Winter fun in T.O.
 

http://www.thestar.com/images/020129_weather.jpg

Can you believe this shot was taken in Toronto, on January 28? :cool:

December and January have been the warmest winter months since weather records began for this area in 1840.

We had a warm winter here too. It didn't snow until mid January. Global warming at its finest...

Ziggy points out that he hasn't been to a game at the SkyDome, and hasn't been up the CN Tower. He has that in common with most Torontonians, I'm sure. But others have enjoyed these unique experiences you can find only in Toronto. Many other great features of this city are not for tourists, per se. We are so fortunate that venues like the Hockey Hall of Fame and Ontario Place, which are not for tourists any more than for locals, are just so damn convenient for us. Let's be realistic, Toronto isn't heaven on earth ... but there are a lot of worse places to live.

It's typical that most residents of metropolitan cities overlook some of the best attractions their cities have to offer. Their choice, of course, but often their loss. Other people, just like them, spend lots of dough to travel to Toronto and enjoy these attractions, and we locals often miss out on the good stuff right under our noses. That's true everywhere, not just Toronto.

An interesting exercise, no matter where one lives, is to take a weekend and get to know your city from a tourist's perspective. Grab a date, get a hotel room and go out on the town you haven't discovered, even though you've lived there all your life.

In the end, you create your own environment and find your own fun, wherever you happen to live at the moment.

GOIT is a fun little website that offers an interesting source of ideas about where to go in Toronto on a date.

Where do you find your fun in T.O.?

:whofarted I had fun just kinda hanging out. Maybe that's because I'm not a native and so everything was kinda new to me. However, I've never been at a place where just kinda sitting around is so satisfying. Walk down to a donut shop (you guys have a LOT of donut shops) and get some tea and a donut. Lots of good book stores, and I spent a lot of time reading. Good music stores, so I spent a lot of time listening to music. Broadband is pretty cheap in Toronto, so I spent some time online. :) I guess what I'd really ask is "how do you get bored in Toronto?" - there seems to be so much to do. I'd really like to live there some day.

no its not so bad.. i just revolt against idiotic government and corporate presence [i could say toronto is ad-saturated but who isnt?]...

tourist vacation, well that's a nice idea.

what do i do for fun in this city, attraction-wise? well i love the ROM - right at museum station or university/bloor... they often have interesting exhibits or shows. once we walked in on a friday and it was MEXICAN night with the foyer crowded full of people and a full live band, all for the opening of some exhibit.. damn interesting! there were literally thousands of people in a museum enjoying some live tunes at 5:30 on a friday. weird. families and all =) la cucaracha... hoy!

for the infiltrators out there we have a decrepit subway station i havent yet visited.. just below bay lies the original bay station, now used as scenery in hollywood movies [matrix? not 100% sure bout that]. it can be accessed by... running through the tubes themselves! how cool is that - evade death and hit up a turn-of-the-century subway station that no one really uses for much. that's my idea of a thrill... but i'm saving it for when i get a little french terroriste moustache - i want to look good in the mug shots.

i'm running out of things... my problem, i probably belong in europe or something. the entertainment here is fine, modern.. lots of things for sports fans, tons of giant movie complexes and theatres, expensive dining and video gamer combos, crap like that... but if it looks good on the outside, maybe there'd be enough for you to do. me, i find myself bored and sick of this city on a regular basis. for me it is getting too "yuppie", with lots of crappy big-name big-brand stores popping up in place of genuinely interesting shops [that unfortunatly aren't commercially viable in competition to the mega-empires]...

oh well!

i should try that get-a-hotel-go-slumming plan

The longest street in the world
 

http://www.globeandmail.com/series/yonge/map.gif

The first leg of Yonge Street officially opened on this day in 1796 from Toronto to Lake Simcoe, shown at Barrie in the graphic above.

Yonge Street is one of the most famous streets in the world and is often the most memorable thing about a visit to Toronto.

The longest street in the world begins at the Toronto Harbour, runs 1,896 kilometres to pass through numerous Ontario towns to Rainy River, Ontario - bordering Manitoba and the U.S.

To take a cab from one end of Yonge Street to the other would cost more than $2,000 in Canadian loonie dollars. I think that's about $20 US today. :)

dham remembers playing chess in front of Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street.

I remember the crowds on Yonge Street after the Blue Jays won back to back World Series in 1992-1993. And the Italians went nuts on Yonge Street when Italy won the World Cup. Toronto has the largest Italian population of any city in the world, after Rome.

Any other memories of Yonge Street?

The wife and I had dinner at a small restaurant along it, featuring ice wines from the Niagara area, outstanding dessert wines. Then we went to Second City. Isn't that like a few blocks off?

Wait a minute, you guys have a town named Swastika?

Can I guess how the roads around the center square are laid out?

Little known facts department
 

Good eye, UT. :confused: I hadn't noticed that on the graphic.

[Edit: on further research, it appears that there still is a town called Swastika in Ontario, and that is the one on the graphic. Who knew?]

Located just west of Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Swastika is less than an hour drive along highway 66 towards the Quebec border. This unincorporated township, located in the county of Timiskaming, has a population of around 545 and gets its name (and heritage) to a different time of the 20th century. During the early days of the century there was a lot of gold mining in this area. In 1911, brothers Bill and Jim Dusty found gold at a nearby lake, and named the mine after a visitor's good luck charm -- yes, a swastika.

At the outbreak of World War Two the Ontario government tried to change the name of the town to Winston (after Winston Churchill), but local residents protested the desecration of their name. It was not uncommon to see signs all over the town at this time saying; "The hell with Hitler. We came up with our name first!" So the name stayed.

btw: The swastika as a symbol of Nazi Germany was usually displayed as having been rotated at a 45-degree angle. As a symbol used by such religions as Jains, Hindus and Buddhists, on the other hand, the swastika is presented as upright, a distinction that should be recognized by illustrators.

The Second City has moved to a new theatre in Toronto's Entertainment District. I'm glad you mentioned it, 'cause it is definitely one of the better spots to go out for a laugh.

The original Second City Firehouse theatre in Toronto has been converted into Gilda's Club in memory of Gilda Radner.

Taxpayers' money down the drain ...
 

True story.

In Toronto, each water bill soaks the city for $8.54 http://www.dvdfile.com/interactive/f...lies/Flush.gif

The figure is calculated by taking the total cost of billing services — $13.32 million this year, divided by the total number of bills issued — 1.56 million. :rolleyes:

I'd like to see what the cost of billing is over the revenue number!

The cost includes more than postage and envelopes. There's meter reading — which alone requires 60 staffers — a call centre to handle questions and complaints, and processing of 440,000 residential payments every four months and 20,000 commercial accounts monthly.

If you think $8.54 is steep, the tab was a whopping $18.69 a bill in 1999. :eek:

That was before the six water billing departments of the former municipalities were "harmonized," said Giuliana Carbone, director of revenue services for the city.

OK, let's all harmonize now ... hmmm.

Under pressure from the provincial government, Toronto is producing "performance measures" for the first time to give councillors a better handle on the city's operations. :(

Isn't the Internet supposed to create efficiencies and save money?

Take off, eh.
 

In the spirit of the Great White North's Bob & Doug MacKenzie, I'd like to make at least one post to toast our famous brew.


Lyrics to Take Off

Coo ... coo coo coo, coo coo, coo coo ....

Take off to the great white north
Its a beauty way to go
Take off to the great white north

Take off to the great white north
Its a beauty way to go
Take off to the great white north

(chug another beer and repeat)



The most opinionated beer site on the Internet

The Opinionated Beer Page


The best damn Canadian beer site on the Internet

mmm.beer.com


Bonus track

The Twelve Days of Christmas, by Bob & Doug

don't people know what a swastika actually is yet? if i was living in that town i'd have the same opinion! though honestly i've never heard of it and i'm not too unknowledgable of our province's northern parts [north starts at barrie, haha].

its funny that you mention the water bill... thats one of the things my company handles - online presentment of city of toronto's water bills :) its a cost-saving measure but not enough people use it yet.

What part of the process are you involved in?

epost or Symcor (Optus) ???

epost here... small world!