Florence Green has died. She was the world's last surviving First World War veteran. Florence would have turned 111 in a couple of weeks. She signed up to the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) 93 years ago in September 1918, when she was aged just 17. She was the last
A long, long time ago, I helped Mississauga Blogger with his Mississauga Blog. I was sad to see the blog lapse over the years, and today it's nowhere to be found. Mississauga Blogger may not be blogging anymore, but we're still in touch. In fact, he needs our help. Here's
I watched the Super Bowl half-time show yesterday. I was underwhelmed by yet more lip syncing by an artist I actually liked when I was ten. Flanking her for part of the show was Nicki Minaj, who grimaces too much for the camera, and M.I.A. who flipped us
I've mentioned I have a Toronto City Hall informant. I call him / her Cardinal. Cardinal just sent me an email following the city's deal reached with CUPE local 416 to avert a strike. Here's Cardinal's email, in its entirety. just so you and your blog followers know.... ford claims that
Today is Super Bowl XLVI. It's the Patriots and Giants at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. This Open Mike is all about the big game. I want score predictions. Let's see if anyone nails it...
Clive Young tells a great story about Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y." from his 1982 solo effort The Nightfly. Everyone does play “I.G.Y.” It’s become the “Freebird” of pro audio—visit a linecheck at a major concert venue or a speaker demo at AES or InfoComm, and
Ben Gazzara was 81. He was an intense actor best known for starring in the John Cassavetes films "Husbands", "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" and "Opening Night". I remember him best as Jackie Treehorn, the pornography mogul and loan shark in the Coen brother's cult classic, The Big Lewbowski.
Full disclosure: my nephew's mother's cousin directed Organized Rhyme's video for Check the O.R. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about Check the O.R., a CanCon hit from 1992... Organized Rhyme is now most famous for including Tom Green, but back in '92 I knew
If you're around my age, you learned a lot about sex by listening to Q107 on Sunday nights. That's when the Sunday Night Sex Show aired, featuring Sue Johanson. Sue Johanson told it like it was, without fanfare. It was an open and frank talk about sex and it was
Alan Cross has teamed with Astral Radio to program his own on-line radio station called Squish. As he wrote earlier today, the programming of Squish is is 100% his responsibility. I'm very jealous. I've wanted to do something like this for quite some time, but I'm not Alan Cross. Luckily
I friggin' love Neil Young, so when he talks, I listen. Neil Young had some very interesting things to say on the stage of D: Dive into Media the other day. "Young is calling for a new digital ecosystem of high quality music files and he believes that Jobs would
Angelo Dundee was 90. He was the brilliant motivator who worked the corner for Muhammad Ali in his greatest fights and willed Sugar Ray Leonard to victory in his biggest bout.
My kids have had their own Gmail addresses since they were about five years old. I set them up with accounts, added family and close friends to their contact list, and showed them how to communicate with Grandma, their uncles, etc. There's nothing cooler than getting an email from your
Death From Above's week two was brutal. We sucked. Week Two's Results: Death From Above - 19, Rock 70 - 25 Death From Above - 15, Rock 70 - 25 Death From Above - 7, Rock 70 - 25 The less said about this one, the better.
Don Cornelius was 75. He created "Soul Train," a show instrumental in bringing acts like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson to a larger audience.
It's all about subways. Just ask our mayor Rob Ford. From the National Post: The power struggle over what transit to build in Toronto continues at City Hall, with Mayor Rob Ford telling reporters, at his weekly weigh-in: “It’s all about subways.” An excerpt of the scrum follows.Reporter:
We might have won the battle against SOPA, but we in Canada have another fight on our hands. It's called the Copyright Modernization Act, Bill C-11 and it's an awful lot like SOPA and the DMCA. Bill C-11 is currently under review in Canada’s House of Commons. Why should
I love Mad Men. To promote the new season that kicks off March 25, they've released artwork showing a man in a suit falling. If you've ever watched Mad Men, you know that falling man is from the title sequence. Here it is: Some are suggesting the new Mad Men
McNulty is a regular commenter on this blog, and I think he's been participating for at least five years now. McNulty once lent me his DVD collection of The Wire, earning him a special place in my heart for all eternity. On McNulty's blog, he wrote an entry on why
Robert Hegyes was 69. He portrayed Epstein in the 1970s television series Welcome Back, Kotter.
There are over 1.6 million smokers in Ontario. And while Toronto’s smoking rate is typically lower than that of the Ontario population, the population is very dense, which means there are more smokers in this city than elsewhere in the province. I'll bet at least a few of
I was just reading about U of T banning a poster promoting The Black-Jew Dialogues, a comedy show "designed to build inter-racial bridges and shatter cultural stereotypes". In Berlin, they seem a little less sensitive to perceived racist posters. A few weeks ago, while walking the streets of Berlin, I
I've always been fascinated with goaltenders. There are goalies who score, our love of unproven goalies, and an exhaustive list of every goalie to wear the blue and white in the NHL. Ever since Ed Belfour, it's been a little sketchy between the pipes in this city. Ok, it's been
Death From Above's week one was rather successful. Maybe too successful... We've been bumped from Intermediate to Intermediate Plus, where we started anew with a clean slate. This time, we went 1-2. Week One's Results: Death From Above - 11, Flying J's Gas Bar - 25 Death From Above -
