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Old 05-27-2010, 05:17 AM   #34 (permalink)
Leto
Junkie
 
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Location: The Danforth
I would wear a seatbelt regardless of regulation. As I would a motorcycle helmet and as I wear my seatbelt pretty well continuously while on an airplane. I just like being strapped in. Not sure what can be read into that, however, it just seems to be common sense. The odd time that I drive the car beltless, I get this anxious feeling and need to buckle up.

There is also financial incentive to use them as explained early by other Ontarians in the thread.

As far as street food goes, I always thought that it was ironic that the streetmeat in the form of dogs and sausages were the only foods available due to health concerns by the Ontario government. A healthy hot dog!

A typical hot dog cart in Toronto:



I do remember the days of plentyful carts which had heated chestnuts, popcorn and candy apples that (usually) older Italian men usually pushed around the streets of Toronto. I have only seen a few carts these days, near the museum or the Eaton Centre. I guess the tradition is dying off with the proprietors (older men) in favour of the blander hot dog cart. It was hard to find a picture of these chestnut vendors:



I should mention that almost every Canadian city has at least one chip truck, dispensing french fries from a vacant lot, a parking lot, or just parked at the curb (as is evident outside the city hall in Toronto). Nothing like a heap of fries and gravy or poutine from one of these if you have the munchies. Here's the blue chip truck that I always saw in front of the city hall:




I hope that street food starts to take off and become more diverse. I would love to be able to get donairs, shawarmas, funnel cakes, crepes, even dim sum if I could.

The strangest (to me) street food that I know of is deep fried tarantula that I saw on a documentary about Cambodia. Lovely women office workers purchasing a big juicy spider, battered lightly, deep fried and wrapped in a newspaper at a street corner. The entire transaction enacted from their car window at red light. Personally, I have had the pleasure of enjoying egg hoppers from a street vendor in Columbo Sri Lanka. To me this was as safe as local food got, plus it was tastey and cheap:




Now for the clothing of my parent's homelands:

My father:





My mother:





Tipping:

I hate it. I'm a skinflint. So I tip grudgingly, calculating the exact 15% of the pre-tax amount of my bill. Or I get my wife to do the duty so I don't grind my teeth while adding this surcharge to my already hefty dinner bill. Often, feeding a family of 5 at a restaurant is made easier at a Pho joint rather than a Boston Pizza or Keg and so tipping is easier. But man, do I hate the concept.



I have a question: How do folks around TFP make use of public libraries? I recently got an e-reader and am looking into 'borrowing' electronic versions of books. Looks like this is possible if I have a library card, which I do. There is a time limit on the borrow of about 21 days. The Toronto Public Library is quite expansive and our family makes extensive use of the p-books both for supplementing school work research - as teachers (rightly) insist on resources beyond the internet and wikipedia, and for novel reading. I know that as y ou progress on towards post secondary education, the use of public libraries dwindles in favour of the resources provided by one's university or college, but post graduation I have found that there is an uptake on the use of the public library's facilities.
__________________
You said you didn't give a fuck about hockey
And I never saw someone say that before
You held my hand and we walked home the long way
You were loosening my grip on Bobby Orr


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Last edited by Leto; 05-27-2010 at 05:29 AM..
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