Toronto Property Tax Credit

As many of you know, I fell on a Toronto street back in January, and broke my arm. It was several days after the snowfall, and the street contained a school. You would think it would have had the snow removed by then. Homeowners are expected to remove the snow from sidewalks within 24 hours. Why should the city get several days? Speaking of days, my claim against the City was turned down by its insurance company because I failed to file within 10 days of the accident.
Rather than throwing money down the legal drain, I plan to suggest to Mayor David Miller that he give injured citizens property tax credits whenever the City fails to live up to its side of the civic bargain.
I think this strategy has great potential. For example, citizens could apply when the police fail to give acceptable service in their neighbourhood.
Parents could apply when their students receive substandard education.
At the moment I'm looking at a mattress still waiting for garbage pickup after 10 days and a phone call.
Etc.....

Dancing with the stars

Wouldn't that be wonderful--if we could really dance with the stars. This season's "stars" are a motley crew, with a heavy bias towards the only two stars who can actually dance. What interests me most is the sexuality of the dances, with the women moving ever closer to moving pin ups, while a few of the men seem to represent classy ballroom idols.

Main Street

I woke up this morning thinking of Sarah Palin and Main Street. I resent her tarnishing my metaphor, since I have lived on two streets actually called Main Street. But then I realize something about the Sarah Palins and Ingrid Philipps of this world. We live Main Street lives, full of the middle class dreams that Main Street women have. No Wisteria Lanes for us. We marry the wrong men, work our butts off for our families, and drag the losers behind us for years. Our kids have some major issues and challenges that we cannot afford to fix by sending them to Ivy League schools. We have our kids too young by boomer standards, live in modest homes, watch too much TV and shop at local stores where we actually know the owner behind the counter. My Main St is a place where merchants and residents know each other well and have meaningful conversations. That reminds me to go pay my tab at Azzarello's, where Dave ran a tab for me while my wrist was broken and the ice kept me shut in.
So as much as I despise putting my name in the same sentence with Palin, I will, if only to reclaim Main St for people who don't shoot animals from helicopters and can see far beyond their front or backyards.

domestic violence

Domestic violence is now fashionable--Oprah and Dr Phil are falling over themselves to address the problem. As I understand the solution, it's onto the woman to walk away, and stop blaming herself. Excuse me, but every TV sitcom and drama show now portrays women who are fully accountable for the mess they are in. Until TV stops glamourizing violence, our young people will grow up emotionally numb to the pain of violence. Ditto for racing through the streets--stop with the dumb car chases.