Beware da night
When da moon is bright ...
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Friday, October 30, 2020
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
The Shadow knows.
Years ago in Tibet, mild-mannered man-about-town
Lamont Cranston
learned the power to cloud men's minds, so they cannot see him.
This secret is known only to his beautiful assistant, Margo Lane.
He uses his powers only for good, striking terror into the hearts of wrong-doers.
======
I too, clouded minds for many years.
I used my power only for good.
How?
As a kid, I deciphered The Shadow's coded messages.
Sprawled in front of an ancient Philco,
I heard The Shadow give numbers to his followers.
I translated each number to letters of the alphabet.
No, I cannot tell you our secrets.
I became a mild-mannered man.
A man-about-town, who lived in the woods.
With no Margo, I learned to answer my own phone and type.
I cloaked myself in a secret identity.
Page Six.
A phantom.
On radio, The Shadow was once sponsored by Blue Coal.
Coal was a thing, kids.
"The fuel of the future," ads claimed.
I was young and dumb.
Blue Coal.
Ask for it by name.
So cool.
Turns out they dyed the coal at the mine.
It was a branding scam.
Who knew?
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Old food
Seeking info on Winston's restaurant--infamous in Toronto Sun lore--led me to the late Doug Taylor's online history blog.
There, I find the historian's take on dozens of long-gone Toronto restaurants and more pictures than I expected.
Above, Bassel's on Yonge St.
Everybody has a handful of remembered food ghosts.
What's your brain's landmark location for That Lunch
or That Dinner ?
Hired, fired, engaged or thrown out of it?
Did Ed's Warehouse make you wear a moldy jacket?
My three old time-y restaurants are ...
Stoodleigh's on the ground floor of the King St. Toronto Star
Fran's at St. Clair and Yonge
The Pilot Tavern
Yeah, maybe Crooks, the Lord Simcoe's Admirality bar, the Swiss Bear in the Walker House basement, the Four Seasons Motor Inn on Jarvis, the Town Tavern, Brass Rail, the Savarin, the weird corner "men's beverage room" a block east on King St. from the Sun, Spadina Garden, Montreal bistro, Lurch (basement of Hoofers) ... please stop me.
You have three?
Taylor's T.O. food memories ...
Monday, October 26, 2020
Shot in the dark
A US health agency had an idea: Get Santa Claus involved (in vaccines).
Health and Human Services planned to devote $250 million for an advertising campaign, part of which involved Santa Claus promoting COVID-19 vaccination, reports the Wall Street Journal.
In exchange, Santa would get access to the vaccine before the general
public. And not just Mr. Claus, performers playing Mrs. Claus and elves
would also benefit from the scheme. Michael Caputo, an HHS assistant
secretary who took a 60-day medical leave last month, was the one who
thought up the plan. It has since been scrapped.
File under: Needle news
Gretzky's crib pix
Always nice to see what's to see inside a celeb's crib.
Wayne Gretzky's house--for sale at $23 million--has exactly the yupscale talismans those picky young couples on HGTV seek.
(He's a personal trainer, she's a social influencer.)
Crown molding. Marble countertops.
S-w-e-e-t!
Call the bank.
Give the kids a break.
Real estate tipsheet Toronto Storeys has interior pics.
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Times Square squabble
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner: Hate the billboards
We'll sue
Lincoln Project: Go fish
“Please peddle your scare tactics elsewhere. The Lincoln Project will not be intimidated by such empty bluster … your clients are no longer Upper East Side socialites, able to sue at the slightest offense to their personal sensitivities.”
So I Google'd how to open a Chinese bank account, like Donald Trump.
Here's what I found...
============
It’s like asking why is China different to the west, it just is!
Banks in China don’t seem to easily allow for foreign names.
Crazy considering the number of foreigners who actually have a bank in China isn’t exactly small!
Documentation and formal processes in China just take time, so when opening that new bank account, cancel your lunch, cancel your plans and cancel your Christmas, it’s going to take some time!
-- LTL Mandarin Schools
==========
I think I'd rather have Christmas.
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Sam Elliott
In the ad trade, they're called aspirational ads.
They're not exactly about a product, company or candidate.
They're about your heartstrings, feelings, confirmation.
Rarely magical, a handful can still smack you deep inside.
The one above popped up in the World Series--itself a hopeful confirmation in this strange year that things will get saner.
The ad below, simply called "Men" may eclipse it.
What both ads have in common is Sam Elliott.
The actor has played lifeguards, pops, cowboys.
He is never the bad guy.
Here, he turns a Lincoln Project pitch into Field of Dreams.
Or is it A River Runs Through it?
Where is my fly rod? My catcher's mitt?
Who am I?
What is expected of me? And where is ... he?
I'm impressed by the creative craft of the thing.
Dammit. Got me.
David Sedaris
I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the
aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I
interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the
platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
===========
Humorist David Sedaris--who claims his mother took him to vote when he was 11--examines "Undecideds" in the US election in the New Yorker.
Friday, October 23, 2020
Too kewl for school
--
“Working from Home” ad campaign was launched by the Canadian clothing brand Henri Vézina
Pants-free since March.
On top of da trend, babe.
Thursday, October 22, 2020
"High five, Toronto!"
"Kazakhstan greatest country in the world
All other countries are run by little girls"
"You have onions in this house? Yes!"
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Flashback: CFNY-FM
z
David Marsden, Alan Cross, Dani Elwell, Scot Turner, Ivar Hamilton and Mark Gane are interviewed in Karim Mosna's documentary on the birth of The Spirit of Radio.
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Junk news
Rudy Guiliani adjusts his kompromat
Trump’s personal attorney has indiscreet encounter with actor playing Borat’s daughter in hotel room during pandemic
CNN's chief legal analyst and reporter for The New
Yorker .. exposes himself during a Zoom call with colleagues in what he says was an accident.
Shyla above, caught by Zoltan Attila Kecskes.
LINK: Dogs in fall
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Keep the damn calendars
A decade ago, when charities started dumping Christmas cards, pens, notepads and increasingly glossy "reports" and love letters to themselves in my mailbox, I checked a few websites to see what percentage of my contribution went to Junk Begging.
After all, we support charities for their cause, not their crap.
I was heartened to learn that--back then--my fave charities spent from 8-12% on administration and fund raising.
You know what it is now?
It averages out to a sturdy 20%.
One industry site that tracks such stuff advises a model charity probably shouldn't spend more than 33%!
WTF?
You have to spend a third of my contribution to get the other two-thirds?
Has the Catch the Ace campaign so many Ontario medical services use poisoned this well?
Only 50% of the cash gets to the beneficiary.
Give whatever you can to your local hospital directly.
They all have a website.
I just cut one charity off my donation list for the glut of garbage they send multiple times a year.
Check the charities you support on line.
Those "free" and ugly Christmas cards you don't use, that third 2021 calendar in your mailbox this week?
It may provide a clue.
Monday, October 19, 2020
Online radio box
How about stations from the UK, Mexico or Australia?
There's a one-stop location.
onlineradiobox.com
Choose location, click station.
The live feed starts in seconds.
Tiptoe time
Cats are sneaky.
You know they'll do well on an obstacle course.
But darn if a couple dogs didn't almost ace the thing.
And even the dog that does worst has a grin that sez:
This is stupid.
More words of comfort
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Saturday, October 17, 2020
Yo my tronah beezers!
Afraid you're out of date?
Be a hipster hero!
Just hit the link below and generate new T.O. slang!
LINK: https://torontoslanggenerator.com/
KID STUFF: Music Til Dawn
It's midnight. Quiet. Dark.
I'm a weird teen.
Soon to be a weird college student.
And eventually a weird adult.
So the youngest me is in bed, ear-holes fixed to a hand-me-down radio. It was old even then.
A sunny yellow dial.
Blue shadows ripple out the back, the glow of tubes.
My radio box smells funny if it's on too long.
Everyone in the house is asleep.
The witching hour strikes.
And what you hear above, begins.
Across the continent, radio's Music Til Dawn arrives, nighttime pal to truckers, insomniacs, lovers, students, soldiers, shift workers, writers, drunks, weird kids. Our imaginary six hour flight is airborne.
As midnight arrives in each time zone, NINE 50,000 watt clear channel signals ring out from the greatest stations in North America. Pro baritone pilots in each cockpit. All with killer pipes.
They hit every post in the theme.
Every night.
Before I ever see an airport, before a first beer, a first kiss, I am already in love with American Airlines.
What is this oddly comforting music they play? There are no vocals.
I imagine blinking planes high above me, winging to great places in the night. Somewhere in the early hours, I will fall asleep. American Airlines is the best and only airline in the world.
I try to hit the posts. In my best voice I say "WCBS, New York." And then "The Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR, Detroit." "American Airlines greets you ... with Music Til Dawn."
I fall asleep to Bob Hall in New York or Jay Andres in Chicago. Ditto Boston or Detroit. The show is in the air, everywhere. Clear and strong in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Toronto.
On the YouTube page where this clip lives on, you see in comments the crazy magic and memories this all-night radio show once commanded across the continent. Wherever you were, it was there with you.
If you could just get to midnight, you were home free.
When I hear this opening, my thoughts go instantly to dark bedrooms, glowing orange dials, high school crushes and college all-nighters. Drives to nowhere with buds. Laughs. Secrets.
Above, the clip reaches 1.10 ... and Ken Ackerman speaks.
I shiver, like a dog.
I am in love with radio.
Still.
‘Music ‘Til Dawn’ premiered April 13, 1953, and ran until Jan. 4, 1970.
Away!
If you're a fan of the Kingston ON sheepdog trials,
this overhead view of dogs working sheep will charm you.
Hope to see the Bah Squad, puppies and crowds again at
Grass Creek Park east of town next summer.
Friday, October 16, 2020
Today's Soap Suds
TRUMP: I MIGHT LEAVE COUNTRY IF I LOSE
MAGA RALLY LAUGHS
Wouldn't any country's immigration application
seek proof of income and pre-existing health conditions?
No points for deadbeats.
He's kinda quiet
The Silent Majority finally have a candidate.
=====
North Dakota COVID surge:So Bad a dead guy is on the ballot.
The state attorney general has decreed that David Andahl will remain on the ballot in the general election, even though it cannot be said he lives in District 8 or anywhere else.
--the daily beast
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