Category Archives: Uncategorized
Ford’s Candies
Here’s another ad from the 1921 Toronto city directory: Luncheons and afternoon teas sounds so very very British. A Google search for “Ford’s Candies” turned up nothing, other than references to the late mayor Rob Ford handing out candy, or … Continue reading
Ad inserts from 1917 – part 1
One thing I noticed when I was looking through the 1917 Toronto city directory was that the same ads kept appearing over and over again at the top of pages. First, there was E. Pullan, who offered to buy your … Continue reading
Canaries!
Here’s a random ad from the Toronto 1917 city directory that I found interesting: It was helpful of the ad to point out in the margins that this was a Bird Store. I am still trying to figure out what … Continue reading
Medical gentlemen
Here is the complete list of doctors in Toronto in 1843, according to the Toronto city directory. I wonder whether Dr. S. Sewell was at a disadvantage: for a doctor, the corner of Graves and Lot Street is an ominous-sounding … Continue reading
David Bowie’s original pin ups
In 1973, David Bowie released an album titled Pin Ups, which was a collection of cover versions of some of his favourite British hits of the 1960s. For fun, I thought I’d look up all of the originals. Some of them … Continue reading
Blue Jays 2015: Ben Revere
Picture the scene. It’s the top of the ninth inning in Game 6 of the ALCS. The Jays are down 4-3 with one out, but have runners on second and third. Any ground ball or fly ball will score the … Continue reading
The Disappointment Index
A while back, I looked up the list of signed free agents on ESPN’s Free Agent Tracker. The site allows you to sort the list by team spending. Looking at it this way, the Blue Jays rank surprisingly high on … Continue reading
Kevin Pillar and the economics of baseball
If you follow Blue Jays baseball, you probably have heard about Kevin Pillar’s amazing catch in left field earlier this week. Except for Devon White’s famous World Series catch, this is probably the best grab ever made by a Blue Jays … Continue reading
Welcome (sticky post)
Hi. Thanks for stopping by. I’m Dave; I’m a technical writer, and I live in Toronto with my significant other and two cats with widely different degrees of shyness. I tend to write about baseball, weather, music, photography, retro pop culture, … Continue reading
