Toronto Life articles from December 2000

Toronto Life archives from December 2000

Grown-up kid: (Tarzan Dan).
December 1, 2000... The overexcited teenagers who call KISS 92 FM's request line are known around the station as the ohmygod fans. That's the first thing the DJs hear when they pick up the phone: "Ohmygod! Ohmygod! I got through!" And it's a reaction Tarzan...

Queer behavious: Randy Harrison.
December 1, 2000... Fans of the critically acclaimed British television series Queer as Folk, curious to see how the North American version will measure up, enjoyed a cast preview this fall while the program was shooting in Toronto. But if you ask Casa Loma-area...

Shirt off her back: (Michelle Lloyd of Club Monaco and a garage sale).
December 1, 2000... Rosedale matrons and their style-conscious teenybopper daughters must have felt that they had hit the motherlode one mid-fall afternoon when they happened upon the swankest garage sale in WASPdom. Arrayed on a manicured lawn were heaps of...

Talk to the hand: Evan Soloman.
December 1, 2000... If Evan Soloman knew how unlucky his fall was going to be, he might have elected to spend the season in bed. First, there was his trip to the western reaches of Newfoundland with three other city slickers: journalist Stephen Smith, film...

Grumpy old men: (John Fraser and Allan Fotheringham).
December 1, 2000... Of all the silliness to come of the newspaper war, surely the protracted squabble between John Fraser and Allan Fotheringham is the silliest. The debate centres on the highly insignificant question of whether or not Lester Pearson, back in...

Game boy: (hockey fans).
December 1, 2000... Oh, how hockey fandom has changed. Take one look at the exclusive Platinum section of the Air Canada Centre, and you'll notice that the only blue collars around are made by Armani. It's the winter place to see and be seen, make deals, swap...

(Princess) Margaret vs Margaret (Atwood).
December 1, 2000... Some are born to royalty. Some marry into it. And still others, by dint of sheer effort, crown themselves. Margaret Atwood, with 37 books, 14 honorary degrees and a whack of ginormous prizes, is the undisputed Queen of Canadian Literature. And...

Faux fun (at Playdium).
December 1, 2000... It's 12:52 on a Sunday morning in the groin of the club district. Most weekend thrill-seekers are jostling sweaty limbs in nearby spots like Joker and NV. But not the woman in the faded jeans. She's here at Playdium, lying prone on a vinyl...

(Toronto's garbage).
December 1, 2000... UNTIL RECENTLY, FEW OF US WOULD HAVE KNOWN WHERE the city puts our garbage. Where does our tap water come from? Where does our sewage go? These are questions people who live in cities often can't answer. That changed, where garbage is...

This month (in Toronto).
December 1, 2000... THEATRE By Michael Healey OPENINGS The History of the Village of the Small Huts. The first four of Michael Hollingsworth's epic rota of plays about us--Donnacona & Cartier, Champlain, Brebeuf and Frontenac--are remounted and...

In the shadow of a Saint.
December 1, 2000... IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER The mere mention of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa's name is enough to conjure up the stunning catalogue of horrors he endured at the hands of the Nigerian government: nine months in detention without trial; torture...

Rex appeal: Rex Murphy has carved out a niche for himself at the CBC as a down-home, high-IQ commentator ...
December 1, 2000... HE'S BEEN PART OF THE national mass media for so long that we have ceased to notice the singular position Rex Murphy has made for himself. He's the odd man out among the regulars of our broadcasting system, a striking anomaly, the exception...

Much ado about juicing: the RT Capital scandal - in which traders were accused of high-closing stocks - owed more to overzealous regulators and warring newspapers than to actual fraud ...
December 1, 2000... I ONCE WORKED AT A BAY Street firm where something peculiar happened late one afternoon. The guy in the office across the hall--the trader for the firm--got on the phone to a couple or so brokers at a couple or so brokerage firms in Toronto and...

Place of worship: it's more than a Bloor Street store. More than branding and sales per square foot and escalating commissions ... inside Holt Renfrew.
December 1, 2000... "COME IN!" says Tom, standing at the glass doors and sweeping one arm out in a gesture of welcome, as two women enter. He wears a banker-style fine-wool suit, a fresh rosebud pinned to his lapel (tres Trudeau) and his official expression of...

Rituals: mission accomplished.
December 1, 2000... The dining room resembles a food court. Pale yellow walls rise 15 feet to bright fluorescent lights that shine down onto pre-fab tables with their attached seats. The soft wobbling of the overhead fans stirs up drafts of food, disinfectant,...

Best and worst of the city: the highs, the lows, the rifts, the blows: an outrageously opinionated look at Toronto in 2000.
December 1, 2000... THANKFULLY, THE "IMPERSONATING A SPEED BUMP" CHARGE WAS DROPPED In February, a squeegee kid who was hit by a motorist at Front and University--suffering two broken legs and multiple fractures in his back--was charged by police with...

Bag's life: (the LCBO).
December 1, 2000... You're going to a party (the fifth or so this month), and you find yourself, yet again, lopsided by a cream-coloured plastic bag decorated with a design of grapes and grain. The bag says LCBO. This is a word in Ontario. It means long arms. By...

Joan (Donaldson)'s story: ten years ago, when a freak accident nearly killed her, the founding director of CBC's Newsworld herself became the news ...
December 1, 2000... ON THE EVENING OF THURSDAY, October 18, 1990, CBC television carried a news story about one of its own. Joan Donaldson, founding director of Newsworld, was in a coma in a Montreal hospital after being hit by a bicycle. She had been attending a...

This year, I promise to.
December 1, 2000... Get in shape Body Cycle Avenger bike, $1,595; Physical Assets, 110 Avenue Rd., 925-2021 Salomon MNS 1080 ski boots, $599.99; Sporting Life, 2665 Yonge St., 485-1611 Ignite One hockey gloves, $269.95; Nike, 110 Bloor St. W.,...

Lasting supper: from Michael Stadtlander and Jamie Kennedy to Keith Froggett, a culinary who's who has stalked the kitchens. For two decades, Scaramouche ...
December 1, 2000... AS THE LAST RAYS OF THE SETTING SUN faded from the sky, we set off again, 80 of us, climbing through a wild meadow chest-high with goldenrod and Queen Anne's lace. I had no idea how deep we were on Michael Stadtlander's property. All day long,...

Tasting notes: wine.
December 1, 2000... These notes list producer-shipper, agent (and telephone), CSPC number (V indicates a Vintages bottle), price per 750 mL and region. Consignment bottles are generally bought by the case from the agent. Rating is on a five-star system that...

(Toronto) restaurants.
December 1, 2000... Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by A LA MODE Courtyard Cafe *** 1/2 After the much touted reno of the famous space, you'll find the great-hall drama of bulked-up columns and high, high ceilings and, just off the main...

Knob Hill Farms, 1954-2000.
December 1, 2000... The first time I went to Knob Hill Farms, I couldn't figure out the carts. They were like luggage trolleys. Before pushing them down the bare, no-nonsense aisles, cruising past plain metal bins full of corn and ice cream and frozen kippers, you...