Spotted on Craigslist this week: a casting call for Keys to the VIP, because dreams do come true. Do you think you have what it takes to be a part of the first professional league for players?? Men between 19-30 years old *must be at least 19 because taping takes place in a club -outgoing, confident, comfortable talking to women -not married or in a serious relationship -looking for guys to meet girls, are creative... [continue]

We've seen some amazing images of Toronto blanketed by fog and clouds, and this extraordinary capture of the CN Tower just peaking out from low lying clouds, by Ron Gallagher, is no exception.... [continue]

Photo by n0wak from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Stadium food, generally, sucks. Not only is it uninspired—nachos, cheese, and society-sanctioned violence, together at last—but it's so bloody expensive that we wouldn't be surprised if they started taking internal organs as payment. What a welcome development, then, when BMO Field and Toronto FC decided to mix it up and commit to bringing a variety of stadium edibles that "incorporate food from countries where soccer is... [continue]

When we first got a tip from Andrew Hunter that "someone has installed a new type of bike post along Yonge north of Lawrence," we were concerned that it might be the vanguard of the Coordinated Street Furniture onslaught of mass-produced uniformity. When we went down (yes, down) to visit the area, however, we were quite relieved to discover not Kramer-designed brontosaurus ribs but elegant, artfully crafted flourishes of metallic whimsy. Inspired by a... [continue]

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Crawford Street Bridge, West Side, November 16, 1915. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1615 This Tuesday, May 13, Heritage Toronto will unveil the latest plaque celebrating Toronto's history to commemorate the secret bridge buried beneath the north-west corner of Trinity Bellwoods Park. The unveiling will take place at 4 p.m.... [continue]

Is anyone else sick of those borderline-offensive Canadian Club ads they've been running in NOW lately? Based on the strange notion that thinking about your parents having sex will make you want to buy things, the whiskey's "Damn Right" campaign tries to create nostalgia for the fatherly masculinity of yesteryear. They use "vintage" photos and the grammatically invincible tagline "DAMN RIGHT YOUR DAD DRANK IT" as a rallying cry for some kind of boozy... [continue]

Former Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier lives on as a program in the 1982 Disney film Tron. Torontoist reader Brent created these "enhanced" bank notes. Contrary to popular belief, defacing currency is not illegal in Canada. For defaced currency from elsewhere in the world, check out the defaced presidents Flickr pool. Via Laughing Squid.... [continue]

Several ways to interpret the stated goal of "reporting some of the happier happenings in our community": An opportunity for budding reporters to hone their skills on enlightening human interest stories and positive community events that fly under the radar during a typical grim news day. A momentary respite from the sensationalism creeping into the news world. A program that allows a media outlet like CFRB to break in fresh young talent gently, without... [continue]

One of the highlights of spring in Toronto, High Park's cherry trees are blossoming. The trees, donated to the city by the citizens of Tokyo, are located in a sloping grove near Grenadier Pond and are a wonderful sight at this time of year. The trees are approximately 80% in bloom at the moment, making this weekend the perfect time to visit, as long as heavy rain doesn't destroy these delicate flowers. See the... [continue]

Have you ever cycled along the Pickering and Ajax waterfronts? You should. It's one of the best recreational bike rides in the GTA with beautiful scenery and mostly-flat trails, but presents Toronto cyclists with a big problem: how to get there. Because the Waterfront Trail all but disappears through most of Scarborough, you're stuck with either riding the long, miserable route along Kingston Road and Lawrence Avenue to get to Pickering or driving your... [continue]

One year ago today, City Council's Executive Committee approved [PDF] the awarding of the street furniture contract—for the purposes of designing, building, owning, and maintaining bus shelters, garbage bins, ad pillars, and more for a period of twenty years in exchange for advertising rights—to Astral Media Outdoor, despite the fact that the company had absolutely no experience with "street furniture" and maintains dozens of illegal billboards in defiance of City Council.... [continue]

It's 1:45 a.m. now. The TTC strike is done: twelve hours ago, TTC employees were legislated back to work by the provincial government; nine hours ago, TTC service started back up; not too far from now, employees' Monday morning shifts will start as usual, in time to transport the morning rush. But you wouldn't know that from the Star's Strike Watch blog, which the front page of the Star's website still links to, which... [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're outnumbered 20-to-1 by men. You can read what they said in this special three-part feature, running every night until Thursday. Julie Petruzzellis. Do you remember your first fire? SH: I didn’t get one right of the hob. I got one on Russell Hill Road, which... [continue]

Sort of just in time for the now-averted TTC strike, Torontonians will finally have the opportunity to further indulge in a mode of transporation that was once reserved almost exclusively for camera-laden tourists and decadent—or at least, unhurried—commuters in pretty much every major city in the world. The incentive this time, however, is that it's free. Starting May 1, sore-legged saunterers will be able to hail a pedi-cab (also acceptable are "pedal-cab," "bugbug," or... [continue]

The province has ordered the City of Toronto to stop stonewalling in the face of freedom of information requests about allegedly illegal billboards. IllegalSigns.ca—"our hobby is destroying illegal billboards through the rule of law"—submitted a series of requests asking the City to release information about certain billboards. The City's Corporate Access and Privacy Unit balked. After receiving over 600 requests from the group in 2006—12% of all requests filed in the City—and after processing... [continue]

When NOW featured Crystal Castles as their cover story two months ago, implicit in the whole article were three little words that get tossed around again and again when people talk about the band: next big thing. The details of the buzz band's rise are astonishing and fascinating—the mic check discovered by a label in 2005; the 7" records released in the following two years selling out fast; the insane live shows filling up... [continue]

The inimitable Torontonian cartoonist John Martz has recently completed the impressive exercise of drawing every face (more than 1000 in total) that appears in his mother’s 1968 high school yearbook. The final results are available for purchase on his website, and can be also be viewed on Flickr. John writes: “Good cartooning, to me, is all about simplification, and this was a fun experiment in distilling each person’s likeness down to a simple cartoon... [continue]

Sometimes what passed for clever advertising in the past leaves us speechless. Note that today's ad appeared seven years before Advertising Standards Canada came into being. The free guide offered in this ad was first published in 1944 and offered the following words of wisdom: Soup has long played a stellar part on the Canadian menu—but never has it filled so many interesting and appetizing roles as it does today! Formerly served as a... [continue]

Sam Javanrouh—the man behind the venerable Daily Dose of Imagery, this city's most widely-read photoblog—has always had something of a knack for creating amazing stop-motion timelapse videos. Whether it's cars filling up an Edward and Bay parking lot or the downtown skyline (go to his archives under the heading "timelapse photography" to see more), his videos are hypnotic, beautiful, and fascinating—a chance to see the motions of the city in a new way. Javanrouh's... [continue]

This past weekend was the 91st anniversary of the end of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a four-day offensive in World War I in which the Canadian Corps, with help from the British army, seized a German stronghold on the Western Front. Marking the first time that such large numbers of Canadians fought together as a single unit, the battle has since achieved near mythical status (justified or not) as a key point in the... [continue]