news
Newsstand: September 14, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
Goodbye, Tuesday Newsstand, who could hang a name on you…in the news today: Rossi’s digging a big hole, the TTC gets customer-friendly, and red-hot chicken heads could be the next big thing.
Well, we’ve got those giant boring machines just sitting around anyway…As we mentioned yesterday, mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi pulled in some much-needed headlines with a promise that, as mayor, he would build out eight kilometres of underground expressway from Eglinton to the Lakeshore. Rossi’s vision was immediately derided as unworkable by, well, everyone, who pointed out, among other things, that Boston’s famous “Big Dig” traffic tunnel went three-quarters of the distance and cost around $22 billion US. Rossi stuck to his guns, however, and said not only was the project feasible but, once completed, he would dig a second tunnel all the way from from the Sasquatch District to the Starship Docking Station.
Maybe it’s the lack of tunnels that forced the Smitherman campaign team to pull their van over in a bike lane, allowing a Joe Pantalone supporter to take a photo and post it on Facebook. The Ford and Pantalone campaigns have previously been similarly embarrassed, although this is arguably the best pic, since it actually shows a cyclist awkwardly manoeuvering his way around the big-ass Smithermobile.
The Sun reports that the TTC just got a whole lot friendlier, and we’re not just talking about local frottage enthusiasts. Eight newly assigned station managers spent yesterday’s morning rush hour in the subway chatting with passengers, giving directions, and generally taking accountability for their designated stations. The plan was approved back in May at the recommendation of the Customer Service Advisory Panel and will be rolled out to other stations over the next few months.
Don’t unboard your windows yet, capitalists! Two alleged G20 riot ringleaders have avoided a return to the Toronto gulag after a judge rejected a crown request to to revoke their bail. Alex Hundert and Leah Henderson have been free on $100,000 bail since July 19 under strict conditions of house arrest and remaining under supervision of their sureties. Whose identity the article doesn’t specify, but don’t you think it’s their parents?
An Ottawa woman was not entirely pleased to find a chicken head in an order of take-out wings from an Etobicoke restaurant. The deep-fried head turned up in a pound of wings from the Wild Goose Bar & Grill back in August, but Karen Cook only contacted the media and public health after she said she was given the runaround by the company that supplied the wings. Interestingly, Toronto Public Health said that no laws were broken, since any part of the chicken can be sold in Ontario. Parts, as they say, are parts.
Almost thirteen hundred diplomas from the University of Toronto are being recalled after a typo was spotted in the title of one of the signatories. Anyone who has received one of the incorrect documents is being asked to repeat their entire degree program. Just kidding, you still graduated. If you want a correct version to show off to your friends and family, you can swap yours out in person or by mail.