JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

  Buffalo Times, December 31, 1921. Warning: this post will mix historical material with working out some thoughts about the present.  After the roller coaster of 2021, this cartoon feels equally at home now as it did a century ago.  Brantford Expositor, December 31, 1921.  After digging through some of the New Year's sentiments and sketches from that era, it's stunning how many only require minor adjustments to reflect present-day concerns and feelings - in many cases, you can replace the continuing repercussions of the First World War with COVID-related issues.  Regarding this front page cartoon, we're still dealing with housing insecurity, while you could swap labour disputes for the changes brought on (hopefully for the better in the long run) by the pandemic within the current labour force, and business depression into the insecurities surrounding operations under ever-changing conditions. Buffalo Times, January 1, 1922. In short, don't lose your head when ...

This post offers supplementary material for an article I recently wrote for TVO , which you should read before diving into this post.  Here's a sampling of the ads that were discussed in the piece. Note the rise and fall of the ghoulishness factor, especially among the Christmas-centric ads. Click on the images for larger versions. Barrie Examiner, December 31, 1959. Barrie Examiner, December 24, 1960. Barrie Examiner, December 30, 1960. Barrie Examiner, December 23, 1961 . Barrie Examiner, December 30, 1961 . Barrie Examiner, December 31, 1962 . Barrie Examiner, December 30, 1963 . Barrie Examiner, December 24, 1964. Barrie Examiner, December 24, 1965. Barrie Examiner, December 31, 1966. The Weekly, December 20, 1967. I tried to find similarly ghoulish ads in other Ontario newspapers, and discovered this safety campaign from Toronto Township (present-day Mississauga) which ran during the mid-t...

This post offers supplementary material for an article I wrote for Torontoist , which you should read before diving into this piece. Toronto Star , January 1, 1977. The Star ’s initial coverage of New Year’s Eve celebrations put a positive spin on the evening. A full page of its January 1, 1977 edition was devoted to scenes across Metro Toronto, from revellers downtown to skating clowns in Scarborough. Those who ventured out endured temperatures which dropped to -13°C. On Yonge Street, the new year swept over the strip “like a new disco melody.” Among those mildly disappointed by the scene along Yonge that night was Chuck Ross, a 22-year old marketing analyst from North York. “Most of our friends have girlfriends now, so we figured we’d see if we could find some girls tonight by ourselves,” he observed. “I guess we haven’t tried very hard.” Spurned by the ladies, Ross and a friend wound up dining at an unidentified burger joint, staring at the mirror lining the counter.

Saturday Night , December 1976. With tonight being New Year's Eve, the time seems right to post a pile of booze ads with drink suggestions which were tucked away in a mid-1970s edition of Saturday Night magazine. Don't fret if you don't have a magnifying glass, as you can click on any of the images for a larger version. Feel free to substitute your favourite brand, which may be unavoidable for long-gone labels.

Day 365. Usually it's my first full day back in the city after spending a week with the family, a day to get reacquainted with Toronto. The last day of 2007 was no exception to the rule. I started off with a trip downtown to catch some lingering Boxing Week sales, causing damage to my pocketbook. Mirvish Village yielded several cookbooks and a half-dozen mangl..well-loved comics from the 50s through 70s. Kensington Market yielded a bag of poblano peppers and several on-the-go snacks. A clearance sale at The Bay at Queen and Yonge added to the new wardrobe I built up over the Christmas break. Discovery of the day: while passing by Honeydale Mall on a west-end grocery run, I noticed the bees over the doorway had vanished, replaced with non-descript lettering (mental note to take camera on next trip to that area for a future "before/after" post). The early evening was spent batch scanning photos from the early 1970s that lay in a box back home - more on those in the...