JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

During Thursday night's  Festival of Lights  in Kensington Market, the  Toronto Parking Authority  tested its latest innovation at the Bellevue lot: special spots to leave one's pants. If the results are successful, other spaces will be created around the core, which will come in helpful for those times where you can't be bothered to cart your pants around when you're not using them, or when carrying them becomes a distraction. Not to be outdone, the Toronto District School Board will be testing their new specialty parking spot over the holiday break at Central Tech: tires or toilets only.

The local media has gone gung-ho about tales of parking ticket quotas and increased driver rage against the parking cops. None of this surprises me, given several sketchy tickets I've received for parking on my street. A permit doesn't make you immune from zealous officials. I've learned not to park in certain spots, regardless of how they are marked. The weirdest ticket happened five years ago. In front of my house, there are two legal spots. Between our driveway and a short alleyway behind Mt. Pleasant, there's an illegal spot, marked as a "no standing" zone by a pole in front of my house. One night, the front of the car was sitting about 5 cm in front of the pole. 5 cm too far for a parking cop early one May morning. Here's an entry on the ticket from my journal - I used to number each installment, giving up after one volume disappeared along with the backpack it was in. 948: 25 May 00 Wha' The Fuh? It was not a good way to start off the day...