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Newsstand: March 17, 2010
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.
Three cheers for green beers on a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day! On this day when Irish heritage is more of a sliding scale, may you end your celebrations with pots of gold, and not porcelain thrones.
One person who most likely won’t be drinking, today or any time in the near future, is TTC driver Margaret Wilson, who was given a breathalyzer by police while on her Dawes Road route this past Friday. The suspension on her licence may have ended yesterday, but today might be the end of her job too. TTC Chair Adam Giambrone said the Commission will be tough on the issue, and applauded the agency’s “fitness-for-duty” policy for drastically reducing the number of employees showing up for work under the influence. But even though it was approved a year and a half ago, key parts to the plan including breathalyzers and oral fluid tests still won’t begin until this August.
And yet another Giambrone controversy. On top of this year’s serious customer service troubles, scandalous affair, and dishonorable fall from the mayoralty race, this one’s a shocker—he likes to use taxis! Wait…what? Okay, three grand on cabs in a year may sound a little extravagant, but his overall yearly expenses in 2009 were just about average when compared to other councillors. Isn’t he allowed a few splurges here and there? After all, streetcar shelters don’t offer any more protection to him during minus-thirty blizzards just because he’s TTC chair.
Fifty years ago today, five Italian immigrants died as they forged an underground water main near Old York Mills Road and Yonge Street in 1960. The Hogg’s Hollow accident, which set a new precedent in labour safety laws, inspired a commemorative quilt entitled Breaking Ground to be unveiled this morning as a permanent feature of York Mills Subway Station.
Yesterday’s Duly Quoted showed Rob Ford’s (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) weakly disguised plans to run for mayor, as revealed to the Star’s Royson James. James was incredulous in the least about Ford’s chances of running the city, but if he thought Ford was a “burly, bombastic bulldog of a man,” just wait until Ford’s brother, Doug, gets a hold of him.
It was the goal heard around the world, and now it’s in Toronto. Sidney Crosby’s gold-medal-winning puck is on display today at the Hockey Hall of Fame. The victorious overtime goal sent nerve-stricken hockey fans into an all-night frenzy here in Toronto, while in Vancouver the prized puck managed to get lost in all the celebration. It was held at the International Ice Hockey Federation in Switzerland until VANOC decided on its new home. The puck will also travel across the country’s museums as Canada’s newest rock (rubber?) star.
If you’ve ever lost your temper with your neighbour’s kid for leaving his toys all over your lawn, apologies are in order. At least tricycles can’t burn down your house.
Finally, Hamilton musician and producer Dan Achen died on Monday night from a heart attack at the age of fifty-one. Achen was a former member of the band Junkhouse and owner of Catherine North Studios, where he worked with notable artists such as Dallas Green, Kathleen Edwards, Josh Ritter, and Achen’s niece, Feist.