JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Fetish gear, 1916? Also, does the "before" picture suggest to anyone else the shape of most ghoul noses? It's all in the positioning of the nostril! If anything, "Trados" looks like the first stage in the evolution of the goalie mask - compare the nose-shaper with the guard used by Montreal Maroons goalie Clint Benedict (left) 14 years later. Improvised after an incident during a game with crosstown rivals Les Canadiens, Benedict wore his guard for two games before determining it hindered his vision, leaving NHL goalies bare-faced until Jacques Plante slid on a mask in 1959. Source: The Toronto Daily Star , April 22, 1916

Friday was a quiet night for me, a chance to recover from the week and recharge my batteries for a busy Saturday. I was so lethargic that I did something I rarely do, take a nap. Waking up around 11:30 p.m., I shuffled over to the computer and starting websurfing. I soon discovered that it was a good night to have planned nothing, as the TTC was suddenly poised to shut down within half-an-hour. The city was primed for a strike a week ago, when the Amalgamated Transit Union gave 48 hours notice for a walkout effective at the start of morning rush hour last Monday. Thanks to a tentative deal on Sunday, the work week got off to a normal start. Once the ballots were in on Friday, the offer was rejected by 65% of those voting. Citing potential harm to TTC workers from an angry public, union officials cast aside previous promises to provide 48 hours notice and gave the signal for workers to shut the system down. Bad, bad move... Let me get this straight Bob Kinnear. You give the si...

Launched in 1975, WGPR-TV was the first black-owned television station in the US. It operated as a sister station to WGPR-FM , whose playlist over the years has varied from gospel to urban hits and was graced for several stints by The Electrifyin' Mojo . It was the second television station to occupy channel 62 on the Detroit dial - the first, WXON , had moved to channel 20 three years earlier. WGPR was fascinating to watch, as it was the closest thing we had to local access cable stations...except this wasn't on cable. Even as a kid I could sense that its production values were low. Shows shot in health food stores? Check. Budweiser commercials dubbed into Arabic? Check. Low-tier college basketball packages? Check. Ads touting nightclub dancers who are barely conscious? Check. Movies? Any low-priced package they could get. Lots of old British movies, especially the early Carry On flicks (usually Carry On Spying or Carry On Screaming ). The piece-de-resistance was th...

While dodging back alley drunks in downtown Kitchener a month ago, I noticed that the back door to a Shoppers Drug Mart bore the mark of its previous identity as part of the Big V pharmacy chain. Years of hearing their slogan "an amazing part of your life" have burned it into my brain, along with images of their comical crusading knight mascot, 25 cent cans of Coca-Cola and the free lunch cooler bags sometimes offered up with the latter. Big V was started in the mid-1960s by a group of Windsor pharmacists who joined together to pool their purchasing and marketing. Most locations were pharmacist-operated, with names reflecting the owners (DeRe, Pond's , Cornett), the neighbourhood (Seminole in Windsor) or town. The chain grew to 135 stores by the time it was purchased by Shoppers in 1995. Amherstburg's store was originally Haslehurst's Big V, then switched to the more generic "Amherstburg" by the time I started shopping there with my parents. Loc...

While driving near Buffalo Central Terminal a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon this odd ice cream stand. Given the general state of the neighbourhood, it was hard to say if Gran Gran's was closed for the season or if Granny had discovered business was better elsewhere. The other passengers in the car were slightly freaked out by the girl on the sign. Is it her expression of devilish delight? Her strange eyes? her off-kilter pigtails? Her obliviousness to the giant cone about to fall onto her head? Photos taken in Buffalo, March 29, 2008 

"David, do you think our Norwich Union policy is going to help us when that lovely ocean liner rams into us?" "Just smile for the camera, dear." The Oriana was commissioned by Orient Lines for its UK-Australia passenger route. Launched in 1960, it passed through several hands until extensive storm damage resulted in its scrapping in 2005. Source: Punch , March 21-27, 1973 - JB

Toronto Free Gallery launched its new space at Bloor and Lansdowne two weeks ago, opening with an exhibit focusing on creativity in urban activism, Creative Activism . The gallery was jammed, the common joke being you come to an opening for the food and booze and return several days later to carefully observe the art. A dog watched the goings-on from a safe spot underneath one of the pieces. Either the view was good or it was out-of-the-way enough to dodge the crowd. Some of the works on display, ranging from a collection of "bills" to an assortment of signs and photos from Streets Are For People . *** The opening also served as a starting point for that week's psychogeography walk. From the gallery we headed south along Lansdowne, past a block of front yards that belonged to members of the Adam Giambrone Fan Club... The signs stemmed from the Lansdowne Renewal Project , a reconfiguration of the street with measures to narrow the street incorporatin...

I'm thinking about my father today, partly because it's the anniversary of his passing, partly because I'll be attending a service for a friend's father this weekend. Keeping memories alive has come up in a conversation a number of times this week, with friends noting how reminders of loved ones are still close at hand. One example happened over Easter weekend, when Amy and I had a Mexican lunch buffet in Detroit. We went to Armando's , whose spread mixes staples of the cuisine with oddball items like a concoction of fried eggs, saltfish and tomato sauce. One of Dad's favourite items is usually available on weekends, a dish we have never asked the official name of and refer to simply as "fish soup". One of the elements Dad loved about this soup was that the content were never quite the same. Usually the broth is thin and clear, though you can see this Easter's version was the opposite. Types of fish, shrimp and vegetables varied. The only dis...

Previously : The 15-course Kitchen Table tasting menu at Colborne Lane , where kitchen successes are leading duds 7-1 at halftime. Dish 9 : Arctic char sitting atop tofu, served with dabs of orange marmalade. This picture was taken too soon as a mushroom jus was the finishing touch, which blended nicely with the marmalade. Dish 10 : Venison, parsnip puree, amaranth, mushrooms, huckleberry sauce and beet jelly. Venison is a meat I have fond memories of eating while living in England due to the reactions I provoked in my housemates whenever I prepared it. This was during the Mad Cow scare of '97 and everyone thought I had lost my marbles, since at first glance I appeared to be eating beef patties. Reassurances never dispelled their fears, as if I was pulling a fast one on them. Colborne Lane's rendition was juicy and tender, a piece of meat I could have happily eaten a few more ounces of. The surprise was the parsnip puree. Attempts to eat parsnips in any form have ...