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Wednesday Link-Off: Botchamania

zooey-deschanel-cosmo15-01Sometime, it’s easy to come up with a theme for a post. Other time, you find two links that are vaguely related to some common theme so you can toss that in as a theme. So we have a link about botches in wrestling and another about CZW. Well, that’s just tailor-made for Botchamania.

Anyway, it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s change things up and kick off with Zooey Deschanel. At least her show survived to next season not many people seem to stick around Fox for long.

Toronto FC fans shouted sexually vulgar remarks at a City News reporter on Sunday. Writing this intro to the link made me realize how easy it is to say something like that and generalize a whole group of people who don’t deserve it. These people don’t represent TFC or its fans but we almost make it sound that way when generalizing the story like this. (Toronto Sun)

One of the men that heckled the reporter was fired from his day job. I’d imagine he’ll have some wrongful dismissal action on the way. (CBC News)

If you’re a minimum-wage worker in the US and want to get above the poverty line, you only need to work 50 hours a week to get there. And where is a worker supposed to find time for a family. (Wall Street Journal)

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Sunday Link-Off: Important Topics of Discussion

rachel-mortenson-fredericks14-11I think that I’ve mentioned it before but there are three linkdumps a year that are exceptionally difficult to do: The one following July 4th, the one of the two following Christmas because you can only run so many year-in-review links and this one following US Thanksgiving. We do have some links for you but not as many as usual.

However, to make up for the relative lack of links, here’s the return of an old favourite. It’s American model Rachel Mortenson.

With the recent protests in Ferguson and support protests in Toronto, we shouldn’t be settling for “we’re not as bad as them” as a positive for Canadian society. (Toronto Life)

It’s not just 18-year-olds or Ferguson that has to deal with police racism. A 12-year-old in Cleveland was shot for having an airsoft gun and the police are trying to justify it. (Gawker)

And I’m not the only person who thinks there a shift in the discourse about sexual assault. It looks like the Ghomeshi story has started making investigating sexual assaults a big deal. (MacLean’s)

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Wednesday Link-Off: Politically Incorrect

alejandra-guilmant-dineilabrazil14-02Well, Canada is still talking about Doug Ford taking over for Rob in the Toronto mayoral race. I don’t think Dougie has a shot but it would be interesting at the Ford homestead in 2017 and 2018 if Doug is the mayor and Rob wants the job back. If you’re not talking about Toronto politics, chances are you’re talking about the sad state of the NFL which seems to get worse daily.

And now, it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s kick things off with Mexican model Alejandra Guilmant.

Some people were willing to write-off the Liberal surge as a Justin Trudeau honeymoon. Now, the Liberals appear to be back and a threat to Conservative dominance. (CBC News)

Doug Ford was expected to be the brains behind Rob Ford’s mayorship. Instead, his been more hindrance than help. That doesn’t bode well for his candidacy. (The Globe and Mail)

And Doug’s candidacy for mayor wasn’t a last-minute plan thrown together to keep the Mayor’s sash in the family. It was implemented at the last-minute but Rob’s drug and alcohol issues meant this contingency plan was in place for months. (National Post)

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Sunday Link-Off: The Family Legacy

melanie-iglesias-newyorkpost14-02Well, if you’re a fan of Toronto or Canadian politics, you’ve picked the right week to check out the Sunday links. All Canadians are talking about is Rob Ford. Even the Oscar Pistorius news is tertiary to the municipal politics of Toronto. I guess that’s what happens when said municipal politics features an admitted crack user as the mayor and an alleged drug dealer as his brother’s replacement in the election.

But before we get into that and all the other Sunday links, here’s American model Melanie Iglesias.

It’s a rare look inside a dying mayoral campaign with now-former Toronto mayoral candidate David Soknacki. One of his campaign staff went on the record to say that Toronto voters elected Rob Ford in 2010 because they were “very superficial.” And you wonder why his campaign was going so badly that he withdrew. (Torontoist)

And given that Mayor Ford is in hospital with an abdominal tumour, his brother Doug is carrying the family name in the mayoral race while Rob will run for Ward 2 council. While Rob was in with a shot at being re-elected, pundits aren’t holding out hope for Doug. (MacLean’s)

Mayor Ford’s former chief of staff, Mark Towhey, is working on a “tell-all” book about his time with the Ford administration. Conveniently, it’s coming out six days before the election. (Canada.com)

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IndyCar – Toronto Indy: Double the Trouble

indycar-2014-toronto-conway-victory-laneIt was a little bit wet but it was a lotta bit wild on the streets of Exhibition Place for the annual Toronto Indy. This year’s doubleheader was compressed to a one day show with two points races after a Saturday afternoon rainout. It was a long day for the drivers and teams but a hell of a show for the fans who saw a spectacular performance in the morning and a shootout to the end in the afternoon as Sebastian Bourdais and Mike Conway scored the wins in Canada.

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Sunday Link-Off: #ONPoli

chloe-bennet-esquire14-01And so marks the first time that a linkdump has been titled a hashtag. I somehow doubt that this will end up being a trend but it’s fitting considering we have two links about the Ontario provincial election and the Toronto mayoral election. That’s all the Ontario politics that most people would care about. Granted, I don’t expect anyone to really worry too much about Ontario’s politics. I think we’re screwed regardless of who ends up in power.

Anyway, it’s time for us to do the Sunday links. For fun, let’s kick it off with Chloe Bennet of Agents of SHIELD fame.

In something that shouldn’t be news to anyone, there are Russians among the pro-separatist militants causing unrest in Ukraine. Still wouldn’t be shocked if the Russian government was involved in this somehow. (New York Times)

Tim Hudak’s Million Jobs Plan sounds all well and good. The only problem is that the math is so completely broken that they may have overestimated jobs created by a factor of eight, didn’t factor in their own 100,000 public sector job eliminations and failed to mention half of their million jobs are expected to be added to the Ontario economy without their intervention required. (MacLean’s)

And Tim Hudak wants to make a better tomorrow for Ontario by cutting education spending. That’ll help tomorrow’s Ontario. (Toronto Star)

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Wednesday Link-Off: The Scandal that Never Ends

genevieve-morton-barenecessities13-04You know, I thought that we might finally be done covering the Rob Ford crack scandal but the story just never seems to end or get old. It’s just too interesting to avoid. That and I don’t think that the media are covering any other story.

Anyway, it’s time for the links. Let’s start with blog favourite Genevieve Morton.

So that Rob Ford crack tape is from February. So was he in a drunken stupor then? (Toronto Star)

Is Rob Ford beyond help and does he just need to get out of office? (National Post)

And the Ford Brothers’ new TV show was cancelled after one episode. Sun News Network says it’s because it cost too much but I don’t think anyone is sold on that. (Globe & Mail)

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Sunday Link-Off: Plenty to Eat at Home

hannah-davis-aerie13-02The week is over. The PlayStation 4 is out and I haven’t been left behind because I don’t own it. Similarly, I won’t be left behind because I’m not getting an Xbox One. Newsflash: Neither will you for the next six months while we wait for a  sufficient game library to roll out.

Apart from the console launch, this week brought us even more Rob Ford news. And here you were thinking that the fun was over. So let’s not delay any longer and get to the links. Here’s Hannah Davis.

Just when you thought that it was over in Toronto, the Rob Ford story got a lot more interesting over the last few days thanks to some new allegations from court documents. (Toronto Sun)

In addressing those allegations, Mayor Ford said some things that we wish he hadn’t. (Deadspin)

If you’re looking for the encyclopedia of Rob Ford buffoonery, check out this website. (MayorFord.info)

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Sunday Link-Off: The Fun Never Ends

reka-ebergenyi-3suisses13-01Well, this has been a fun week, hasn’t it? All that Rob Ford stuff sure was weird. I doubt it there could possibly be more this week so we’ll have some F1 coverage and I think I should be able to get a gaming post up by the end of the week. First, we have to kick the week off with the links and the links with Hungarian model Reka Ebergenyi.

The Toronto Star’s lead reporter on the Rob Ford crack tape, Robyn Doolittle, tells the tale of the tape. (Toronto Star)

Meanwhile, a new Rob Ford tape has come out which shows him threatening to kill a man. (Toronto Sun)

Let’s take a one-link break from Rob Ford to hear what Russell Brand thinks about his Newsnight interview of a few weeks ago and why he doesn’t like current democratic systems. (The Guardian)

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Best and Worst of Fan Expo 2013

fan-expo-canada-headerI promised a recap of my first ever convention / Fan Expo experience and here it is. I spent the blog’s downtime in downtown Toronto attending the 2013 edition of Fan Expo in downtown Toronto along with over 100,000 of my closest friends. I was just completely overwhelmed by the number of people there and I’ve been to a NASCAR race with 110,000 people and thought this place was packed.

So let’s look back at Fan Expo with a little bit of Best and Worst.

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