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Holiday Gift Guide 2012: a playful illustration of Toronto in all its glory

Presents for the home can be tricky—you don’t want the recipient to feel obligated to display a gift that’s not to their taste. However, any proud Torontonian will appreciate this Raymond Biesinger print, which depicts the city on June 26, 1976, the first day the CN Tower opened to the public. The black and grey tones will match most decor schemes, and it’s great fun to try and identify St. Lawrence Market, Osgood Hall, the Drake Hotel, the AGO and Casa Loma, among others. For gifts to non-Torontonians, Biesinger also has portraits of Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa. $40. See 18 other gifts for the home »

Available at Kid Icarus, 205 Augusta Ave., 416-977-7236.

The Informer

Random Stuff

November 1, 2012 | 1:20 pm

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The 10 best Toronto Halloween costumes this year (including what Karen Stintz and Margaret Atwood wore)

Karen Stintz (yes, that Karen Stintz) as Elvira, a CBC listener as Jian Ghomeshi and a very creative man as the OCADU building

Although one Maple Leaf had trouble finding an appropriate Halloween costume, there were still plenty of great disguises this year. We rounded up the best of those donned by local politicians and celebrities, as well as our favourite Toronto-centric costumes from Twitter (including a baby dressed up in a Toronto Life–approved get-up).

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The Informer

Random Stuff

August 13, 2012 | 5:30 pm

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Wanted: 10 sand tiger sharks for the Ripley’s Aquarium at the CN Tower

(Image: Jeff Kubina)

Now that construction is well underway on the Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada at the base of the CN Tower, it’s time for step two: sharks. According to a recent article in the Toronto Star (which just happened to be timed for the start of Shark Week), the hunt has already begun for 10 sand tiger sharks, whose tank will form the centrepiece of the $130-million tourist extravaganza owned by Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison. The shark-catching process involves circular hooks designed to prevent the animals from getting hurt, a 1.5-kilometre fishing line baited with frozen mackerel and an on-boat tank whose water is pumped with oxygen to keep the sharks calm. They will spend a couple of months at the Ripley’s aquarium in South Carolina and a few more at a secret New York facility until spring 2013 when they will be driven to Toronto to make their debut (and to show the Toronto Zoo that cross-border animal transfers don’t have to be difficult). [Toronto Star]

The Informer

Features

July 24, 2012 | 10:00 am

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Faulty towers: who’s to blame for condoland’s falling glass, leaky walls and multi-million-dollar lawsuits

By Philip Preville | Photograph by Daniel Neuhaus | Illustrations by Bradley Reinhardt

Jan Gandhi and Omar Jabri share a love of big-city life: the people, the architecture, the fashion, the logarithmic bustle of human energy that comes from high-density, high-rise living. They first met as articling students with different Bay Street law firms, introduced by mutual friends. Together they moved to New York, where Gandhi worked as in-house counsel for MTV and Jabri as an intellectual property lawyer, and they lived in an apartment in Chelsea. Gandhi became addicted to flash-sale websites, filling her wardrobe with deeply discounted designer fashions. Flash sales are enormously popular in New York. She saw an underserved market in Toronto, so she hatched a plan to return and launch her own site.

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The Informer

Random Stuff

April 2, 2012 | 1:20 pm

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April Fool’s joke roundup: some funny, some not funny and some that just sound sensible

Everyone with a Facebook feed saw Google’s eight-bit version of Google Maps (complete with a pixelated CN Tower), but there were other jokesters at work in and around Toronto yesterday:

• WestJet posted a video (above) introducing a child-free cabin program called Kargo Kids, which involves sending kids into the baggage hold to keep them quiet. (Could this be real? Please?)

• A prankster with some Photoshop know-how took the idea of EdgeWalk a little further and worked up a photo of “EdgeSwing,” a carnival-like ride around the top of the CN Tower. Reddit commenters got in on the fun: “I’ve checked, and this is NOT an April Fool’s Day thing. Apparently they hired Richard Dean Anderson to design the whole thing.”

• A lot of unoriginal Torontonians (one every 10 or 15 minutes, according to Newstalk 1010) called the Toronto Zoo asking for “Mr. Jim Panzie,” “Miss Ryna Soris” and the like.

• Twitter abounded with rumours that Rob Ford had resigned. Not everyone thought that was funny.

• Wellington Financial, a Toronto-based finance firm, announced that Jim Balsillie was its new chairman. The Toronto Star called it as a joke, but given Balsillie’s recent troubles, we wouldn’t be surprised if he were looking for a paycheck.

The Informer

Real Estate

December 5, 2011 | 3:25 pm

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The Star’s Vertical Toronto series ends with a ThreatDown-esque list

With most of the onerous socioeconomic number crunching out of the way, the Toronto Star ended its three-part series on condo life with a list of the risks apartment dwellers face. The paper has the skinny on exploding-glass balconies (nickel sulphide), how long it takes to escape a burning building (from the 50th floor, six to 12 minutes), a breakdown of the birds that end up splattered against high-rise windows (531 golden-crowned kinglets met glass in 2005) and what happens when a skyscraper gets hit by lightning (for the CN Tower, that’s 75 times a year), among other fun facts you may or may not want to know. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

Real Estate

November 18, 2011 | 2:00 pm

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Condomonium: $1 million for a two-level penthouse in the Fashion District’s District Lofts

ADDRESS: 388 Richmond St. West, Penthouse 4

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Waterfront Communities–The Island

AGENT: Steven Fudge, Bosley Real Estate

PRICE: $1,095,000

THE PLACE: A two-level penthouse in the Fashion District’s District Lofts community. Built by Context Developments and designed by ArchitectsAlliance, the 14-storey U-shaped twin towers won a bunch of awards, including the 2003 City of Toronto Architecture and Urban Design Award of Excellence and an Innovative Building Award from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

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The Informer

Real Estate

November 11, 2011 | 1:15 pm

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Condomonium: $1.8 million for a penthouse suite in the HarbourView Estates

ADDRESS: 10 Navy Wharf Court, Penthouse 5

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Waterfront Communities–The Island

AGENT: David Harland, Harvey Kalles Real Estate

PRICE: $1,799,000

THE PLACE: This 46th-floor penthouse suite with floor-to-ceiling windows and a beautiful view of the lake (which you can from the master bedroom Jacuzzi—yes, the tub is in the bedroom) sits atop one of the HarbourView Estates buildings.

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The Informer

Real Estate

November 10, 2011 | 11:00 am

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CN Tower reclaims some of its dignity with a Guinness World Record for EdgeWalk

Apparently, lightning can strike twice—the CN Tower claimed a new world record (Image: picturenarrative from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)

The CN Tower has had a rough few years. First it lost the world record for the world’s tallest man-made structure to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Then it lost its status as the world’s tallest tower to the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China. And then the Burj Khalifa claimed the title of the world’s highest restaurant too, leaving the CN Tower with only the dubious accolade of world’s highest wine cellar. But this week, Torontonians have reason for some tepid celebration, now that the city’s beleaguered landmark has a new Guinness World Record—that of highest external walk on a building. A certificate was presented to officials Tuesday on the EdgeWalk itself: a 1.5-metre-wide ledge 356 metres above the pavement. We’re happy the tower is still pulling in the records (even if we think “Most certain death from an attraction mishap” might garner more attention). Read the entire story [Huffington Post] »

The Informer

Real Estate

July 27, 2011 | 12:55 pm

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House of the Week: $1.6 million for an Annex condo with a one-of-a-kind view

ADDRESS: Unit 2002, 1 Bedford Rd.

NEIGHBOURHOOD: The Annex

AGENT: Vicky Tal and Meir Gluzberg, Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage

PRICE: $1,629,000

THE PLACE: This 20th-storey unit in the newly completed One Bedford condos is defined by a beautiful south-facing view of the Toronto skyline and a variety of custom finishes: a leather-upholstered wall in the master bedroom, a light box in the master ensuite shower, his-and-hers master closets, a custom kitchen by Paris Kitchens and, of course, a wall-mounted iPad to control the sound system.

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The Informer

Real Estate

June 29, 2011 | 2:00 pm

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House of the Week: a mansion in the sky at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences

ADDRESS: 183 Wellington Street West, Unit 4304

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Waterfront Communities–The Island

AGENT: Cynthia Goodchild, Chestnut Park Real Estate Limited, Brokerage.

PRICE: $20,000 per month

THE PLACE: A one-year lease for a suite on the 43rd floor of the brand spanking new Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residences.

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The Informer

Features

June 10, 2011 | 1:30 pm

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50 Reasons to Love Toronto: No. 48, A Queen West company is developing mind-control computing

No. 48 A tech company has invented mind control for computers

(Image: Steve Mann)

Much more conveniently located than a galaxy far, far away, a small tech company called InteraXon on Queen West is developing products that will allow you to control your iPad with your mind. InteraXon uses software originally created by the legendary U of T engineer Steve Mann, who was dubbed “the world’s first cyborg” because of his ingenious wearable computer devices. The company’s thought-controlled computing technology translates brainwaves into digital signals recognizable by a computer—be it in a video game, automobile or robot butler. In other words, the brain’s electrical activity, which you can supposedly learn to manipulate just like any muscle, is converted by an interface into binary code. InteraXon’s first public splash was a demo during the 2010 Winter Olympics that allowed headset-equipped visitors in Vancouver to mentally control light shows at the CN Tower, Parliament Hill and Niagara Falls. The company promises more radical breakthroughs in the next couple of years, including an unobtrusive, wearable home-monitoring system that will predict epilepsy seizures and notify doctors and family.

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The Informer

Real Estate

June 8, 2011 | 1:17 pm

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House of the Week: $8.4 million for a Bridle Path mansion that’s the ultimate in modern luxury

ADDRESS: 65 Highland Crescent

NEIGHBOURHOOD: Bridle Path – Sunnybrook – York Mills

AGENT: Robert S. Greenberg and Andre S. Kutyan, Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd. Brokerage.

PRICE: $8,398,000

THE PLACE: This massive marble and glass home situated on an equally massive 107-by-358-foot tract of land provides a window into what it might be like to live in the not-too-distant future. With a Crestron automated interior, everything from the blinds to the temperature can be controlled with nothing more than the click of a button. Every extra imaginable is here—radiant floor heating, an eight-car garage, an in-house elevator, a dog-washing station in the mud room and even a saltwater aquarium to play spot the Finding Nemo character.

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The Informer

Real Estate

May 10, 2011 | 2:31 pm

2 Comments

CN Tower launches EdgeWalk, for people who think skydiving is boring

The view looks great from inside the CN Tower (Image: Katherine_Davis)

This summer, the CN Tower is introducing a new attraction called EdgeWalk, allowing thrill-seekers to take a hands-free walk on a five-foot-wide ledge around the outside of the tower—116 storeys above ground. Anyone planning to add this to their bucket list may want to check everything else off first. Find out prices and dates after the, er, jump.

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The Hype

Cinemania

March 30, 2011 | 10:52 am

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Watch the trailers for three new movies in which Toronto is actually front and centre

When it comes to cinema, Torontonians have heard it all before: their city can double for pretty much anywhere in the world, and when it can’t, there are plenty of studios around here that can. But with these three movies slated for release in 2011—I Hate Toronto: A Love Story, Thank You and Jane Doe—Hogtown won’t have to hide. It will unabashedly play itself. Check out the trailers for all three movies below.

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