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Newsstand: October 29, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
It’s Halloween weekend, so get ghastly with it. Today, vigilante grocer learns his fate, wind power goes mainstream, and only a couple of tangential references to Rob Ford.
A judge will hand down a verdict today in the case of David Chen, the Chinatown grocer who was charged with assault and forcible confinement after he and some employees chased down and tied up a man who had earlier stolen plants from his store. In the meantime, Chen’s fifty-five-year-old mother stopped another shoplifter yesterday, grabbing and holding a woman who tried to leave the store with two bottles of shampoo. The younger Chen told the Globe that he deals with thieves several times a day. Click through to the National Post story for these remarkable photo captions, tributes to the copy editor’s craft: “Lucky Moose Food Mart owner David Chen walks through his store were he claims a woman stole shapoo bottles” and “Lucky Moose Food Mart owner David Chen holds his iphone with a photograph of a woman who he claims were stolen by a women…The shoplifting was one of three during Thursday for Chen’s store.”
Wind farms in Ontario put out more electricity than ever before this week, generating enough wattage—or is it voltage? amperage? lightning juice?—to provide six percent of the province’s electricity and light up around 900,000 homes. The eco-energy record was in no way diminished by the fact that some 56,000 homes had their power knocked out by the same wind. Nature loves symmetry and irony.
A new poll from the Canadian Automobile Association says that eight of the twenty worst roads in Ontario are in Toronto. Lawrence and Finch topped the list of lousy roads locally, grabbing third and fourth spots respectively. You know what we blame? Streetcars.
Speaking of unsafe roads, at least nine cars in three different parts of the city had their brake lines cut this week. Six cars in the Beach, two downtown, and one in the Annex were damaged, and police are warning people in the areas to check their vehicles.
You may not be able to get Mom the usual six dollar Gucci handbag for Christmas this year. Police seized over a million dollars in counterfeit luxury goods in several locations around the GTA this week following a three month investigation. Several people have been arrested and charged with fraud.
Read this story because it’s a nice way to end the week. Toronto doctor Mayer Yacowar was snorkeling with his six-year-old son Noah while on vacation in the Turks and Caicos when the water got rough. A former lifeguard, Yacowar noticed that a couple snorkeling nearby were in trouble, but couldn’t help them without letting go of Noah. Noah said that he could swim back to the boat on his own, and proceeded to do just that while his father pulled Shawn and Helen Ghalili to safety. You’re tearing up a little, aren’t you?
Finally, meteorological prognosticators are predicting a chilly Halloween with temperatures down to one degree, so make sure that Rob Ford costume is well padded.