The South Bayview Bulldog

The opening of the Taste of the Danforth and related events like the East General Hospital Bed Races have played in scorching weather. Can you imagine what it was like inside those mascot outfits?

Participating in the Danforth Bed Races with @TPAnews . First team was the mascots. Hilarious. #mghdanforthdash pic.twitter.com/trm5tvwSrH

— Emergency Monologues (@emergemonos) August 5, 2016

#MGHDanforthDash with @AnthonyFarnell and @justinvandette in support of @EastGeneral cc: @ArdaZakCP24 pic.twitter.com/6rOC4OiwwD

— Cristina Tenaglia (@cristinaCTVnews) August 5, 2016

Councillor @mfragedakis with team TPA at #mghdanforthdash @TorontoMedics pic.twitter.com/tAyhAPNg83

— Toronto Paramedic (@TPAnews) August 5, 2016

For nearly 35 years jocks watched hockey and football on television at the Sports Centre Cafe at 49 St. Clair West. Now that will be replaced by an e-sports auditorium where other younger jocks will watch electronic game tournaments from who know where on 30 HD televisions. There will also be lots of gaming PCs and, we suppose, beer. What fun. This millennial coliseum is called Raiders E-Sports Centre and appears to have Australian roots. It’s Twitter and Facebook accounts are loaded with the mug of a gladiator so who knows the level of e-sportsmanship to be revealed. Why simply win when you can annihilate?

The Canadian economy unexpectedly shed a net 31,200 jobs last month, driven by a decline in full-time positions that sent the unemployment rate up to 6.9 percent, data from Statistics Canada showed on Friday. Ontario was the worst performer with a loss of 36,000 jobs.  The decline in jobs in July came well short of economists’ expectations nationally for a gain of 10,000. The increase in the unemployment rate, the highest since May, came even as the participation rate edged down to 65.4 percent. The drop in jobs was led by a 24,200 decline in employment in the public administration industry, helping the service sector shed 26,900 positions overall. But the goods-producing industries fared poorly as well, with natural resources losing 3,900 jobs, while employment in construction dropped by 9,000. Canada’s “gruesome twosome” paint bleak picture of the economy  MInister says “overall trends” are not bad

There’s no way of knowing if we will ever see this thing in service but it is an imaginative way to carry a lot of people and permit traffic to flow freely at the same time. Cars go underneath it. The first real-life test of the “bus on stilts” took place this week in China. It is powered by electricity and carries 300 people.Straddle bus concept

A 24-year-old Georgia father has been charged with manslaughter and reckless conduct after his 15-month old twin daughters children died Thursday after they were left in an SUV outside their home in the town of Carrollton on a day when the temperature reached 92 Fahrenheit there. There was desperate attempt to revive the children by placing them in a backyard swimming pool. The mother was reported to be in Atlanta 50 miles away after a car accident. Numbers are said to show that more than 550 children in the U.S. have died since 1998 from being left in hot cars with 26 cases this year.

https://twitter.com/tpscalls/status/761407897314156544

A story today by the CBC reveals that new health cards issued in Ontario — apparently unlike new driver’s licenses — do not show any gender information on them. What this means is that people using the card as identification when applying for a passport will find their application is rejected. Citizenship Canada says it wasn’t consulted about the gender neutral changes introduced by Ontario and it doesn’t seem to be offering any solutions. In fact, there appears to be fairly sketchy information in the media about what driver’s licenses will show. It is said that a person will have a choice of choosing M, F or X — but the iron-clad assurance that this information will be visible? Fingers crossed.CBC

First Capital Realty, owners of the Leaside Village shopping centre at Laird Drive and Esandar Drive, has entered into an agreement to buy the site of Pusateri’s flagship store and head office on Avenue Road north of Lawrence Ave. West. That store is now closed because of a fire about a year ago but the owners have promised that it will re-open this year better than ever. It appears that First Capital — a REIT specializing in retail activity — has a deal to buy the Pusateri site and a number of other properties on the same corner for approximately $63.2 million. In addition to the Pusateri’s property, the deal involves the neighbouring car wash to the south, and a nearby commercial retail building, small office building and 15-unit apartment. The news came as First Capital announced its Q2 results. Thus it seems to those who know the industry that a retail plaza style project will now proceed at this location with Pusateri’s serving as the anchor.

NORDSTROM RACK AT BLOOR AND YONGE

First Capital also announced the purchase 85,000 square feet of new retail space and 52 commercial parking stalls at the southeast corner of Yonge Street and Bloor Street in Toronto for $189.2 million in cash. It says that Nordstrom will locate a 39,000 square foot location of The Rack, its off price store, in this space.

Taste of The Danforth on Danforth Ave. from Broadview Avenue to Jones Avenue started Friday and will close roads into the thoroughfare and require re-routing for traffic which normally used the main street. The closures will last from Friday, August 5 at 11 a.m. to Monday, August 8 at 3 a.m. The following through streets remain open for residents looking to travel by car: Mortimer Avenue to the north, Gerrard Street East to the south, Jones Avenue to the east, and Broadview Avenue to the west.

HOSPITAL BED RACE

And the 10^th annual Michael Garron (East General) Hospital Danforth Dash Bed Race, presented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, will turn the Danforth into a make shift Emergency Bed Track as teams kick off the Krinos Taste of the Danforth festival. Some 21 teams will be competing for the coveted 2016 Gold Bed Pan Trophy in a bed race that will feature teams from corporate Toronto, our emergency services and Toronto’s mascots. Personalities at the race will be NHL players Brad Boyes and Cody Hodgson, Olympic medalist Deidra Dionne, Olympic athlete Martin Reader, Councillors Michael Ford, Mary Fragedakis and Jon Burnside and Toronto’s mascots.

Four new sports and an old favorite, baseball, will be played at the 2020 Tokyo Games the IOC decided Thursday. The extreme sport karate in being introduced to the world’s biggest athletic event along with skateboarding, surfing and climbing. Baseball and softball will return after being eliminated in 2012 ahead of the London games. The new sports are an effort to attract young spectators and baseball, which has a worldwide following in the billions, will no doubt see classic matchups again between the U.S., Japan and other lands.

Video taken by passengers shows the chaos aboard an Emirates 777 as the urgent evacuation took place. At one point a crew member urges people to leave bags behind.