Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #54

Episode Date: November 4, 2013

Mike and Rosie chat Rob Ford... and more!

Welcome to the 54th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from TorontoMic.com. Joining me as always is Rosie from MyTorontoScoop.com. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. Been a long time, Rosie. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. How are you, my friend? Well, you know, another boring, slow news week in Toronto. Not much going on.

I just don't know what we're going to talk about. What happened to that old retro bell we had? Do you remember episode one? By the way, I was horrible in episode one. Do you know that? You were fine. Thank you. We left it behind in the Red Energy studio, the fish studio.

Where was it? Redfish. Oh, apparently Redfish. Well, that is now Humble and Fred studio. It's called the Humble and Fred studio? They rent it direct from the landlord. Excellent. That is now Humble and Fred's studio. It's called the Humble and Fred's studio? They rent it direct from the landlord and it does not have any affiliation with any redfish or dead fish or any fish at all.

The place that got me hooked on five-hour energy drinks. I was so contemptuous of them and now I buy them regularly. It's a bit of a problem. I'm glad we can talk about your addiction to lead up to stuff. So five-hour energy was like the gateway drug to B12 pills or what are they? Tablets or pills? Shots, pills. Any way I can get it in me.

So B12. I'm freaking out. I haven't had one in an hour. Right. So last time we talked, you were high on B12 and you're still enjoying the B12 energy. I take the B12 pills every day

and I will admit that I keep a stash of five-hour energy drinks that is the only i don't do anything else like red bull or anything because i find the taste of those gross but those little five-hour energy drinks i keep a stash for when um i need like for example last night we went late to the new ripley's aquarium which was amazing was awesome so beautiful and i was a little feeling a little bit and my little guy's really high energy and i'm like you know what this is perfect i'm gonna do the five-hour energy and I'm like, you know what? This is perfect. I'm going to do the five-hour energy drink.

I'm addicted. They're good. They're really good. They give me a really good buzz. That sounds a little fishy to me. There were so many fishies, Mike. Fishy, fishy, fishy. They were so cute. They were amazing.

It's really cool up there. You should check it out. I'm going to write a bit on my website soon. I haven't gotten around to it yet. How long has it been open? It opened on October the 16th. So it's still pretty new. But it was amazing how on a Sunday night,

how it's open till nine, how many people were there with their little kids. It's clearly, there is a need in the city for a place to take small children after 6 p.m. on a Sunday night. So it was good. It was really good. And it was a break from all the Rob Ford information that was going.

It was like Rob Ford overload yesterday. Maybe we should just cut to the chase. And I was going to say address the elephant in the room, but there actually is an elephant in the room. There is a blue elephant. Okay, friends, we're going to have, you know, in our show notes, Mike will write, both Mike and I will write notes of things that we're gonna have you know in our show notes mike will write um both mike and i will write notes of things we're gonna talk about and it was pretty funny mike's um

last notation in our show notes the very top line rob effing ford so guys we are going to talk about rob ford i'm going to push all my buttons so he gets all crazy because you know how he gets all crazy about this topic. Although I think a lot of our sentiments are the same about this issue. You were quite underwhelmed by his big announcement on his radio show yesterday. I was going to say take it easy on me, Rose, because I don't have my B12 shot like you. I'm just all natural. I brought you a giant coffee though. I brought Mike a ginormous coffee. We'll call it a big-ass like a giant enormous it's a big we'll

call it a big ass mcdonald's coffee it's a beautiful thing so let's uh halloween okay freaking out let's talk about they released so the sandro lisi case uh the judge ordered some of the information tied to that arrest warrant to be released and it was released like the morning of valentine's day um halloween morning right okay so that comes out that's a bombshell in itself because it essentially shows hundreds of times lisi and ford hooking up uh at parks and at the so near his house and basically it looks like they're they're they're hiding something there's these drop-offs and pick-ups, and it looks awfully skeezy. Right.

That's a word, right? Yeah. Skeezy? Yeah. It's all very skeezy. Like nothing you'd want your son involved in. I'll be honest with you. With all of this stuff, when I saw those images of him going into that...

Esso. Esso. Seeing the exchanging, seeing those images was so sketchy. To me, it's like this is the standard to which we hold our merit. And it's so funny because he goes on and on and on about all the great things, all the volunteer with the football coach and this and that. Please, this is how you spend your spare time. you know, all the, all the great things you did, all the volunteer with, with the football coach and this and that, please, this is how you spend your spare time.

You should be trying to stop activity like this in your community, in the communities, but you're not because you don't care at all. It is disgusting. Anyways, and at least we know why the two things became very obvious as if we didn't know. We know why the mayor refused to have a driver.

That's one thing. So this guy couldn't have a driver because he had too much to hide and we know why he doesn't typically arrive at city hall until 12 31 o'clock p.m because he's out after midnight uh drinking vodka you know the little things in this thing that nobody talks about the little things upset me like the fact that what cops would see him and lisi in a parking lot at etobicoke and then the next morning they just have the empty vodka bottles like little things like not even having the respect to pick up your vodka bottles and recycle them or return them just leaving them in our parkland like that stuff pisses me off i wouldn't disrespect for the city that you purport to love so much to want to work

so hard for it is disrespectful. And it is his activity, his, his illegal activity, his criminal activity, which, you know, you'd have to be a fool to think in any way that he's not engaging in illegal activity. You are enabling the worst activity. You are enabling the worst behavior in our society he should be doing the opposite he should be trying to stop it instead he's enabling it he's supporting it essentially the worst stuff the stuff that we fear for our children to be pulled into he our mayor of toronto is enabling that activity and still won't do and won't you know he what is it what did he apologize for step through this chronologically here.

Sorry, you're right. I know. There's so much. It's so upsetting. There's so much. It's so upsetting. So it's more than just not recycling those vodka bottles. So the Lisey connection, there's many, many calls between him and Lisey on, for example,

the morning when Anthony Smith was murdered, that day after that was revealed there was a crack tape by gawker and the star when the pipe beating happened on windsor road uh lisi of course has been charged with extortion yeah and a bunch of this uh information that was released is uh redacted is that the term rose the lawyers would use and that's because it's tied too much to this extortion and what's in there how does the mayor, other than the fact he associates with these skeevy people like Lisi, and what kind of influence does Lisi have over Ford, mayor of Toronto, biggest city in Canada? and the beatings and getting the tape back and the other video which we don't know what the other video is except that we know there's two videos because shortly after this information is released on the morning of halloween a surprise announcement by chief blair chief of the toronto police saying we have recovered the video and it is as it was reported in the media so in other words this is

the crack video which not only has rob ford smoking the crack it has uh of course he calls uh trudeau am i allowed to say the f word if it's quoting yeah he calls trudeau a fag he called his uh the teammates on this football team he's been he's no longer allowed to coach. He called them fucking minorities. And this video, he claimed when it was announced by Gawker and the Toronto Star, great sources. We talked about it at length here. Of course we trust Kevin Donovan and Robin Doolittle.

Why would they make this up? Right, journalists that he... Call them liars, right? Pathological liars. Hardworking people. And not just them, because he put them all under an umbrella when he called them maggots after in his, the last big.

For pursuing the truth. Exactly. These are people that, you know, work hard and not, you know, and forget even just the journalist, but the cameraman, everybody that, everybody that works to, to, you know, do a noble thing, which is tell the truth. The story. That's the media's job. He just,

he and his camp and the people that, that gloss things over for him and enable him and enable him brought, you know, they, they lied to, to, they said horrible things and they lied to bring down good, hardworking people.

Like it's so bad and so wrong. It, it, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's actually, it's, itworking people. Like, it's so bad and so wrong. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's actually, it's devastating. Like he, Bill Blair used the good term when he said this is traumatic. It is traumatic. When you think about what he did, the words he said about people that were working hard to tell you, part of a democracy is the fact that we have newspapers, you know, we have people that tell stories.

The fifth estate. He had no qualms whatsoever to try to bring these people down for his own, to save his own butt. He called it some kind of left-wing media conspiracy. He essentially smiled and laughed and said, I can't comment on a video that does not exist. And he repeated on his illegal radio show, which I won't even go down that road because it's become so small in the realm of things. But he basically said that the video didn't exist. He does not smoke crack.

The video doesn't exist. Then meanwhile, when Chief Blair says the video does exist, suddenly this left-wing conspiracy involves the chief of police and he gets caught lying exactly and he goes on his radio show and says he does what i call the non-apology apology which is i'm sorry it doesn't say specifically what he's sorry for never mentions the lisi dealings never mentions the crack says he's sorry for having too many too much beer and going out in public and he's referring to you know that Danforth incident and that St. Patrick's Day. So he's essentially apologizing for being drunk in public, I guess.

Which is the least, to be honest. And the list of things that are troublesome about the mayor right now, that's pretty low on the list. Yeah, no, it's pretty bad. But he makes me so angry and he makes me so sad. pretty low on the list yeah no it's it's it's it's pretty bad but you know this this you know he's he makes me so angry and he makes me so sad but i'll tell you what else makes me sad and angry is the people that you know now and you know i read you know i caught up in all the on the comments on on your website you know it's a good discussion everybody was into it um just a little tangent

just about um all our friends on torontocom. You know, it's funny. I'll log in. I'll check in and see who's got the conversation going. And you know how there's sometimes there'll be someone and you'll hope they'll comment. Like there'll be someone like, oh, that person commented because you enjoy reading what they're saying. Lorne. Well, right now, I always dig Lorne. But right now, I'm really digging AnonAnon.

AnonAnon, if you're listening. Because, you know, he's like right now the person where if I scan, I hope his name is there. Cause I'm, I really enjoy what, uh, what he, what he, what he has to say, what he has to write. And he wrote something funny just at the end of your last one. It was a good, uh, it was a good little, um, it was a little good little bit about how he apologized. He was just, he was doing a little um you know a little uh

sort of take off on uh rob ford's apology non-apology but uh he's pretty funny so hey and on and on hope you're listening we really dig your uh the things that the things that you write you're you're cool and also um again another tangent al had a baby and um i didn't get a chance to write. Congratulations. He's a musician. Did you know that? Yeah, of course. He wrote... The Royal Pains?

Is that the name of his band? Yeah, he has a cover band that plays in Toronto. And yeah, he wrote a song using the word autumn. And so when we had our autumn discussion, and then on and on, also reminded me of the word autumnal. Very excellent pretentious words, which I love.

No, they're not pretentious. Words, vocabulary is not pretentious. It which I love. No, they're not pretentious. Words, vocabulary is not pretentious. It's good. So anyways, all that to say, when I read things like, well, you know, he hasn't been charged with anything. Really? Really, people? That now is what we're reduced to. He hasn't been charged with anything. I'm sorry. F that. If that is all you want, if that's all you expect from the people that represent you in office, I feel sorry for you personally, because that he hasn't been charged with anything. If you really think about it, the activity that he enables in your community, you should be horrified by that. Horrified. And you know what? He should be horrified by that horrified and you know what he should be spending his time

helping the community uniting don't you think a good mayor uh unites the city and that this city has never been more divided because of this this is a terrible mayor and i always said this from the beginning if you take the circus antics and you brush them aside which is difficult to do now because it's so dramatic but if you took the circus antics and you brush them aside this is not a very good mayor he doesn't build consensus and progress the agenda forward he divides and alienates and makes council work around him and he's been doing that for three years he's a terrible mayor the circus antics are unacceptable it's amazing uh what we'll tolerate in this city because we have to apparently the only way to get him out of office is to vote him out because

unless he's in jail and it doesn't look like he's going to be in jail. Uh, we need to basically, we need to make sure everyone gets out and votes and votes for, uh, the best candidate for the city. And to be honest, it doesn't matter who's running against Ford.

They're not going to be any worse than this guy. This, this guy is a, uh, negative and a black mark on this city and i don't know why we voted him in but we did and now we need to live with it for one more year yeah and just when you start to think oh you know what kills me too is like you know he's oh he's a champion of the little people this kills me the multi-millionaire crack smoking mayor is a champion of the little people anyone who buys

that and swallows that for a second rose yeah i don't know how yeah he's not yeah he is the elite which you guys hate he's not the guy he's not the blue collar guy he doesn't have to work a day in his life now on that note little things that bug me about the whole situation remember when that guy got caught sleeping uh two weeks ago i guess he got caught sleeping on the job a mammal lady or somebody had an issue with it and then ford said not only should he be fired for being asleep on the job he his manager should be fired do you remember this he was hardcore you're not doing your job you're sleeping a job you should be fired me talk about double standards look at what friday he never even came to work he went to his mom's house he would ever had he never came to work he went to a bakery whatever what kind of a double standard is it where he

wants to fire the guy for napping meanwhile he's getting drunk at city hall and meanwhile he's enabling the worst in society like i feel like it needs to be emphasized over and over the people david prices exactly the people he engages with the people that fuel his extracurricular activities watch that video when he walks in there that bag that bag that you see him holding where do you think that stuff comes from how do you think he won't answer the culture the culture that he is engaged in supports and enables the worst things in our society and he should be working to stop that to make communities better he is basically supporting the things that destroy communities

the things that cause crime the things that like bad things bad bad bad anyone who still supports rob ford for mayor has essentially lowered the office to a degree where i know i say this to freddie p all the time because he's like oh he, he hasn't been charged with anything. Okay. Freddie P., who is a good friend, Freddie P. would not tolerate these antics from a Humble and Fred intern. Of course not. The standards, he has lowered the standards to a point where it's laughable. And if five years ago we had transplanted, even attached 1% of this circus to David Miller, planted, even attached 1% of this circus to David Miller.

Can you imagine the outcry from the law and order right followers? It would be enormous. 1% of this. Please. I've had enough. I know I can't get rid of this mayor until the next election. I'm willing to put up with that. These are the rules. If he had any respect for

this city and for taxpayers, he would step down, even if it was just for a period of time to get better, because clearly he is sick. He's sick. He's clearly an alcoholic, an addict, and to be honest, a proficient liar with zero integrity. He can't lead his way out of a paper bag, let alone lead the biggest city in Canada. You know, it's funny because, well, that's exactly, that pretty much sums it up. It will be interesting to see going forward. I do find that what happens is, you know, you think this has to be it. And then it's...

There's more coming. But that's the thing. This time, I really don't think that it's going to just go away for him and be okay. I really don't. I will say one thing, though.

The guy really can sell newspapers. When was the last time anyone cared what the four editorial boards had to say on the newspapers like it's it that is the only one thing that i could say is that it made people read the newspapers again but having said that i read all these articles and i never bought a paper i mean i know that uh he's definitely definitely uh good for the media in this city definitely it's certainly it's just it's just funny it's it's you know i can't remember the last time that you know you had you know it's

like you know all four papers you know calling for him to sit down i just can't remember the last time anyone caring what all four papers had to say you know what they so he is good for the sun published a special edition exactly and gave it away and the sun which is always well they've been so killed on this story that i think that they're at this point now where they're like okay we have been killed and killed and killed in the story we had nothing to bring to the table in the story they've just been just you know smashed by the star in the story so i guess they figure you know what may as well try to get some get some i'll say this somebody made this point in the the open mic uh the most recent open mic on my site but uh when you i think there's a sentiment

like when you back a lame horse it's like it's very difficult to sort of change your mind and stop backing that horse like we knew we knew what was coming i mean you can go away i wrote an entry and it's got the famous title infamous title i guess uh rob for for Mayor? Not on my watch. That's what I wrote, okay? Because I knew Rob Ford, the councillor. I'd written extensively about Rob Ford, the councillor, and he was the opposite of the type of person I wanted leading the city. And by the way, Fred, nothing to do with the man's waistline.

I'm tired of hearing, and Humble and Fred, and I listened to them. I was actually on their show last week. But they keep saying, we keep talking about him being a fat guy. I don't, I wish he was trim with a 32 inch waist just so they can stop saying that. I've never cared about his waistline. It's because now there's just nothing left.

It's like just a way to, it's just, there's nothing left to sort of, it's so pathetic now. It's like, okay, well you're just blaming, you're just giving him a hard time.

You just don't like fat guys. It's, it's, it's, you know, whatever. Like that's, I think they're, I think now it's getting so hard and embarrassing to still sort of, you know,

be a person that defends him that I think you're just kind of using that. Yeah, they backed a lame horse and now they're kind of going down with the ship. At least the Toronto Star from day one called it like it is. I think it's tougher now for The Sun and The Post because they've got to come around a little bit.

He's their guy. Well, definitely The Sun. This was The Sun's guy, no doubt about it. And now it's very interesting how they've turned on him, though. Everything I'm reading in The Sun is he needs to step down or resign. I don't think there's any... Even the Board of Trade has said he needs to step down or resign. I don't think there's any, even the board of trade has said he needs to step down or resign. I'm not sure other than his brother who seems to be guilty of enabling an

addict. If you ask me, like bad people, if your brother had issues with alcohol or drugs and you essentially told him, just do it at home instead of going out. That was the advice that Doug Ford gave Rob yesterday, which is when you're having too much, too much to drink, it at home instead of going out. That was the advice that Doug Ford gave Rob yesterday, which is when you're having too much, too much to drink, stay at home. Don't go out in

public. That was the advice. It wasn't don't drink anymore because you have a drinking problem. It was just keep it in your house. Well, that's, that's great. I think somebody made a point. Like that's wonderful for things like domestic issues, et cetera. Like that's terrible, terrible advice. Drink alone in your basement your basement terrible advice for a sick man once again this is a person that enables and supports the worst things the things that make communities the things that destroy communities drugs bad bad things extortion violence uh there's there's pipe beatings you just remember that like i always believe that things things are always things are never as they seem and things are always worse than they seem so i

think we should think of that image of him walk that exchange that for some reason that really it looked you know what it just it looked so criminal right it just looks so wrong and he knew remember that image and think of what goes you have to see that bag that he was carrying think of everything that has to happen for that bag to be there bad things have to happen i watch the wire okay i know it supports now about that skit about how white people love the wire oh my god i said i believe he said black people like the wire white people love the wire i actually thought of you i was dying because they were talking about they were like how much white if how much, if you see a white person coming, you know they're going to want to talk about the wire.

I was like, oh my God, this is for Mike. You know, SNL stole that though. This is about Mike. There's a website called Stuff White People Like. I think that was the name of it,

which had a great, and I actually linked to it and thought it was really funny, but this is years ago. That is a fun. Stuff White People Like wrote the same thing. They love sandwiches. Fancy sandwiches. SNL stole it. White people like wrote the same thing and then sandwiches rose please don't uh judge me on the color of my skin please please anyways it's true

white people love the wire i don't know it was hilarious it was a really funny snl carrie washington did a good job i think i fell asleep uh before it got to eminem for example well i watched it on the like i watched the pbrs oh i don't have a pbr rose you should get one it's i don't watch that life-changing you watch tons of tv who are you fooling well no i i've watched two shows we talk about is the tv we watch no but i've only ever since breaking bad ended i've watched some arrested development because monica hadn't seen it and I've seen the series Derek, which is only seven episodes and that's Ricky Gervais and that's all I've seen from non-sports television.

You need to watch Boardwalk Empire. You would love it. I know, I'm actually not wanting to watch shows anymore. I'm done. I'm going to finish Mad Men and what's the other show I was going to finish? I'm going to finish Mad Men for sure and other than that, I'm pretty much disinterested in TV right now.

Alright, well when that passes, when that weird little phase passes, talk to me and you're going to watch Boardwalk because it's amazing. Chucky White, your favorite guy. He's incredible. Omar coming. Alright, Rosa, quick little, I guess we

could do Rob Ford all day, but we should probably touch on a few other little things. I think we're done. i think that's all there is to say when i was 22 years old i saw the movie train spotting and then later and i loved it as lots of 22 year olds did and i got the soundtrack because i love the soundtrack and it had this song on it, and this is Perfect Day by Lou Reed. And prior to this point in my life, I think the only Lou Reed song I knew really was Walk on the Wild Side. I mean, everyone knew that because it was a big hit. Right.

So I heard this song, and I was like, what the hell is this? It was like the most gorgeous song I'd ever heard. Right. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Just going to let him go for a second, and I'll finish my story. All right, so basically it caused me to go in and look at his catalog, like where he came from, what he did in New York, and the Andy Warhol scene.

And he died last week. Lou Reed. Sad. Because he wasn't, he was like, what, 70? He was literally 70. 71, I think, maybe. Yeah. I don't know.

I feel like nowadays. But I guess when you're a rock star so you live life a little harder and if you want a few quick hits on uh how amazing uh his band was um velvet underground uh you should listen to heroin for sure heroin in heroin in this song appear on every mp3 mix i've made in the last 15 years this is beautiful beautiful song yeah it's really nice and the funny thing is i hear uh peace lou reed lou reed gone and he hated that that's the other thing lou reed hated rest in peace because and much like me i don't know if you know i write a lot about dead celebrities and stuff when they die i never use the term rest in peace because i simply i

don't believe it you uh when you die it is exactly as it was before you were born there is no rest in peace peaceful it's peaceful it's lights out and then you no longer have a consciousness to be When you die, it is exactly as it was before you were born. There is no rest in peace. Peaceful. It's peaceful. It's lights out and then you no longer have a consciousness to be aware of anything. And rest in peace is something you would say if you believed in some kind of an afterlife. I disagree. I don't think you're in, you're not resting.

You're not in peace. There's no bills to pay. You are just lights off. There's no, you know, annoying people. It is a peaceful state. But when you're not aware of the absence of those things, it's nothing, if you will. But you don't know that because you haven't annoying people. It is a peaceful state. But you're not, but when you're not aware of the absence of those things, it's nothing, if you will.

But you don't know that because you haven't been dead. Ha ha. So you don't know that you're not aware of it. Well, Lou Reed did not, did not like the term rest in peace. And I don't like it either. I don't use it,

but, uh, he's gone. When you die, I won't say rest in peace. Rose, I'm going to outlive you. Um,

I was going to say, you know what they're going to find out? You're going to die before me. They're going to find out they were wrong about B12. They're going to say, statistics will show that you're going to die before me. They're going to find out they were wrong about B12 and they're going to realize, oh my God, if you have too much B12, you explode. And Rose, you'll just explode one day. But you know, by having all the B12, because you have to be quite hydrated to make B12 effective, it's meant that I've cut back quite a bit on my caffeine.

So much, much more healthier habits as a result of my B12 addiction. Rob Ford should probably switch to B12. It would be a much better addiction. Rose, we're young compared to some people, which means we... I don't think you're going to know this jingle, but I found this jingle. I'm going to play it. It's really brief. H-O-N-E-S-T-E-D. It's really brief. So apparently that's from, I think, the 60s. I wasn't listening to a lot of radio in the 60s, but that was the Honest Ed jingle. When I was a little girl, my nonna used to take me downtown to Honest Ed's.

And we'd go shopping. It was like so much fun. My nonna, who I never called nonna, I called her grandma. She loved Honest Ed's. Actually,ona, who I never called Nona, I called her Grandma. Because you're not Italian. She loved Honest Ed. I actually, you know what I'm saying, Fanny? I actually didn't call my grandparents,

I called them Grandma and Grandpa even though they were Italian. But now you've become, it sounds pretentious when you say it now. Just kidding. How can it be pretentious? Because you're trying to be,

yeah, I know. Don't forget, Rose, I just spent a... Remember what we said about people that are always calling things pretentious? They are the most pretentious of them all. No, I agree with that. That's me. I was just don't forget Rose, I just spent a... Remember what we said about people that are always calling things pretentious? They are the most pretentious of them all. No, I agree with that.

That's me. I was just in Italy. So I was around the nonas and nanas. Nonas and nonas and nanas? Noni. Nonis. Nonis. So what do you think about...

Honest Eds has been sold. So what is the future of Honest Eds? It's been sold for $100 million. Did you know that? That's what the developer paid for it. dollars did you know that that's what the developer paid for it i did not know that 100 million dollars um it's it's cool but what's the future of honest heads is my question the future is going to be condos okay well i figured as much but that is some uh you know prime is that the future of everything in toronto like is every development

forever in toronto now going to be condos no look at the light box i in Toronto, like is every development forever in Toronto now going to be condos? No, look at the light box. I mean, there's like a total cultural center. Yeah, there's, you know, the festival towers on top, but I think it's, you know, it basically revitalizes the whole lot. Yeah, I know a guy who lives in a light box. Like they're condos. I said to Scott when, you know,

we downsize in the future, that's totally where I want to be. Like right, like to me, that would be like the best. You know, you live right down on top of a, and you can go down and see an exhibit or a movie theater or go to dinner. It's totally cool. No, it's evolving.

The city has to evolve. We can't – But all development is going to be condo-centric. It might have something else, but it's still going to be condos. Well, you need places for people to live, right? The city is growing. People need to live in places. And condos are – I mean, please, the city loves condos.

You pack more people in and they pay more taxes. I think, you know, the challenge is that politicians need to demand that developers make them not just, you know, bachelor pads, that there are places that... Oh, for families. For families. know bachelor pads that there are places that oh for families for families i mean i know that's not necessarily the most realistic but you know statistics show that more and more people with children are living in the downtown core there's more of a demand for parks and for playgrounds and all that kind of stuff and you know and that they'd be architecturally interesting and our mayor once said downtown was no place to raise a family yeah that was that well that was he hates

downtown it's just i was just he wouldn't know a light box if it hit him in the head right well was no place to raise a family. Yeah, that was... He hates downtown. That was just... He wouldn't know a lightbox if it hit him in the head, right, Rose? Well, it's funny because I actually saw him at the lightbox when I was working at the festival and he just could not have looked more annoyed at having to be there. Clearly, somebody had said to him,

Film Fest is on. This is an important event in the city. You need to make an appearance. He just could not have looked more hairy. Yeah, there's another important event. Now, there was media all over him. He is hounded, but it's his own fault because he doesn't speak properly to the media. He won't talk to the media because they have questions

he won't answer, like, what's the deal with Lisey? No, and he's never going to go to Pride. Honest Eds, do they need to preserve the signage at all or do you not care about the signage because that's the big toronto thing is the signs like we're still wondering what happened to the sam the record man sign that ryerson promised to preserve because they haven't produced this yet oh my god i'm gonna say something you're gonna say f f the signs i really don't care about the signs i'm even the Sam sign? You know what? Honestly,

this is the thing. It was a sign of, you know, I went to school downtown. I passed the Sam sign a million times. I went to the same school. You went to Ryerson. Well, I went to Ryerson after UT. And I think, yes, in my heart, it invokes

a nostalgia of a certain time. But you know what? Sometimes we just have to have things in our memories. I really don't care. To me, like life is what is happening now around me. So you don't care about the old signs. It is a sign. It is a thing.

It is, does not, it's great if somebody wants to preserve it. Sure. But to me, just because I sometimes, I'll be honest with you. Sometimes I think it is a cop out to preserve the sign because it's like, oh, we've preserved the sign. Look at how, you know, look at how heritage, you know, look at how much we respect heritage. Nah, not so much. You just kept the sign.

To me, life is what is happening around me right now. Not some old sign. That's just me. I'm sure there are many people that would disagree with that, but I don't have any sort of, it is a thing, you know? Folks, you heard it here. Go down to Bathurst and Bloor and snap some pictures of those signs because they're not long for this world.

You know, my memories of Honest Ed's are amazing. I, you know, going there, being young, you know, truly, but like whether if there's a condo building with the honest and sign on this it's not the same thing it's not honest dads anymore so trying to pretend that it is or just because we kept the sign to me is a bit um it's a bit false but whatever it can't hurt to keep the sign i do think that i think there is flip-flopping no it doesn't hurt but like am i going to be devastated if the developer's like no i'm not keeping this like you know come on people make new signs make new interesting things i for one would prefer they kept the sign and i would like to see ryerson restore the um sam the wreck your man sign as

they promised they would why because it is in fact it's such an iconic image of toronto in the vast majority of cool toronto now sam's gone now. Sam's is gone. That is gone. That's a different era now. This is where we disagree. It's gone. The sign doesn't have to be gone. They can,

they can put the sign somewhere where we can still see the old Sam sign. It's a part of Toronto's history. Like such an iconic image of downtown Toronto, Yonge Street. Like, I don't think every sign should be preserved, but I think you make the, I like the old 1050 Chum AM sign.

I like this Sam the Record Man sign, and I like the Honest Ed signs. There's certain signs I think you should preserve. So, my two cents. I hope they restore the Sam the Record Man sign. And I will just point out, they did sign a contract saying they would. So it's not like we

made it and switched. But they did sign a contract saying they preserved the sign that was part of the deal and they haven't and i think that's uh that's ryerson breaking the contract and you can say business changes but they still they still had a deal do you know why they haven't um restarted yet i don't think anyone knows because i don't think what do they say shortage it's actually very interesting um i read a whole article about it there um that particular sign is made of um this really complex sort of connection of was it fluorescent lights or halogen lights i can't quite remember now a certain type of light and to find actually people

that because in new york there was a similar sign that they were having trouble uh restoring to find people that are knowledgeable like on how to restore it and work it because there's chemicals involved. It's actually, there's a shortage of them. So it's not actually so easy as just slapping it out somewhere. It actually requires a certain sort of expertise. And there's been- And there's no one on this planet who can help us with these lights.

Yeah, that was what the article was about. There's actually a difficulty. I think they got to try a little harder. Now, I'm not saying this is the only reason, but it was an interesting thing. Like, it's not as, you know, you have to do it properly and it's not as easy as it seems. So I'm not sure.

Yeah, I'm not sure like how much. Yeah, it'd be interesting to see. I'm sure they will. I'd like to see it. I'd like to see the sign. It's pretty bad PR to not have the sign. You know, I'm sure that they will do it, especially because it's true.

They did say that they would. But again, yeah, I'm not going to. You're not in love with the sign. You know, I'm sure that they will do it, especially because it's true. They did say that they would. But again, yeah, I'm not going to. You're not in love with the sign. That's fine. We can't agree on everything, Rose. We agreed on so much today. It's in my heart. Okay.

Yeah. Our heart and our memories. But it'd be nice if it was there for future generations to see. To me, it's an iconic image of Toronto. That's all. I will ask you, please, if we could do the pizza episode next week because the Rob Ford stuff swallowed up so much time. We will be talking about...

The podcast is an organism that, you know, it's not set in stone. It can change on a dime. So let's talk about pizza and poutine next week. We're going to talk about our favorite pizzas in Toronto and some overrated pizza. And I'll talk about my random gift of pizza I enjoyed on Friday night. And could you exit us perhaps with a secret, a shameful secret you could share with everybody?

Are you prepared? I see it in the notes, but you have a shameful secret. The shameful secret, though though is related to um food which we're going to say even this food episode oh that's yeah that's it that's a story for the toronto make girls for stephanie and liz and yeah i'm gonna i can't both of them i can't be short-shifted on that i need i need time to to to tell that story properly all right so we'll close with me saying um i had a great time in Europe and in Italy and Iceland. Uh,

we won't bore everybody by me talking about the trip, but, uh, I had a great time. I'm also glad to be back and I'm excited about what the future holds because, and I know we have never spoken about this on the Toronto Mike podcast, uh, but I'm expecting a child.

It doesn't look like you've gained a pound. I know, I'm working out. I swear, if men had to, people have said this before, if you guys had to have babies, it would be one child in every family. That's probably true. So I'm glad I'm not carrying it,

but it will arrive in April, and as things progress, I'll report back if there's probably true. So I'm glad I'm not carrying it, but it will arrive in April. And as things progress, I'll report back if there's anything interesting. But right now it's just... Does this mean the studio's moving? Possibly. This is definitely a room where I would want to put a baby. I will say it's very likely that I will be relocating the studio into the shed maybe. Would you be okay with that if you had to wear, like, earmuffs and a parka?

We'll negotiate in my next contract. We'll keep the Toronto Mike sign, though. We'll preserve it. And I'm glad I saved these elephants in giraffe. I know. And that brings us to the end of our 54th show you can follow me on twitter at toronto mike and rosie at rosie in toronto see you all next week bye for now