Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
The Daily Photoist: November 23, 2009
Urban Planner: November 23, 2009
Snappy Answers runs every Saturday afternoon. Send your questions, be they tough or trivial, to snappyanswers@torontoist.com.
What's up with the longer-than-normal wait at Chester Station? I know the reason for the one at Coxwell; the drivers change. But at Chester?
I'd been planning to email the TTC and ask, but I imagine you'll answer my question in a much zazzier way.
Thanks,
J.
Dear "J,"
Really? Just "J"? You couldn't at least have made up a J-name? There are so many J-names! Jake, Justin, Johnny Joe... come on!
Anyway. We've actually never traveled the Bloor-Danforth line east of Yonge, because, well, it's self-explanatory, no? Kidding. East of Yonge is totally lovely and vibrant and full of super-hip things to do on weekends. Probably.
To answer your question, we defer to the wisdom of local transit crusader Steve Munro, whose highly informative blog is, we're pretty sure, the most reliable thing about the TTC.
Says Steve,
The intent is to keep trains on the line regularly spaced. Some crews used to make very short station stops and creep up on the preceding train. Their intent was to get to the terminal early and have a longer layover. The resulting irregular service would annoy riders. The tradeoff here is many short delays for more reliable service overall.
There you go. We suggest you use your longer-than-normal wait time to trim longer-than-normal nose hairs, read longer-than-normal Britney updates in the Metro, or think up longer-than-normal missed connections about the Kate Walsh lookalike reading Eat, Pray, Love across from you. How married can she be?
What ever happened to the Spadina bus? And are there any other anthems for stretches of the TTC?
—Rachel
No idea, and no, not that we know of. Sorry. We just really wanted to post this awesome video, featuring seminal bop-rap band the Shuffle Demons (what, you've never heard of them?) with their wonderful one hit, "Spadina Bus." Thanks, Rachel!
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My S.O. tortures my by singing "Spadina Bus." It's going to be a veerrry long night. Thanks a lot.
Mind boggling and ridiculous. Saxophone break down outside of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is pretty sweet, but dude with what is essentially a giant, extended soul patch and a beret: what's his deal? These guys are like beatnik-hippie-transit buffs. Weirded out.
The Spadina bus was replaced by the Spadina streetcar line, which, while more efficient, admittedly probably doesn't as sound good in a be-bop jazz song.
I assumed this Spadina Bus...
I remember the Spadina bus. It didn't really "drive" down Spadina so much as it crashed along the chopped-up pavement, with windows rattling like the entire bus was going to fall apart at any minute.
Toronto lost its last bit of 3rd world charm when they paved over the pot holed, cobblestone, 6-lane-without-lane-marks, diagonal-parking chaos that used to be Spadina Ave.
PS, wasn't that Shuffle Demons track used for Speakers Corner?
Nothing beats the Shuffle Demons' be-bop-squawnk version of the Hockey Night In Canada theme. And that's ex-Shuffle Demon Richard Underhill as the bemasqued stiltwalker with the flaming soprano sax whose fanfare leads off the Kensington Festival of Lights every winter solstice.
For another TTC anthem, check out Great Lakes Swimmers' song "I will never see the sun" - beautiful, haunting lyrics - melancholy, almost despair:
I will never see the sun
Spadina, St. George, Bay, and Yonge
One for nothing, all for one
Spadina, St. George, Bay and Yonge
Hey you look like royalty
Weren’t you born with muddy feet?
Hoarse, in high tops, totally lost
Those two streets will never meet
I will never see the sun
Spadina, St. George, Bay, and Yonge
One for nothing, all for one
Spadina, St. George, Bay and Yonge
So the map says ‘you are here’
Waltzing in a garbage pile
Sweating like a weather’s vein
Coughing thunder, sneezing rain
I will never see the sun
Spadina, St. George, Bay, and Yonge
One for nothing, all for one
Spadina, St. George, Bay and Yonge
There’s a rag just up the street
Eats his history to keep warm
Got some blankets, got some bags
Screams confessions, shouts in vain
I will never see the sun
Spadina, St. George, Bay, and Yonge
One for nothing, all for one
Spadina, St. George, Bay and Yonge
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