It's time to catch up on a number of Deadpool sightings from the past few weeks. On Ossington, brunch and vegetarian fave Get Real Cafe has become the latest casualty on the block between Argyle and Foxley. Following in the footsteps of the recently closed Le Bar a Soupe, Get Real either couldn't cope with a 30% rent increase demanded by their landlord OR were behind in their rent. Either way, they'll be missed and the street is down a lunch option (although Pizzeria Libretto recently started offering lunch service so maybe everything evens out).

Located at the northern end of Church St., Lola's Commissary offers modern interpretations of traditional brunch fare as well as a wide variety of lunch and dinner items. I was pretty impressed by the egg dishes, but it was the French toast stuffed with cheesecake that blew me away.

Read my review of Lola's Commissary in the restaurant section.

The city of Toronto launched a new night lighting initiative, highlighting heritage and historic buildings in and around the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood Friday night.

Perhaps a little overshadowed by Toronto winning the bid for the 2015 Pan American Games, this celebration was somewhat subdued. That didn't stop about 100 of us from getting a small tour of these buildings by local historian Bruce Bell.

St. Lawrence Market, St. Lawrence Hall, the Flatiron building, St. James Cathedral and the south façades along Front Street (south of Berczy Park) now look much more majestic at night now, highlighted with theatrical LED lighting.

Photo: Keg Stand by yourhandinmine, member of the blogTO Flickr Pool.

Events on Toronto's Radar for SATURDAY NOVEMBER 7 and SUNDAY NOVEMBER 8, 2009... lovingly handpicked from blogTO's events calendar.

Saturday, November 7:

FESTIVAL | Day of the Dead Festival
This two-day festival at the Harbourfront Centre continues the Mexican tradition of remembering the dead and celebrating their lives with stories, music, and food. Community organizations will be making altars (known as ofrendas) for their deceased loved ones, there will be Mexican crafts and food on sale, as well as troupes of wandering musicians and dancers. Learn how to make the unique mole sauce, or take in a performance of traditional Mexican songs by Café con Pan. Runs til Sunday.
Harbourfront Centre, 255 Queen's Quay West, Free, 12 pm - 6 pm

MARKET | St. Lawrence Market 205th Anniversary
To give you some idea of how much the St. Lawrence Market is part of the fabric of Toronto, it's was around a good thirty years before the city itself was founded. This weekend the Market celebrates its 205th anniversary with festivities including food, cooking demonstrations, children's crafts and games, and live entertainment. After Hours, the Human Statues, and the Dirty Dishes will all be performing, and buskers including Mysterion the Mentalist will be delighting the crowds. Other highlights include the Native Earth Performing Arts show The Really Really Fast History of Toronto and the 6 pm lamp-lighting ceremony..
St. Lawrence Market Complex, 92 Front St. E., Free, 9 am to 4 pm

MUSIC | Make Some Noise with Timber Timbre and Bruce Peninsula
Two of Canada's hottest folk/country acts play a very humble venue Saturday in the North York Central Library. Both Bruce Peninsula and Timber Timbre (otherwise known as Taylor Kirk) can regularly pack a downtown venue, especially since Timber Timbre's record was picked up by the indie heavyweight Arts and Crafts label. Here's your chance to see Kirk's haunting brand of folk for free in a very intimate setting, along with the progressive sounds of the Bruce Peninsula collective.
North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Free, 8 pm

Photo: "AGO stairs" by septembergurl99, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Former Canadian Olympian, Marnie McBean summed it up nicely: "Toronto finally won something." Beating out Lima and Bogota on the first ballot, the Pan Am games will come to the city in 2015. Although the bid organizers are ecstatic about the win, public reaction has been ambivalent. As desirable as new sporting facilities and infrastructure are, many are worried about the price tag of an event that's not as prestigious as it used to be.

A Globe article featuring Amir Gissin, Jerusalem's leading PR man and Israel's consul-general for Toronto, explores his project to "rebrand" Israel abroad by using Toronto as a testing ground for the international community at large. Citing the city's overall size, its large Jewish and Muslim communities, and the fact that its home to some of Israel's harshest critics (the article mentions the United Church and the Canadian Union of Public Employees), Gissin views it as an excellent testing ground for a PR project that aims to change the discourse that surrounds the country.

The TTC announced yesterday that it'll be limiting the number of tokens purchased at one time to 10 or less. The move is intended to prevent hoarding in the face of a possible (likely!) fare increase in the new year. Was it ever fast, though. The decision on the fare increase won't even take place until Nov. 17th. I also wonder about the effectiveness of such a strategy. If one really wanted to hoard tokens, couldn't he/she just purchase 10 over and over again on separate days? I guess they bank on people not going to the trouble of doing so.

UPDATE: Toronto has won the bid to host the Pan Am Games

By the time most of the city is leaving work today, we'll know whether Toronto has won its controversial bid for the 2015 Pan Am Games. Phoning from the Toronto bid team's headquarters in Guadalajara, Mexico, mayor David Miller is succinct about why he thinks the Toronto games would be a good thing.

"I have to look at that from the city's perspective. Sports has an important part to play, and the way these games have evolved, Toronto will get the benefit of hosting them. We'll have our name known around the Americas, we'll build very strong bonds between Latin America and Toronto, which is very significant with immigration from South America."