86: Monte Cheval Vranac 2007
Montenegro, $8.35
This is an unapologetically rough red that puts the rust back in rustic. It has flavours of white pepper and orange and an undercurrent of funk. It is a big-boned fellow that will provide the perfect pairing for a rich stew or a barfight.

82: Clos du Pacha Red 2007
Morocco, $11.95
This Cabernet Sauvignon blend has a diluted nose with generic flavours of leather and raspberry. These unmemorable flavours re-echo on the palate. It’s amazing what you can do with water and food colouring.

70: Great Wall Cabernet Sauvignon 1996
China, $13.95
I found little evidence of bottle maturity here, which makes me suspect that there’s been a miscommunication between this wine and its label. In any case, enjoy a horsey and aggressive aroma with notes of diesel, black liquorice and vegetables.

I can’t think of a collection of wine reviews I’ve enjoyed more. Here’s to a long tenure for the writer, Matthew Sullivan.

Bill would protect kids from drug endangerment

The bill would make it a separate offence to “drug endanger” a child. It would establish drug-endangered children as a category in need of protection. It would also add drug endangerment as a form of child abuse under the Child and Family Services Act, Dunlop said Wednesday.

Endangerment would include exposing a child to the manufacturing or production of an illegal drug, as well as any substance that is used to make illegal drugs, he said.

Obviously, having little kids living in houses that are meth labs or grow ops is a poor idea.

It’s the “any substance that is used to make illegal drugs” clause that worries me here. Lots of perfectly normal household substances go into drug manufacture — alcohol, acetone, paint thinner, camp-stove fuel, gasoline, some kinds of cold/allergy pills, and so on. It seems to me that many a fishing expedition could be carried out under such a law: “Your Honour, we found no less than SIX such substances in the house! Think of the chiiiiiiildren!”

Surely social services and the law already have sufficient other tools to cope with the Crack-House Kid problem?

Lou Reed is back with experimental music of 1970s

LONDON (Reuters) – It was dismissed as “career suicide” and a joke, and some fans returned the record thinking it was faulty, but rocker Lou Reed is re-releasing a digitally remastered version of his 1975 album “Metal Machine Music.”

And, despite the absence of melody and vocals and the unending presence of feedback, the 68-year-old rocker best known for his work with the influential band The Velvet Underground is touring Europe playing music inspired by the record with the Metal Machine Trio.

For the uninitiated, Metal Machine Music is quite possibly the biggest eff-you ever issued to a label by one of its artists. The whole thing is — apparently, I’ve never heard more than five minutes of it and I very much doubt anyone on the planet has subjected themselves to its entirety — atonal, lyric-free metallic/industrial noise. And feedback, oh yes, lots and lots of feedback. I feel sorry for the poor sound engineer stuck with digitally remastering the thing.

An “improvisational” show based on such cacophony would, I’m sure, be good for beer sales in the venues. I’m picturing an entire audience of European 60somethings watching Lou et al screech away randomly onstage…. all hearing aids firmly in the Off position.

Ah, art: the one unassailable reason for a Europe tour. Go, Lou.

One of these students felt the need to supplement this:

To cut costs, Crane will seek one of the $25 emergency grocery vouchers Brock’s student union offers cash-strapped students; this year it has upped the number of vouchers to 105 from 75 last year because of the recession.

so she now (lucky thing) has the slightly lesser horror of feeding herself on $250 a month instead of $225.

Right about now every single person living on welfare is rolling their eyes so hard they may be able to see out the backs of their heads.

I think back to fourth year, when K. and I each allocated $75 a month to groceries — $105.27 in current dollars — and we ate very well. Lots of seasonal fruit and veggies, yogurt, a little meat, lots of home-made muffins… and yes, pasta and rice but certainly not the “cheap carbo-loading” mentioned in the article as necessary. We often, as I recall, had money left over at the end of the month (with which we bought wine).

I might also look at our current grocery spending. On average I spend about $100 a week on groceries for the three of us, so that’s $400 for the month. Every two weeks a $55 box of organic milk, eggs and veggies is delivered; another $110. And we probably spend about another $100 on wine — Well, to be generous let’s call it $150 to cover off the odd bottle of fizzy and/or a decent LBV. $400 + $110 + $150 = $660 a month.

OSAP would allow $7.50 x 30 x 3 = $675.

To be clear, I’m not denying the challenges inherent in trying to live on the utterly inadequate amount OSAP provides if it’s your only source of income, and I won’t for a second defend a student loan system that saddles young graduates with absurdly large debts. But moaning about a $7.50-a-day food allowance isn’t going to garner much sympathy from me — or, I suspect, from the many students who are stuck feeding themselves on much, much less. ($1 a day: that’s hard.)

Come on kids: drop the entitlement and get cooking.

Ingested foreign bodies and societal wealth: three year observational study of swallowed coins

Objective: To examine the relation between coins ingested by children and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

But sadly, for it would’ve made a fine headline had the results been different,

Conclusion: There was no detectable difference in the total value of coins ingested, or ratio of coins to other objects swallowed, before or after a massive stock market crash

But for the most part, the non-profit sector is not waiting with open arms for retired baby boomers with skills to share and time to spare.

“Logically, it should be a great opportunity,” says Michael Hall, vice-president of Imagine Canada, the umbrella organization for charities and non-profit organizations across the country. “But few organizations have the infrastructure to manage volunteers.

“You need to orient them, assist them and integrate them into your team. But where are the resources? Most organizations are stretched thin.”

Mmmhmm. And who, one might ask, was in charge a decade ago when nonprofits were told to “act more like businesses,” convert to a contract basis and stretch themselves so very thin, resulting in the current lack of capacity to manage volunteers?

Yeah. Boomers.

Government of Canada helps post-secondary graduate gain work experience in aquatic research

The Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute will receive $14,189 for its Aquatic Health Researcher project through the Career Focus program of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy. This funding will help the Institute offer a recent post-secondary graduate a 26-week work experience placement, enabling this individual to use the skills he or she learned in school in order to gain permanent employment.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Bruce Cockburn got his rocket launcher – briefly, in Afghanistan.

The singer-songwriter was among a group of entertainers visiting Canadian troops serving in the war-torn country.

He drew wild applause when he sang one of his hits, “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” which prompted the commander of Task Force Kandahar, Gen. Jonathan Vance, to very temporarily present him with one.

“I was kind of hoping he would let me keep it. Can you see Canada Customs? I don’t think so,” Cockburn said, laughing.

….

As for the rocket launcher, it wasn’t the first time Cockburn was presented with one.

He said he was approached by a fan, in a Washington state parking lot several years ago, who opened his trunk and wanted to give him three rocket launchers.

“It just smelled like entrapment but I just said, `We’re crossing the border and I don’t think Canada Customs would approve’.”

Realization

I have finally been able to put my finger on a thought that has half-occurred to me on my now-numerous visits to renovated libraries. Here’s a slogan to get you started: “Your tax dollars at work!” TPL keeps getting awarded modest increases in budget, even as it carries out budgetary trimming here and there, because we want to reward something that’s already working.

But what I’ve really been ruminating on is this idea. We live in a city that is otherwise so wedded to mediocrity it becomes indistinguishable from outright championing of mediocrity. Nonetheless, we build giant palaces to every form of learning, all free of charge and open to everybody. What we do here is we build palaces of learning. Ninety-nine of them. And when they wear out, we fix them. We throw good money after good because we think libraries are that important – which they are.

Toronto really does do a great job with libraries (see also: Runnymede branch, Jane-Dundas, Lillian H. Smith….). It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Metro Ref.

I didn’t check this morning to see if anyone was petting the horses, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it.

News Release
Toronto Police Service

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 – 9:25 AM

Public Information
416-808-7100

The Toronto Police Service has taken further steps to ensure the safety of the public and those participating in the Tamil community vigil along University Avenue.

See previous release.

On Tuesday, April 28, 2009, at approximately 7 a.m., with the co-operation of most of the protestors, police moved the barricades, that were in place, to the east side of University Avenue. This was done to ensure a safe environment for the officers, protestors and the public.

The Toronto Police Service is committed to working with those who wish to express their views in a peaceful and safe manner. Protestors are urged to use the east side of University Avenue.

University Avenue will remain closed from Dundas Street West to Queen Street West until further notice.

Police suggest that the public consider alternate routes, in the affected area, until further notice.

Traffic congestion on the roadways and within the transit system is to be expected.

Constable Wendy Drummond, Public Information

There are no files attached to this release.

http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/release.php?id=16286