As part of the always interesting (and now delicious) This Is Not A Reading Series, U of T history professor Steve Penfold and noted food writer Christine Sismondo are joining forces this week to discuss snack food patriotism and Canada’s unofficial deep-fried culinary icon, the donut. All this in celebration of Penfold’s new book, The Donut: A Canadian History. The 256-page hardcover study “examines the history of the donut in light of broader social,......

Leaside—car manufacturing mecca? It was during our 60th anniversary as a Dominion, when Durant Motors of Canada called it home. William Crapo "Billy" Durant was the main force behind the formation of General Motors in 1908, when he brought together manufacturers such as Oldsmobile and Buick. After being forced out of GM twice, he founded Durant Motors in 1921. The company established itself as a full-line automaker, with economy (Star), mid-range (Durant, Flint) and......

A CN train jumps the tracks in Kingston, delaying rail traffic between Toronto and Montreal/Ottawa. Nobody was hurt, but observers told reporters this in a tone of serious disbelief because thirty-two train cars went off the rails less than a thousand feet from Kingston's passenger station, and apparently it was quite disturbing to see, what with the thousands of tons of out-of-control metal and all. A Canadian soldier has been charged with manslaughter in the......

Stéphane Dion says that the Tories should pull the attack ads targeting him in Quebec. Because god knows the best possible way to deal with an unprecedented and unpopular attack ad is to whine about it. That makes Dion look like a strong leader, all right. With a possible spring election looming, the Star does some math and points out that the Tories have announced nearly ten billion dollars in new spending since December.......

Holiday season is more than just eggnog lattés and snowflake donut-of-the-months. It's also about top ten lists, year-end compilations of the good, the bad and the ugly. Torontoist thoroughly enjoyed contributor Frank Yang's musical ten. But in the land of movies, we simply cannot condone any list that includes the treacly Sideways among the year's top ten. Thankfully, there's a tenner that Sideways does not qualify for - A Canadian ten, as curated by TIFF.......