Toronto

[Nic Name]

It's a long weekend. People in the city ... it's hot hot hot.

[Nic Name]

We love American tourist dollars in Toronto! Thanks guys!

[Nic Name]

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates talks to 10-year-old student Timothy Peters, of Toronto, before the Canadian National Institute of the Blind award ceremony, in Toronto, August 20, 2002.

Gates was awarded the Louis Braille Gold Medal (in background) in recognition of Microsoft Canada's commitment to advancing the rights and freedoms of people who are blind from around the world.

Peters, who is a client of the Institute, showed Gates the CNIB's Children's Discovery Portal that gives blind children equal access to information from anywhere in the world. REUTERS/Jeff Christensen

[Nic Name]

The world's richest bridge player, Bill Gates, rolled into Toronto this week to headline the much-touted CanWin conference. While innovation, education and other eye-glazing topics were the official agenda, fellow speaker Paul Tellier reportedly quipped about investments with the Microsoft mogul. "I hope you're not going to make any calls to your broker on the way out," joked Mr. Tellier, the chief boxcar keeper at CN Rail. Mr. Gates is CN's second-biggest stakeholder with 10.12 million shares or 5 per cent of the railway's entire float.

It was more of a Can'tWin for Mr. Gates earlier in the day. His big-screen demonstration of the .Net strategy of taking software to the Internet froze like exposed skin on a Winnipeg winter's morn. Every awkward attempt to fish data from the network failed -- complete with the cursed spinning hourglass and error message. It was pure geek tragedy for the thousand-plus restless tech heads who nervously slurped their filtered coffee as a stoic Mr. Gates did what any software billionaire would do: He blamed the Internet connection.

[Nic Name]

A piece of broadcasting history came down today.

The original CBC-TV tower at Jarvis and Carleton Sts. — the "Eiffel on Jarvis" as one newspaper dubbed it — was the site of the first Canadian television signals that went out over the airwaves nearly 50 years ago on Sept. 8, 1952.

Its demise began in 1976, when the CBC moved its signals to the CN Tower.

[Nic Name]

The 27th Toronto International Film Festival starts today.

Again this year there will be screenings, red carpet premieres and press conferences galore.

We'll be overrun with stars and starlets from September 5th to the 14th. For 10 days, the city will be wall to wall with tuxedos and tits. I live right downtown, so I'll have to be careful not to get run over by a limo.

Some of the 344 films being screened this year are really pushing the limits -- something we like to do here in the Cellar.

There's something of interest for everyone here, so drop by for a visit if you can.

[Nic Name]

Toronto Skyscrapers

You might be able to find your city's skyscrapers here.

[Griff]

I can't find my cousins silo there anywhere.

[elSicomoro]

Okay...I didn't look at either link yet...I'm gonna try and guess as many as I can.

Starting at left:

1--TransAmerica Building, San Francisco
6--Sears Tower, Chicago
8--John Hancock Tower, Chicago
9--One Liberty Place, Philadelphia
12--CN Tower, Toronto
14--One World Trade Center, NYC
15--Two World Trade Center, NYC
16--Empire State Building, NYC
18--Mellon Bank Building, Philadelphia
19--Eiffel Tower, Paris
23--Building name unknown, Shanghai
28--Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur

Alright...that's all I can make out. Now let's see how many I got.

[elSicomoro]

Okay, in looking at the page, I missed 9, 18, and 23 (the bottle opener looking building). Damn, One Liberty Place should have been on there though...it's 37th in the world...and it just looks spiffy.

[Nic Name]

Toronto's secret ... the plight of the homeless.

Squatters ousted from Toronto's tent city

Globe and Mail Update

Dozens of squatters living in makeshift shelters on Toronto's waterfront were removed Tuesday with the aid of police.

Health and safety concerns prompted Home Depot, the owners of the downtown property, to order the removal of the 'tent city' where the squatters were living on contaminated industrial land, strewn with garbage and human waste.

We don't like to talk about it.

Toronto's tent city gained widespread attention in June, when the New York Times cited it as a symbol of Toronto's decline, saying homelessness had reached catastrophic levels and had lead to the deterioration of the city.

"It's an ugly sight. It's not Toronto. And Toronto should not be portrayed this way," Mayor Mel Lastman said on Tuesday at a hastily called news conference on Tuesday.

[Nic Name]

Wheelchair athlete climbs CN tower

By LUMA MUHTADIE

Globe and Mail

Thursday, September 26

Jeff Adams succeeded in his effort to climb all 1,776 steps of the CN tower in his wheelchair yesterday.

It was one of many barriers the six-time World 1,500-metre wheelchair champion has overcome in his 31-years.

Mr. Adams left the professional wheelchair racing circuit a year ago to train for the gruelling five-plus hour 113-storey climb. He also worked with the the Invacare Corporation, to design a lightweight miniaturized wheelchair with treaded tires that do not roll forward. With one arm supported by the railing and the other by a short crutch, Mr. Adams used his muscular upper body to lift himself backwards and stepwise up the world's tallest free-standing structure.

The belay system used by mountaineers provided safety, but without aiding the climb. A support team of three men positioned on the flights above him wore harnesses attached to ropes that clipped onto the back of the wheelchair. As Mr. Adams reached each successive flight, the ropes were refastened at higher levels.

When he finally reached the top, the Toronto man was greeted by a blitz of media, a crew from Ripley's Believe it or Not and his mother.

"I think this is wonderful," Rita Adams said with a smile. "But I've thought that about Jeff for a long time."

Mr. Adams said the climb couldn't have been better. "I trained so hard for this and we surprised ourselves.

Chuckling, he said the hardest part of the climb was the pacing: "I promised all you guys I would finish at four and we were so far ahead of schedule at half-way I had to slow myself down. That's so not what I do when I'm racing." But Mr. Adams said the day's feat was just the beginning of the real event. He raised more than $100,000 to launch a national School Outreach Program to raise awareness among grade-school students about the daily barriers faced by people with disabilities and to change existing perceptions and stereotypes.

Mr. Adams was nine years old when he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a rare inflammatory disease affecting the nerves in his spinal chord and causing him to lose the use of his legs.

Related Links

CN Tower

Step Up To Change

[elSicomoro]

Nic, I'm sure that you and many Canadiens are ecstatic that Ron MacLean is returning to Hockey Night in Canada.

[Nic Name]

[Griff]

I must have that jacket.