JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

If you've surfed Toronto-based sites over the weekend, you've seen the pictures of a motorist and courier involved in a friendly tete-a-tete in Kensington Market (warning: diving too deep into the comments section may drop your IQ by several points. To me, the driver loses points off the bat for being a litterbug). While I manage to share the roads just fine with cyclists (usually giving them the benefit of any doubt, unless they are breaking rules at traffic lights), other motorists make me wonder why I was so eager to get my driver's license. Especially in Scarberia. Here's my TO road rage tale. *** August 1999. I've just been hired by my current employer and need to find a place to live in a hurry. The temporary commute between Toronto and Guelph is draining me, and I need to be out of my $140/month sublet by Sep 1st. I spend a Sunday afternoon looking a place, frustrated that there are no signs of life in at least two apartments on my list (one on Spadi...

The cans of worms one opens when they start researching the background of local street names. The laneway was named in 2000, according to this city notice (PDF - I have not found a copy of attachment #2 online). According to the document, the name derived from Major E.B. Littlehayes, "an aide to John Graves Simcoe, who owned land in the area". I've poured through half-a-dozen library books about the Simcoe era in Upper Canada and found no references to "Major E.B. Littlehayes". "Major E.B. Littlehales" is a different story. Edward Baker Littlehales (?-1825) was military secretary to Simcoe during the latter's tenure as governor of Upper Canada. His main accomplishment appears to have been a survey of the land between Detroit and Niagara in February-March 1793, which resulted in the recommendation of the site for London. Quoted in Henry Scadding's book Toronto of Old (1873), Littlehales found that site to be "a situation eminently...

After a break through the fall, the Chowhound dining group resurrected their monthly nights out on Saturday. This time, Ethiopian House (Irwin & Yonge - between Bloor and Wellesley), which I've often enjoyed on my own. It's easy to find once you leave Yonge St - look for the traffic light on the second floor...which was right outside our table's window. Open the door and you're overwhelmed with a blast of incense and fresh-ground coffee. These form part of a "coffee ceremony" you can order, though our table passed due to a lack of coffee drinkers (at last, I'm not alone!) Your taste for Ethiopian cuisine depends on how much you like injera, the bread the lines the serving dish. The best analogy to injera is a spongy sourdough crepe, with the bubbles of a crumpet. Injera makes Ethiopian meals look deceptive small, as your stomach fills which each piece. A plate of one or two extra pieces is usually provided, to provide a clean start as you scoop up ...

And so it ends...for a few months. The WEC staff has already collected $287 for the office "predict-the-date-the-Harper-government-falls" pool. Humble readers, you are encouraged to submit your best guess. So long PM PM. Hello Smirky Stephen. The number of gloomy faces we passed this morning was staggering, especially from a city where all seats went Liberal (the pollsters didn't see 20 coming back) or NDP (3). Others felt mild relief that the Tory landslide predicted a week ago didn't happen. It's not reassuring to see stalwarts of the Harris era in Ontario like Tony Clement (who won by only 21 votes - we're waiting for the recount) and Jim Flaherty back in government. Fingers crossed that history fails to repeat itself, or, as many commentators predict, the Tories' position is precarious enough for the other parties to hold them in check. Otherwise, pump up your stock portfolio with distillers, as the country may need several rounds of stiff drin...

Signs, fishwrap - plenty to cover as the campaign enters its final hours. Newsstand Watch A.S. Pryncesse looks at what the papers say... Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Electoral Deathwatch 2006! As election day draws nearer and it becomes progressively clearer that a change of government is in the offing, the national papers have begun circling like buzzards around the most likely political victims. The bodies of Belinda Stronach and Scott Brison appear to be ripest for pecking. On Wednesday, The Globe fronted with a picture of each, both looking vaguely troubled, and followed with articles that are quietly confident each will eke a victory. The Star , reporting on a meeting between La Belinda and La Buzz, was well-hidden, but no less hopeful. Don Martin, in his Wednesday column for the Post , counted both Stronach and Brison among the "Hopeful Dead", the group of wealthy Liberal ministers (including Jean Lapierre, Ken Dryden, David Emmerson, John McCallum and...

Less than a week to go... Most Obscure Political Party Award Official campaign vehicle found this weekend in Kensington Market. Unverified rumour as to whether their campaign song is a reinterpretation of the Ramones' The KKK Took My Baby Away . Celebrity Endorsement of the Week When a race is as tight as the fight between Olivia Chow (NDP) and Tony Ianno (Liberal) in Trinity-Spadina, any endorsement will do, as in this sign found on Dundas across the street from the construction site formerly known as the Art Gallery of Ontario. Newsstand Watch A.S. Pryncesse looks at what the papers say... I think the Globe has developed a split personality… Just when I thought I had pigeonholed the paper as having jumped on the Smug Stephen bandwagon, it decided last Friday to front a large picture of Smug Stephen beside Ricky from Trailer Park Boys , along with the question ‘Evolved?’ While comparing Smuggy to white trash isn’t exactly a subtle approach to reporting, it’s ...

Every Monday night, I play volleyball in a work recreation league, in an old-school church gym halfway between the office and the bunker. Talent-wise, we're somewhere between Arts House Team Bob and mediocrity, but it's a fun way to burn a few calories off. My team mostly consists of French translators, so 70% of the banter on-court is en francais...mostly "Merde!" Last night, I was in the kitchen behind the gym, changing into my game gear, when an odd sight caught my eye. Plugged into the wall was a Coleco tabletop Pac-Man game , exactly like the one Dad and I wore out. Cue flashbacks. Our model lasted 5-6 years. Dad and I played so often, and went through so many C batteries, it's amazing it lasted that long. Friends came over just to play Pac-Man, starting me down my cynical path (mind you, I was just as bad with anyone who owned an Atari, Colecovision or Commodore 64). Lying on the floor in my room or in the basement, I was transfixed for hours, with all...

One of our intrepid WEC field reporters had a stunning expose to shock voters to the core, ready to go for this episode...until his laptop got in the path of a Stephen Harper snowball. Newsstand Watch A.S. Pryncesse returns with another look at what the papers say... The Globe and Mail is closing in on its prey... A lot can change in a week. If the polling numbers are to be believed, and this humble writer remains ever skeptical, the Conservatives are 8-10 points ahead of the Liberals and Smug Stephen will soon become Prime Minister. Not wanting to pick a loser, the Globe has apparently abandoned its role as Liberal apologist and begun to print more overtly critical articles about the Liberal party, while correspondingly writing more complimentary articles about the Conservatives. Things began quietly early in the week; their report on the English debate was actually quite balanced, highlighting some of the best quotes from every party leader (meanwhile, the National Pos...

A week-and-a-half to go in the campaign and the pot is boiling over. Most polls show the current media-darling Conservatives in the lead, as Liberal bungling increases - now it's a furor over a pulled ad. The NDP is sticking to its guns, but will that be enough to prevent nervous voters starting to hear the "M" word (as oppposed to the "m" word) used next to the phrase "Conservative government" from fleeing, as happened last election. How well did the debates go? Everyone thinks English moderator Steve Paikin was the winner! The WEC control room waited for Paul Martin to set himself aloft or flail a limb off. Stephen Harper resembled the stereotypical used car salesman, with the smirk that wouldn't fade. Jack Layton looked older than we remembered (though still spritely compared to the rapidly-aging Martin), clearly outlining party platforms, though he occasionally veered off-topic to stay on message. Gilles Duceppe was, well, Gilles Duceppe....

Kick out the jams, brother and sister politicians! Holidays are over, let the mud fly! Watch the campaign kick into gear and the shit hit the fan. One wonders if Jean Chretien is smiling these days, given the even-growing number of snafus and pieces of dirty laundry emerging from the Liberal campaign. Beer and popcorn. Questions about the timing of income trust policy. A blog that compared Oliva Chow to a similarly-named dog. A Toronto MP who appears to be in financial thrall to the poobahs in the recording industry. A flat tire for the PM during a wagon ride in Regina. Standing in the opinion polls going down. Did the little guy from Shawinigan laid a hex on his ambitious successor? Are we seeing the Peter Principle play itself out? Did somebody hire some long unemployed staffers from Kim Campbell's '93 campaign? Or, after 12 years at the helm, is the natural governing party pooped out? What to watch: as Conservative numbers rise (as we are led to believe, but really, ...