Wrote a comment on the Bill 60 page. I still think that all of this is happening because Doug Ford got stuck in traffic one morning, a cyclist passed him in a bike lane, and he got angry. He tends to think only about how things affect him personally.

Doug Ford presumably thought of the tunnel idea all by himself and he isn’t smart enough to realize that it is totally unfeasible. And his ministers are too busy toadying to The Leader to question his judgement. I’ve never been a conservative but conservatism didn’t used to be this badly broken.

It’s not just that the Blue Jays lost the World Series - we have had weeks and weeks of tense and meaningful games and now we don’t have them anymore. It’s a big adjustment. On the other hand, my sleep schedule might now return to close to normal. Thank you for a memorable season. #BlueJays

It is unrealistic to expect much productivity from Canadians over the next couple of weeks or so. If in the Eastern time zone, also assume a certain amount of sleep shortage. #BlueJays

I think it’s all just personal. Doug hates being tied up by traffic on his route to work, so he wants to get rid of bike lanes. And he wants to be able to drive faster than the speed limit, so he doesn’t want speed cameras.

RIP Ken Dryden. When I was playing road hockey in the 1970s, everyone who played goal always took a break by putting his hands on top of his stick and putting his chin on top of them, the way Dryden did. And we weren’t even Habs fans.

UHN marks the passing of Dr. James Till, whose work with Dr. Ernest McCulloch first demonstrated the existence of blood-forming stem cells in 1961 at Ontario Cancer Institute, now Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His work has helped launch the field of #stemcell science.

A Very Powerful Read #BattleRiver-Crowfoot open.substack.com/pub/letterke...

Medical science and research are important. I know this from experience: I had a health issue in early 2024 that would have left me dead or incapacitated if it were not for modern medicine. The USA appears to be turning away from science and toward random opinions and authoritarian darkness.

On the weekend, I spotted an actual cybertruck near Yonge and Bloor. What’s weird about it to me is that the only thing round on it is the wheels - everything else is triangles or rectangles.

I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who said that there are six seasons, not four, each lasting two months: spring, summer, fall, locking (nature shutting down), winter, and unlocking (nature revving up). We’re in the first month of unlocking.

What a nice day! But it’s too early in the year for this. We have angered the Winter Gods and we will be made to pay for it, probably with an equivalent really bad day in April.

I was out for a walk today and stopped part way for some French fries. I put vinegar on them partly because I like vinegar on fries but partly because Americans don’t do that. #ElbowsUp

What would I do? I would just not play the anthems. Giving fans a solid two sustained minutes to unleash their feelings about America is never going to result in anything but a chorus of boos. Before first pitch, I would have a statement of welcome read.

Hey Canada, when you read a Postmedia newspaper like the National Post or the Toronto Sun, you are reading the views of American billionaires, not ordinary Canadians. Boycott Postmedia.

What is not talked about is the death of trust. You can no longer trust the US to be your friend. You cannot rely on any contracts they sign. You can no longer take them at their word. They are like a cheating spouse. You might take them back, but the relationship will never be the same.

The 51st state crew have no idea HOW HARD CANADA WILL FIGHT to stay independent. You have NO idea. Think Afghanistan was bad? Iraq? Vietnam?

Toronto in the fall: it’s 8C out. That’s way too cold. Winter is coming. FML. Toronto right now: it’s 8C out! What a wonderful, glorious day! Happy dance!

I agree with this conclusion. Canada is large and sparsely populated and would be difficult to occupy. Also, most Americans can’t successfully detect a Canadian accent. (When I’ve travelled to the US for business, I don’t think I’ve ever been outed as Canadian - too many regional US accents.)

I have the sinking feeling that he’s going to keep doing this one month at a time. I’m not sure whether this is to keep everybody thinking about him or whether select people are making money off this. Perhaps it’s both.

One of my most prized possessions is “The CHUM Chart Book”, which lists every charted record on that radio station between 1957 and 1986. I could spend hours looking up random listings and then finding them on YouTube. The older songs are the most interesting.

Today, our cat is following his usual algorithm: - Meow loudly and repeatedly to be fed - Notice his food dish and pause to eat some of yesterday’s food - Resume meowing. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a vitally important task to perform.

The worst part of the Ontario provincial election, for me, is that the PC operatives who called the snap election think they’re being clever when they’re just being unscrupulous and self-serving. I voted, but it feels like spitting into the wind.

I went for a walk today and the temperature was a surprisingly balmy 4C. It is a miracle that I did not melt away from the searing heat.

Here's one of the warnings I gave in an article before the US election. It's devastating to see it all happening. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

When your car infrastructure is so massive that you accidentally break a world record when you build a pedestrian overpass between your town's bus terminal (foreground) and commuter rail station (background)

Why do I have the suspicion that he thought of this idea this morning?

“I promise, America will soon be the Cybertruck of countries—uglier than you could have imagined, built for rich chuds, borderline inoperable, and on fire.” Brilliant.

I know from personal experience that being able to code well is a specific type of intelligence. It’s possible to be a good coder and bad at other stuff. Some good coders, particularly young ones, haven’t figured out that not everything can be solved using algorithms.

You know which Canadian has done nothing useful to support Canada during Trump’s trade war crisis? Pierre Poilievre. Not surprising considering his record supporting Trump, MAGA & the extremist Trucker convoy, attacks on media, connection to Stephen Harper, and refusal to get a security clearance.

I would add 8. Is he willing to protect Canada’s sovereignty from Trump’s meandering thoughts of annexation or is he eager to suck up to him and turn quisling?

Nah. We didn’t pick this fight, but if they insisting on having it then fuck it, we’re ramping

After the first demand, there is the second. After the second, there is the third.

During the offseason, I’ve been replaying old baseball seasons on the MLBM 2017 app on my iPad. Out of curiosity, I started up the Jays’ 1994 season. What would have happened if they had gotten to play a full season? So far, the results are not pretty: they’ve lost their first 10 home games.

Poilievre is behaving as if he is still president of the Young Tories at the University of Calgary and trying to win a debate instead of someone who might become the leader of our country. This letter contains 11 references to Justin Trudeau, or 2.2 references per paragraph. We get it already.

When there's an external threat a country needs stability. Calling an unnecessary and disrupting election is instability and gross distraction from within. Opposition parties, as weak as they are, must pound this into every Ontarian's head. Doug Ford is being selfish when we need unity.

This article from 1941 seems relevant now: who goes Nazi? harpers.org/archive/1941...

There’s something primitively comforting about being inside and warm when it is dark and cold outside.

Today in Milan, a student activist group hung a trash-filled effigy of Musk upside down on a gate outside of piazzale Loreto, where Mussolini's body was displayed in 1945. They left the message: "C'è sempre posto a piazzale Loreto, Elon" (There's always room in piazzale Loreto, Elon)

I just got my $200 bribe, er, rebate from the provincial government. I’ve donated half of it to Cycle Toronto and the other half to the Ontario NDP. Nice try, Doug.

Good lord! The sun is out! #TorontoJanuaryWeather

I love bvildings, but I’ve discovered that I also love svb stations. A sign on the building dates this to 1910.

I laughed out loud when I saw these two signs together. Eglinton and Redpath, Toronto. (They’re putting up new bus stop signs with the post-Eglinton Crosstown bus routes, even though it will apparently be at least six months before it opens.)

Today is apparently #WorldIntrovertDay. I plan on honouring this occasion by reading quietly for a bit and going to bed at a reasonable hour.

Christmas ad from Simpson’s, 1940. Best of the season to you all.

This is from the Circle of Young Canada page of the December 22 1928 edition of the Toronto Globe. Happy December 24th, everybody.

Someday, I want to create an app that rates Toronto restaurants by how low the ceilings are for their basement washrooms. Extra-low ratings for low ceilings above very narrow stairs.

I used to live in the eastern Beaches neighbourhood and what astonishes me about the area is how much more actual beach there is now. Here’s a picture I took in 1998. The water is almost all the way up.

There are two types of people who get their hair cut: people who tell their life story to their barber and people who prefer blissful silence. I’m in the second group.

“So, what’s fuelling this cycling surge? TfL attributes the growth to its ever-expanding Cycleway network, which has broken the 400-kilometre mark.” In Toronto upwards of 48 million will be spent to rip up the bike lanes. People will die. I want a mayor who will lay down in front of the tractors.