Photo: "Camomile Ant" by sig11, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your abbreviated Toronto morning news roundup for Thursday May 15th, 2008:

The TTC is learning that the hybrid expensive diesel-electric buses they bought aren't coming close to saving the 20-30% in fuel consumption touted by the manufacturer. Records are showing closer to just 10% in fuel savings.

Four carjackers were caught in the act on video, and the police want the help of the public in identifying them. I watched the video, and have concluded that it's more an exercise in identifying shirts.

Night court is a great option for those not wanting to miss work to deal with their problems involving the Provincial Offences Act, but as of July 1st, night court will no longer be an option. Judge Harold T. Stone is happy to have more time to spend with his family.

Photo: "Flashback" by Proliphic, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Wednesday May 14th, 2008:

A Queen's Park monument honouring fallen firefighters was vandalized by a jackass who thought it was an appropriate canvas on which to paint politically-fueled statements. Where do people get the idea that defacing public property is an acceptable form of protest?

The Toronto Zoo is taking heat for its decision to open their new stingray exhibit, despite the recent, tragic, unexplained death of a large number of stingrays in a similar exhibit at a Calgary zoo. Unless we have a persistent, traveling stingray poisoner on the loose, do we really need to be concerned about opening the Toronto exhibit?

The Toronto District School Board is mulling the idea of banning the sale of single-use plastic water bottles. It's an idea I can enthusiastically get behind.

Photo: "Cute Chipmunk" by Megan Lorenz, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Tuesday May 13th, 2008:

Police have arrested two of the three people alleged to have been involved in the shooting of a passenger on the subway at Spadina station in late March. It was the only shooting on the subway that I can recall in my time in Toronto, and one can only hope that the police have the right people in custody and that the third is quickly apprehended without incident.

The new OPP eye in the sky highway patrol airplane is being lauded as an immediate success. Within minutes of getting airborne, a number of speeders were observed and throughout the day several charges laid. The take home message? If you're trying to make up for time lost from making extra stops at the grocery store, beer store, and gas station before heading up to the cottage, don't be a lead foot or you run the risk of being caught from above.

Photo: "Standby" by wu5mike, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Monday May12th, 2008:

Twenty years later, five familiar faces and voices will be returning to Toronto for a show at ACC on September 21st. Are Danny, Jordan, Jonathan, Joey, and Donnie still hangin' tough? Can they still make the teenaged girls scream the way they used to, or will this be a stadium full of 30 and 40-something screaming ladies? Tickets go on sale today.

A new report on tourism in Toronto suggests that the Big Smoke isn't a "must-see" amongst tourists because our sight-seeing is stale, service at attractions is poor, and roads and traffic are bad. When did Toronto earn the nick name "The Big Smoke" anyhow? I've lived here my whole life and only very recently has the use of this horrible name picked up steam.

Despite several years passing under laws preventing people from smoking cigarettes in public buildings, people are still lighting up in many of Toronto's night clubs. The Star went bar-hopping for an investigative story, and found that in some cases bar staff are clearly aware that this goes on.

In typical last minute style, I made a trip out to Home Depot to pick up a few things needed to put the final touches on the outdoor summer gazebo my brother and I built for my mother this morning (Happy Mother's Day!). I was pleasantly surprised to find that Toronto Hydro was there, giving away free clotheslines as part of their energy-saving promotion (a timely promotion that comes on the heels of a province-wide lifting of all municipal clothesline bans). I filled out the short survey, chatted briefly about CF light bulb recycling with the rep, and was on my way, free clothesline in hand.

As soon as I got back, I decided I'd suss out the backyard and find a place for it. I took it out of the box and marveled at how cheaply made it looked (what do you expect for free, right?). Anchoring the end to the fence, I pulled the line out of the retractable spindle to see just how much length I had to play with. It was surprisingly long and I quickly found my end anchor point on the house.

I walked toward the spool to retract the line so I could work on anchoring the end hook to the house, and part way in, it stopped retracting on a dime. I let go of the line and walked over to inspect the spool. It was a mess. The line had come out of the spool, and doubled back on itself to form a nasty tangle around the axis that the spindle spins on. I tried to take it on with gentle patience but failed. My fingers wouldn't fit into the casing and the spring loaded retracting action made it impossible to win. I decided I'd have to pry apart the casing a little to get at the tangle. This turned out to be a mistake - the free clothesline suffered an immediate death.

The blogTO Flickr Forum is a weekly sampling of themed photographs taken by Torontonians and aims to not only feature the talent they possess, but also spur dialogue and reveal the stories behind the images.

Today's collection of Toronto photographs is made up of responses to our call for photos that fit the theme "UP". These images were all recently submitted to the blogTO Flickr pool.

To the photographers: we'd love to hear about your photos. A little info on where it was taken and the story behind the photo is always a great start.

To the rest of you, feel free to ask questions to the artists, submit photos to the blogTO Flickr pool for next week's consideration, or just sit back and enjoy our weekly mosaic.

Continue for links to larger versions, and to check out the next theme.