Anti-Semitic health inspectors close Steeles Deli

Took a drive down to the city yesterday, the day a bunch of not very Canadian b-ball players were putting Toronto on the map, to have lunch with Junior. He's just finished his third year at U of T, and since I haven't had a face-to-face with him for some time I thought this would be a day well spent.

He lives downtown but subbed up to the Finch station, the last stop on the Yonge line. We headed for the Steeles Deli, which has for over thirty years been a haunt for the Jewish side of the family.

It was closed. We ended up having lunch at the Red Lobster on Yonge about a mile north of Steeles. That was something of a selfish decision, since Junior doesn't care for seafood, whereas I like a fix of lobster every now and again.

On the way back to the Finch subway station we stopped at Centre Park to let Boomer have a romp before our drive back to the boonies. Boomer is the last survivor of our hound pack. At fifteen she doesn't really "romp" that much, but she appeared to have an enjoyable waddle.

Across the park was a house with a for sale sign. We speculated as to what it might be worth. We guessed a million and a half to two million. We were a little light in our guesswork, as you can see in the link.

That property is obviously being marketed as a tear-down. Somebody will spend two and a half million to buy that house, rip it down, and then spend another million putting up a 3,000 foot McMansion. This has become the norm in that neighbourhood.

What's truly remarkable is that Yonge/Steeles is by no stretch of the imagination a "posh" neighbourhood. In fact, it was developed as a typical middle-class suburb, where teachers and nurses and the like might build their nests.

But Toronto is a "world class" city now. If press reports are to be believed, folks were paying up to $60,000 for a chair at last night's Raptors game.  I assume those would be the same kind of folks who pay two and a half million for a house just to knock it down and put up a new build.

I don't mean to fire up a fresh conspiracy theory here, but has anybody else noticed what's happened to Toronto housing costs since the U of T lured urban planning guru Richard Florida to town?

It's obviously his fault...


When I got home the Farm Manager was keen to hear how lunch went at the Steeles Deli. When she heard the sad news, she had an immediate response; obviously the health inspectors on the north side of Steeles Avenue are anti-Semites.

Raptor hysteria and Canada's multi-culti advantage

Nav Bhatia is getting a lot of free publicity due to his Raptor's allegiance.

That allegiance will translate into more Hyundai sales at his car dealerships.

That's not anything to get alarmed about. I recently tried out a few Hyundai products and decided to buy a Toyota instead.

That wasn't due to the Korean origin of the Hyundai, nor was it due to the turbaned promoter of Hyundai in Canada.

It was due solely to Toyota offering me a better vehicle at a price point that made sense to me.

At this critical juncture, we all need to decide if we're with the commodification of sport, or against it...

Bloody hell, am I ever against it!


But I gotta say... GO KAWHI!!!..


Go Raptors!!!

Good news and bad news

The good news is that Falling Downs is now a waterfront property. I could put the canoe in and paddle through the marsh across the way clear down to Bass Lake, 500 yards distant.

We're also waterview. When you can see the sun glinting off Indian Creek enough that you gotta worry about the basement, you're leaking out of "good news" territory.

Checked the basement a few minutes ago...

Good news!

No sign of leakage!

We're still in the good news zone.


In a bout of positivity around a year or two ago, or maybe three or four, I agreed with the Farm Manager that we didn't really need cable anymore. After all, she just livestreams Netflix 24/7, and I'm sick of watching pointless NASCAR races every Sunday afternoon anyway.

Who needs Bell?

Who needs Rogers?

Got to admit that call got me a few brownie points at the time...


But that was then, and this is now!

Now, both the Raptors and the Leafs are in the playoffs! Like, right now!

What was I thinking?!

So I'm stuck trying to find a live feed for those games on one of those betting websites, with mixed results. It's kinda sorta working... I just saw Toronto go up 4-3 on a shorthander.

And I can see the Raps are up by one.

Go Raptors!

Go Bruins!

Raptors on two game win streak!

That's got to be the most exciting news for Toronto sports fans next to the Leafs undefeated season!

It's the middle of December and the Raptors have put together a two game win streak. For the first time this year! Is that pathetic or what?

Unfortunately that's about par for the course for the mighty Maple Leaf Sports empire, the empire that runs all pro sport in Toronto.

With the exception of the Jays, and oddly enough, the Jays are in the news for reasons that don't require the home fans to hang their heads in shame. Anthopoulos is actually out there trying to build a winning team! Who in Toronto can even imagine such a thing?

Certainly no one at MLSE, and why should they? If you can build one of the worlds most lucrative sporting brands on the strength of year after year of losing, then why mess with success?

Just look at the post season record of MLSE's main properties, the Leafs, the Raptors, and the Toronto FC...

Are you looking?

Yes, that was a cruel joke, I know, but what boggles the mind is that WE ALREADY KNOW IT WILL LOOK THE SAME A YEAR FROM NOW, AND NOBODY CARES!!!

I think part of the problem is that Toronto sport no longer belongs to Toronto sports fans. They belong to the kind of "fan" who likes the prestige of owning Leaf season tickets, and as everybody in Toronto knows, the only thing more prestigious than owning Leafs seats is LEAVING THEM EMPTY JUST TO SHOW YOU CAN!

Which doesn't seem to bother the ownership crew in the least.

Corporate Leafs get new corporate masters

Biggest news in Canada this week. Threw those freezing natives right off the front page.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been sold! And the Raptors too, and the Air Canada Center. And that soccer team that nobody watches.

Well over a billion. Who knew that the gladiators would become such big business?

The Leafs now belong to the two Canadian sports networks who currently divvy up the NHL games between them. I suppose it means we'll have more Leaf games on the TV.

Not something I care about that much. The Leafs were an exciting franchise back in the day. Tiger Williams, Doug Gilmour, Davey, Frank, Tie Domi. Used to be worth watching. Then the Teachers Pension Fund got hold of them. Made some Swedish guy captain of the Leafs for the better part of ten years. His team could be losing 6-1 but as long as he had the 1 he was ear-to-ear grin on the post-game interview.

As for the Raptors and whatever that soccer team is called, doesn't seem to me anybody in Toronto cares.

But who knows. The new owners might be a little more media-savvy, given that they're all media. Perhaps pro sports has turned a corner in Toronto.