Those who frequent the strip of downtown parkettes stretching from Dundonald to Charles Streets have been wondering what happened to the mysterious monument to "Barney." In autumn, the memorial stone went missing after having been damaged, but has now been reinstated onto its concrete base just off Gloucester Street in the Norman Jewison Parkette. But what's the story behind this odd little commemoration? It's actually a drinking fountain for dogs—not a grave marker—and was... [continue]

This week Torontoist has been talking to Toronto Firefighters Julie Petruzzellis and Stacey Hannah about what it’s like to be a woman in a dangerous and demanding occupation—one where they are outnumbered 20-to-1 by men. You can read what they said in this special three-part feature, running every night until Thursday. Stacey Hannah. We spend a lot of time talking about the TTC: worrying that it’s going to be shut down by strike action, complaining... [continue]

Last Friday, Torontoist published an article about Posterchild's latest project––fake subway fliers. On Sunday, the Sun published an article about the same topic, with a paragraph that was identical to a portion of Torontoist's article. The Sun today (Monday) issued this correction and apology: "A story in the Sunday Sun about a local guerilla artist known as Posterchild contained a paragraph which was not attributed to torontoist.com. The Sun apologizes for the error." That apology... [continue]

Hey! Torontoist just got ripped off by The Sun. From our article on Posterchild's subway pamphlets, published online here on Friday, January 18:Posterchild––street artist extraordinaire and our new curator for Vandalist––has taken it on himself to fill the empty hooks of the TTC's subways, streetcars, and buses with new and improved information flyers. For the past week, he's posted details of one flyer a day to his blog: Monday was a subway and streetcar... [continue]

National Non-Smoking Week starts January 20—as most New Year's resolutions to quit go up in smoke. It's a shame that the National Non-Smoking Week website sucks. The layout is plain, the links aren't updated frequently, and the only materials up for 2008 are a few fact sheets and posters with this year's theme, "Taking My Life Back From Tobacco." (The artsier French version is better: "Ma nouvelle vie sans tabac" or "My new life... [continue]

Sarah Lazarovic––curator of the garage-based Montrose Portrait Gallery of Canada––is painting a portrait of a Torontonian (be they grannies or gardeners or Gord Perks) every day for one hundred days. Each Monday, we'll feature one of those portraits here. This is Mr. Golden Star, proprietor of a Thornhill burger joint that some consider the best in town. Now into his 80s, he can still be seen manning the till into the wee hours, trying to... [continue]