The Christmas season in 19th century Victorian Toronto centred in and around St. Lawrence Market which back then was housed in a glorious structure on the northwest corner of Front and Jarvis.That market (the third of five to stand there ...
Read More »Touby: At Christmas we prayed for cool weather
By Frank Touby – Have a cool yule and a frantic first. That’s from a greeting card I received in 1954 from a classmate at Gesu Catholic School in downtown Miami. I wrote a column in the mimeographed school newsletter ...
Read More »Making dough for three decades: baker believes in personal touch
Dennis Hanagan – A vacation over 30 years ago got Mary Macleod sweet on the idea of making and selling her own cookies—shortbread, that is. Today, her shop is on Queen St. E. in Riverside. In the late 1970s she ...
Read More »Bruce Bell: Music Hall dominated Toronto while Vaudeville ruled U.S.
Bruce Bell– A few years back my good friend and neighbour the late actress Billie Mae Richard and I were strolling around the neighbourhood when we found ourselves walking through a nondescript parking lot on the southeast corner of Victoria ...
Read More »Do angels have wings?
“So they can watch over us and to be our garden angels,” says Lauren, age 9.angel wings If I planted a garden, I would need angelic protection. I could be dangerous with a hoe. I’m glad “guardian” angels are always ...
Read More »Finding, within ourselves, the power to forgive
Visiting Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, I once overheard a black boy ask his mother: “Why were white people so bad to us?” The question was neither surprising nor unreasonable. The King Center’s detailing of racism’s ...
Read More »Take no liberties with the gods, nor weary them
Do you share my rage and depression this Christmas when you witness children being pulled out of the ruins of Aleppo, Syria? Surely, there must be a special hell for political leaders who let this happen. If it were their ...
Read More »Local web series ends season with Christmas special
The first season of the local web series Opinionate This is coming to a finale and we want to invite you to watch it and celebrate with us! Series producers Lindsay Rollins, Patrick Smith and Titus McNally can finally take ...
Read More »Rotary Club’s free seniors Xmas party turns 53
The Rotary Club of Toronto will celebrate the season with its annual Seniors’ Christmas Party (Held at the Royal York Hotel – since 1963) Over 250 disadvantaged seniors and shut-ins who are often isolated and may not have a Christmas ...
Read More »Masquers host ‘A Christmas Salon’ with song, story
The Toronto Masque Theatre will perform seasonal songs and stories in a performance titled O Tannenbaum: The Tree of Life on Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at The Atrium, 21 Shaftesbury Ave. The program will include No Tongue Will Tally, ...
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