Our weekly recap of the week’s news nuggets in Toronto will bring you up to date and add some fuel to your small-talk tank heading into the weekend.
1. Rob Ford up to his old tricks
Unless you’ve been living under a rock — or have enough self-discipline to avoid stories you know you’ll hate — you will already know that this was a big week in Rob Ford. After a video was released of the Mayor drunkenly ranting in Jamaican patois, councillors at City Hall have renewed calls for Ford’s resignation. While Ford has chalked the incident up to just another good night out with friends, others have taken it as a sign that he mayor is clearly “off the wagon.” And as all of Toronto knows, there is no telling what Rob Ford will do in one of his Drunken Stupors.
2. But at least the Jamaican is good
While Rob Ford’s drunkenness might have been out of line, linguistic experts in Jamaica say that the mayors use of patois is actually pretty good. A professor in Kingston even described his use of expletives as “appropriate” for the setting. With that in mind, I would still suggest you avoid Googling the term “bomba klaat” on a public computer.
3. Ontario Place Park Plans Revealed
The vaguely creepy 1970s “pleasure park” known as Ontario Place will soon be part of Toronto’s history. This week, Ontarians got their first look at plans for the new park that will be erected on the site, and, so far, people have been pleased. The plan includes bike paths, gardens and tons of green space for families.
4. Esther the wonder pig
A Toronto-area couple and their pet pig Esther took the local media by storm this week preaching the animal rights gospel. It is a classic tale of couple sees cute “mini” pig, gives it a home, only to later learn this little cutie is anything but “mini.” Esther now clocks in at 300 pounds and she’s still not even close to full grown. The story is intriguing as Esther has made quite a home for herself and David Walter and Steve Jenkins wonder why anyone would eat such intelligent animals. Food for thought. Ahem.
5. Drake overlooked
Drake, Canada’s greatest rapper, singer, producer, emoter and treasure, has one again been snubbed by the Grammys. Well… sort of. While the King of Toronto was nominated for five awards in all the rap categories, he was passed over for the three biggest awards of the night — song of the year, artist of the year, and album of the year. And before you say that’s not a tragedy, one album that was nominated for the top award was Taylor Swift’s Red. Clearly they could have made room for Drizzy.
6. Doug Ford worries the Tories
While Doug Ford has made very clear his intention to run for provincial office, not everyone in the Progressive Conservative party is pleased about their star candidate. Doug Ford, as well as possible Right to Work legislation, has some in the party worried that they might be leaning too far right to win any upcoming election.
7. All winning streaks must pass
It was a miracle — after six straight wins the Leafs were riding high. Hope was in Toronto’s heart, words like “the playoffs” came back into our language. But it all ended this week in a 7-1 trouncing by the Dallas Stars. What made it worse? The Dallas stadium made a big show of pointing out that the recently arrested Justin Bieber is a Leafs fan. We are not responsible for that child, Dallas!
8. Kevin O’Leary thinks poverty is “great”
This week, Kevin O’Leary told his CBC co-host, Amanda Lang, that the widening gap between the rich and poor is “great” because it “inspires” people to be part of the 1%, like him, while they try to desperately fight off disease and hunger. Whether he actually believes that is yet to be determined, but in the meantime: Enjoy your attention, Kevin O’Leary. This is really what you wanted, right?
9. Restaurant invites patrons to have sex in the washroom
Mildren’s Temple Kitchen has some interesting plans for Valentine’s day. The Liberty Village restaurant, in an effort to join the ranks of the “101 places to have sex before you die” invites all patrons to have a romp in one of their unisex washrooms. The department of Public health has already given the project the green light saying that as long as it's not near the food, sex in a restaurant is just fine, and not the worst thing that can happen in a washroom either.
10. We all lost on Jeopardy…
And finally, Toronto was the subject of a clue on Jeopardy this week. The quesiton was an intellectual query regarding our city’s rich diversity, cultured landscape and world class — no, I’m just kidding. It was about crack.