JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Yes, we're ramping up the cute factor on this site... There isn't a grand tradition of pets in my family. Actually, there's no tradition - my parents were never keen on the idea, Amy never clamoured for one and I was afraid of dogs for 20 years. So it came as a surprise when Amy called me late last week to provide the play-by-play on her search for a new kitten that she could hear, but not see. Seems Gavin found a kitten (soon named Kira), likely abandoned, and brought her home. Amy seems to be warming up quickly to the new addition to the family, if getting used to the idea of concepts like kitty litter. More pictures - JB, photo by AT

Day 6: Pittsburgh, PA (Part 1) The day began with grocery shopping around the Shadyside and East Liberty neighbourhoods at Trader Joe's and one of Giant Eagle's Market District stores. The weather proved a hindrance during the day, as intermittent showers cut down on the amount of walking I planned to do. Early on, I discovered I didn't need to look at my city map to find my way around. The city's main neighbourhoods are well marked, thanks to the signage shown here. Many point to multiple neighbourhoods - imagine if you were at Queen and Spadina and a similar sign pointed you to Yorkville, The Annex, Cabbagetown, The Danforth and The Beach. I tossed the map in the back seat and let the signs guide me...and they didn't let me down. Heading west towards the core of the city, Penn Ave is lined with murals and artwork on buildings, such as Loud Silence , found at the corner of Fairmount. More about the artist , Tarish Pipkins . Two more Penn Ave mural...

I was flipping through an old issue of Sports Illustrated when this ad caught my eye. The pitchman looked vaguely familiar, so I did a quick check on the web. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Peter Sellers, airline pitchman. As usual, Sellers disappeared into character for this campaign. This print ad and TV commercial feature "English toff" ( as DVD Times called him ) Jeremy Peak-Time. Other characters included Vito de Motion and Thrifty McTravel - figure out what ethnicities they represented. Apparently Sellers' superstitions reared their head during the production of these ads - nobody on the set could wear purple . Sellers was nearing the end of a long dry stretch at the box office, which reversed when he resurrected Inspector Clouseau in The Return of the Pink Panther later than year. Link : 1975 Time story on TWA management troubles, which fleetingly reference this campaign, calling it "controversial" Print ad source: Sports Illustrated ...

Can you all of the things that are wrong in this Fruit Stripe ad? So what if the contest closed on Halloween 1979? I might even think of a prize for the most things wrong...say, a pack of Fruit Stripe (alas, the Warehouse does not have the budget to offer a trip to Disney World or 20,000 packs of gum). This, along with other Fruit Stripe ads, are among those that stick in my mind from my first comic book collection. That collection, mostly consisting of Gold Key/Whitman funnybooks, met its demise in a yard sale sometime in the early 80s. Source: Batman #316, October 1979

If you've read my post this week on Torontoist , consider this the DVD bonus feature. Background: I spent Saturday bouncing back and forth between home and downtown (details soon). During a window between two engagements in the core, I had enough time to slip over to the Toronto Reference Library to do some prep work for this week's Vintage Ads column, which marked the recent death of Ed Mirvish. I went with a nice, round number and zeroed in on newspapers from 40 years ago this week...this way, I could work in the long-defunct Toronto Telegram . I narrowed down the suitable candidates to three ads. Two had great headline banners, but only one wouldn't require hours of Photoshop to remove the years of wear, tear and mediocre microfilm printing. Since the ad I chose lacked a funny-ha-ha headline, I cropped the banners from the runners-up and used them in the article. But, if you're curious to see what the full versions look like... Runner-up #1 was printed exactl...

When I was a kid, I tended to like old-fashioned toys, like Lego and Tinkertoy. Action figures like Star Wars and He-Man never appealed to me, which then and now sounds blasphemous. High on my list of favourite play items were Matchbox dinky cars. For hours, I'd guide various makes and models across the basement floor, through imaginary cities made out of various products. Among the types of cities: * Low-budget roads made from copy paper, with Dad's books stacked up to make overpasses - pocket books worked best. Nothing says childhood fun like rolling an early 70s stationwagon across an overpass whose road is supported by Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (which I remember trying to read at an early age and mistaking "goddamn" for "Gotham", which left me wondering why Batman wasn't a character in the play). * Lego, thanks to a gray placemat with a road etched in. * A plastic road set that I believe was made by Matchbox, complete with a gas...

If anyone can come up with a good Ghostbusters lyric riff, leave it in the comments section. This sign, located on Malden Road on the west side of Windsor, has long amused my family. It's an odd part of Windsor, full of short dirt roads intended for subdivisions that were never built. Past maps filled in the area bounded by Malden, Todd Lane, Huron Church Line and the E.C. Row Expressway with neighbourhoods that never were or barely got rolling. This has worked to the natural environment's advantage, with much of the land now earmarked as the Spring Garden Natural Area , part of a complex of parkland and reserves that included the prairie grasslands west of Malden. Photo taken July 1, 2007 

Day 5: Lancaster, PA to Pittsburgh, PA I had spent the night at a Quality Inn that looked like it was an old roadside motel in a previous incarnation (outdoor entrances to both ends of the room, long parking lot, etc). Various stages of renovation were evident, though my bathroom was definitely from another era. If my bathroom tile was pink, would there have been matching flamingos by the back courtyard? Anyone want to guess the age? Tiring of continental breakfasts, I grabbed my morning meal in Mount Joy, just west of Lancaster. One menu item at the Country Table caught my eye: scrapple . While I had heard of this mush-like dish, I had never seen it on a menu until now. It was the first and last time I'll order scrapple. My plate came with three large pieces, of which I got through most of one before deciding the taste and texture weren't to my liking. This wasn't going to be an item that improved with each bite, which was too bad, since the accompanying pan...

And there you have it - White Woods Mall is no more. The piles of rubble and half-demolished sections of the west wing were gone, with only the fitness centre and a dollar store remaining. From its ashes, outlots in the back signal the property's next incarnation. The old southwest entrance, now all by itself. Note the orange signs - the building, construction fence and parking lot were plastered with signs indicating the dollar store was still in business. One can debate whether these large stones in the back parking lot were randomly placed, stand as a memorial, protect the fire hydrant from errant shovel operators or function as art. Previous entries . Full set of pictures . All photos taken July 2, 2007

Canada Day weekend tends to be Christmas in July for my family, as three of us have birthdays that fall within 10 days of each other (you still have just over a week to buy any lingering presents pour moi). For the first time in a few years, music predominated the gifts I received, ranging from the recent round of Leonard Cohen reissues to the new Arcade Fire album. Amy and Gavin are good at throwing me curveballs, with this year's being a very pleasant surprise... Six episodes of golden gouda. For nearly a decade, Amy and I videotaped MuchMusic's year-end roundup of the cheesiest videos of the year, Fromage . Hosted by either faux Frenchman Charles de Camembert or Ed the Sock, these shows usually mixed well-known acts with the hopelessly obscure. The latter tended to provide the most entertainment, due to any combination of low budget, chutzpah, inept dancing, dubious musicianship or jaw-dropping novelty value. Most years also included at least one semi-slutty dance vide...