Month: January 2013

When CBC ran its Greatest Canadian series a while back, I thought long and hard about all the people I admire and respect. I submitted Henry Morgentaler as my choice. He didn’t make a mark on the CBC contest. I guess his personal courage, persistence and social impact hasn’t registered with enough people.
Just 25 years ago, Canada’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion, largely thanks to Henry Morgentaler. Torontoist notes the anniversary.

It was confirmed today that Blackberry Playbooks will get the update to the latest, greatest BB10 operating system. This is exciting to me because I bought a 32GB Playbook not long ago… brand new… for a measly $150. Staples and Best Buy were blowing them out and I thought to myself, “At that price, these aren’t going to be around long”. Too true. Originally offered at $600 in 2011, these sleek, light beauties suffered poor sales as Blackberry fought to survive. Now I see 16GB models selling for $200…half the capacity of mine for 50 bucks more. And they are HOT sellers.
I’d say this bodes well for Blackberry.

It’s a modest achievement, completing 68 years of life… especially considering the alternative, but quite a few of you have congratulated me warmly, often with fattening gifts.
Plesase excufse typyng with mouthfull… and tahnk you!

Today’s walk took me past 123 Woodfield Avenue, just south of Dundas East. A peek inside revealed lots of kiddie books and one old hardcover full of Hercule Poirot mysteries. I was tempted, but I left it…. perhaps for you?
More about Little Free Libraries. And other mentions in this blog.

Father Guido Sarducci, of course, of the Saturday Night Live show when I used to watch it.

Best boots I’ve ever owned. I can’t believe I bought them back in 2005, but Danica has the receipt, so its 8 years for these guys.
They’d never be on their way to the basement, to await resoling at Nick’s if I hadn’t found a new pair today. Ten percent off. Blunnies NEVER go on sale! Too good to pass up and resoling would have left me bootless for a couple of weeks.
I’ll park my old boots for now and get them resoled in the Spring. That will cost more than half what a new pair cost, but the tops are still in great shape and they are soooo comfortable.
Time to start breaking in my new pair. They are already waterproof-waxed and ready to hit the salty slush.

They’ve only gotten worse with the advent of terrorist hysteria, to the point where I just prefer to avoid them.
Seth Godin has created a nice little list of what needs to be fixed. He’s talking about the U.S. experience, but the same observations apply to our sad situation.

Adventurer and entrepreneur Peter Sever has carved out an interesting life for himself and continues to surprise.
The other day, he received a complimentary hardcover copy of the latest edition of the trawler yacht
“bible” shown here (with a small graphic addition of my own).
You see, after Peter sold me my first Mac (he founded, then sold Toronto’s famous Mac Store), he took his capital and went into the yacht-building business. Typically, he did it in no small way. Peter’s yachts were for the super-rich, uniquely designed according to his own standards of excellence and built to take the roughest seas.
He was a thorn in the side of competitors, pontificating on engineering/safety matters from his position as an “outsider, non-engineer” (his words). Established builders didn’t like it, but Peter was right. The “bible” now says so, quoting Peter repeatedly.

From the site of our favourite local theatre group:

The Toronto Irish Players were honoured and thrilled to hear the news that we are the recipients of the Irish Person of the Year for 2013.

I’m adding the TIP site to my list of “Links I like”. Don’t know what took me so long.

Creative types at ad agencies have forever groaned at wooly-minded requests from clients trying to express what they want. Here’s a site showing that the hilarious tradition lives on.
I picked the one above because it reminded me of a painfully long briefing from a client who rejected layout after layout, explaining each time that he wanted it to be a little more this or a little more that. Finally, in exasperated frustration, he pulled a Disney creation out of his briefcase and showed it to us. At last, we saw exactly what he had been trying to describe.