Author: Bill

We awoke this morning to a bright, sunny day. A neighbour’s cat cleared a sitting spot on the back fence and took in the scene. Very pretty.

You can see about 12 to 15 centimetres of snow piled up on the fence railings. The snow is still falling steadily as it has been for hours. No sign of a let up, so I haven’t gotten the snow blower out yet. Ploughs just cleared the front road, but they’ll have to return by evening. We expect to double the depth before we’re done.

Three Biblio-Mat groaners from the random vending machine in the Monkey’s Paw antiquarian bookstore. You never know what you’ll get for your toonie, but whatever comes out will be unusual and often good for a laugh.

What’s so Portuguese about a Vietnamese Restaurant? Nothing, actually, but it’s on Ossington (pronounced Ozington in the Torontonian dialect) and it serves great pho soup (pronounounced fuh by the Vietnamese). It just happens to be near the cluster of Portuguese businesses around Dundas West and Ossington. The small bowl of pho was $7.25 and the medium was only 75¢ more, so I’d always go for the medium. Why not? It’s a meal in itself…. nice big chunks of chicken and beef and tons of rice noodles in delicious broth. Brian ordered spring rolls before we got there… $4.00 for four of them… light and excellent. Somehow he resisted eating all of them and kept 2 for Danica and me to try when we arrived.
Service was friendly, efficient and helpful. We want to go again and try more menu items.
Not to neglect the fact that we were in Little Portugal, we went to the Nova Era Bakery and Pastry shop for dessert. Nice place, lots of little tables, gorgeous array of pastries and good coffee. Obviously a popular place with the locals and for good reason. Danica brought home some baked goodies for supper… and egg custard tarts for dessert.

We can make out some of the faded words on the side of the Sideshow Café wall. It was a Pool & Billiards Parlor (No Minors). And we can make out “CAMPBELL’S” well enough. But what the heck did that big line of type say, above the newly painted black base?
If you think a closer look will help, you are welcome to click the picture and get to the BIG 2000 pixel wide version.

12 servings
Two pieces of this plus a big bowl of thick, homemade cauliflower and roasted pepper soup makes a great comfort food supper. The focaccia dough contained mashed potatoes and rosemary. Toppings are grape tomatoes, black olives, sheep feta cheese and grated parmesan cheese. Very satisfying and only about 500 calories for the meal.

Not everyone’s idea of funny, but I enjoy these send-ups of online pronunciation guides.
A couple more…

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!