Snappy Answers runs every Saturday afternoon. Send your questions, be they tough or trivial, to snappyanswers@torontoist.com. Dear Torontoist, I'm a recent transplant from Nova Scotia and I am stuck as to where I should pay homage to my Irish roots this March 17th? Where can I go to enjoy some Celtic music and brews that won't be overrun with students? My Tuesday morning hangover depends on you, Love, Laura.......

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Last time we checked on 178 Bathurst Street, it was just beginning to relive its Bassmint-era techno days with Derrick May at Crosstown, now closed. Since then, things underneath the Queen Street West and Bathurst Street Pizza Pizza have come full circle. Until 1999, Christian "DJ Unabomber" Poulson operated Bassmint, a famous party spot and afterhours that still conjures memories of sleepless nights for......

Photos courtesy of Light in the Attic Records The landscape of soul music, more than any other genre, has been littered with talented artists with unfulfilled careers spent in obscurity, grinding out appearances in dingy bars in the search for the elusive radio hit. Such was the fate of Jay Douglas, The Mighty Pope and many other pioneers of Toronto’s soul and reggae scene in the 1960s and 1970s. These artists—who are reuniting for......

The National Post is reporting today that Coyote Ugly––the raunchy, almost-a-strip-club-bar that inspired a Jerry Bruckheimer movie that everyone, including Piper Perabo, forgot about five years ago––will open up its first Canadian "saloon" next year at 220 Adelaide Street West. Coyote Ugly is upfront about its intentions: on their website, the bar explains the "business plan" of its first owner, Lil' Lovell, was "beautiful girls + booze = money." The organization's slogan is "Don't Just......

There used to be a sign above a video arcade that proclaimed "Yonge Street is Fun Street." Back in the 1960s and 1970s, much of that fun was to be had at the many bars and clubs that lined the street south of Gerrard––Le Coq D'Or, Steele's Tavern, Friar's Tavern, Zanzibar Tavern and so on. Depending on the venue, you could listen to music, dance the night away or catch a striptease. Today's advertiser......

Rosie DiManno sucks. Every day, poor Toronto Star readers are subjected to another over-the-top, awkwardly-written, occasionally-insulting column about the day's top depressing story from the purple-streaked purveyor of pulp. Torontoist, for one, can't take it anymore. The Evidence We really really didn't want to post two DiManno columns in one week. (Really.) But today, DiManno dropped her most recent column, "Finally, the blowhard's behind bars," about the Richard Wills case––yes, another one––and, well, the ending......

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of Black Monday, the biggest one-day stock market plunge in history. On October 19, 1987, Bay Street was shocked to see all the key market indices plummet. The TSE 300 lost over 400 points as, in a frenzy of panicked selling, a record 77 million shares were desperately traded on the floor of the Toronto Stock Exchange. By day's end, hundreds of millions of dollars evaporated from share values, including......

If there is one thing Toronto is world-class in and world-renowned for, it is dance music. Toronto sees some of the world's most famous international music acts play its bars and clubs every weekend, and according to a recent article in Toronto Life, they bring with them at least $125 million in economic activity. Well, music enthusiasts, bartenders, club district employees, club owners, event promoters, and young people beware: a nightlife crackdown is coming......

You know all those flashy LED lights on the CN Tower? Apparently they're going to get flashier by this Thursday. U of T is set to approve the plan to build a $53 million Centre for High Performance Sport just west of Varsity Stadium on Bloor Street. Maybe their football team could start training to win a game. A 13-year-old has become a quadriplegic after a gang-related stabbing outside of Christie Station on Friday......

Summer: the official season of barbecues, cottages and having a nice cold beer. To honour the finest microbrews in the GTA and Ontario, The Bar Towel is once again asking for the public to vote for the 2007 Golden Tap Awards and have a voice in who should go home with one of the eight coveted awards. The main competition in the GTA categories is the Mill Street Brewery, especially now that they have their......

I love the smell of police raid in the morning. Toronto Vice arrested 60 people in the Jane and Finch area this morning in a raid called Project Kryptic. They seized "30 kilos of cocaine, hash oil and marijuana with an estimated street value of $1 million" from the Driftwood Crips. That's actually pretty badass. Hey, buddy...we're not mad that you stole the Hershey bars, we're just concerned that they may be contaminated with......

So much for preserving Toronto's cultural heritage—it looks like pretty much the entire stock of Sam The Record Man's flagship store is going up for auction. On Wednesday, June 27th at 10:30 a.m., Benaco Sales Ltd. will hold an auction on location inside the flagship, at 347 Yonge Street. Contents include "Outdoor neon records, unique neon signage, Olde English Shoe shine stations, Antique English Pub Bars, Store Fixtures, Marquee Signs, Pos and Security systems,......

Meet Mike Long: musician, 1" button entrepreneur, "social rocktivist" and public dancer. Mike only discovered he could dance six months ago and, soon after, started posting videos of his sweet moves on the internet. In the two days following his first YouTube post, he received over 100 emails from fans (and haters) and a star was born. Public dancing is now Mike's full-time summer job—he accepts donations and has sponsorship from Larabar, a company......

When people first hear the words "Professional Pillow Fight League," they often conjure images of jello-wrestling and hair pulling. However, if you've ever been to a Pillow Fight League event, you know that the fights are real, they're violent, and they're bloody entertaining. The Pillow Fight League, also known as the PFL, has been performing around Toronto since last year. They gained international attention in January when they fought for two nights in New York......

Starting September 1, the Hamilton television station known as CH will be rebranded as E! Entertainment Television. E! is an American entertainment and lifestyle cable broadcaster best known for its wildly successful E! True Hollywood Story series. CH corporate parent CanWest MediaWorks will license the E! trademark and manage Canadian content programming, including online, mobile, satellite radio and video-on-demand platforms. There are also CH-branded stations in Montreal, Victoria, Kelowna and Red Deer which are included......

So you wake up, make a cup of coffee, go outside to grab the newspaper in your PJs and suddenly notice that your regular copy of The Globe and Mail has been replaced with a more different copy of The Globe and Mail. One with ugly black divider bars scattered across the front page and at least a couple inches lost from the broadsheet. You notice an alarming increase of sans serif fonts. Is......

Each week, Torontoist chooses the most interesting cases from the Toronto Police Service crime blotter. All charges are alleged until proven under law. • Shortly after midnight on Sunday, a patron of Flirt Lounge on Adelaide West assaulted another patron, biting the victim's ear and separating a chunk of cartilage. A cell phone camera snapped an obscured image of the suspect during the altercation (pictured at right) and police say that most people in the......

If you were at the Yung Sing Pastry Shop on Baldwin Street yesterday morning, you could have eaten some yummy buns with the Food Jammers. Yay you say. But wait, who are the Food Jammers? They are the hosts of the television show of the same name that take a humorous, thoughtful and often absurd look at eating and preparing food. A typical episode will find Food Jammers' Christopher Martin, Micah Donovan and Nobu Adilman......

The most unusual aspect of Monday night's quiet jam at the Drake Underground was the absence of annoying chatter during three folk-rock solo sets. Everyone knows Toronto keeps it real by keeping still, but normally a quieter show means restless drinkers hoping to catch up with friends while they absently watch a show as if it's background music. Astoundingly, the audience remained almost completely and respectfully silent throughout Baby Eagle, again through Woolly Leaves, and......

Whether you're Scottish or not, it's always fun to celebrate Robbie Burns Day on January 25th. The day is to celebrate the life and death of Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland who wrote such ditties as Auld Lang Syne and Comin' Thro' the Rye, the poem which is said to have inspired J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. He is also known for drinking a lot and womanizing even more, and......

This year's Santarchy brought inebriated joy to Queen West, hitting Parkdale bars, renovated hotels, streetcars and even the Cavalcade of Lights. Unsurprisingly hosted by a group of naughty Burning Man attendees, the night was characterized by bewildered passersby, uproarious shouting of "Ho Ho Ho!" and many, many litres of "Santa Juice". More photos available here and here. Photo by Luke Tymowski.......

If there was a single development in the city's history that could be said to have brought an end to the era of "Toronto the Good," the resurrection of the Entertainment District (crowned by the opening of the SkyDome) is probably it. From a Toronto where shopping on Sunday was a no-no and the nearest fun city was boom-town Buffalo, NY emerged a sea of lights, music, dance and drink in a formerly derelict......

Tonight, in All Hallow's Eve tradition, Church Street will be blocked off from 5pm to 11pm, Alexander to Wellesley so that aspiring and professional Drag Queens can drag. The blocked traffic usually runs later because the tourists that come to view the aforementioned drag queens inevitably keep it closed until the bars let out. Church Street fills up with the best outfits ranging from clever (The Sock Monkey/Sea Monkey couple always amaze me with......

Hallowe’en is cool. For one night each year, the dead return to walk the earth with the living, like a George Romero film with candy. We all have our own way of celebrating Halloween, whether it’s scarfing down bags of tiny Snickers bars, petty vandalism against pumpkins, or a drunken encounter with a costumed weirdo at a party. However, there are much more ancient traditions out there, and people who still observe them. Hallowe’en has......

In Rome, at least 1 person has died, and 10 more have been seriously injured in a subway collision involving two trains. It has been over 10 years since the Russel Hill incident here in Toronto. The Toronto Star's editor-in-chief Giles Gherson and publisher Michael Goldbloom resigned on Monday. Goldbloom wrote about the declining newspaper industry in his resignation letter. Canada's prison system is systemically discriminatory against aboriginals, according to the ombudsman for inmates. Also,......

Claws were out at Sunday's Liberal leadership debate. Bob Rae accused Michael Ignatieff of waffling on foreign policy. Stephane Dion compared Rae, former NDP premier, to spendthrift icon Rich Uncle Pennybags ''giving monopoly money to the people''. Ken Dryden compared politics to his hockey career and drew applause. But all agreed one thing: "Liberals, we need to get back to power as soon as possible." Toronto's famous entertainment promoter, Gino Empry, died this weekend at......

Now that it's sort of appropriate to talk about Halloween we bring this to your attention. With more and more people living in condos, apartments or other small spaces in Toronto, fewer of us are carving jack-o-lanterns. Everyone knows that a well-carved Jack-O-Lantern is not just a reminder that fall has us in her cold wet clutches, but that it also can scare the pants of trick or treaters so you can have more mini......

Early Saturday morning just after the bars closed, someone smashed 21 street-level windows of the downtown Courtyard Marriott. Almost the entire Yonge Street side of the hotel was affected, which includes the Yonge Street Grille, Wendy's, and a Second Cup. Yesterday, temporary patches were glued over the plate-glass windows, and one panel is boarded-up. Staff in the building weren't aware if the perp was nabbed or not, but there are no security cameras along......

Tomorrow night at 7:01 pm is the start of a 12-hour, all-night extravaganza called Nuit Blanche. Everyone we talked to seems to know that it's happening (thanks to cover stories in Now, Eye and the Toronto Star), but when pressed, few of those asked were clear on exactly what Nuit Blanche was, nor exactly what they're supposed to do. We thought Torontoist should step in and clear things up. In a nutshell: There are......

Canadian films don't make money. It's almost a certainty in the Canadian film industry but once in a while a film comes along that gives us hope. This year Fido, just might be that film. Our glowing review is here and other bloggers agree that the zombie comedy (zombedy?) about a '50s community where zombies are pets was the right choice to open the Canada First series. Popped Culture's Jeremy Barker gives thumbs up to......