Toronto Life articles from April 2002

Toronto Life archives from April 2002

O brother (Adam and Jordan Pettle).
April 1, 2002... It's a gamble, love. The stakes are high. The risks are great. Losing's a bitch. I'm thinking about gambling as I head out to Southside Louie's on College Street to meet playwright Adam Pettle and his actor brother, Jordan. For one thing, the...

Animal crackers (Alicia Silverstone's requests to know what material the seats in a restaurant are made from).
April 1, 2002... Little Italy's culinary hot spot Brasserie Aix, which doesn't ordinarily open for lunch, was happy to accommodate a private noon-hour party for the star-studded cast of The Graduate in early February. Hosted by theatre impresarios David and Ed...

Ksy's the limit (Mark Kurlansky's name mispelt on the first printing of his new book).
April 1, 2002... Editors at Knopf who worked on the Canadian edition of Salt: A World History had good reason to think the book would be a hit. Its New York-based author, Mark Kurlansky, had already published a critically acclaimed bestseller, Cod: A Biography...

Hotel California (new upscale hotel to be built in Toronto).
April 1, 2002... Style watchers who fret that Toronto doesn't yet have a super-posh boutique hotel for its Wallpaper-indoctrinated, Vuitton-toting travellers were relieved to hear about plans to build the Templar--a 14-floor, 41-room project conceived by Del...

Purple reign (Prince spotted around Toronto).
April 1, 2002... Sightings of the artist currently known as Prince have been as common around town as Mel Lastman's faux pas. Early in the new year, the diminutive funkster was spotted at the ACC (the Raptors were up against his hometown team, the Minnesota...

Party politics (Interior Design Show held at the National Trade Centre).
April 1, 2002... On Valentine's Day, the Interior Design Show hosted its opening preview at Exhibition Place's National Trade Centre as a fundraiser for Casey House. While the hoi polloi clutched martinis and oohed and aahed over spanky furniture (several...

Inside (the Ontario Flower Growers' Cooperative Auction).
April 1, 2002... Petal pushers Three times a week, at quarter to six in the morning, 200 bleary-eyed shop owners and wholesalers congregate in a Mississauqa warehouse for the Ontario Flower Growers' Cooperative Auction. They drape their thick coats across...

Bill (Graham, Rosedale MP) vs. Billy (Graham).
April 1, 2002... Rosedale MP Sill Graham, the freshly anointed foreign affairs minister, made a most un-Manley slip-up when he declared that Americans were less tolerant than we Canucks. Before you could say Yankee Doodle Dandy, Graham was in the press again,...

Spy game (Spy Casino fundraiser).
April 1, 2002... Six hundred quests, many in costume, attended the inaugural Spy Casino fundraising gala at Casa Loma in early February. They munched on four varieties of risotto, oysters on the half shell and spreads of sushi, and tossed caution to the wind at...

(Publishing the Toronto Life magazine).
April 1, 2002... IN A WAY, I was its slim and callow editor, although it was as much Peter Gzowski's magazine as mine. Gzowski was de Pencier's friend and mentor (a few years earlier, they had tried to launch a magazine called This City) and almost...

Dirty rotten scandal: whether it was corruption or incompetence or some combination of the two, city hall's computer leasing debacle was unforgivable. And it's not over yet ...
April 1, 2002... IN THE LIFE OF EVERY GOVERNMENT, THERE comes an incident that transcends the particulars of its own circumstances to reveal something deeper about the political culture of the moment. Such episodes can tell a stow about the grim consequences of...

Cult of cool: they work behind the counters at small, independent stores, making a living off their personal obsessions. They're young, nonconformist and just a bit smug ...
April 1, 2002... IT IS THE EVENING OF THE ATTACK and a week after the stalker incident. Matt is unfazed. Of course he is. If Matt were a fortune cookie and you cracked him open, his message would read: "Whatever, man." He even walks tilted slightly backwards,...

Gods and monsters: to the parents, to the students, to the school system in general, Graham Wishart was a godsend ... that was before we discovered his unthinkable secret ...
April 1, 2002... IN HIGH SCHOOL, IF YOU'RE LUCKY, you encounter one exceptional teacher. He makes you care about what he cares about, whether it's the French Revolution, or the periodic table, or the three-point shot. If you're really lucky, that teacher...

Long day's journey.
April 1, 2002... Ah, Stratford. Pastoral weekends at a congenial country inn, Shakespeare's plays a mix of high poetry, spectacle and intrigue. Those elegant picnics--brie, baguette and bubbling prosecco--with convivial company by the quietly flowing Avon. The...

Hail to the chefs: the year's most memorable meals.
April 1, 2002... What's the best restaurant in Toronto? There's no such thing. Eating out is too much a matter of the mood and the moment to say here is better than there. You can narrow the field to two or three dozen places that offer consistently great food...

Heaven sent (controversy over the memorial to Canadian airmen of World War I and II).
April 1, 2002... Since its dedication on September 29, 1984--by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, no less--people haven't stopped bitching about Oscar Nemon's Per Ardua Ad Astra (for those not raised by Jesuits, Through Adversity to the Stars). Art critic John...

Peter, Peter: he wasn't just the lovable shaggy dog who delivered this country's newspaper every morning ... a glimpse of the two Gzowskis.
April 1, 2002... I KNEW PETER GZOWSKI WELL FOR ONLY A SLIVER OF HIS LIFE, but slivers can cut deep. I believe I came to know Gzowski Light and Gzowski Dark. We met in 1967 when he was introduced to the staff of The Star Weekly as our new editor. The now...

British dish and a hip pad.
April 1, 2002... Top cat In a season that's all about the shirt, why not opt for the best money can buy? This cheery gingham blouse with button-tab sleeve is from Borrelli, the Italian shirt maker favoured for its exquisite workmanship by such lions of...

One for the books: the new Eatonville Library is dressed in space-age zinc, but the interior adheres to dictums first applied a century ago: free admission, open stacks ...
April 1, 2002... ANDREW CARNEGIE FAVOURED PILLARS, pediments and porticos for the 100-plus libraries he bestowed on Ontario in the first decades of the 20th century. The decorous, stolid buildings that sprang up on main streets from Timmins to Toronto resembled...

Rock jock Andre Talbot.
April 1, 2002... It's not uncommon for athletes to have spiffy wardrobes, what with their inflated salaries and Hugo Boss tastes. But in the case of Argo rookie Andre Talbot, style predated the spotlight; he's more likely to be mistaken for a member of the...

(Wine) tasting notes.
April 1, 2002... Tasmania's devilish charms Better known for impish marsupials and Blundstones, this verdant isle has a temperate climate well suited to the slow, steady ripening of pinot noir, chardonnay and riesling. In the bottle, this can translate into...

Eglinton Theatre 1936-2002.
April 1, 2002... For all her high deco styling, the Eglinton, particularly in her latter days, attracted a tawdry crew. One group of ushers held a party complete with vodka piped into the orange pop tanks, which they forgot to change before the next afternoon's...