1 Comment September 30, 2015 at 4:45 pm

news

Extra, Extra: Baby Pandas On the Way, Grey Cup Headed to BMO Field, and the Jays Could Clinch AL East Title

By Sarah Niedoba

Every weekday’s end, we collect just about everything you ought to care about or ought not to miss.

Photo by *cranberry* from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Is there anything the fair people of Toronto love more than babies? Or pandas? If you guessed panda babies, you’d be right. And yes, babies, plural, because Toronto Zoo giant panda Er Shun has been successfully artificially inseminated and the ultrasound has detected not one, but two heart beats. While the City enters a predictable period of panda-monium over the news, it’s worth noting that pandas are not always the most nurturing creatures when it comes to dealing with more than one offspring. As a species, they have a history of choosing to care for only the stronger of two offspring, as was the case with the National Zoo’s Mei Xiang just a few weeks ago. Here’s hoping for a better situation when it comes to the Toronto Zoo’s much anticipated newcomers.

Toronto sports fans should clear their schedules for November 2016, because the Grey Cup will be played at BMO field. Rumours abound that it may also host the 2017 NHL Winter Classic, adding two high profile events to the stadium’s line up. Either way, hockey and football fans can look forward to some high quality sporting events in the next year-and-a-half.
But there’s some more immediate sports excitement at hand! The Blue Jays have the chance to clinch their division for the first time since 1993 tonight. After getting rained out last night, they’ll be playing the Baltimore Orioles twice today in a double-header starting at 4:00 p.m., and they only need to win one to claim the AL east. Alternatively, they’ll also be named champions if the Yankees lose their game against the Boston Red Socks tonight—we certainly wouldn’t mind if both come to pass.
From today’s edition of 12:36, Toronto’s new lunchtime tabloid newsletter: Rob Ford is promoting a mockumentary that he appears in for a few seconds. Toronah, a film lauded by Mitch Wolfe at The Rebel for creating “major movie buzz” (even though it definitely hasn’t), will premiere tonight at the Varsity with the ex-mayor in attendance. The storyline apparently involves a guy from Chicago who visits his rich cousin to get some cash he owes the mob, and also a 1977 Trans Am—which Ford will give away in a contest to promote the film’s December 4 opening. But the prizes start even sooner: media attending the launch are promised a $750 gift bag.