Friday WORDS: The new season of the Toronto Poetry Slam kicks off Friday. Amateurs sign up half an hour before the show, and are given a chance to showcase their talents. Afterward, there will be a performance from musician Mark Berube and The Patriotic Few. For more information, check out the Toronto Poetry Slam website. The Drake Hotel Underground (1150 Queen Street West), 8 p.m. (sign-up at 7:30 p.m.), $5. MUSIC: Local musician Jennifer Castle......

What Honest Ed’s lacks in architectural artistry compared to more high-brow institutions, it makes up for in self-promotional bombast. From its "quirky hand-painted signage" to the low-price Toronto souvenirs, badly painted Elvis busts, and abandoned theatre props, Honest Ed’s is a museum of kitsch. Now a local illustrator, Christopher Hutsul, has designed a stationery set paying tribute his neighbourhood’s "foremost local architectural landmark." "When Ed Mirvish died the building took on greater historical significance,”......

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. Honest Ed's Sign BY MUTE* RELATED ON TORONTOIST: "Honest Ed" Mirvish, 1914-2007, Vintage Toronto Ads: Honest Ed's Smells Out Bargains For You!, Celebrating A Great Life......

Canadian Bar Association demands that Stephen Harper negotiate with the United States to return Omar Khadr to Canada. The country's largest legal organization (and Khadr's own American military lawyer, for that matter) states that Khadr will not get a fair trial in the United States, which is obvious. Also obvious: the likelihood of Harper doing exactly dick about it. Gay Nicaraguan man goes into hiding in Toronto after being denied refugee status. Which is......

Stage Struck: 100 Years At The Royal Alex, a free exhibition commemorating the Royal Alexandra Theatre's centennial, opened yesterday at the Toronto Reference Library. Torontoist was at the opening to oggle at the rare playbills, posters and other paraphernalia that would make any theatre geek weak in the knees. Organized by the Toronto Public Library, the Stage Struck exhibit features photos, design sketches, scripts and souvenir books that highlight the long history of the......

Bluma Appel, philanthropist and patron of the arts, died last night in a Toronto hospital from complications of cancer. She was 86. Her death comes as a sudden blow to the city and to her family; she was diagnosed with lung cancer only two months ago. Appel and her husband celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary last week. Torontonians knew Appel as a passionate advocate for the arts and particularly for the theatre community, where she......

Chicago prosecutors expected to ask that the book be thrown at Conrad Black. HA HA HA ROT IN JAIL YOU UNKIND GENTLEMAN [Needless to say, the previous two words originally read...uh...differently. They were swears!—Ed.]. Sorry, that was not very objective. Please amend the previous sentence to read "hee hee hee rot in jail you freaking aardvark." In other news, he may also go bankrupt, making this officially the best news story of the year so......

Three elephants from the Garden Brothers circus escaped their handlers and took a brief tour of a residential neighbourhood in Newmarket last night. The elephants aren’t kept in cages but do have a rope around their foot to keep them from wandering, which doesn’t work. Local residents said that after initial alarm they were delighted with the unexpected early morning zaniness. Good news for traveling half-wits—airport screeners have been instructed to issue a warning......

The flags will be at half-mast Thursday at all civic buildings and an entire city is saddened by the loss of "Honest Ed" Mirvish at the age of 92. The Mirvish family has released public details about the funeral: Friday, July 13 Beth Tzedec Synagogue 1700 Bathurst Street, just south of Eglinton Avenue [map] 11:00 a.m. (a strictly private family Shiva will follow) Donations can be made in lieu of flowers to the Ed......

Toronto legend Edwin "Honest Ed" Mirvish has died. He was 92. The philanthropic businessman was a crucial part of Toronto's reputation as a world-renowned theatre centre, and had been mostly out of the public eye after contracting a severe case of pneumonia in 2003 and experiencing deteriorating health ever since. Mirvish died at St. Michael's Hospital at 1:30 a.m. Mirvish was born in Virginia on July 25, 1914 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. His introduction to......

This Sunday, July 8 from 12 to 9 p.m., Mirvish Village will host the first Pedestrian Sunday outside of Kensington Market. The neighbourhood is home to the landmark discount store Honest Ed’s and is a collection of boutiques, studios and restaurants, founded and named for the Mirvish family in recognition of Toronto’s retail show biz entrepreneur Ed Mirvish. Inspired by the success of P.S. Kensington, the project is being taken on by the local Business......

Torontoist's online HQ has been all a-twitter and a-quiver this afternoon with the delicious (if a little startling) news from Mirvish Productions. Below, Paige shares a top-priority emergency dispatch from her 9-5 outpost. Torontoist was horrified at last month's news that a Dirty Dancing remake is in the works. We may watch the film over and over again, but that doesn't mean that we want former Saved by the Bell'er Mario Lopez taking Patrick......

Ed Mirvish: theatre tycoon, city hero and...turkey giveaway guru? People lined up overnight outside Honest Ed's for the 19th Annual Turkey Giveaway on Sunday. Now approaching age 93, Ed himself was sadly not in attendance, but son David Mirvish took over greeting duties. City Homicide #64, if you're keeping track: 26-year-old Mississauga resident, Dennis Kwame Oppong, died after being shot in the head near Front and Spadina early Sunday morning. The victim had been convicted......

He was known for his tales of Old Hollywood as much as his ever-present hairpiece, and Toronto just became way more boring without him. Yesterday, famous publicist and personal manager Gino Empry died at Western Memorial Hospital from congestive heart failure due to a stroke he suffered in July. Though he lived in a huge downtown penthouse condo on Mutual Street, Empry had been in the hospital since the stroke. Empry never revealed his true......

Jane Pitfield is opening a campaign office in the Junction area, close to Mayor Miller's High Park home. Both campaigns are gearing up for the fall and raising money. Mayor Miller is going grassroots and offering anyone who puts up raises $100 for his campaign an "I Public housing around the GTA is falling apart. The Toronto Community Housing Corporation estimates that it needs $225 million in repairs. A Toronto man saved two others from......

An observant reader let us know that The New York Times Travel section has a piece on Toronto's revitalization as a travel destination, which means somebody at Tourism Toronto has been doing their job. The piece talks about the ROM, the AGO and other major construction projects. But its focus happens to be those singing, dancing, Mirvish produced Hobbits! The headline reads "A Revitalized Toronto Pins Its Hopes on the Hobbits." We're going to......