JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

This week's trip back in time via Detroit: A Young Guide to the City takes us not to Motown but a place to stand, a place to grow, Ontari-ari-ari-o. While Windsor may now be a haven for underage boozers, back then cross-border tipplers had to deal with our crazy blue laws. Regulated glass sizes and servings, gender-specific drinking rules, liquor stores akin to a Sears Catalogue counter with less decor and bottles given to you with a shameful look in a brown paper bag (oooooh, you're buying booze...shame, shame!). Here's what the guide had to say about our drinking rules: It is one of Ontario's dubious distinctions to have some of the most confusing liquor laws ever devised...under no circumstances may alcoholic beverages be consumed anywhere other than one's residence or on licensed premises. For legal purposes, a "residence" has recently been redefined to include temporary residences; therefore, motel rooms, tents, etc. can now be considered le...

Before diving in, here's Kensington Market as it was laid out 120 years ago (source: Goad's 1884 Atlas of Toronto , taken from Lucy Booth Martyn's 1982 book The Face of Early Toronto ). Note the many changes in street names: Kensington Ave was an extension of Vanauley St, Augusta was Grosvenor, Baldwin was Clyde, etc. We're interested in the plot marked "Col. Denison". Here's a current map. Denison St and Sq were named after the Denison family, who earn a brief sketch in the back of the 1966 edition of Henry Scadding's Toronto of Old (1873): DENISON FAMILY Descended from John Denison and his wife Sophia who emigrated from England in 1792, the Denisons have been active in Toronto political and military activities from the first, and have had more members on the city council than any other family. (362) As mentioned in previous entry, the Denisons purchased land previously owned by Major Edward Littlehales. The family home was Bel...

At the tail end of this week's Sunday Constitutional (TM), I wandered by a block's worth of ice sculptures along Yorkville Ave. As the walk started with a fiery meal at Margarita's with Latte Girl , this seemed an appropriate capper. The latest way to arrive in Yorkville with panache. Available for $133,989 OAC. Taking the term "freezing your head off" literally, in this ode to the Venus de Milo. Somebody's still peeved about the men's hockey team. - JB

Another month, another Chowhound dinner. Headed down to Parkdale this time, to test out the Trinidadian food at Ali's West Indian Roti Shop (Queen W and Lansdowne). Decorwise, Ali's could best be described as fast-food joint with tropical scenery, such as the painting above. Business seemed to be mostly takeout, though a few customers decided to stick around the clean surroundings. Rather than order individually, we ate family style, ordering a variety of dishes. Staff helpfully described what was in unfamiliar-sounding items. We sampled mauby, a carbonated drink that started off with a pleasant hint of licorice that left a bitter aftertaste (though nowhere near as bad as Moxie). Nobody ordered a full cup. Instead, our drinks ranged from a large cup of peanut punch (think liquid Crispy Crunch/Butterfinger bar, very tasty) to 591 mL bottles of Busta soda (I tried pineapple, which didn't have the overwhelming sweetness of other brands). Other than pattties, we ord...

Post revised October 19, 2009 Amherstburg's geographical location made it a mecca for picking up TV stations without cable. With strong reception from Windsor, Detroit and Toledo, plus the occasional burp from Sarnia or Cleveland, we didn't need no stinkin' converter box. An antenna (living room) and mega-bunny ears (basement, later my bedroom) were our passports to home entertainment. This meant a large variety of kiddie shows to choose from. On Sunday mornings, channel 11 (WTOL, Toledo's CBS affiliate) ran the locally-produced Patches & Pockets . I remember little about the show, other than discovering years later the theme was Bernard Herrmann's overture from Citizen Kane ! Here's an experiment, humble readers - walk into your local TV station wearing clown costumes, pitch your idea for a zero-budget kids show and see what happens...if you make it past security. According to one defunct Toledo television history website, that's more or less the ...

Mount Pleasant Road at Penrose, January 10, 2006 - JB

A few years ago, some friends entered the Moc Docs contest. None of our entries made it far, but it was a learning experience in that it was the first time I ever finished a script. While that project was brewing (here's my contribution ), I tried to write other, unrelated ideas in case we ever got a film collective rolling. One I fooled around with for awhile used an ad agency meeting as a framework for short, satirical commercial parodies. What follows is all I ever wrote down, last updated in March 2004. I would have written this during down town at the office, or while my brain needed a rest from other activities. Some of the jokes remain relevant, others are dated. Other than spelling and quickly designing a graphic this evening, I haven't whipped this into better shape. All I hope is that nobody south of the border takes this segment seriously... **** (An advertising agency meeting room, with several employees and executives sitting around. Pitches for new advert...

Due to popular demand, and due to Valentine's Day being this week, let's carry on with some advice on how to snag a date, 1970 Motor City style. For part one, click here . In a small town, only a "loose" girl would meet a man in a bar, but in a city the older boy-meets-girl techniques often break down; and alternative methodsm must be created. To collectively designate special bars on special nights with special procedures as morally acceptable is one way this is accomplished. Go with a couple of friends and find a bar where the people appear to be similar to yourselves...once you've found a place you feel comfortable, exert yourself further by not hiding in a corner. Mingle and move as much as possible-to the john, the juke box, the cigarette machine. On a packed Friday night conversation will come spontaneously, without forcing your male counterpart into the unnerving ordeal of approaching you. For men: Your problem, admit it or not, is that you're b...

Opened in 1982, Markville Shopping Centre is still around, though buyouts, family squabbles and bankruptcies mean that none of the anchors listed in the ad exist anymore. Replace Eaton's with Sears, Woolco with Wal-Mart and scratch the other two off the list (Famous Players moved out of malls, then merged with Cineplex, while squabbles among the Steinberg family led to Miracle Food Mart's sale to A&P, who closed most of the remaining mall locations by the mid-90s). Tangent time: My family frequently shopped at Woolco while I grew up, usually the Dougall Ave store in Windsor. Mainly remember eating in the old school cafeteria, with flip-up red vinyl seats, striped drink cups, mini-packs of Peek Freens at the cash and smell of french fries. Even as a kid I thought the dining area had a dated charm. At their Leamington branch (a deluxe Woolworth's for most of its life, only switching to the Woolco nameplate towards the end), I used to stock up on remaindered Scholastic ...

Lots of attention has been paid to Detroit over the past few weeks, as the Super Bowl hits Motown this Sunday. Stories about attempts at renewal, the "sin city" image of Windsor, etc. Having grown up across the river from Motown's southern burbs, I'm familiar with everything you're reading, chuckling at much of it. The Warehouse doesn't want to be left out of the festivities. Our spin will be several entries harking back to a time when Detroit's decline started rolling. Our source is Detroit: A Young Guide to the City , edited by Sheldon Annis in 1970. (Note: this image of the cover comes from the only other site that refers to this book, Detroitblog . Let's just say that on my copy, the "naked stoner chick" has aged naturally over the past 35 years). In 1970, the Motor City was still reeling from the riots three years earlier. "White flight" had started in earnest. Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain, who had won 31 games tw...

If you've surfed Toronto-based sites over the weekend, you've seen the pictures of a motorist and courier involved in a friendly tete-a-tete in Kensington Market (warning: diving too deep into the comments section may drop your IQ by several points. To me, the driver loses points off the bat for being a litterbug). While I manage to share the roads just fine with cyclists (usually giving them the benefit of any doubt, unless they are breaking rules at traffic lights), other motorists make me wonder why I was so eager to get my driver's license. Especially in Scarberia. Here's my TO road rage tale. *** August 1999. I've just been hired by my current employer and need to find a place to live in a hurry. The temporary commute between Toronto and Guelph is draining me, and I need to be out of my $140/month sublet by Sep 1st. I spend a Sunday afternoon looking a place, frustrated that there are no signs of life in at least two apartments on my list (one on Spadi...

The cans of worms one opens when they start researching the background of local street names. The laneway was named in 2000, according to this city notice (PDF - I have not found a copy of attachment #2 online). According to the document, the name derived from Major E.B. Littlehayes, "an aide to John Graves Simcoe, who owned land in the area". I've poured through half-a-dozen library books about the Simcoe era in Upper Canada and found no references to "Major E.B. Littlehayes". "Major E.B. Littlehales" is a different story. Edward Baker Littlehales (?-1825) was military secretary to Simcoe during the latter's tenure as governor of Upper Canada. His main accomplishment appears to have been a survey of the land between Detroit and Niagara in February-March 1793, which resulted in the recommendation of the site for London. Quoted in Henry Scadding's book Toronto of Old (1873), Littlehales found that site to be "a situation eminently...

After a break through the fall, the Chowhound dining group resurrected their monthly nights out on Saturday. This time, Ethiopian House (Irwin & Yonge - between Bloor and Wellesley), which I've often enjoyed on my own. It's easy to find once you leave Yonge St - look for the traffic light on the second floor...which was right outside our table's window. Open the door and you're overwhelmed with a blast of incense and fresh-ground coffee. These form part of a "coffee ceremony" you can order, though our table passed due to a lack of coffee drinkers (at last, I'm not alone!) Your taste for Ethiopian cuisine depends on how much you like injera, the bread the lines the serving dish. The best analogy to injera is a spongy sourdough crepe, with the bubbles of a crumpet. Injera makes Ethiopian meals look deceptive small, as your stomach fills which each piece. A plate of one or two extra pieces is usually provided, to provide a clean start as you scoop up ...

And so it ends...for a few months. The WEC staff has already collected $287 for the office "predict-the-date-the-Harper-government-falls" pool. Humble readers, you are encouraged to submit your best guess. So long PM PM. Hello Smirky Stephen. The number of gloomy faces we passed this morning was staggering, especially from a city where all seats went Liberal (the pollsters didn't see 20 coming back) or NDP (3). Others felt mild relief that the Tory landslide predicted a week ago didn't happen. It's not reassuring to see stalwarts of the Harris era in Ontario like Tony Clement (who won by only 21 votes - we're waiting for the recount) and Jim Flaherty back in government. Fingers crossed that history fails to repeat itself, or, as many commentators predict, the Tories' position is precarious enough for the other parties to hold them in check. Otherwise, pump up your stock portfolio with distillers, as the country may need several rounds of stiff drin...

Signs, fishwrap - plenty to cover as the campaign enters its final hours. Newsstand Watch A.S. Pryncesse looks at what the papers say... Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Electoral Deathwatch 2006! As election day draws nearer and it becomes progressively clearer that a change of government is in the offing, the national papers have begun circling like buzzards around the most likely political victims. The bodies of Belinda Stronach and Scott Brison appear to be ripest for pecking. On Wednesday, The Globe fronted with a picture of each, both looking vaguely troubled, and followed with articles that are quietly confident each will eke a victory. The Star , reporting on a meeting between La Belinda and La Buzz, was well-hidden, but no less hopeful. Don Martin, in his Wednesday column for the Post , counted both Stronach and Brison among the "Hopeful Dead", the group of wealthy Liberal ministers (including Jean Lapierre, Ken Dryden, David Emmerson, John McCallum and...