Month: September 2012

Both have a beloved husky idol figure who barks at you, but the South Korean version seems a lot more fun than the North Korean one.

A tip o’ the hat to Greg Hughes for pointing me to this gem!

…and Starbucks is leading the charge. The pumpkin stuff is addictive, but a quick look at the nutritional info for the pumpkin bread, cream cheese muffin, latte and scone should remind you why they’re best treated as what the new-and-improved Cookie Monster calls “sometime foods”:

One of the many things that sets Accordion City’s iconic discount department store Honest Ed’s from other retailers is its use of hand-painted signs made by people like Wayne Reuben. Honest Ed’s has been using hand-painted signs since it opened in 1948; Wayne started painting for them in 1967 and after stints with other employers, has been painting full-time for them since 1994. Trends in graphic design and signmaking have come and gone through Wayne’s career, but his Honest Ed’s signage style has remained constant, right down to the rule about which colours to use (“Honest Ed” Mirvish used to borrow a line from Henry Ford, insisting that prices on the signs “can be done in any colour, so long as it’s red”). It would be so temptingly easy for them to save time and money and switch to laser-printed signs, but without them, Honest Ed’s would lose a bit of its character, something it needs to keep people coming at a time when there are plenty of Walmarts and Target finally opening in Canada next year.

The Toronto Star recently did a story on Wayne Reuben, and its hipper sister publication The Grid followed up with a video interview on its site, shown below. It’s fascinating to see someone doing this sort of work and enjoying it greatly — as he says in the interview: “It’s like I tell my kids, if you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Click the graphic to see it at full size.

Here’s Jason Quest’s visualization of comic book artist Kevin Maguire’s (Justice League, Batman Confidential, Captain America and X-Men) summary of the speeches made at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

(Very interesting how Paul Ryan is aping Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “white shirt with air tie” style.)

We were in Montreal’s Petite Italie and getting hungry when I remembered Kieran Huggins’ recommendation of a little bar called Vices et Versa. Since it was a nice day, we made our way to their back patio…

…and marvelled at their selection of beers and ciders, all of which seemed to be from Quebec. The hipster bartender with the hat was extremely knowledgable and helpful with their offerings.

…and had some really delicious food. I had their three-sausage platter, which had a sweet maple sausage, a spicy “diable” sausage and a bratwurst-like sausage, served with a nice green salad, corn relish, mustard and mayo:

If you’re ever in the area, especially now, while the evenings are still pleasant, check out Vices et Versa. I loved it, and the local Yelpers seem to feel the same way.

Click the poster to see it at full size.

I love that last bit: “If you were forcibly pushed into the water, don’t worry. If it was a legitimate pushing, your body will find a way to shut out the water and survive the drowning.”