If you're into the idea of kids with bigger, shinier brains and programs that facilitate such things, you might be familiar with Now Hear This!, Toronto's very own not-for-profit literary outreach organization. With a mandate of education through the arts, they do good things like hold Satire and Fake News Writing workshops for kids, complete with handouts from The Onion. Kind of idealistically akin to Dave Eggers' ass-kickingly progressive nonprofit, 826 National. Anyhow, these......

Today’s Contest: For your chance to win one pair of tickets to Saturday’s screening of Just Like Home, directed by Lone Scherfig (Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself) at 11:00 p.m. at the Cumberland 3, email us your name at contests@torontoist.com. Winners will be randomly selected and notified by tomorrow morning with ticket pick-up information. This is our last contest and it’s one of the last films of the festival, so if you haven’t taken......

As the Luminato Fest continues, two more George F. Walker plays open at the Factory. Escape from Happiness is the sequel to already-opened Better Living, while Tough! is another one of Walker's East End Plays, focusing on a different group of characters. The entire play, which is only about an hour and twenty minutes long, is composed of a single scene: a confrontation between three young people in a park. Tina knows Bobby cheated......

George F. Walker, one of the country's most prolific and most produced playwrights, not to mention the creator of the sadly defunct CBC drama This is Wonderland, hasn't written a play since 2000's controversial Heaven, and he claims he may never write one again. But that doesn't stop him from getting produced at Factory about every year. This year, as a part of the innaugural Luminato Festival, Factory will be producing three of his......

ROFL for real—Sunday May 6 is World Laughter Day 2007. Founded in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, this event is now celebrated in over 50 countries, and there are more than 5000 laughter clubs around the globe. Everyone has heard the saying “laughter is the best medicine”—it may well be true. Laughter is an effective way to reduce stress, which is implicated in many serious illnesses such as heart disease, depression, and cancer. It......

The Star reports on the visit of controversial British Imam Sheik Riyadh ul-Haq, who has publicly vilified Jews and Hindus in speeches. There are calls for Immigration Minister Monte Solberg to deny him his entry. He's made four previous visits to Canada and many in the Muslim community defend him as a legitimate and well-regarded speaker. The Star has more info on yesterday's shooting by the police. The victim was a teen who had stolen......

The province has given municipalities the power to set closing time for bars. Toronto even gets the power to add additional taxes to booze. The province might even give this power to other municipalities if it works well in Toronto. Was there a link between the man who took a shot at police in Etobicoke yesterday and a series of recent sexual assaults? Council wants to make it illegal to harm law-enforcement animals. The law......