Week in Review: January 22, 2017
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Have you heard how Donald Trump lifted part of his inauguration speech from the movie Avatar? Or, maybe it was The Bee Movie. Actually, it was neither. The internet hoax has been making the rounds. The lines supposedly cribbed from the movies never appear in either film.
A Beamsville, Ontario businessman announced he was launching a new business called Lake Ontario Express to provide 40-minute hovercraft rides between Toronto and Niagara-on-the-Lake. The drive from downtown Toronto takes about 1.5 hours. One-way fares would cost $25 he’s hoping to attract enough passengers to take between 600 and 1,000 cars off the highway. Would you sign up for the trip? I’ve travelled by hovercraft before – between England and France, across the Channel. Let me tell you – I will NEVER pay for another hovercraft ride in my life. It was horrific! Of the 300 people on board, about 200 of them painted the interior of the cabin with their lunch. Count me out.
The Toronto Region Conservation Authority has a sand table in its in offices – it’s a model used to teach the public how rainfall and rivers combine to create dangerous floods. I found pictures of it on Twitter this week and was surprised to note that the model included toy soldiers in sniping positions ont the tops of hills, providing overwatch to plastic tanks advancing through the valleys. When asked… “say, what?” – the TRCA responded “Someone (we don't know who) placed toy soldiers, tanks, etc. in the sand in a playful pre-Holiday gesture. Then someone took them away.” The mystery continues…
Mayor John Tory heads back to Los Angeles to talk up Toronto’s film and TV industry. He’ll take some flack for this and argues that he doesn’t look for opportunities to travel. That said, he travels a lot. But, I don’t begrudge him these trade missions – it’s what a mayor should do. Unlike his “learning trip” to Paris for the Climate Change conference which was a junket. Still, it IS interesting how trips to warm destinations always seem to happen in the winter.
The Mayor’s Executive Committee this week debated and passed a motion that will go to City Council – asking the City Manager to study how much time would be saved if Council stopped debating whether or not to comment on or recognize the anniversaries of massacres and genocides, etc. Council routinely wastes dozens of hours of debate time on such pointless motions each year. Ironically, City Staff will, no doubt, waste dozens more, if not hundreds of hours, studying this request and writing a report which will no doubt say it’s a waste. That report will then be debated at a future Council for more wasted hours. All of this, so Council may eventually adopt a policy it can ignore anytime it wants. Like, for example, the next time there’s an anniversary and some politician wants to earn points with a special interest community – and the others are too afraid of pissing off said community to object. It's pointless, because no Council can bind its future self. That’s a principal of English law.
HERO OF THE WEEK
This weeks heroes of the week are hundreds of Second Harvest Heroes, who will spread out across Toronto on Feb 9 and 23, decked out in bright green masks and capes, to accept cash donations from generous commuters in TTC stations and PATH locations. Heroes will be live tweeting from designated locations across the city using the campaign's hashtag #HERO2017 and donors are encouraged to join in on the conversation by tagging @2ndHarvestTO on Twitter or Instagram or @SecondHarvestTO on Facebook.
Second Harvest feeds over 130,000 ppl/mo through food rescue & delivery to 225 social service agencies across GTA.
Over 150 workplaces and schools will take part.
Last year, Hero campaign raised enough $ for 686,000 meals
Every $5 raised = over 10 meals
Food would otherwise go to waste
STUPID OF THE WEEK
This week's award goes to anyone who thinks only white middle aged males can be racists. A black man recorded himself on video confronting an inter-racial couple in a restaurant in the US. He asks the man why he's in a black-owned restaurant with a white woman who's "the lowest rung of humanity." Not only is the man a racist, he's a stupid racist – posting evidence of his own idiocy online for all to see. All of this just goes to show that racism, bigotry and stupid come in all sizes, shapes and colours.