One of the wonderful things about living on Ossington just north of Dundas reveals itself every four years - World Cup Fever. Nestled right between Little Italy and Portugal Village, the area is also home to a number of Brazillian nationalsand Koreatown is just down the street. As well, the Trin/Port bar, practically next door, will be bopping in celebration of T&T's first visit to the World Cup. Needless to say, this means that regardless of who's playing on any given day, there's going to be a party going on somewhere, celebrating somebody's win, or consoling each other over a loss. Oftentimes, the streets will be filled with supporters of multiple teams - and when they play each other, watch out and enjoy.

The same holds true in countless other neighbourhoods across Hogtown; this is the city that cannot lose. While normally the Lynx have trouble filling Centennial Stadium, during World Cup month, something clicks. People suddenly remember where their great-great-grandmothers were born and a passion is stirred inside. Students make sure that their summer class schedule doesn't conflict with important games - or at least that the class is a skippable one. Bars across the city will discover that their TV sets do indeed show an outdoor game with a large round ball.

Now if only Canada could finally get back into the tournament for 2010 - then Toronto will really rock the pitch.

Most professional politicians couldn't fill a room this size. Yet last Thursday night the Toronto-East York CityIdol filled the main room of the Kathedral with 300 cheering (and occasionally booing) supporters.

25 would-be Idols entered through the doors, prepared for a long night of speeches and questions, as they dueled their ideas and ideals in the hopes of winning enough support to move on to the area finals. Despite culling the group from the over 70 that were present at the Music Hall a month before, time was still tight. The candidates were limited to just over two and a half minutes across four rounds of speaking.

What came across most during the speeches was the seriousness with which most candidates took their duties. With few exceptions, nobody seemed there on a lark - they realised the steep uphill they had and the unlikeliness of eventual victory, but they believed they had a reason for being there, and a point to get across. That many of these points were noticeably similar - suffice a dire que it's not a great time to be a right-winger in a CityIdol competition - seemed nothing more than an aside to the general sharing of ideas, and hopes for the future.

It was a sweltering day; there was no transit. A recipie for disaster, surely. Yet despite the heat and the gridlock, and the difficulties in getting to work (because everybody wants to get to work), there were some small pleasures regardless.

Most obvious amongst them, for those Torontonians who decided to take their bikes, was the joy in looking at the long queues of four wheeled vehicles, backed up as far as the eye could see, while riding down the curb lane slowly, yet still twice as fast as anything else on the road; it's nice to switch things up every so often, isn't it?

Toronto is very much a city of festivals - there's something for everybody, regardless of if you're a foodie, a film buff, a pyromaniac, or one of scores of other interests, be they community, technical, or fanboy. Perhaps the most universal of festivals though, is the one that went on this weekend: Doors Open, a festival celebrating the very fabric of the city in which we live.

This year for Doors Open, I decided to look at the city from its skyline by visiting the 54th floor of the TD bank tower, and then exploring the central hub of the city that is Union Station. As expected, it was stunning.

"This is the worst meeting we've ever had!"

That exclamation served the part of unofficial welcome to the City Idol contestants Thursday as Ward 7 Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti jumped from his seat in protest of the goings-on during the Council meeting; the Council having just spent the better part of 15 minutes (and most of the next 30) arguing over how they could make the meeting go more quickly. Remarkably, all of the score of contestants present (there are a total of 41 still in the race for the four candidacies) still wanted to be councillors after watching the session of council.

It was billed as an educational afternoon for the City Idol participants, both about the remaining contests and about what the next three years of their life might be like, should they be 'lucky' enough to win. If it was an education they were looking for, they recieved it in spades - from their tour of the Mayor's office, to a meeting with an Lotteries and Elections official, they learned that council isn't everything that people dream about; while they were suitably impressed with the large flat-screen monitor for the Mayor's computer, they were much less awed by the admission by the Elections official about the significant problems with the voters' list - it is not the same, more accurate, list used by ElectionsCanada, but rather one prepared by a municipal corporation, and rife with errors.

Take Critical Mass (which the organizers of this event - at least on their webpage - don't seem to be aware of) and mix with a funeral procession. The result? The Ride of Silence, a 15km slow ride across the city to commemorate fallen cyclists around the world.

Started in Dallas in 2003, the Ride of Silence has since spread across the US, and has begun to make inroads across the world. Aside from the desire to remember cyclists hit and killed by motorists, the ride also aims to raise awareness of cyclists and to remind vehicular traffic that the roads deserve to be shared safely by all. Laudable goals that anybody can support. I wasn't there though - I wasn't allowed.

In a move that can only be described as foolishly divisory, the ride organisers chose to exclude anybody who doesn't own a helmet (and presumably those who own one, but feel safer without). It is a policy which fails on all counts.