JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Day two began with a quick bite in the hotel lounge. It was your standard bare-bones continental: juice, cereal, fruit and Otis Spunkmeyer bagels (the latter displayed little spunk, but an application of apple jelly and Philly helped). I took the Thruway to Utica, then hopped onto New York Route 5 to drive along the north side of the Mohawk River . It was a peaceful drive, with few agitated or pokey drivers between Utica and Schenectady. A relaxing winding highway, towns with baby food factories, places my brother-in-law warned me not to linger in, etc. The weather was a damper, with intermittent showers preventing me from shooting photos. I stopped for lunch at the Farmer Boy diner in Colonie. First up was a soothing squash soup with bonus red peppers and bacon. My main was one of the better-marinated half-chickens I've had, bathed in lemon and oregano and flattened, served atop chicken-flavoured rice pilaf. It was roadtrip comfort food gold. After a few hours on the M...

Today, Zato believes in the powerful political philosophy known as Groucho Marxism. Adherents are known to have painted-on facial hair, a knack for humourous quips and a penchant for singing Lydia The Tattooed Lady . Clip from At The Circus (1939) This stencil appears to be in several spots on the streets of Montreal . Photo taken on St. Laurent, Montreal, May 22, 2008 

Rough translation: "The garbage can, the garbage man and the citizen: it's a menage-a-trois" (or "threesome" if you prefer). Having grown used to Toronto's divided-by-garbage-type recepticles, it takes a moment to reacquaint myself with single-serving cans in other cities. (Speaking of our city's garbage, here's Spacing's take on the recently-unveiled street furniture models ) St. Catherine Street, Montreal, May 21, 2008

The May long weekend has traditionally my time to hit the road on a long solo roadtrip to an eastern destination. This year it was Boston's turn for a visit, folded into my annual jaunt to Montreal. I had been up late/woken up early to finish off an article, so I got off to a later start than intended. My first decision was choosing a border crossing. Queenston-Lewiston was out of the question, since it always has backups and its border guards tend to be the crankiest. I headed to my usual crossing, the Rainbow Bridge, only to find it had a bit of a backup. I was resigned to a wait no matter what until a timely intervention from the 680 News traffic report, which indicated no problems at the Peace Bridge. I rarely make the trip to Fort Erie, since my western Empire State misadventures tend to start in Niagara Falls. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I left the line and drove down to the Peace Bridge. The crossing couldn't have been smoother. There was a mild backup but plent...

With Toronto in the swing of Bike Month, it seemed appropriate to focus on two-wheeled transport in my Vintage Toronto Ads column on Torontoist . This week, a bike modestly promoted by its manufacturer . You can also catch my most recent Historicist column, covering the sole fatality of the Great Toronto Fire of 1904 . *** Last week, I headed down to the Bloor to catch a fundraiser for the Toronto Cyclists Union , a Rocky Horror-style presentation of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure . A valet lot for bicycles was set up in front of the theatre (alas, I took the subway down - I intended to finally get my bike on the road this weekend, but the weather gods had other ideas). I was surprised to find out how many people I knew in the audience who, like me, had never seen the movie. Can't say I was a big Pee Wee fan at the height of his popularity, nor were most of my peers - it was that age where you (temporarily, as it turned out) reject things that seem childish in nature, even...

The model in this ad is - the heaviness of the makeup under her nose makes you wonder what else she may be hiding. Her expression under the clown's smile fits with the ad's message that print ads aren't necessarily fun to produce. Marketing in magazines might not be glitzy, but print ensures longevity for a striking image or campaign even if the passage of time wipes out the advertiser. We apologize to those readers with coulrophobia . Source: Saturday Night , September 1970 

A large domed centre court with a long set of steps that were ideal for kids to run up and down until they ran out of breath. A nearby carousel when running lost its charm. Restaurant chains such as Friendly's , Frisch's Big Boy and McDonald's that were suited for young'uns. A department store named after the king of the jungle. Welcome to wonderland for a kid on a family vacation in Toledo, Ohio in the late 70s/early 80s. *** The death notice has just been signed on another element of my childhood. As of June 30, Southwyck Shopping Center in Toledo will shut its doors permanently . Opened in 1972 on the west side of Toledo along US 20 (Reynolds Road), the anchors by the time we shopped there were Montgomery Ward and Lion , a local department store chain which operated two locations in the mall (the main store on the east wing, a home store on the north end that replaced an earlier tenant). My parents usually had good luck shopping at Lion, while my ma...

Your humble proprietor was interviewed this week over at Ephemera about the lovely vintage ads regularly featured on this site.

Where the bat-people reside in Toronto. Snapped under the Eglinton Avenue bridge over the Humber River, May 4, 2008. This was one of the sites on the Mount Dennis Jane's Walk - more pictures over on Flickr . - JB

6:30 p.m. last night. Dithering time. I had indicated that I would show up for a pickup soccer game over in Riverdale friends had organized, as long as it wasn't pouring rain out. I listened to the number of drops hitting the air conditioner. After contemplation, What would it hurt to drive down to the game site in Riverdale and see if anyone was there? At worst, what would be a week's delay for the first time I would kick a soccer ball in a decade? *** After discovering I was hopeless at baseball, my parents signed me up for soccer when I was 9. The teams I played for varied in ability - the only incident I remember was a game where I was on defence and wound up being the only one to chase after an opponent on a breakaway, while my fellow defenders carried on a conversation. The game lost its appeal when Dad forgot that he was supposed to sit on the sidelines, not attempt to coach me in the middle of the action. It may have come unconsciously, since he coached basketba...

Was a melting city hockey rink, too wet for any skates A net sat there waiting, for the next puck to come through Oh, won't you stay Walk around or play There are benches to examine (apologies to Joni Mitchell) Swansea was one of the smallest of the municipalities folded into Metropolitan Toronto back in 1954 and was annexed with Forest Hill into the old city of Toronto in 1967. Bounded by Bloor, the Humber River, Lake Ontario and High Park, Swansea is primarily residential with most retail lying along its northern edge (the Bloor West Village strip). Cue a late March stroll through the former village. On the way out of Rennie Park rink, we noticed a high treehouse. We meandered around the neighbourhood, walking up dead-end courts with views of the homes and Humber River below. Over in nearly-abandoned Swansea Plaza we discovered the loneliest novelty vending machine on this side of town in a former Shoppers Drug Mart, ( which I wrote about on Torontoist . Located...

American supermarkets tend to fascinate those I introduce them do. Whether it's a stock-up on cans of spray cheese or searching for sodas, most travelling companions are transfixed by the selection of products. When was the last time you saw a full shelf devoted to ferret care products in your Loblaws, Dominion or Sobeys? Remember: nobody likes to see a ferret cry after a shampooing. Photo taken in Wegmans, Amherst, NY, March 29, 2008 

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