City sells "the McDonald's site" on Bloor for a fairly low price. However, Adam Vaughan insists there are upsides to the deal, such as being able to limit the height of the condo development that will take its place, because who would want tall buildings in the downtown core? Patrick Swayze has pancreatic cancer. Although initial reports that he has "weeks to live" were apparently false, pancreatic cancer is still one of the deadliest......

In Tuesday's news round-up, we told you that the plan to sell McDonald's the land at Bloor and Avenue had been halted until January 18. It's a good thing, too, as there are many questions that must be answered before the $3.38 million sale is finalized. Is it in the best interest for Toronto taxpayers? Is the sale a smart corrective action to the bungled 1971 lease agreement or another dumb move we'll regret for......

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The price of oil scaled new heights yesterday, climbing up over $80 US for the first time ever. That's good news if you're an oil company, but bad news if you're a regular folk who likes to go places, or do things, or eat stuff. McDonald's Canada is going upscale. Influenced by popular chains such as Starbucks, the fast-food giant will renovate its restaurants to make them more "comfortable," creating cosiness with leather chairs,......

Today Apple offered us a refresh of their entire iPod line, making us want to blindly toss our money at the company once again. One Torontonian, however, is getting some coin thrown her way—big time. Indie darling Leslie Feist has found her track "1234" at the core of the new worldwide iPod nano television spot. Even better, Apple is touting the device's new ability to play video, and prominently features the "1234" clip, directed......

Kids think that food in a McDonald's wrapper tastes better than the same food not in the wrapper, study shows. This study confirms what many of us have long believed: namely, that children are stupid. Reason #6147 Toronto is better than Montreal: our gonorrhea rate isn't exploding upwards. The article even points out that Montreal gonorrhea is tougher and more antibiotic-resistant than Toronto gonorrhea—that's how bad their gonorrhea problem is! Former SCTV actor Tony Rosato......

It happens in the middle of the night on a dark, deserted road in the wilderness near Kapuskasing: Carrie McDonald's car breaks down. Her mobile phone is without a signal, and nobody knows where she is. The pavement is lit only from Carrie's headlights, and she strains to hear any approaching vehicle in the dead silence. As she squats to relieve herself, a slow-moving truck approaches. Carrie notes, "the other thing about taking a pee......

With rights being awarded right and left to rename every sports facility and theatre, this is one of the strangest yet, and despite our general aversion to runaway corporate whoring, dare we say we actually kinda like it? The long-awaited and troubled Metropolis complex finally rising over Yonge and Dundas is to be renamed Toronto Life Square, after the popular magazine owned by St. Joseph Communications. Not only is it ironically highbrow to dub......

Despite ostensibly being the possession of a man named Tim Horton rather than some sort of coalition of men with the same name, the Tim Hortons coffee/donut chain seems to have lost its much needed apostrophe. This apparently occurred some time during the mid-90s, allegedly because of Quebec's language laws. Remember the whole "Eatons vs. Eaton's" kerfuffle? Well, Timmies decided that it wasn't worth the money to produce two sets of signs, napkins, etc.......

From left to right (roughly): Vivian Li, Zoe Higgs, Matthew Corker, Melinda Montgomery, Adam Martin and Kerri (aka: Adam's girlfriend). While most people are uncomfortably hugging their relatives and McDonald's employees are still rolling their eyes when you ask for a free smile, six UBC students/Torontonians were out at Yonge and Dundas yesterday voluntarily hugging people. This epidemic is known as the Free Hugs Campaign and was started a couple years ago in Australia......

If you’re hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs “so are you nakie” to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

After being hotly anticipated for months- at least by stores- All Hallows' Eve is finally here. If you're at all concerned, the so-called North American Halloween Prevention Inc. has released a charity single, "Do They Know It's Halloween?" (It's really a spoof of the well-intended-but-slightly-patronizing "Do They Know It's Christmas?") It features a slew of Canadian musicians, including Arcade Fire, Buck 65, Sloan, Feist, and Wolf Parade; even better, all proceed go to UNICEF.......

Weird. We caught Tuesday's CityTV news segment comparing Tim Horton's new breakfast sandwich to McDonald's established one, and the whole thing felt eerily familiar. As muted fury coloured our cheeks a brighter red than Consumer Specialist Jee-Yun Lee's coat, we recalled that five of our contributors already got together just a week ago to do the same thing. Could there be cross-medium war over mundanity? A few things that we noticed: Our sample size......

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery. Phillyist rejoices in the Phillies' wild card chances, mourns the injuries sustained by Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse, and goes pirate on our asses. SFist notes that Guns and Roses were in town, that San Franciscans are taking over reality TV, and that the San Francisco Chronicle's skills of original nomenclature could use some......

If there's one defining quality of being a major metropolis, a "world class city" if you will, it is undoubtedly having a hockey team that despite having tons of money and a psychotically loyal fanbase can never win the championship. CORRECTION! It is undoubtedly having heaps of access to cheap Chinese food, preferably of the all-you-can-eat dinner buffet variety. Sure, you can go to any old strip mall and there's even odds there will......

What ho? As the Yonge-Dundas Irregular Polygon burrows ever deeper into the hearts of Torontonians like that thing from The Wrath of Kahn, news arrives from the email circuit about what fresh terrors may await the North side of Dundas: We can't speak to how this might impact the safety or the economy of the neighborhood but as to it's effect on the urban psychic space, we will, with confidence, unleash a resounding "aaaaaaaaaaaargh!" Beyond......

A double big mac, extra large fries and a gallon of iced tea might just be the worst call of year. Deeeesgusting. Surprisingly, though, there are a lot of attractive people in McDonald's at the Eaton Centre, including young mothers (read: especially young mothers!). But drunks aren't the only ones at the LCBO, so why would fat people dominate the population at fast food dealers? Also, look closely at the drink: While it actually......

Whoa, dude, that "tight-knit group of guys from rural Ontario" (or whatever) totally got some work done last week. Their thorough haranguing of Ashlee Simpson's ""performance"" at MuchMusic must have driven the poor faux-popster to the edge (where's Daddy Joe when you need him?), because she was spotted at a Toronto-area McDonald's wigging out in a drunken stupor. To the effect of telling a fan she can't take a picture with him because "You......

The good people over at Spacing.ca have directed our attention to arts collective Year Zero One's latest project, which launches tomorrow night in Yonge-Dundas Square and runs throughout August. This month, video artists Manu Luksch and Jillian McDonald will have their one-minute installations broadcast on the 29th and 59th minutes of each hour, respectively. Luksch's Movie Stars impressively involves hundreds of trained starfish, while McDonald's Screen Kiss features the artist enviably inserted into romantic......

Raw milk cheeses, rare roast beef, and heavy amounts of bacteria. These are a just a few retro culinary recommendations of Globe and Mail, the National Post, Chatelaine, and Maclean’s writer Gina Mallet. In her newish book, Last Chance to Eat, Mallet explains how the tasting pallet has shifted decidedly toward bland foods (number one culprit being tomatoes). Available in hardcover since September 2004, her critiques of modern dining are now making their way to......

Not all Irish, but serving green beer: The James Joyce (386 Bloor St. W.) Grossman's Tavern (379 Spadina Ave.) Revival (783 College St.) Warning: Crazy green hat celebration Hugh's Room (2261 Dundas St. W.) Ein-stein's (229 College St.) C'est What? (67 Front St. E.) Duke of York (39 Prince Arthur Ave.) Duke of Gloucester (649 Yonge St.) Paupers (539 Bloor Street W.) Shamrock Shake (McDonald's?) But for the love of all things green, don't drive!......

Brooklyn based artist Jillian McDonald draws inspiration from the peculiar cultural phenomenon of celebrity worship. Her video installation, "To Vincent, With Love," showing until March 26 at YYZ Artists Outlet straddles the two extremes of celebrity worship; the innocuous deluge of fan-sites, letters, and mind-numbing celebrity "journalism" and the often disturbing phenomenon of stalking, romantic delusion and threats of violence. In the work McDonald has placed herself in various scenes of Gallo's film Buffalo 66.......

Fast food restaurants rarely close. They're parasitic in a way, dependent, as they are, on the steady stream of nugget consumers, or, in days or yore, Arch Deluxe consumers. And a steady flow of grease-eaters, unlike crude oil, has never seemed a diminishing commodity. So it's kind of a shock to see that the smelly McDonald's that used to occupy Torontoist's nearest patch of Bloor is no more. We're surprised, because McDonald's has always seemed......