Toronto The Good

I have had a number of people point out to me lately that Toronto is a mean-spirited City filled with non-smiling, stressed-out creeps who never make eye contact or talk to strangers. I don't happen to agree with this opinion. As recent as this morning, my bus driver told me that, on his previous run past my stop, he waited an extra four minutes for me, not wanting me to miss my bus to work on this very cold morning. What a sweetheart! Not all TTC drivers are this nice. There is good and bad here (just like everywhere else) but I happen to think that the good outweighs the bad. Apparently this glass half-full philosophy seems to be working.

I often read the Acts of Kindness section in the Toronto Star and this story touched me today because it is just SO Canadian:

In December, I went to the Cavalcade of Lights at Nathan Philips Square. As I was sitting at the side of the rink taking off my skates, a little boy about 6 or 7 walks up and asks "Are those your skates?"

I answered ‘Yes’ and wondered if he thought I had stolen his skates, since I wear boys hockey skates. He said: "Oh, I don't have skates." For some reason, I blurted, "Do you want mine?"

I told him to first ask his mom. He ran away excited and his mom asked if it was really okay [and I said yes.] He was jumping up and down in excitement. After he put on the skates, I watched him take off with a big smile.

Two weeks later I was in the recycling room in our condo. Residents leave items for others to salvage. I found two Bauer boxes with new skates, both in my size!

I gave one pair to a friend who was there the evening I gave the boy my used skates. She shook her head and said: “You give away one pair, and you get back two”!
J. Madden, Toronto

For more stories, click on Acts of Kindness here.

Happy Anti-Valentine's Day

Courtesy of Heartless Bitch Dot Com (View More eCards here!)

Celebrity Status

While in PV recently with my friend Linda, she mentioned that someone approached her, asking if she was my friend and when Linda replied yes, the woman seemed quite impressed. Linda then implied to me that I was some sort of a celebrity in PV. I was appalled by that comment and tried to make Linda understand why it upset me so much. It's one of the many reasons I left Vallarta -- too many people thought that they "knew" me because of my blog. (And yet here I am, blogging again! LOL) Frankly, I am enjoying my relative anonimity back here in Toronto.

The world's fascination with celebrity is something I've never understood. I've never been "star struck" by someone who is involved in the movies, theatre, sports or music. Actually, I find it all a great big, fucking BORE and my attitude, when someone just has to tell me what so-'n'-so is doing to so-'n'-so, is to say "Who cares?". I mean really, in the great puzzle of my insignificant life, I really have no desire to know who's dumping their lover in a public display of jealous rage or who's flashing their twat for the papparazzi.

Today, at the office, when we heard the news of Anna Nicole Smith's death, there were literally gasps of disbelief. Someone actually sent an email around, stating that "an icon" had died. An icon? I would hardly call someone known for her bad taste and poor choices an icon. Just another over-processed blonde willing to do just about anything to get her face or ass on the cover of a magazine. Some will argue that she was successful because she had money, yet she couldn't even save her 20 year-old-son. This woman did not have an easy life, even with all her celebrity and wealth.

I'm sure Nancy Grace and her cannabilistic crew at CNN.com will be running with this story for a couple of weeks as the "conspiracy" unfolds, and millions of Americans (no doubt Canadians too) will eat at the bowl of her bullshit like so many spineless lap dogs. Thank GOD something has happened to displace the crazy astronaut in the consciousness of Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public! The morbid obsession people have with personalities like Dog the Bounty Hunter and Steve Irwin are pathetic. When's the last time you spent time with your neighbours or volunteering in your community?

As you can tell, I have a pretty negative attitude when it comes to this kind of stuff. I don't buy People Magazine. I already knew OJ was guilty. And I don't really care how Anna Nicole died but I predict chemical substances were involved. What a waste! Not the waste of an icon or future royalties, but the waste of a human life and the mother of a five month old baby. It just might be that Anna Nicole will gain back some of her humanity in death, even if she has to be on the 6 o'clock news to get it.