Saudi ruler in almost half a century, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has arrived in Indonesia Wednesday accompanied by 1,500 people, two escalators and 500 tons of luggage including some gold-plated furniture. He will also visit China and Japan. A man of the people.
Writer asks why TTC union fears drug and alcohol testing?
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TTC operators don’t want to be randomly tested for drugs and alcohol when they come to work. Why? The best answer seems to be that it’s some sort of low-level artificial notion about freedom. Michele Mandel
Yee Haw! Leaside Skating Club ladies honorary Calgarians
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Click to enlarge
Here are the ladies of the Leaside Skating Club in Calgary for competition at @SkateCanada. They were made honourary Calgarians. The picture alone is worth the trip.
Queen streetcars, arson and a reported cut in hydro rates
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Buses will replace streetcars on Queen Street, the longest tram run in the City from May 7 to Sept 3. The change is necessary to repair and adjust several things along the right of way including repairs to bridge between the Eaton Centre and Nordstom (The Bay) which hangs close to the streetcar wires. The occasion seems to cry out yet again for an answer to why the City continues to maintain both buses and streetcars for the frequent occasions on which the streetcars don’t run.
ARSON AT ISLAMIC CENTRE
Police say they have confirmed that a fire at an Islamic information centre on Weston Road and Humber Boulevard North was arson. Damage is said to be light and no one was hurt.
HYDRO RATE CUT?
And the Toronto Star says Premier Wynne will announce a 25 percent “slash” to hydro electric rates sometime this year. Slash is the word if this is the amount of the reduction in bills. The story is by Robert Benzie and Rob Ferguson. They liken the plan to taking a longer mortgage on your house so you pay less per month. The province has a problem not faced by most homeowners however in the enormous debt it carries requiring a sum of $30 billion a year in interest alone.
World Day of Prayer at Manor Road United on Friday
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The World Day of Prayer Service for the Bayview and Leaside area will be held Friday, March 3, 2017 at Manor Road United Church, 240 Manor Road East. There is a long tradition of Christian Women participating a group prayer dating to the latter years of the 19th Century. Subsequently the first Friday of Lent was established as a joint day of prayer for missions and was celebrated for the first time on February 20, 1920. The day of prayer spread rapidly throughout the US and was joined in 1922 by Canadian women who had begun celebrating a day of prayer in 1895. In 1926, the women of North America distributed the worship service
to as many countries and partners in mission as they could. By the beginning of 1927 the call to prayer that was issued was for a World Day of Prayer for Missions. In 1928, the title of the day was shortened to The World Day of Prayer. From 1927 up to now, women gather to pray with women from a different country. A theme developed by the WDP Committee inspires informed prayer and prayerful action. The women of the Philippines have written the service for this year’s theme Am I Being Unfair to You? All are welcome Friday at Manor Road United Church, 240 Manor road at 2 p.m.
Traffic slowed on St. Clair East by TFS alarm call, no fire
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Alarm Highrise Commercial – St Clair Avenue b/w Ferndale Avenue / Avoca Avenue, Toronto (6 Trucks)
— Toronto Fire (@tofire) March 1, 2017
Alo at 163 Spadina Avenue called best restaurant in Canada
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Alo restaurant, 163 Spadina Ave., has topped the 2017 Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list. Alo launched in 2015 with fine-dining tasting menus moves up from seventh spot on last year’s list. The annual list of top restaurants is determined by an 82-member panel of judges and printed in the Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants magazine.
Trump speech admires Canada’s “merit-based immigration”
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Donald Trump addressed the US Congress Tuesday night and his remarks had references to Canada in several spots. The president ventured a surprising (to many in the US) reference to his desire for overall immigration reform. It is something Republicans and Democrats say is needed but the details on how they might collaborate seems to elude them. Trump spoke admiringly of immigration systems in “Canada, Australia and many others” that were based on the merit of the newcomers. Elsewhere, Mr. Trump returned his daughter’s campaign to assist and encourage women entrepreneurs, a scheme in which she enlisted Justin Trudeau. Lastly, Trump spoke again of his plan to see the Keystone XL pipeline constructed. Canadian Press
A glimpse of Shrove supper at Leaside United Church
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MP Oliphant sees there is peameal bacon too
Ladies of the kitchen we salute you
Good work men
Leaside United Church people have posted these pictures of Tuesday night’s pancake supper. Looks good.
Part of Bayview Ave. since 2004, Frank and Nora to retire
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Frank and Nora, proprietors of Rosie’s Kitchen, the friendly breakfast and lunch spot at 1549 Bayview Ave. will retire at the end of June. The congenial couple has spent the years since their arrival in Canada in 2004 from the Republic of Korea toiling at the making of omelettes, schnitzel, soup and salads. Their warmth and consistency made Rosie’s seem indispensable to the legions of customers who eat there. The couple worked seven days a week until June 2015 when they decided to take it easy, and close the cafe on Mondays, leaving them with a lighter 6 day work week. Now, it seems, we will all have to do without their cheery welcome and wholesome food. They say it is time to put their feet up or perhaps do some travelling.
Cops suspect woman, unborn child victims of U-turn rage
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The death of Candice Rochelle Bobb, 33, and subsequently of her unborn son may well have been caused by a person who was angry because the driver of the car in which Bobb was a passenger made a U-turn in front of him. Call it U-turn rage. The shooting took place on Pittsboro Drive near Finch Ave. in the north west part of the City on May 15, 2016. Bobb was five months pregnant when she was hit by shots inside a vehicle. She and three others were driving home from a basketball game and were dropping off one of the passengers in the area of John Garland Boulevard and Jamestown Crescent when a suspect began shooting at their vehicle.
U-TURN A THREAT?
Her baby, who family members named Kyrie, was delivered via emergency C-section and was transported to an intensive care unit. He died on June 15, exactly one month after the shooting. Detective Sergeant Mike Carbone said prior to the shooting, the driver of the vehicle Bobb was travelling in made a U-turn in front of an apartment complex near Jamestown Crescent. “It may have been something the offender had seen that prompted them to start shooting at the vehicle,” Carbone said. “The U-turn in front of the Jamestown complex could have drawn the attention of the offender as being some type of threat to them.” Either that or angry-man syndrome.
Farewell Shrovetide and hello to you scrumptious flapjacks
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Pancake fashion statement
This is the day to have pancakes at church, whether you plan to starve yourself during Lent or not. As both the devout and merely aware understand, this is the day preceding Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, celebrated in our world by consuming pancakes. In others, especially those where it is called Mardi Gras or some translation thereof, this is a carnival day, and also the last day of “fat eating” or “gorging” before the fasting period of Lent. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this movable feast.
FAT TUESDAY
The expression “Shrove Tuesday” comes from the word shrive, meaning “absolve”. Shrove Tuesday is observed by many Christians, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and Roman Catholics, who “make a special point of self-examination, of considering what wrongs they need to repent, and what amendments of life or areas of spiritual growth they especially need to ask God’s help in dealing with.” Being the last day of the liturgical season historically known as Shrovetide, before the penitential season of Lent, related popular practices, such as indulging in food that one sacrifices for the upcoming forty days, are associated with Shrove Tuesday celebrations, before commencing the fasting and religious obligations associated with Lent. The term Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday”, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday.