JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

A stripe of red paint substitutes for red brick as the Freedom Trail heads along the Charlestown Bridge (aka North Washington Street Bridge). The lightposts on the bridge were adorned with banners celebrating the Celtics' playoff run. My stay coincided with the Celtics' battle with the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Eastern Conference finals. Take a wild guess as to where my loyalties lay (hint: the team that lost to the eventual league champions). First stop over in Charlestown was City Square , where giant fish watched every move I made. A phoenix may be a more appropriate symbol, given the square's ability to resurrect itself from invasions, fires and elevated freeways . Boston firefighters put out blazes and quench the thirst of thirsty walkers. A memorial to those who fought in the Civil War stands in Winthrop Square. Simmering resentment against the British dies hard on Bunker Hill . I arrived too late to climb up the 221' obelisk but ...

Check out page 10 of today's issue of Eye Weekly (July 24th edition for future readers digging in library archives). Note the photo credit for a piece on the gentrification of Bloorcourt Village . This is the second time in as many weeks one of my photos has been published, which makes me wonder if I should have dove deeper into Dad's 1970s Time-Life Library of Photography set during my formative years (I flipped through the series, focusing on the annuals and their roundup/new photographer sections and dodging the technical volumes). You might say the first published work was a surprise birthday present...but more on that once I take the appropriate photos. Photo taken outside Toronto Free Gallery, Bloor and Lansdowne, March 20, 2008. The story behind the image .

Today, a dramatic presentation that combines tragedy, romance and humour in the name of selling soap. If only someone had forcibly impressed the message of this masterwork on my first roommate in university... Thanks to Lifebuoy, "B.O." became a catchphrase in the 1940s. Radio ads used a foghorn-effect to emphasize the nasty stench of people who didn't use Lifebuoy. This quickly became a stock sound effect for comedians, frequently heard on Spike Jones records from the era. It appears the young marrieds have greater problems to face than B.O. Notice how the groom is thinking the bride's thoughts in the last panel-does this mean he will be a domineering hubby? Perhaps the marriage will roll along in a stereotypical fashion for the era, with a few affairs in the mid-1950s chalked up to midlife crisis. In 1967, tiring of have all her thoughts devised by someone else, she spends an afternoon experimenting with the drugs her children have hidden in their luggage wh...

Video loaded by Retrontario Today on Torontoist, I wrote about this late 1980s Toronto tourism commercial from the late 1980s that aired frequently in the Detroit/Windsor market. This is a fine example of Tony Bennett's side career promoting cities located on the Great Lakes. In the late 70s or early 80s (date not verified) Bennett sang the praises of Detroit in a TV spot. I've searched unsuccessfully for a video or lyrics, which memory tells me began with "welcome to your city" and ended with "you're one of a kind"—I'll spare you from hearing me hum a few bars. It's conceivable that Detroit tourism officials hoped for an impact akin to "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," but Motown wasn't as lucky as Capital City .

After dodging heavy machinery to cross Harvard Square, I hopped on the subway and headed into downtown Boston. Everyone obeyed the sign not to run down the ramp even as the train was ready to pull away. First stop was Brattle Book Shop , whose bargain carts filled the adjacent lot. A series of author portraits hang above the $3-5 books - I'm partial to the take on Dr. Seuss. Disintegrating 19th century editions of The Atlantic were tempting but looked as if they would crumble before I reached the cashier. I soon discovered I wasn't the only Canadian roaming around Downtown Crossing. While checking out at an Eddie Bauer outlet, the cashier noticed my CIBC credit card and noted I was the sixth or seventh Canadian she had served that day. It wasn't difficult to find traces of home around Boston, if only in the TD logo and colour scheme on Banknorth branches. One of Downtown Crossing's retail landmarks was Filene's, which was famous for yearly "runn...

Today was a milestone for the official Warehouse Motorized Transportation Vehicle (trademark pending)... What has this dedicated vehicle experienced in its seven-year journey? * One tree landing on its hood * One mystery trunk crunching in a Boston subway garage * One flying front bumper in Guelph * One 180-degree skid into a ditch off 401 * One link in a five-car chain reaction in Burlington * Trips to far-flung locales like Santa Fe, Calgary, Salt Lake City, Winnipeg, St. Louis, Montreal, Maine and Malvern * Numerous rides home given to friends * 78.7% of the non-fiction books-on-CD collection of the Toronto Public Library As Mom would say, "oh that poor car." I generally use it for out-of-town adventuring or grocery shopping, but admit I use it more than I should for running to in-town events at the last minute. The effect of high gas prices seems to be eliminating regular shopping trips I make to the outer edges of the city, which are now special events....

7:45 p.m. last night: the lineup at the Glen Morris Studio was about to be let into the theatre to check out Totem Figures , Fringe veteran T.J. Dawe's latest monologue. I stood there lost in my thoughts, processing the $500 I had just poured into my car and the thali I had quickly downed in Little India. A cool breeze made it a comfortable wait, combined with the knowledge that an air conditioner would operate during the performance in a venue infamous for its kiln-like qualities. Suddenly I felt something cool fall on my left hand. The mound resembled a dab of a melted soft-serve twist cone, only the chocolate was thicker and sludgier. The middle-aged women around me noticed and quickly offered to clean up my hand and back. Everyone insisted that a streak of good luck lay ahead. *** If this is true, then the bird officially blessed what has been a good Fringe experience this year. I'm working my way through a five-performance pass and pouring over the online reviews to...

Once upon a time, Ontario's alcohol regulations stipulated that bars were split into separate rooms for men and women , though the odd "escort" was allowed with the ladies. Though these rules evaporated by the 1970s, traces may found in older watering holes that kept the signs for decorative use. Amy and I found this well-preserved example on a recent roam around Windsor, at the Victoria Tavern in Walkerville. Photo taken June 28, 2008

Ever since I moved away from home, a running, slightly sick joke that crops up in family conversations is the question posed in the title of this post. It started due to there being spectacular blazes that wipe out some part of Kingsville every few years. One fire years ago destroyed one of the main commercial blocks downtown (though I forget if the Kingsville Bakery was affected or was already gone by that point. I still have cravings for their cookies and jelly doughnuts). A blaze at a plastics factory in 2002 sent a toxic cloud into the air. Dad usually informed me of smaller blazes in between, which led to the running joke Amy and I probably carry on in his memory. On my recent trip home, I didn't have a chance to ask the question before I received an answer, as the night I arrived a storage shed went up in smoke at the Kingsville Golf and Country Club , causing $1 million in damage. Since I was going to head back to Toronto via Kingsville (to take in the produce stand...

Day three of the trip began with a leisurely drive to Alewife T station to drop off the car. Everything was smooth until I reached the station, when construction and a closed ramp forced me to circle twice before I was able to enter. Figuring out where to park was an adventure, as most of the deck was marked with signs indicating that any vehicles left after 7 p.m. would be towed. Since I wasn't sure when I would return I looked for areas without these signs, which brought me to the top. The upside was a lovely view of trees gradually giving way to the city skyline. Spacing recently posted an article on Boston's transit system . The CharlieCard system (reloadable smart cards) is a massive improvement over previous frustrations figuring out which fare was the correct one. Among of the distractions of the Red Line was a flip book-style ad for Nestle Quik on the tunnel walls during a long stretch between stations. I hopped off the subway near MIT and wandered west a...

1,391: PHOTO DU JOUR Several weekends ago, I roamed around Waterloo Region and southern Perth County with an old friend from university. Around Gads Hill, our eyes were drawn to a distant church. We drove down a dirt road and came upon St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church. The result would make a great postcard, non? Photo taken June 21, 2008