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How Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Dealt With the Flood and Power Outage

When Calgary had their flood — whose effects were considerably greater than ours — their Mayor, Naheed Nenshi, did an admirable job handling it, and even managed to throw in a little humour:

nenshi on flood

And how did our Mayor do so far? Well, here’s what reporter Don Peat from the Toronto Sun, a paper that’s pro-Ford in a bloodyminded head-up-its-own-ass kind of way, tweeted:

This is what you get with a Mayor who thinks the solution to everything is “the car”.

rob ford in escalade

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Tom Ryaboi’s Stunning Toronto Flood Photos

Tom Ryaboi photography got some great pics of the Toronto flood! Check out the photos in this Facebook set:

tom ryaboi flood photo

tom ryaboi flood photo 2

tom ryaboi flood photo 3

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Scenes from Toronto’s Storm and Flood

Most of the photos in this post are from other people — click on them to see the originals.

smiling in the flood

Photo by “~Evidence~”.

Last night’s storm brought down more rain than Hurricane Hazel did, giving us 126 millimetres (just shy of five inches) of rain in two hours. Complicating matters was the fact that it started in the middle of rush hour.

storm coming in

Photo by “zivanod”.

The incoming front was an incredible sight, and a number of people caught it on camera.

storm coming in 2

Photo by Emily Tu.

storm coming in 3

Photo by Ann Darby.

Despite the fact that what should’ve been a half-hour drive turned into a three-hour idlefest thanks to power outages and people forgetting that intersections become four-way stops when the traffic lights go out, I got off rather lightly.

joey traffic 2

Photo by Yours Truly.

I had a nearly-full tank of gas (I generally re-fill the tank whenever I hit the half-full mark) so I didn’t have to ditch the car as many others had to.

joey traffic 1

Photo by Yours Truly.

I also had terrestrial AM radio to keep me informed, satellite radio to keep me entertained, and even this little light show on Carlingview Drive:

I even managed to give a little old lady a lift from Martin Grove and Eglinton down to Bloor and Islington. I was high and dry in my car with plenty of room; I couldn’t leave her stranded alone in the rain in good conscience:

lift

In the meantime, on the other side of town, the Don River did its best Amazon impression, as Leah George put it:

don as amazon

Photo by Leah George.

The Don Valley Parkway, a major artery and often-snarled highway during rush hours, flooded over completely at certain spots:

don valley parkway

Photo by George Kourounis.

Lake Shore was still navigable by car in most spots:

lake shore flooded

Photo by “hooksncrooks”.

Here’s Toronto’s soon-to-be most famous butt. This photo has appeared in papers all over the world:

back to the car

Photo by The Canadian Press.

Here’s what will become Toronto’s most famous one-percenter problem: a ditched Ferarri. I’m pretty sure it no longer has that “new car smell” today:

swamped ferrari

Photo by Patrick Dell, Globe and Mail.

This whirlpool shot by “hooksncrooks” is great. I wonder if anyone shot any video:

whirlpool

Photo by “hooksncrooks”.

A good number of underpasses became impassable during the storm, but many drivers still tried to “run the rapids”:

running the rapids

Photo by “J P”.

Some train commuters didn’t fare much better. This GO commuter train was completely flooded out, and not just on the outside…

go train

Photo by Christine Cho.

…but inside as well.

inside flooded go train

Photo by Alecia Fowler.

Many passengers ended up wading to dry land, while those less able to make the slog were assisted by crews in boats:

go train rescue

Photo by Scott Meiklejohn.

A few subway stations were also waterlogged. Here’s Queen’s Park station:

flooded ttc station

Photo by Spencer Tong.

King Street was just bad around the Liberty Village area. This is King and Atlantic:

king and atlantic

Photo by “Zoo OWL”.

Here’s King and Dufferin:

king and dufferin

Photo by Angelina Chapin.

Here’s Front and Simcoe:

front and simcoe

Photo by Ashley Bernatt.

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Tonight: The Calgary Stamp-Aid, A Night of Dry Humour for Alberta’s Flood Victims

calgary stamp-aid

If you’re looking for a good time for a good cause tonight, please consider the Calgary Stamp-Aid, a night of comedy to raise money to help the people of Alberta rebuild after the recent floods. If you can attend in person, it’s happening at the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West at Gladstone, just east of Dufferin). If you can’t attend in person, you can watch it online! The fun starts at 9:00 p.m. Eastern (7:00 p.m. Calgary time).

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Ladies and Gentlemen, I Give You: The Biscuits and Gravy Fountain

Who needs Paula Deen when you have one of these?

biscuits and gravy fountain

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The Asiana Crash and the Idiots it Brought Out of the Woodwork

david eun asiana photo

The recent crash of the Asiana jet at San Francisco airport has shown the upside of citizen journalism, what with the photo above taken by passenger David Eun, a Samsung executive, who also tweeted this:

…and with this eyewitness video shot by Fred Hayes on his smartphone:

And then, there’s the downside. You’ll find more on the Public Shaming blog, in the article titled Idiots Use Plane Crash in San Francisco to Mock Asians, Blame North Korea.

The “Asians Can’t Drive” Tweets

The ignorant tweets came in two categories, the first being “let’s use a tragedy to make racist jokes”. Click on any of these screen captures to visit the corresponding Twitter accounts and see what other great intellectual gems they’re sharing.

racist tweet 1 - asap yarby

racist tweet 2 - miriam

racist tweet 3 - devin rivers

racist tweet 4 - eric nelson

Imagine the hue and cry from these people if someone made an “Americans can’t drive” joke in reference to reports that one of the people killed in the crash may have been killed by being run over by a rescue vehicle.

The “All Korea is North Korea” Tweets

The other category of tweets made about the crash is “It’s enemy action!”, in which people are clearly unable to discern the difference between Nice Korea (home of Samsung, PSY) and Naughty Korea (home of Kim Jong-Un, son of the bad guy from Team America: World Police). Once again, click on the screen captures of the tweets to see the Twitter accounts of these masters of geopolitics.

racist tweet 5 - fabricio bertin

racist tweet 6 - courtney

racist tweet 7 - bulls on parade htx

racist tweet 8 - bishop

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And Now, a Word From Your Wingman

wingman

Click the picture to see it at full size.

In case you’re not aware of fan fiction, here’s Wikipedia’s entry for the term.