Newsstand: November 23, 2009
The Making of a Medley
The Daily Photoist: November 23, 2009
Televisualist: A Kinder, Gentler Televisualist
One of the four cattle that escaped on the QEW yesterday morning was shot by police after making a suicidal charge at armed officers. Friends of the dead steer were baffled, saying that he had his whole life ahead of him and was looking forward to weeks of close confinement before having a bolt fired through his forehead.
Turns out the jump in property taxes for Toronto homeowners is going to be even higher than expected, coming in at an average of over 4% instead of the 3.75% earlier announced. With regard to his earlier commitment to keep property tax increases to the rate of inflation, Mayor David Miller said that he would instead be looking to increase the rate of inflation to keep up with property taxes.
The Department of Defence is red-faced after blueprints to the building that will be home to the anti-terrorism Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit were found sticking out of a trash bag on an Ottawa street. Officials defended the apparent security breach by pointing out that going through people's garbage is "just gross."
The official Chinese Xinhua news agency, which originally denied that any pro-Tibet protestors in Sichuan had been shot, said yesterday that four people had in fact been killed by military gunfire. Later, not liking the sound of that story either, the news agency decided to split the difference with a revised claim that four protestors had indeed been shot, but were only wounded. Sources say the final facts in the case will probably not be invented until early next week.
Singer Seal got into it with paparazzi in L.A. this week after one of them tried to shake his hand, calling them "cockroaches" and "scum" and saying they had ruined his life. It's often been said that being rich, famous ,and married to Heidi Klum all mean nothing compared to the pain of being photographed leaving a restaurant.
Photo by Patrick M2 from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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"Mayor David Miller said that he would instead be looking to increase the rate of inflation to keep up with property taxes."
"...and was looking forward to weeks of close confinement before having a bolt fired through his forehead."
"Sources say the final facts in the case will probably not be invented until early next week."
I can't decide who's writing is more irritating: Christopher Bird or Patrick Metzger. Is this smug editorialization really necessary? I understand you're trying to be clever, but you're not succeeding. Not even close.
They're both pretty great. You just need to grow a sense of humour instead of scowling at your computer monitor all day.
"I can't decide who's writing is more irritating: Christopher Bird or Patrick Metzger."
I think you just came up with Torontoist's next poll.
I enjoy both of their musings. But I really just wanted to comment on the cute picture
I personally enjoy a good dose of "smug editorialization" in the morning. Why take everything so seriously? I don't really get all these commenters lately who bitch endlessly -- if you don't like the tone of the site, click off. There's lots else out there.
Love the Chinese news comment.
Ha, thanks antiboy! You're so right - I'm such a humourless twat. I guess I'm so used to Fark and the Jackass movies that I can't tell real comedy gold from smug editorialization.
_V, you're missing the point: I like the site. It's just these two writers (and frankly, most of the time they're fine). It's not like I'm suggesting they be executed or anything, just that I find I gloss over their commentaries more than I'd like to, given the nature of what they're covering. How does that not warrant commenting?
I agree with you about taking things too seriously, but come on - I *never* bitch here. So it's amazing to me that one single remark expressing distaste is somehow so anathema to the spirit of an open forum on a site dedicated to the city I live in. You want me to be a good docile Canadian and STFU. Sorry.
Give me more DiManno Watch or anything written by Topping. This shit's funny.
JonathanS - I missed the part where someone forces you to read this stuff in order to read DiManno watch. I get Torontoist through an RSS feed and that means I read the summary of four articles out of ten (because I don't care about bands and gallery openings) and I read the article of two out of the four. It's called choice.
This isn't (yet) Serious News For Adults, so get used to it or look elsewhere. I think Patrick's grim sense of humour is spot on, and I'm tired of people complaining about the editorial/injections of personality around here.