Haydain Neale, 1970–2009
The Making of a Medley
Newsstand: November 23, 2009
Transit City and Transit Cities
The Daily Photoist: November 23, 2009
After much righteous chest-thumping over fiscal responsibility and respect for the taxpayers, council barely decided to give itself a 9% pay raise. The vote passed 22-21, and the three interim councillors who won't be running in November's election, all voted in favour of the increase. Councillors' salaries have now been bumped up to $95,000 and the Mayor's salary will be hiked to $160,000. Jane Pitfield has vowed to make this a campaign issue so we won't be seeing the end of this anytime soon.
Maybe Robert Frost was onto something when he said good fences make for good neighbours. A Toronto-area man has been sentenced to 10-years for beating his neighbour and leaving her for dead.
Two senior citizens were brought to hospital yesterday after being in a scuffle with two purse snatchers. The two ladies were mugged by two men yesterday but they fought back and in the resulting struggle one of the women broke her hip.
The City of Toronto is going to court to try to force Republic Services, the company who owns the Michigan landfill that currently receives our sludge, to find an alternate site for our sludge. After August 1st, Michigan will be closing its borders to our processed sewage.
A gardening contractor found unexploded World War One era munitions underneath a tree stump. Instead of doing the sensible thing and calling the police he decided to drive it into a police station through the Jane and Finch area. Smart, real smart.
We might be number one at recycling but we apparently suck at donating blood. What gives Toronto? Are we afraid of needles? Too busy? We should be ashamed of ourselves. According to Canadian Blood Services only about 4% of eligible Canadians actually donate blood, Toronto's rate of donation is half of the rate in blood-happy Newfoundland. So next time you see a Newfie give him a hug, he probably just donated blood.
Photo from Bitpicture in the Torontoist photo pool.
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"Maybe Robert Frost was onto something when he said good fences make for good neighbours."
In the context of the poem, "Mending Wall," Frost was actually being ironic, or more accurately making fun of people who would make such disturbingly isolationist, anti-community claims.
Is there anything Pitfield won't turn into a campaign issue? Straws: you are clutched at.
Maybe part of the reason not enough people give blood is because of the rules around -who- can give blood.
I'm not saying they shouldn't be careful, but answering yes to questions like "if male, have you ever had sex with another man?" and "have you lived in the UK for more than 4 montsh since 1980" immediately disqualify a potential donor. Hell, I couldn't give because I had lived "anywhere in Western Europe" for 5+ years.
A lot of people I know (immigrants, queer people) just are not allowed to give blood.
You can't give blood if you were recently pierced or tattooed, either. There goes all of Queen St.
It should be noted that the 4% figure refers to the percentage of eligible donors who give blood, although it's of course still possible that Canadian Blood Services has underestimated the number of ineligible people.
I hate to agree with Pitfield, but she's right on the money here. That raise was fucked up. It was so bloody stupid of them to vote it through, my mind is boggled.
Also, old Scottish ladies from Scarborough are gangster. Don't try and rob them if you know what's good for you.
"Och, ye wee little bastard, gimme back mah purse!"