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Weekend Newsstand: November 6, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
The weekend is here! And this weekend, there’s even more weekend for you to love. Let’s start this love-fest: Team Ford are the unfunniest prank-callers of all time, prank-Tweeter’s identity revealed, Mariam’s dad stays in jail, and we all travel back in time.
Not satisfied to rest on their fake Twitter account laurels, Rob Ford’s deputy campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, revealed even more of the dirty tricks “normal part of campaigns done by all sides” used by Team Ford to win the election. At a forum of campaign managers, Kouvalis announced that his team is responsible for keeping Ford’s top rival, John Tory, out of the mayoral race. Tory-weary Forders, even Karen Philby herself, prank-called Tory’s radio show and made a YouTube video aiming to scare the former Ontario PC leader out of running by repeatedly questioning his integrity. Tory says it wasn’t a factor in his decision to stay out. And he’s even thinking about maybe playing some kind of role in the Ford administration.
We think those wannabe rabble-rousers on Team Ford should have borrowed a page from Toronto’s ultimate political prankster, @rebelmayor. The e-incarnation of Toronto’s first mayor and best rebellion leader, William Lyon Mackenzie, happily played the much-needed jester role throughout the municipal election. Now the masked mayoral mischief-maker has revealed his true identity and told us about the experience. Ho, we thank Spacing‘s/Eye Weekly‘s/Yonge Street‘s/Stroll‘s/man-about-town Shawn Micallef for all the 140-character historical zingers.
The father of missing teen, Mariam Makhniashvili, will remain in jail for the foreseeable future after being charged with attempted murder. At a court appearance yesterday, Vakhtang Makhniashvili’s lawyer said he wants his client to be evaluated by a forensic psychologist. Makhniashvili’s bail hearing is postponed until next Wednesday, and until then, he will stay in police custody in the Toronto West Detention Centre’s medical wing.
The Toronto Humane Society is having a hard time shaking off all the terrible publicity from last year’s raids and animal cruelty charges on senior staff. The charges were thrown out and they’ve got a whole new board of directors, but donations to the charity are only half of what they used to be. To remedy the problem, they’re bringing in the big guns: Loretta Swit, who played Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on M*A*S*H, will host an adopt-a-thon on Saturday afternoon.
The most recent jobless numbers came out yesterday, and, yes, the economy is still pretty poopy.
And—this is probably unrelated to the joblessness—after thieves stole hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of property from a Forest Hill home this week, police say there’s been a rise in break-and-enters in the neighbourhood. There’s no indication the recent burglary is related to the others, but there is an indication that these burglaries are being committed by organized criminals. Well, organized in the “I had the foresight to bring a canvas bag to stash my stolen goods in” sense. Not organized organized. Right, Toronto Sun?
We told you once, but we’ll tell you again: set your clocks back one hour tonight. If you still have clocks that need your help doing that.