The Public Health Agency of Canada has equipped Canada Post mail carriers with H1N1 flu virus literature, and it's being delivered to Toronto mailboxes today. Mine just arrived, and I had a chance to take a quick look at it.

The brochure is a concise summary of the most important information and facts about swine flu including: symptom recognition, severity indicators, tips on protecting yourself, and details about high risk groups. It also points us to much more information at www.fightflu.ca, where several more print-ready, information rich PDF downloads are available.

The Canadian Tourism Commission has done a great job putting together what I think are rather honest and compelling depictions of some of the finer aspects of life in Toronto.

Two dozen high quality YouTube videos of decent production value and great content are a lot more than Tourism Toronto can say they've done in this realm (they have zero videos to share on their YouTube channel).



Take this one, for example, which highlights some of the attractions of West Queen West and Leslieville.

Photo: "IMG_4934" by 2h30, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

H1N1:

- another Toronto hospital has an outbreak (11 patients, 5 staff affected)
- people are starting to line up outside vaccination clinics at 4am
- family doctors are angered by the slow delivery of vaccine
- health officials are warning that delivery will slow in the coming weeks
- the idea of opening 24/7 clinics is not likely to become reality
- Twitter hashtag for sharing info about wait times is #TOfluline

Other news:

Ho ho ho. What's your bra size, little girl? Santa (the one near Peterborough, not the head honcho at the North Pole) will not be able to visit the children for Christmas this year, after being sentenced to 134 days in prison and 12 months probation for sexual-related offenses.

Toronto is obsessed with zombies. There's no denying that. But while perusing the blogTO Flickr pool (which has lots of great photos, like the one above, from this week's 2009 Toronto Zombie Walk), I came across a particularly graphic one...

A zombie doctor and zombie patient, complete with a bloody baby being dragged on the ground... hanging by its umbilical cord.

It got me wondering if this zombie costume concept crosses the line or not. I know "the line" is highly subjective. What's your take?

WARNING: The following photo may or may not be safe for work (depends on your circumstances). Although it's merely an elaborate costume, it is very graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers.

Photo: "14" by a*e, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

In sad news, Hank Young (also known as the Gladstone Cowboy) passed away at the age of 68. A beloved Parkdale icon, Hank's association with the Gladstone Hotel spanned decades, and his gig as the antique elevator operator was a natural fit for an unofficial neighbourhood and hotel ambassador.

Here's proof that city council actually does work in our best interest sometimes. For the fourth consecutive year, council voted in favour of foregoing the purchase of 16 season tickets to the Toronto Blue Jays for city councillor use. Or perhaps I'm wrong, and this proves instead that the Jays aren't even worth watching for free. I kid, I kid!

Ritchies, the high-end auction house based out of Toronto, has gone bankrupt. Who would have thought that collecting significant commission on millions of dollars worth of art couldn't be sustainable and profitable?

Photo: "munch" by christian jackson, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

Still not convinced? A young girl in Cornwall with no known pre-existing medical conditions died of H1N1 this weekend, and new reports suggest that a 13-year old boy died here in Toronto as well. I'm not for pushing the fear agenda, but I'm also not engaging in increasingly pedantic arguments about the vaccine. I'm simply getting it as soon as I can, and hoping that it protects me and those around me.

The Leafs have won their first game of the season. I got a giggle out of ivortossell's tweet: "Pity about the Leafs. The only thing they could have excelled at was failure, and they blew that too." We'll see how they fare on the rest of this 5-game road trip.

A cat burglar appears to be targeting single women's homes in Kensington Market. Ground-floor dwellers in the sketchy neighbourhood really shouldn't be leaving windows and doors unlocked.