Results tagged “governor”

Not content to let America have all the schadenfreude fun, Ashley Madison—Toronto-based online dating company intended for people looking to cheat on their spouses, whose slogan is "when monogamy becomes monotony" and who is responsible for TV ads like these—took out a full-page ad in today's New York Post.

Plagued by complaints, the City of Toronto has finally gotten around to ticketing some homeowners who don't clear the snow in front of their property. A city spokesperson said they prefer not to send out inspectors in the winter because it's so difficult to get around.

Gas prices in Toronto are at $1.09 or more a litre today, reflecting all-time record oil prices of over US$108 per barrel. For all our driving readers, it might cheer you up to consider that it's still cheaper to fill up your car with gas than say, orange juice or Diet Pepsi. By the way, if you do decide to go with orange juice, remember that the pulp-free kind is less likely to gum up your engine.

February is Black History Month. To celebrate, the City of Toronto Archives is hosting an evening with Dr. Karolyn Smardz Frost on February 5. She is the winner of the 2007 Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction for I’ve Got a Home in Gloryland: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad, which tells the story of two slaves who escaped to Canada in 1833. In an illustrated presentation entitled Fugitive Sources: Finding Clues to our African-Canadian Past, Dr. Frost will recount the 20-plus years she spent researching the book in various archives. The presentation will be followed by an informal discussion between Dr. Frost and CBC radio personality Garvia Bailey, then a Q & A with the audience.

Over the past little while, Torontoist has been quietly absorbed in The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol reader. Edited by Darren Wershler-Henry and Lori Emerson, The Alphabet Game is an essential anthology for any reader of bpNichol, and is a great starting point for those who have yet to discover his work.

An up-close look at the Grey Cup trophy reveals countless dents and scratches attesting to the long and colourful life of probably the most disrespected and abused trophy in sports. Since being donated by Canada’s 9th Governor General, Earl Grey, the trophy has been head-butted, sat on, and snapped in half. It’s been abandoned for years at a time in bank vaults and hall closets. It’s been forgotten in empty stadiums and hotel rooms...

Photo by EIFF.

While going to York University may seem like a giant hassle (Torontoist recommends you pack a snack for the trip), this year’s Ioan Davies Memorial Lecture is shaping up to be worth the drive or TTC ride to York.

Lit lovers should head over to Church Street today for the Writing Outside The Margins festival of queer literature, the first of its kind in Toronto. The Gay Village stretch of Church Street will be closed from 11:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. to accommodate stands selling everything from children's books, fiction and poetry to sci-fi, erotica and comic arts. There will also be two stages for readings and performances, where you'll get to participate in an open mic or sign up for a poetry slam competition.

Taking a page from David Miller's Big Book of Intergovernmental Panhandling, Dalton McGuinty is complaining that Ontario is going to need a hot cash injection from the Feds if we're going to get those manufacturing jobs back from Bangladesh. Q: What do you get when you have an NDP mayor, a Liberal Premier, and a Tory Prime Minister? A: If you pay taxes in Toronto, pretty much nothing!

Faced with a distasteful choice between imposing unpopular new taxes or recommending draconian budget cuts, City Council came up with the ingeniously gutless idea of deferring the decision until after the provincial election in October. The premise is that maybe that the province will agree to once again pony up for the social service costs that it downloaded under Mike Harris. Or maybe the City Hall lotto pool will win the 6/49, like, forty times in a row. Either way we’re golden.

Artist Damien Hirst's diamond-studded skull reminded us that we used to live across the street from a lady who kept a magical Mayan crystal skull in her house. Which got us to thinking about other spooky things. So we've compiled a list of ten, supposedly haunted places in the city. Make your own ghost walk and if you do actually see a spirit, please let us know.

Have you checked out the officially unveiled ROM Crystal yet? Some cool dudes like David Foster, Deborah Cox, Jann Arden, K'naan, Natalie McMaster, David Suzuki and Governor General Michaëlle Jean [AND CLAY AIKEN!!!—Ed.] were on scene for the dedication.

Sam the Record Man is closing its Yonge Street store on June 30. Remember when Sam's was the only place you could get a cassette of The Lowest of the Low's Shakespeare My Butt? Remember cassettes?

Get on over to the east end tonight for Exile Editions' Spring Reading. New books will bloom this eve, and others will be ripe for picking throughout spring and summer. Exile Editorial Board Member Chris Doda gives us the layout for tonight’s garden of authors:

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs.

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week.

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing—what's going on in the World of the -ist's?

Playing at the Tranzac this evening is Harry and the Potters, a band that inspired a new genre of music called Wizard Rock. While brothers Paul and Joe DeGeorge started playing their Harry Potter-inspired songs just to friends, they developed a massive fan base online and began touring around North America. Pitchfork named their appearance at the New York Public Library one of the top live shows of 2005, and now there are over 100 other wizard rock bands such as Draco and the Malfoys and The Parselmouths. Check out "The Human Hosepipe" to hear Harry Potter rant emo about his disastrous date at Madam Puddifoot's tea shop: "Cho Chang, what have I done? I don't want to hear about where you and Cedric were snogging..."

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico.

This article is a response to a series of comments you can find on Spacing Wire, in which someone compares Toronto to a "crossroads" or "meeting place." The poster claims this label makes sense because the word Toronto originates from an aboriginal word meaning "meeting place." There was no post contradicting the definition, probably because we have all heard this claim before and most of us accept it. Upon further investigation of the matter, one finds the definition of Toronto as "meeting place" to be rather controversial.

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost.

Drake, you ho, this is all your fault. The Ontario Municipal Board has approved a high-rise residential project on Queen Street West at 48 Abell Street, just steps from the Gladstone and everything hipsters cherish about Toronto's arts scene. Developers intend to build 7 condos in total with affordable housing, and the ratio of "normal people" to "artists with cool hair" will be thrown into upheaval. Unfortunately, there's not much that we or neighbourhood-preservation groups like Active 18 can do. The condo developers officially have the green light.

What does the international community say? U.S. President George W. Bush calls the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law". The UN and European Union criticize the former Iraqi leader's death sentence. Vatican representative, Cardinal Renato Martino, calls the sentence "eye for an eye vengeance". Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay refused to comment.

Who's going to come out on top of the strangest Giller Prize shortlist in years? While the smart money is on Rawi Hage's DeNiro's Game, which is also nominated for the Governor General's Award, writers from the Globe raised a convincing argument for Gaetan Soucy's the Immaculate Conception.

The Ryerson Review of Journalism is one of the most acclaimed magazines in the country – and it’s run entirely by the students of Ryerson University’s school of journalism. Running a national magazine is a costly endeavour, so to fill the coffers the RRJ is hosting a black-tie fundraiser this Tuesday night. It promises to be a good one.

No time…Must get back down to Harbourfront…IFOA in full swing…Here are some other literary events taking place this week….