toronto islands

There is a getaway not to far from the urban hell that can be daily life in the city. The Toronto islands have been a popular recreational destination for a long time now, known for it's sandy beaches, summer festivals (including Wakestock, Caribana and Olympic Island Festival put on by Sloan's Jay Ferguson ) and the largest urban car-free community in North America. Centre Island, Algonquin and Olympic are the major islands making up the "Toronto Islands" but there are six other small islands known as Forestry, Snake, South, RCYC and two unnamed islands, one in Lighthouse Pond and the other in Long Pond. Centre Island is by far the biggest, is crescent shaped and makes up the shoreline of both the Eastern and Western channels. The residential neighbourhood, which still has 262 permanent residences, is located on Algonquin Island and Wards "Island" which is actually just the far Eastern end of Centre island. The islands originally were connected to the rest of the city as a 9km peninsula extending from the mainland, but were separated by a flood in 1852 and widened even more after an intense storm in 1858. 

Gibraltar Lighthouse (today)

Going to back it up a bit to 1808 when  five years of construction finished up on a lighthouse, the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse. It still stands today, albeit about 100 meters inland due to sand build up, but originally it was right on the shore. It's height was increased from its original 52 foot height to 82 in 1932. There were ten lighthouse keepers living there from 1808 until 1958, but the most famous story might be the first one. As legend has it, J.P. Radanmuller, settled in Toronto while it was still York, with hopes of opening a German school. That didn't work out for him, and he was assigned to the job of caring for the new lighthouse.  It was reported that Radanmuller was also a bootlegger of beer and spirits from the United States. So, one evening after serving a bunch of patrons some illegal booze, he decides to wrap it up for the night.  Two or three drunk soldiers from nearby Fort York asked for some liquor but, for whatever reason, Radanmuller refused. The soliders then beat him down pretty hard, drag him up the stairs of the lighthouse then threw his body off the top. After that, to conceal their crime, they cut up the body of good ole JP and buried the parts all around the lighthouse. Does he still haunt the place? According to other lighthouse keepers there have been sightings of a ghostly figure on the stairs, especially on stormy nights, footsteps climbing the stairs, the sound of someone dragging something up to the lantern room along with strange thumps and groans when no one is inside. On the outside a strange 'mist' of swirling lights and orbs has been reported by onlookers. Not to mention a apparition roaming around the grounds looking for something on the lawn, quite obviously his scattered body parts. No one was convicted or even tried in the case, but some evidence to back up the murder theory was uncovered by then lighthouse keeper George Durnan, who dug up a human jaw bone not far from the lighthouse. 

Here is a August 3, 1958 CBC piece with the last lighthouse keeper DeeDee Dods on the hauntings. CLICK HERE

Hanlan's Point Amusement Park

After the peninsula became a full time island the Hanlan family were the among the first year round inhabitants, and the west side of the island became a resort destination for Torontonians, with the city acquiring the island in 1867 breaking it up into lots for cottages, hotels. The first hotel was built by John Hanlan on the North West tip of the island, and shortly thereafter Gibraltar Point was known as Hanlan's Point. In 1894, the Toronto Ferry Company created space for an amusement park and baseball/lacrosse stadium, known as Hanlan's Point stadium. It was rebuilt a couple times after fires, and housed the Toronto Maple Leafs, the city's first professional baseball team. In 1914, in a game between the Providence Greys and the Maple Leafs, a 19 year old George Herman Ruth hit his first professional home run and what would be his only minor league homer, sending a ball into Lake Ontario (he was called up to the majors pretty quickly), and also pitched that day, shutting out the Leafs as the Greys won 9-0. The Hanlan's Point Amusement park was open from the late 1890 until the 1920s, which served as Toronto, and Canada's version of Coney Island. The attractions at the park included a carousel, shooting galleries, roller coasters, a railway the looped through the park, serving as a monorail, a tea garden, grandstand, theatre and outdoor dance hall, not to mention the marquee attractions such as the Freak Show ("the great and only museum of living curiosities") and the diving horses King and Queen, who jumped from a forty foot platform, under their own accord without whipping them. Try that today you might be responding to a few emails. The park started to decline when the Maple Leafs left the island ball park for a new one at Bathurst and Lakeshore, the recession reached the city in the early 20s and the opening of Sunnyside Amusement Park was the final nail in the coffin. Everything was demolished on the site, and there was landfill brought in to fill in the gaps to make way for the Toronto Island airport. One the contraction on the new airport began in 1937, the cottage community were forced to relocate.  They were given the option of moving to the southern tip of Hanlan's point or over to Algonquin Island (which was just a sandbar known as Sunfish Island), which had to be expanded, but by 1938 there was a plan in place to accommodate 31 cottages moved by a barge from their original locations.  Unfortunately, today Hanlan's Point has not much going on at all, other than the "Clothing Optional" beach near the sand dunes at the south end of the island. Walking through today, along the chain-linked fence that separated the recreational side of the island from the airport is a plane refuelling station with about 10 gas tanks, and Esso trucks park everywhere. That's why, when you look at Hanlan's Point now you can't help but feel a little sad. There is literally, dozens upon dozens of unused picnic tables, fire drum pits, and those coal BBQs that pop out of the ground that are so unused and unloved, that not only are they deteriorating, the spider webs indicates that no one has sat or used them this year, and the grass is so burnt, dead and crunchy. It just looks like hell. There was a huge garbage bin by yet another run down Hanlan snack bar, with two empty bottles of water, and again, more spiderwebs that if you tries to throw something in, it would probably bounce right back at you. A real fall from grace for the place to be in the city. It was the Muskoka of the South and the Coney Island of the North but now it looks like unkept and unvisited park space. 

Near abandoned Hanlan's Point (today)

A narrow Ward's Island Street (today)

In contrast to the bustling early days of Hanlan's Point, the east end of the island was largely uninhabited until 1880 when William E Ward built the Ward's Hotel and a couple small homes and tents he rented out to guests. In 1899, the was a eight summer tenants who were charged $10 for the summer season, but grew rapidly (and owed thanks to Hanlan's Point for making the islands such a popular destination) and by 1913 the city felt it had to plan out streets and the tents eventually all became cottages. At it's mostly populous point in the 1950s, the islands full time residences extended from Ward's Island to Hanlan's Point, totalling 630 cottages/houses, a movie theatre, a bowling alley, stores, hotels and dance halls. But with the construction of the Gardiner (and subsequent loss of acres of parkland across the city's waterfront) the Metro Toronto Council wanted to revert the islands back to parkland. By 1963, people who were willing to leave the island did, and their cottages were demolished along with those of others who gave up on their lease or their leases had expired. After years of fighting, almost constantly from the 1950s to 1993, the Ontario Government passed a law enabling the Islanders to purchase a 99 year lease ensuring they are staying right where they are.  Aside from the residential areas, there is a great sandy beach on the southern end of the island, and is much less crowded than the Centre Island beaches and way less naked than the Hanlan's Point one.

Centre Island is currently the most popular, well kept (arguably - Wards residential area, although quite old, is kept up beautifully) and busiest of the islands. The Royal Canadian Yacht Club moved to a location harbour-side in 1881, which led to Toronto's rich and powerful to build huge Victorian summer homes on the lakefront of Centre Island. All the residences were demolished by 1964 on Centre Island to make way for a 1900s themed children's Amusement park known as Centreville. The park boasts a miniature railway, a carousel and petting zoos. The island is mainly park land, with one bar, a pizza stand and various food vendors throughout the park.  Renting bikes, kayaks and canoes is extremely popular at Centre Island.

Ironically, the part of the island with the great history is the one most neglected, and it's too bad because they have some great property over there at Hanlan's Point.. just needs some TLC. That's about all, check them out if you haven't or at least check out the sandy swimming area for everyone that thinks Toronto hasn't got good beaches!

news feeds may 29

Cincinnati

The list of the most affordable/expensive US cities have been released and well, I'll list them (listed 10-1): Indianapolis IN, Dayton OH, Lakeland FL, Modesto CA, Grand Rapids MI, Buffalo, NY, Ogden UT, Syracuse NY, Akron OH, Cincinnati OH. Not too bad, except Buffalo (sorry, no offence). I absolutely love Indianapolis and Syracuse and have always kinda dug Cincinnati, probably because of WKRP and the legendary Big Red Machine Reds teams of the seventies. But the coolest thing, to me, is that Cincy has a subway system underneath the city that has never been used. You can see entrances to tunnels sealed up throughout the city as they completed seven underground stations but the three above ground ones were demolished to make room for the I-75 in the 1960s. They run tours twice and year and since the track beds were dug but no tracks were ever laid it would probably be super, super creepy. Talks have been had since the project was abandoned during the Great Depression, but nothing has ever came out of it and remains "Cincinnati's Biggest Failure." Got off topic, but Cincy is the most affordable city in the US and below is the wiki page of their subway system.

CINCINNATI SUBWAY

The most expensive cities are Orange County CA, Washington DC, Truckee-Nevada County CA (where?), Stamford CT, San Jose CA, Queens NY, San Francisco CA, Honolulu HI, Brooklyn NY, Manhatten NY. Three of New York City's borough's in the top 5. Holy crap.

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Why can't Canadian restaurants make it big? Nine years in a row now the World's 50 Best Restaurants does not have any Canadian content, and for the second straight year, we didn't even make the top 100. Adrian Brijbassi, a judge for the World's 50 best, has put forward some reasons as to why Canadian cuisine gets no love. Main reason: Toronto. Brijbassi says that the best dining experiences are outside of the city because the city's most noted restaurants and chefs "play it safe" because it's quite expensive to do business in Toronto and need to appeal to everyone to be successful and thrive. That is why on every menu in the city you can get steak & potatoes, chicken breasts and grilled salmon, which must be super boring to the chef who isn't doing anything innovative so in turn he's doing nothing to set him, or the cuisine in Toronto apart. So when all the top judges for the World's Fifty Best come to our biggest and most visited city (which should have a dynamic, exciting culinary scene) they will be unimpressed. The highest rated restaurant in Toronto is The Black Hoof at 928 Bathurst St. There is also an apparently lack of promotion both locally and internationally, as well as a "Canadian inferiority complex" where we undervalue what our country has to offer as a travel and cultural destination. And another key point is that Canada's restaurants already have a safe reputation that hurts us before we even start. It takes lots of things to make a great chef: talent, money to back said talent, supporters getting the word out and a little lucky, but most of all the judges want to sees chef's being inventive and risky. Toronto's best, and newest restaurants and some hidden gems are reviewed here: Caroline's Culinary Delights

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Speaking of awesome food, a Niagara Falls, New York gentleman went into a Denny's at about 2AM to get his eat on after a night out, and buys $9.91 worth of food at the downtown Niagara Falls location. Reaching into his pocket it seemed he was a little short so he offered  that cashier one dollar and a small bag of marijuana. The clerk, ironically, wasn't having any of it, refused the mans payment. No big deal, he turns around in line and tries to sell the baggy to other customers behind him in line. They were no takers and then the man fled into a nearby wooded area once the cashier called the police. Unfortunately for the fleeing pothead, he was recognized by another Denny's patron who provided police with his name and address. The officers went over to his house later in the day but he wasn't home. Maybe check McDonalds or Jack In the Box? Chipotle staff would be all over that too.

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Tom Schaar may have been born in the year 2000, but this 12 year old has landed skateboardings first 1080 (which is three full revolutions in the air). He performed the stunt several times since he first pulled it off in March and was even given a Guiness Book Of World Record for the 1080, garnering accolades from skate legend Tony Hawk. But that's not all… earlier this month in Shanghai, Tom became the youngest XGames champion of all time, managing to pull off the 1080 again in competition against some of the best skateboarders, Andy McDonald and Bob Burnquist (both Tony Hawk 1 alumni!) and last years champion Pierre-Luc Gagnon.  I'm not the hugest vert skating fan but here's the kid's 1080 and just because, my favourite skate clip ever, Rodney Mullen's segment from Second Hand Smoke.

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Toronto starts it quest for the Cup on Friday. You read it right. Unfortunately it's not the Leafs, but they might be the Leafs in two years (maybe next year?). And the Cup in question is the Calder Cup, given to the AHL champs. The Marlies won their Western Conference series in five games against the Oklahoma City Barons (farm team of the Edmonton Oilers) to move onto the Calder Cup finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning's farmhands, the Norfolk Admirals. The Admirals had a 28 game winning streak to end off the season and are opening up the series on their home ice. Don't know much about the Admirals, or where Norfolk is (Virignia somewhere), but I know their roster does have a former Leaf, Keith Aulie so I'll be looking forward to see how he plays against his former team considering the Leafs basically gave up on him. Marlies Matt Frattin and Jerry D'Amigo are tied for second in AHL playoff scoring with 13 points apiece, trailing only the Admirals Alexander Picard. Frattin however, will not be available for the finals after sustaining an injury scoring an empty net goal in game 5 to seal the series for Toronto. The series opens in Norfolk on friday night.

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I needed a topical comedic monologue for class this week, so I chose Mark Zuckerbeg, our favourite 28 year old billionaire, in his first shareholders meeting after the facebook IPO and his wedding go public, and it might just be funner than spewing out more statistics on how the stock is failing anyways. Hopefully.

[MARK ZUCKERBERG, FOUNDER OF FACEBOOK, ENTERS AN AUDITORIUM NOT IN HIS USUAL HOODIE BUT AN EXPENSIVE CUSTOM TAILORED SUIT AND WAVING TO THE APPLAUSE, BUT THE APPLAUSE IS SCARCE AT BEST, BUT HE'S WAVING LIKE THE ROOM IS DEAFENINGLY LOUD AS HE MAKES HIS WAY TO HIS PODIUM - CENTRE STAGE]

Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to our first shareholders meeting since going public. It's a gorgeous day out, so we'll get down to business, but first things first, did you check out that catering spread? My God the lunches are incredible around here, don't you think? [PAUSES] Well, guys, give yourselves a hand. Facebook was founded in 2004 and we have over 12 billion users including spam and fake model accounts of course. We opened as the biggest public IPO of all time. Now I know the first week hasn't been to kind to us, I personally lost 1.3 billion dollars from the end of trading Friday night to when I woke up Monday morning. And there's no trading on the weekend. But as the internet's most visited and popular website, rest assured that we'll rise back up to our original trading price of 42 dollars a share up from what it currently sits at: 14 cents. 

[STRAIGHTENS HIS TIE]  

It hasn't been all bad, my friends...

[WHIPS OUT ONE OF THOSE COLLAPSABLE POINTERS FROM HIS JACKET POCKET AND POINTS AT A CHART HE PULLS DOWN FROM ABOVE]

... let's take a look at the pie chart. Now as you can see, the company as a whole did quite poorly during it's first trading week, losing a few billion dollars, but a good piece of fortune struck us yesterday when a 36 dollar bank error, in OUR favour helped us recoup some of the losses, so as you can see... [PAUSES TO PULL DOWN ON CHART AND IT RETRACTS ITSELF] ...we are on the right track. The track to profitability.  I agree that I could have been more available this week since the slight downturn of our stock, but I was getting married.. [WAVES, WAITS FOR APPLAUSE - NONE] ..on a mountain top in the far reaches of the Greek islands where Elton John played a piano made of gold as we exchanged our vows. For dinner we had Wagyu rib eye steaks at $2800 a piece for 76 guests (75 but my father in law has an insatiable appetite and wanted seconds) It's Wagyu Steak for God's sake! Those cows are only fed beer and are massaged by hand to ensure the meats tenderness.  And the watermelon, holy crap, it's a black watermelon from the Northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.  It weighs 17 pounds and is much sweeter than it's green North American counterpart. $6,100 a piece! Dinner and dancing was great, we loosened everyone up with a bottle of Ace Of Spades champagne at each table before Pink Floyd - original lineup -  came out to play our reception. After that me and my love boarded our private jet, whisked off to Hawaii where we rented the island of Oahu for a week, and actually, it's left me a little  tapped out, so if anyone is looking to buy some stock I have some for sale. And, in no way is this me trying to get out of this train wreck before it's too late and I have to go back to living in a dorm sized room again. Thanks again everyone, I'm Mark Zuckerberg, good day.

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Stanley Cup Finals start tomorrow night in New Jersey.

new jersey devils advance to cup finals

I thought the New Jersey Devils would be put out in the first round by the surprising Florida Panthers.  But here they are, in the Cup finals, four victories away from giving Martin Brodeur his fourth Cup ring. Not bad for a franchise who called three cities home in it's first eight years. After two unsuccessful seasons in their founding city playing as the Kansas City Scouts they moved to Denver in 1976 becoming the Colorado Rockies and fared marginally better, but lasted just six seasons before settling in New Jersey for the 1982-83 season. The team didn't play very well in the first couple seasons in Jersey, and were publicly humiliated by Gretzky after the Oilers routed the Devils 13-4 in November of the 1983-84 season. 99 was upset the former teammate and friend Ron Low played for a franchise that was not NHL worthy. "Well, it's time they got their act together folks. They're ruining the whole league. They had better stop running a Mickey Mouse organization and put someone on the ice," said Gretzky after the victory. He later publicly admitted he regretted the comment, but that didn't stop fans in Jersey from wearing Mickey Mouse tshirt, fake ears or any other Mickey like paraphernalia they could get their hands on for the Oilers visit to Jersey later in the season. The Devils were in the basement of their division, or close to it, until April 1987 when they named Lou Lamoriello, former Providence College GM and athletic director, as team president, and shortly after that Lou appointed himself as GM before his first season. His first season was quite the change for the Devils, who around a strong nucleus of young players like Kirk Muller, Pat Verbeerk, John McLean, made it all the way to the conference finals, losing to the Boston Bruins in 7 games. Fast forward to 1994, where the Devils are now a legitimately good team, whose team now boasted the likes of Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Ken Danyko, Stephane Richer, John MacLean, Bobby Holik, Claude Lemieux and this years playoff renaissance man, Martin Brodeur, who had just captured the Calder Trophy as the league best rookie. This was the year of Mark Messier legendary guarantee in game six that the Rangers would win. The Devils would go on to lose the series after Messier's game six natural hat trick and Stephane Matteau's double overtime goal to win it for the Rangers in game seven. It is viewed as one of the best playoff series in the history of the NHL. The next season would not end in disappointment, however, as they swept the powerhouse favourite Detroit Red Wings, bringing New Jersey it's first pro sports championship of any kind. They couldn't keep the momentum going the following season, suffering from the dreaded Stanley Cup hangover all season long, and they missed the playoffs. After two first round exits, and a second round exit the Devils entered the next season playing great hockey, but nearing the end of the season the team was showing cracks, so Lamoriello fired his coach Robbie Ftorek  and replaced him with assistant coach (former Montreal Canadien before finishing up his career in Los Angeles) Larry Robinson. It was a gamble to change coaches late in the season, especially since they had one of the best records in the league, but the move turned out to be a master stroke. The Devils took out the Panthers, Maple Leafs and Flyers then beat the defending champion Dallas Stars in six games to win the Cup. Carry-overs from the 1995 team like Stevens, Niedermayer, and Brodeur were joined by key performers Patrick Elias, Petr Sykora, Jason Arnott, Alex Mogily, Brian Rafalski, John Madden and Scotty Gomez… and made up what I thought was the deepest of their three championship teams. Just a couple short seasons later the Devils found themselves in the finals again against the Cinderella Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim and were taken to seven games before claiming their third Cup. The team, since Lamoriello took over in 1987 have made the playoffs 21 out of 24 seasons, 13 playoff births in a row from 1997-2010, and have made it to the finals 5 times winning 3 times, with a possible 4th coming soon. Still hope LA wins.. Series starts Wednesday in New Jersey!

Brodeur as a rookie

Super Captain Scott Stevens

news feeds may 25

The Gardiner Expressway is an ugly eyesore down by our waterfront.  Essential? Maybe at a time, but it's done. It's deteriorating at a rapid rate with walkways and traffic lanes deemed "unsafe" (because of falling concrete from the rotting underside of the Gardiner above). Remember Mayor Miller saying something about dismantling the Gardiner (and making our waterfront much nicer)all together, and yes, while the cost will be huge, it will be more effective than doing patch work repairs on the decaying Expressway for x amount of years. Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong said of the falling debris, "One incident is a freak occurrence, a second incident becomes troubling. When you have a third incident happen then you start to connect data points and you have a trend." What trending? #deathbygardiner

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Facebook's stock has been sinking like a stone, down 15% since it's original offering a week ago.  Shares at the opening of Friday morning were going for around $32 a share from the $38.23 it was trading for it's first day on the Nasdaq just a week ago.  Investors are also launching a lawsuit against the company, saying that Facebook's underwriters gave favourable treatment to institutional investors by disclosing negative information about the stock that was withheld from other investors. Named in the lawsuit were Zuckerberg, and underwriters JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, and Merrill Lynch.  Facebook reps have said the lawsuit is "without merit," whereas the banks and investment firms declined to comment on the matter. It was one of the most highly anticipated IPOs of all time. It set trading volume records but has essentially been a huge disappointment.  Nasdaq dropped the ball after the start of trading on opening day was delayed by half an hour, then complaints poured in from investors that their orders were not processed correctly and in some cases, they paid a higher share price than when they made the purchase after waiting a few days for confirmation (also a ludicrous amount of time). 

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As much fun as Barack Obama calling Mitt Romney's speech on the country's finances "cow pie distortion" in Iowa but I gotta hand it to Bill Clinton.. what do you say about this guy? He was recently photographed in Monte Carlo, Monaco hanging out with porn stars. The 65 year old ex-president and noted cigar enthusiast was in the country for a gala benefit the William J Clinton Foundation and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. Brooklyn Lee, who originally put the pic on her twitter, and Tasha Reign are the actresses in the photo with another girl, who is not a porn star. No matter how you slice it, Bill looks more than happy to be in the photo!

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Carl Safina has submitted an excerpt from his book "The View From Lazy Point" to Adbusters magazine examining the first century of corporate America. Quite lengthy but a great read.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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Kind of a drag, but whatever, let's roll with it. There's a article on The Guardian (UK Edition) on the top five regrets of the dying. It was compiled by an Australian born nurse named Bronnie Ware who has spent several years caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of her lives. She has heard so many dashed hopes, dreams, wishes that she has put her observations into a book called, fittingly, "The Top Five Regrets Of the Dying." At number five "I wish that I had let myself be happier," to which Ware said "Surprisingly common on. Many did not realize that happiness is a choice.". But the top two seem much more common to be and to the people I know. "I wish I hadn't worked so hard." That was much more applicable to men because of their role in the older generation as bread-winners, but women are affected by this who are from the post-baby boomer crowd and Ware said patients "deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence." Also, at the top of the list, was "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me." Before violins stop playing I'll just link the article if you want to check it out. 

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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Kids are smart. There's this 9 year old Scottish girl named Martha Payne who was fed up with the lack of quality in her school lunches and decided to do something about it. Martha and her camera launched the blog "Never Second" that spread all over the web within five posts, attracting the attention of local/international media, and of course school lunch guru Jamie Oliver. Basically, she took a picture of her lunch and rated them based on taste and healthiness using a kid-centric food rating system. Martha's dad met with local officials and was told that the kids could eat unlimited salad, fruit and bread at her school. Good job kid!

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TV listing and entertainment website Zap2it have an interview up with Dan Castellanta, the voice of Homer Simpson asking about how Homer's voice has evolved since the show made it's debut. He originally based the voice on the brilliant Walter Matthau because of his big mouth, droopy face and deadpan delivery, but as the show (and animation) evolved so did the voice of Homer, which Castellanta "As it progressed Homer got a little rounder. His emotions were going all over the place. I sort of just found it by accident. It just found it's place." He was also asked if people recognize his voice, but he made sure to be clear that his normal voice was nothing like that of Homer. Simpsons season finale aired last Sunday on Fox, and will be starting it's 24th season in the fall. But back to Walter Matthau. The Odd Couple, Bad News Bears, Charade, Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie or Grumpy Old Men are all incredible movies, and even bad ones like, oh, The Couch Trip with Dan Aykroyd he is always the best part of his movies. He also has the perfect voice for a cartoon character. Here's Walter (and Jack Lemmon, Ann-Margaret and Burgess Meredith)

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Today mark's the actual 35th anniversary of the release day of Star Wars so I'll spare another post on it and just link back to "May the Fourth Be With You."

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Well, ain't this the truth?

quick update

"Bottle not draft" may be replacing "Shaken not stirred" in the upcoming James Bond film. The classy British M16 agent will  have his 23rd official adventure come out later in the year and will not be drinking his martinis.  In a deal worth $45 million, Heineken will now be 007's drink of choice. Fans were furious when this was first reported, and now former Bond George Lazenby (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, 1969) has criticized the franchise saying they "go where the money is" and that Heineken "isn't the best beer out there." Current Bond Daniel Craig ironed things out a little by noting "We have relationships with a number of companies so that we can make this movie. The simple fact is, without them, we couldn't do it. It's unfortunate but that's how it is." The movie is called "Skyfall" and will be out in November. 

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Don't have much else for today. It's too nice out… but check out "Two Canadian Chicks" to see what happens when two crazy Canucks move to Los Angeles.. Good job MK! Don't get into too much trouble!

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Also, who wins?

los angeles kings advance to finals

Rogie Vachon

Triple Crown Line

Congrats to the Los Angeles Kings on their first trip to the Stanley Cup final since 1993. Dustin Penner tucked in a rebound in the first overtime period, one faceoff after captain Dustin Brown's controversial non-call knee to Phoenix's Michael Rozsival. The handshakes (handshake video here!) after the game were intense, with captain Shane Doan and Martin Handzal both having words with Brown, still upset about the hit. It wasn't all mean spirited though as both goalie shared congrats, and let's face it, they were the two best players in the series. So, Leaf fans, we still have not won a cup since 1967, and neither have the St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings who both joined the league that year. Los Angeles is going off as ten to one favorites to win this season, and the Blues are an up and coming young team who just came off a second place finish in the Western Conference and are only going to get better. Anyways, I don't want to be longest drought.. at least there's a couple other teams with us, but a couple of teams who could be winners for years to come, whereas the Leafs are a nightmare from Hell. And since the Kings and Rangers are the only teams that I picked these playoffs that have done anything for me - I picked Phoenix and New Jersey to be out in the first round (my round one picks, my round two picks) just though I'd share a little Kings history since they have one week to kill until the opening of the Stanley Cup Finals next Wednesday. The Kings were founded in 1966 by Los Angeles Lakers owner, and Canadian, Jack Kent Cooke (and the reason why their original colors, purple and gold, were the same as the Lakers) as part of the 1967 NHL Expansion that doubled the league from six teams for twelve teams. Unable to find a suitable arena or deal with an arena, Cooke decided to build what became known as the Great Western Forum shortly after being awarded the franchise. The Kings were forced to play in nearby Long Beach Arena for its first few months, beating their expansion cousin Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 in Long Beach before losing to the same Flyers 2-0 at the opening of the Forum December 30, 1967. The Kings finished second place in the West Division (which was all six expansion teams in one division) one point behind the St Louis Blues. Always the circus around LA, the Kings developed a reputation of trading prospects and draft picks for aging star players winding down their career. The seventies weren't a great time, omit a 105 point 1974-75 season led by star goalie Rogie Vachon and first player then coach Bob Pulford, but they weren't all bad either. On June 23, 1975 the Kings acquired superstar Marcel Dionne from the Detroit Red Wings and, along with Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer, formed the "Triple Crown Line" one of the highest scoring lines in the history of the NHL. In the 1979-80 season Dionne won the Art Ross Trophy for leading the NHL in scoring and the entire line was chosen to play at the All Star Game, which was held in Los Angeles. However, despite their scoring prowess the Kings could not get past the first round of the playoffs for the life of them. Until 1982 that is. The Kings barely qualified for the playoffs with a mere 65 points and went up against Gretzky's powerhouse Edmonton Oilers, who accumulated 111 points in the regualar season. The first game of the series was like a wild west show with the Kings beating the Oilers 10-8, still the highest scoring playoff game of all time. After dropping game 2 in OT to the Oilers, game three looked like Edmonton was now really firing on all cylinders taking a 5-0 lead (on the road!) into the third period. Cue the "Miracle On Manchester." The Kings stunned the Oilers by scoring five goals in the third period, the last one coming off the stick of Steve Bozak with five second to play, forcing the game to overtime. And just like that, at 2:35 of OT Kings winger Daryl Evans beats Edmonton goalie Grant Fuhr,  firing a slapper right off the draw. This is cited as the greatest playoff comeback of all time, and they went on to beat the Oilers 7-4 in the next game to take the series.  Change was coming, made clear by the trading of franchise player Dionne to the New York Rangers to make room for a new crop of talented kids like Luc Robitaille, Jimmy Carson, and Steve Duchnese. Kings owner Jerry Buss, who had purchased the team from Cooke in 1979, was looking to sell the team in 1987 and found a buyer in Bruce McNall, who made two drastic changes. Gone were the gold/purple color scheme in favor of black and silver, and in was Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers in a trade the rocked the entire country of Canada. August 9, 1988 was the date, and like most significant events, the question arose "Where were you when Gretzky was traded?"  But the trade never brought Lord Stanley's Cup to Los Angeles during the Great One's tenure there, closed being a 1993 Stanley Cup final loss in five games to the Montreal Canadiens. Most of the Kings greatest moments of the 90s revolved around Gretzky, where he scored his record breaking 802 goal at the Forum, but McNall's reckless spending led the team into financial trouble and by 1995 the team filed for bankruptcy. The Kings moved to the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles in 1999, but could not do much for years, either not making the playoffs or bowing out in the first round. The 2000-01 season was a high point where they finished second in their division and had a first round date with the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings. After being manhandled in the first two games, the Kings went on to win four straight upsetting the Red Wings, only to lose in seven games in round two to the eventual champion Colorado Avalanche. The mid 2000's were.. terrible, but they got many high draft picks that includes lots of their core guys now. Dustin Brown was the  teams first pick in 2003, and in 2005 they took Anze Kopitar in the first round and Jonathon "Vezina Smythe" Quick in the third round. And at the 2008 draft the Kings selected Drew Doughty. It goes to show that if you draft well and develop the players properly you'll build the core for a great team for years to come. Trading for guys like Mike Richards and Jeff Carter helps too!

Gretzky in LA

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It's the Bat-stache. Speechless.

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Two geniuses in Tennessee have been arrested with vandalism and felony reckless endangerment  charges for throwing bricks through a window at a McDonalds because their hamburgers didn't have enough onions on it.  Ya.  In the middle of a night of boozing the two stumbled into McDonalds and grabbed a couple cheeseburgers.  After being "cussed" out by the manager they retreated, continued drinking and became more and more pissed off about the cheeseburger malfunction.  So, at about three AM, they stumble back and launch a brick through the front window, oh and throw what was called "a large piece of concrete" through the drive through window.  One of the suspects was arrested at home, while the other one was captured face first in the pavement, too drunk to pick himself up (for real) and incurred a bonus charge of public intoxication.  I'm loving it!

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Newt Gingrich not only failed in his bid for the Republican candidacy but he racked up $4.8 million in campaign debt.  Expenditures include $1 million to a private airline company, $466,370 for security, $181,977 for public relations consulting and $165,000 in web advertising. It wasn't reported how much was spent on ham sandwiches and Yoohoo. Fortunately, Newt was left with about $800,000 cash left over after his failed bid.

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Sad story out of El Paso about a 67 year old gentleman who died of a heart attack after getting several lap dances at the Red Parrot strip club.  Robert Gene White was just hanging out having some drinks, checking out some boobs then after taking in a bunch of lap dances and money came into question he became unresponsive.  Employees tried, unsuccessfully, to perform CPR on the man.  Not sure what they're charging for lap dances these days but it's going to give you a heart attack there's another reason not to go to them, besides the stench of sweat and shame.

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One of the earliest YouTube sensations was that SNL Digital Short "Lazy Sunday" now has a sequel. Lazy Sunday 2 was shown on SNL's season finale this weekend. Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg's new adventure follows them on their trek to see Sister Act: The musical.  While not as immediately hilarious as the first one, it was still quite good, and it rustled up some good memories of the day you discovered the first one and for me, just discovering what YouTube was.  Saturday night's finale was also the last show for Kristen Wiig, who has been one of the show's strongest players since November 2005.  The show may have also been the last for Jason Sudeikis as well as Samberg who have both been making many a movie over the last few years, with Samberg opening a movie next week with another SNL alum, Adam Sandler.  Here's "Lazy Sunday 2"

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There is four genres of movies these days. At least at the big movie theatres: remakes, 3D, superhero movies and biopics (and new this week the adaptation of a board game - Battleship? How could that not suck?).  Point is, a new biopic about the life of Steve Jobs is coming soon.  Aaron Sorkin is writing the screenplay and this will also be his directing debut.  Sorkin's other screenwriting works include The Social Network, Moneyball, A Few Good Men and TV's West Wing.  Sorkin knew Jobs personally and wrote a piece on him shortly after his death for the Daily News.   Since terrible things come in twos (or is it threes? whatever) there is an independent film about Jobs that begins filming this month starring Ashton Kutcher which will soon be in discount DVD bins at gas stations and truck stops all over the country.

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USA Today, always breaking the big stories, has released the list of the 15 craziest potato chip flavours from around the world.  I'll just link the article since every one of these is noteworthy (and mostly all disgusting).  The Prawn (or shrimp) Cocktail 'crisps' from England sound about the worse despite being marketed as "a crisp with a little bit of class."  Other salty gems on the list include Korea's Octopus chip, Australia's Hot Dog chip, and the Seaweed Pringles (all over Asia) are even green colour presumably to make people think they are healthy.  Not to mention the Teriyaki Mayonnaise Doritos (limited edition!) in Japan. Original Article

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It's almost June and that means we are getting down to wearing shorts every day, and we're getting down to the nitty-gritty in the Stanley Cup playoffs.  The semis have had some great story lines, goaltending stealing the show in the West and the coaches are getting the headlines in the East.  You have got to love (or hate) John Tortorella.  Torts has no filter whatsoever so he is either is at a ten or a zero - so he doesn't go to a ten (see the "Next Question" press conference after game 2).  Here's some great moments with Torts and my favourite manager/coach freakout of all time, the Baltimore Orioles legend, tiny Earl Weaver.. Oh, so there's no beeps be mindful of the language!  

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choices?

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Do you drink too much Starbucks or Timmies or Dunkin'?  Well, don't worry.  Apparently, coffee contains many compounds that are health promoting anti-oxidants and may lower your risk of dying from diseases such as diabetes or heart disease.  A study spanning thirteen years following more than 300,000 healthy people, men and women aged 50 to 71 years old, during which time 13% of the participants die.  The coffee drinkers among the group, particularly the ones who drank more than 5 cups a day were 10-15% less likely to die.  Even moderate coffee drinkers having a cup a day stood a 5-10% better chance of staying alive.  The survey however, would not say that coffee drinking directly lowers the risk of chronic disease.  Susan Fisher, Ph.D, chair of community and preventative medicine at University of Rochester Medical Centre says that the study findings "might not be specifically be the coffee. It might be the characteristic of the coffee drinker."  Little different from a few years back when studies suggested that coffee contributes to heart disease and has a negative effect on blood pressure, cholesterol and heart rate but this may have been a ruse by the Tetley Tea company to boost sales.

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Facebook hit Wall Street this week with the IPO opening at $38 per share making Facebook's initial value at around the $100 billion mark with an offering size of $18.4 billion.  That would make Facebook the second largest US IPO of all time behind Visa's offering of $19.5 billion dollar high in 2008.  Facebook can exceed Visa's record if their shares become worth more than $41 apiece.  This comes on the heels of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's 28th birthday earlier this week, making him one of the youngest billionaires in the world with a net worth of $17.5 billion.

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White minority? Black Flag was right!  In 2011, the US Census Bureau said there was 114 million minorities living in the states in 2011 (36.6% of the population).  The national population under the age of five however is 49.5% minority and children younger than the age of one is at a 50.4% clip. "We've known it was going to come," said Kenneth M Johnson, senior demographer and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire.  Johnson sees it as an opportunity of Americans to embrace diversity.  Four states and the District of Columbia have mostly minority populations: Hawaii at 77% (and the only state with an Asian majority), DC 64.7%, California 60.3%, New Mexico 59.8% and Texas 55.2%.  All of a sudden all us white folk seem like a delicacy. But here's Black Flag's "White Minority" just because!

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A  horse was found swimming in the ocean of a beach just south of Santa Barbara, California.  The horse was on the beach, then got spooked and darted into the water then swam 2 miles.  The original call came in as a missing horse then several calls followed saying there was a horse swimming at the beach to which the state lifeguard replied "Smoke another one."  It took two and a half hours to escort the horse back to shore with the help of the lifeguards, a rescue team from the nearby Carpenteria Fire Department and a helicopter was launched by Santa Barbara Country's search and rescue team.  It's rumoured Sarah Jessica Parker will be playing the horse in an upcoming feature film.

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Sabbath: Ward, Osbourne, Butler, Iommi

Drummer Bill Ward will not be playing with the original lineup of Black Sabbath along with Ozzy, Geezer Butler and Tommy Iommi at their 3 planned dates in May, June and August.  The problem seems to be (Sharon Osbourne) a decent contract can't be worked out.  Sounds like cry baby rock star stuff, but, there more to it and Bill may be in the right.  One of the deals proposed to Ward were he was to play three songs with the band then another drummer will finish the set, which must be quite frustrating to see since he was in the band since it's inception.  Big rock bands always seem to do that.  See Wolfgang Van Halen replacing Mark Anthony, that Tommy guy in Ace Frehley's make up in Kiss (the makeup is a trademark owned by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of course) and John Paul Jones not invited to play bass on the  Led Zeppelin tour even though that tour never came to fruition.  Remember that? Apparently Dave Grohl was supposed to play drums too. Anyways, read Bill's statement here.

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Well look who turns 55 today! Full House patriarch Danny Tanner (alias Bob Saget) is having a birthday today and for those who don't know him outside of Full House or America's Funniest Videos, well, it's time.  Because this guy is funny!  Happy birthday Mr. Saget, you dirty, foul mouth jerk.  Here's his classic clip from the Aristocrats, a documentary where almost 100 comedians tell their version of the same joke, "The Aristocrats."  Enjoy!

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Remember Octo-Mom?  She became well known in 2009 for giving birth to 8 kids, to go along with her other six, appearing on Oprah, Dr. Phil and almost had a reality show but that went to hell. She faced a public backlash when it was releaved she was unemployed and living on public assistance programs.  Well,  it's gotten worse for everyone involved, with the possible exception of her vagina which has to be doing better. On April 5, 2012 it was reported that she is back on welfare then filed for bankruptcy on April 30.  So how does a girl make a quick buck in the San Fernando Valley? That's right! A porn star. TMZ said that she recently finished her first XXX shoot with the crew saying she was a 'natural'. There is going to be absolutely nothing sexy about this video, GUARANTEED.

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Major League Baseball has handed down a four suspension to Toronto Blue Jays rookie third baseman Brett Lawrie for a helmet throwing incident on Tuesday nights game in Toronto.  After working the count to 3-1, Lawrie took the next two pitches, that were outside and high/outside, lost it after he thought he'd gotten ball four (twice) in a tight game in the ninth inning.  He took the first pitch like a champ, started trotting down to first base before he heard the umpire's call.  A little miffed, but not a word was said.  But after the 3-2 pitch, Lawrie lost it, throwing his helmet, which bounced and hit homeplate umpire Bill Miller, then got up in the ump's grill screaming in his face before he had to be restrained by Jays manager John Farrell.   Both Farrell and Lawrie were ejected from the contest.  Lawrie however is appealing his suspension and will be in the lineup against the New York Yanks, then Mets until the appeal is run by MLB offices in New York, with a decision probably coming next week.  Speaking of other dudes covered in arm tattoos, how about Josh Hamilton? The Texas Rangers slugger has crushed 18 home runs in a mere 35 games this season, including a 4 home run game last week.  

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Team Canada got bumped from the IIHF World Hockey Championship without a medal for the third straight year (and will place no higher than fifth!) after dropping a close game 4-3 to the underdog Slovaks who took the lead with Anaheim Ducks captain (and hopefully future Maple Leaf) Ryan Getzlaf in the box.  The remaining teams in the tournament are Slovakia, Russia and Finland who all won their quarter final matches with Sweden and the Czech's facing to see which one advances to the final four.

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