JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Met up with a dozen other foodies down on Queen West Friday night to try Seoul City . It was the first time in a few months I'd gone out for an organized dinner like this, a chance to sample different places and chat about food for hours. Even if the meal is iffy, the company makes up for it. I made the wrong choice off the appetizer list. Oxtail Ravioli Soup sounded intriguing, but turned out to be one of the blandest soups I have ever tasted. The broth was tasteless and loaded with salt, while the oxtail, while tender, needed spice. I finish the ravioli, left the broth. This was balanced by a French Seoul martini, containing soju, chambord, lime and pineapple juice, whose only fault was how quickly I downed it. What I should have ordered was the Kimchi Crab Cakes on the right (Grilled Octopus Salad is in the background). Right texture, good taste. For the main, I went with the Bulgogi Rice Bowl. The meat was nicely marinated, but the rice/mushroom mixture could have...

While walking back from the gym along Mt. Pleasant last week, I noticed a book lying near a snowbank south of Eglinton. It was one of my childhood favourites, The War With Mr. Wizzle , part of Gordon Korman's Bruno and Boots series of private-school hijinks (though I think Beware the Fish was my favourite of the bunch). Even now, I occasionally make references to things like Upside-Down Scrim-Cake and can dredge up lines from the back pages of my brain. Alas, I didn't rescue it - don't need to bring every piece of my past home, tempting as that might be. Hopefully it wasn't swept away by a garbage crew. Picture taken Feb 21/07 - JB

Previously... (parts 1 and 2 ) The Pelissier side of the Capitol Theatre ( Archives of Ontario feature ). Opened in 1920, it was divided into three screens by the time Dad took me to see my first movie there. His pick to introduce me to the world of moviegoing? Oh Heavenly Dog , starring Chevy Chase and Benji. One problem: as a kid, I didn't take any human transforming into another being very well, even if the transformation wasn't fully shown. On Friday nights, when I heard the Dallas theme come on, I knew it was safe to go back into the living room because The Incredible Hulk was over. Naturally, this later developed into an interest in special effects makeup and a large collection of Hulk comic books. As for Chevy and Benji, when the switch between characters was made, I lost it. We left the theatre and never saw the rest of the movie until it was on TV years later, by that time a family joke. Roger Ebert wasn't crazy about it either . It was probably several m...

1980. A crowded field in the US presidential race. For the Democrats, president Jimmy Carter, whose popularity was sagging badly in the wake of inflation, the Iran hostage crisis and other bumps in the road. For the GOP, Ronald Reagan, former movie star and governor of California. On the independent side, John Anderson, a moderate Republican who had lost in the spring GOP primaries. For the children and department stores, Edward Bear, aka Winnie the Pooh, Disneyfied classic children's literature character. Things were going well for the Pooh campaign, with polls suggesting he might be the spoiler. However, when Pooh's nationality was discovered to be foreign, any votes cast for him were tossed out. But seriously...is anyone else mildly disturbed by the colour of Pooh's eyes, or the hypnotic effort he has on most of the children in this picture? Only the boy to Pooh's right shows the slightest sign of skepticism/resistance (it's hard to tell the expression on t...

Is the monkey deciding whether it's worth the risk to test out this couch? More wildlife, along Rue Roy. A slight plumbing problem. Just off of St. Laurent, near Schwartz's, a cameo appearance by Alfred Hitchcock.

Taking advantage of the recent Arctic blast, I headed down to High Park on Sunday to check out frozen-over Grenadier Pond with the Psychogeographers. A highly effective sign. Skaters weren't cheek-to-jowl as they would be at Nathan Phillips Square (which proved a relief to one member of our group who was adjusting to being on skates). The long laneway cleared out to connect the main skating area with a smaller area to its north. Several shovels were left on the pond to clear out areas, creating new lanes, snow islands and oxbows. Not being a proper rink, the ice was on the choppy side. Walking on boots proved no problem, even if I did fall on one slippery patch. Still, you could shoot a hockey puck around, such as this one from the rare "Famous Communist Dictators of the 20th Century" series. The main skating area. I imagine the view would have been fantastic from the houses in the background. Also note the blue skies and reflection of the bright sunli...

It's 1977 and there's a new ball team in town. You don't feel like battling for a parking spot to see the Jays for the first time. How will you get down there without feeling as jittery as the fellow in this ad? How about special TTC and GO services? Thanks to the detective work of James Bow at Transit Toronto , here is some information about this service. One account of the service, from Bill Robb: I'm looking back through TTC Headlights and I believe this service was short-lived. Express buses to hockey and football games date back to before widespread subway service. These express services operated to ALL home games. The Blue Jay special buses ONLY operated to weekend and holiday home games. The sporting fan was used to service to all games and people would show up for weeknight games, wait and find no bus. Also these were extra fare express services and as the subway lines reached further and further out the extra fare became a tougher sell. Sunday and...

A poke at anti-war demonstrators? A jab at the emerging feminist movement? A shot at hippies? An attempt to cash in on Laugh-In style signs? All of the above? You know those cartoons that ask how many things are wrong with the picture? If this ad were one of those, the possibilities are infinite. Lists are welcome in the comments section. Source: Time , November 14, 1969

Previously... Murals on the south side of the Windsor Star , the city's daily rag. The paper has had a rightward tilt ever since Hollinger gained control of previous owner Southam in the mid-90s (the Star currently belongs to CanWest Global). Reading the paper on trips home, I'd be depressed by the nasty tone of the editorials, the tilt of most its new syndicated columnists (hi Thomas Sowell!) and the decreased amount of local coverage. Still, the Star looks slightly healthier than some of its competition across the river in Detroit. Over Christmas, I picked up copies of the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News and was shocked at how anemic both had become under new ownerships. Both papers have been in decline for years, but they were never this bad - every section seemed to be four pages long, with barely more depth than TO's morning commuter papers. The Freep's web makeover is equally unappealing, with information mishmashed everywhere. (Hmmm, sounds like...

To celebrate Valentine's Day, this dip into the vaults leads to the wacky world of old romance comics. The Miss American Teen-Ager contest was one of several contests run out of Palisades Amusement Park , which closed three years after this ad appeared to make way for high-rise apartments. The contest dated back to 1960, which appears to be the vintage of the clip art of the girl dancing on the record. Note the first "major prize award" listed, a 1969 Dodge Charger. That particular model became an icon a decade later, though not necessarily for wannabe pageant winners... Just two good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm... (As a kid, I had a General Lee playset, where you "charged" the car by swiping it backwards on the floor, then letting it go. The car saw more action racing down Lego landscapes or crashing into stacks of hockey cards then the plastic barrels that came with it.) Girls' Romances was one of National/DC's long-running rom...

I spent Christmas Eve roaming around Windsor, mostly walking downtown. Few people were doing the same, leaving me with a "shoot a cannon down the street and nobody will be hit" feeling. Most of my memories of downtown Windsor stem from Sunday morning trips with my Dad to pick up a copy of the Sunday New York Times and TLS ( Times Literary Supplement ). The routine evolved over the years - Tidas News on Ouellette is the earliest place I can remember, followed by J&J/Y&J Variety near Grace Hospital, then Whittington's on Ouellette. In later years, this ritual evolved into a weekly trip for my parents, where they would grab a drink at The Coffee Exchange , then shop for groceries. I found various uses for these trips over the years: * An excuse to point my finger to direct Dad to drive down roads I had never been down before, or to see the north end of Essex County if it was a nice day. * To buy my weekly supply of sports cards. * To buy new comic books, whe...

When my grandparents lived in Leaside, one of my favourite nearby places to go was the Ontario Science Centre, because what little kid doesn't like to play around with dials and buttons that make magical things happen? I'm not sure if, until a weekend ago, I had visited the OSC this century. I know Amy and I visited once while one or the other was in university, but exactly when is a foggy memory. When a friend organized a Saturday afternoon visit, I figured it was a good opportunity to see if anything was left from childhood. I wasn't disappointed. We started off at the Marvel Superheroes special exhibit. Access was via a dimly lit elevator, which one half expected a battle to bust through. Upon entering the main area, we hit the Human Torch exhibit, with its thermal imaging. In other words, how I'd look on a record cover, c. 1980. Left: a life-size model of Doc Ock, with an arm you could manipulate. Sadly missing: the history of his attempts to marry...