Category Archives: In The City

You Can Help Save The Library!

Remember when Rob Ford wanted to close library branches earlier this year? Overwhelming support from the entire city, including library patrons like us, saved the day.

But now talks have broken down in negotiations between the TPL board and the Library worker’s union, because Rob Ford wants the right to fire any librarian or library employee, anytime he wants, for any reason.

Anyone can see that this is his workaround: if he gains this concession from the union, he can fire enough staff to… you got it! Close library branches.

Even if you don’t use the library yourself, your friends, relatives, children and neighbours do. The Toronto Public Library provides services that enrich the lives of everyone in this city. Through its literacy and training programs, the TPL helps lift people out of poverty and into the workforce. It provides the space, the resources and the technology needed so desperately by the poorest children in our city to succeed at school. We need our libraries, and we need the librarians and the staff that operate our libraries to have solid, secure jobs.

Send a message to your city councillor, urging him or her to tell the board to get back to the table! It only takes a minute for you to send an email of support through this site: http://ourpubliclibrary.to/take-action/re-open/. You don’t even have to know who your councillor is: the site looks it up for you and provides a template!

I sent a message to my city councillor, John Parker, urging him to support library workers. Send one to yours today!

“Natural” Soda Pop? What the Zevia?!

Posted by gwenstyles on October 18, 2011 1 comment

Today I enjoyed an impromptu food court lunch with a good friend: intrepid gossip blogger and general internet shockster, SoJu.

Drunk karaoke - circa January 2011

Okay well “enjoyed” might be misleading – actually it was the crappiest shawarma I’ve had in months. What’s up, Anoush? You did not bring your A-game today! The company was lovely, though.

After walking with Soju to the scene of her meeting in Yorkville, I decided to have a wander through Pusateri’s on my way back to the office. For those of you who don’t know – Pusateri’s is a chi chi frou frou gourmet food store where lunch costs 85$ and they offer valet parking and pet minding for your diamond-collar-studded yapper named Pookums.

So I poked around for a while, but eventually I got tired of being shoved and jostled by wealthy matriarchs and sunglass-wearing socialites who could obviously smell the middle class on me and did not spare the snake eyes. So I grabbed the cheapest drink in the cooler and got the hell out of Dodge. Read more »

Bicycle Rage

Posted by gwenstyles on August 24, 2011 12 comments

Well, that’s it. I’ve succumbed to cyclist’s rage. But not as a result of actually, you know, riding my bicycle. No, my friends, my ire is roused today by some loutish miscreant who lives in my building and who’s been messing with my new blue bike.

(It occurs to me that I haven’t yet written about my newly acquired wheels – maybe tomorrow, when the anger has settled into a plan of action.)

About two weeks ago, someone snuck behind my house, hopped on my daughter’s bike (which, it should be noted, has two flat tires and hasn’t been ridden in over a year) and took it for a joyride in the middle of the night. I never would have noticed, except they didn’t put it back where they got it – they left it leaning against my front porch. What a stupid thing to do, I thought, but it’s really my fault for leaving it unlocked.

From that moment on, I was (a bit) more vigilant in locking up our bikes. I live in a quiet residential neighbourhood and all spring and summer, the bikes were unlocked without a problem. Still though, I didn’t want to tempt fate.

However, Sunday night I forgot to lock my bike, and guess what happened? Read more »

Randomandomalities

Posted by gwenstyles on August 5, 2011 4 comments

After a tumultuous half year of helplessness, anger, heartbreak, tentative hope, healing and finally, strength and newfound happiness, the desire to write is slowly returning to me. However, I’m still feeling a bit disjointed (and my heart’s all aflutter, but that’s a story for another day) so I’m going to ease back into it slowly, if that’s okay with you, with a series of what I like to call randomandomalities. Read more »