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Morning Brew: December 19th, 2008

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / December 19, 2008

20081219_mb.jpgPhoto: "Nathan Phillps Square" by anotherfaceinthecrowd, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

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

The award for most comprehensive online storm watch coverage goes to... Live blog: Watching Toronto's 'snow-mageddon' by Natalie Alcoba. My suspicion is that it's not going to be all that bad. Perhaps I'll be eating my words later today or tomorrow, when I get trapped in a snow bank without food and water and no high tech solution.

Being a serious animal lover, yesterday's tragic humane society fire is really hard to joke about. But sometimes, even in the face of death, newspaper headlines sing ironic/humourous/woah: "Mice get blame for fire that massacred 100 cats."

First move-ins at the newly revamped community housing project at Regent Park (an ongoing, 12-year, $1billion project) can be expected in April of 2009. Rent rates are yet to be determined, but for low income earners will be a floating value, based on a percentage of their income. It's fabulous to see these improvements made.

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Former Leaf captain Mats Sundin has signed with the Vancouver Canucks. It's too bad he's gone to a west coast team (who the Leafs play against just one more time this season, on Feb 21st). His homecoming better be full of respectful cheer. No booing deserved, IMO.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) was so close to success in their quest to hire a new director, but have learned that the man they were courting is not going to take the job offer. Sterring the direction of education in Canada's largest city is an incredibly important job that apparently no one wants or no one is quite qualified for.

And according to a 680news alert (no link yet), the US government is poised to announce loans for the "big three" automakers, which means that Canada's plan to do the same (which was contingent on the US lead) will likely go ahead. In the year 2025, when the world collapses on itself and only cockroaches survive, will we all be looking back on this as a big mistake?

Discussion

5 Comments

jack / December 19, 2008 at 10:06 am
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those mice are from that chinese restaurant in chinatown!
duthie / December 19, 2008 at 10:46 am
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I thought it was the puppies with candy canes that caused the fire.
Pat / December 19, 2008 at 12:36 pm
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There is nothing funny about the humane society fire. You don't have to be an animal lover to realize that - just imagine your child or loved one sitting in a locked cage while the fire burns them alive. While the humour is not directed at the animals, there still is nothing funny about anything related to this situation.
serotonin / December 19, 2008 at 02:21 pm
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Despite that many of us - myself included - love our pets and consider them a part of our families, I think there is a clear distinction between animals that are still pets and other human beings.

Those that let this distinction blur a little too much are often the people that treat animals better than their fellow humans.

Besides, whether jokes are made or not, it doesn't change anything.
Pat / January 5, 2009 at 01:19 pm
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Of course the jokes don't change anything; that's not the point of the post.

As for humane vs. pet, the value of a thing, animate or not, depends on the evaluator. Maybe some believe that a human, not matter who, will always be worth more than an animal - I might even subscribe to that in the abstract. But, in reality, my pet is worth a hell of a lot more to me than a stranger on the street, and I would make choices (even life or death ones) based on that valuation.

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