King Street Pilot launches without a crash. The first days of giving streetcars free rein on King was greeted with positive hypotheticals, even if people looking down through their windows saw a disaster on Sunday. Police are handing pamphlets rather than tickets to drivers who seem confused at the outset. Naturally, those who don’t rely on cars got to work in record time, while one politician declares a disaster:

“We see it as a world-class city.” Lyft president and co-founder John Zimmer rebooted Toronto's favourite synonym for local insecurities while serving the Toronto Star with an "exclusive" on the ride-sharing company's local December debut. The official announcement also spared no clichés in declaring: “We’ve got our toques on and we’re here to take off.”

“Willy Porno” perfers to perpetuate a superhero sobriquet. Following the discovery of finance minister Bill Morneau’s high school nickname, a lengthy Toronto Star reveals what he’d much rather be called: Bruce Wayne. As Donovan Vincent explains it, Wayne “is an ultra-wealthy industrialist who dons a cape and uses his skills, intellect and brawn to fight for the underdog.” Alas, the Batman analogy didn’t stick when Evan Solomon wrote about it in March. Stranger still was this coincidence:

Julie Payette’s zodiac mindwarp summons more discussion. The new commander in chief of Canada’s armed forces laid a wreath on her first Remembrance Day, but her two-week-old speech about science still resonates: people can’t stop writing columns about it. Her point about horoscopes stoking Fake News was addressed by the Toronto Star’s public editor, Kathy English, who defended astrology's placement among comics and crosswords. (The Star now carries American astrologist Jacqueline Bigar, having recently lost the services of Phil Booth to the CBC.)

The bracket begins for “Canada’s Most Memorable (English) TV Thing.” Twitter debate stirred by the launch of the YouTube channel Encore+ pushed CBC Vancouver politics reporter Justin McElroy to start a tournament of classic Cancon. Complaints came in that there weren’t enough contenders, so the contest has now been expanded to a list of 64 titles, even if the selection shows some west coast myopia.

TIFF would rather you forget that it recently feted Louis C.K. “I’m not going to answer to that stuff, because they’re rumours,” the comic told the New York Times in an awkward Toronto interview coinciding with the premiere of I Love You, Daddy. Two months later, after the NYT published a story about several times he sexually harassed women, the comic released a statement that began: “These stories are true.” With his movie—which scored a $5-million TIFF deal—now shelved, the festival has deleted most evidence of its softball interview with C.K. But the Twitter thread recapping the chat remains:

Corey Feldman is keeping his mouth shut for once. The allegations surrounding Corey Haim, the late Toronto teen idol, took a new turn on Dr. Oz, as his mother Judy revealed who she alleges sexually assaulted her son at age 13: Dominick Brascia, the National Enquirer's main source for its story that implicated Charlie Sheen. (Brascia hasn't responded to the allegation. Sheen, for his part, denies everything.) Nowhere to be seen in this twist is Corey Feldman—who evidently promised Judy that he would stay out of it.

Word of the moment

FRANK ZAMBONI

A new class of inductees has been named for the Hockey Hall of Fame, but there's still no room for the namesake of the ice-resurfacing machine.




Facebook icon Twitter icon Forward icon