CityTV (not there) EVERYWHERE

After Lauren and I unsuccessfully tried to butt Ted Rogers in his bid to buy the CityTV stations from CTVglobemedia, humiliation is followed by frustration. As awesome as it would've been for us to take over Breakfast Television Toronto (and then, THE WORLD), it looks like it was not in the cards (or stars, or deified belly-button lint) for us. Now, CTV has unequivocally stated that the CityTV really-cool-newsvan-stickin'-outtawall is going to be removed.

Spurred on by the success of the Save the 'Sam the Record Man' sign campaign, facebookin' Torontonians have decided to come to the rescue. Yes, facebook has become the rapid-response Toronto Heritage Fund. As The Toronto Star noted: Toronto is the facebook capital of the world. It seems that Torontonians are all-too eager to use their ability to massively click buttons in unison to promote keeping old signs up as ownership changes hands. I love public space and all, heck, I love civic activism, but what if CTVglobemedia is going to use the space for something else really cool? Hahaha, I kill me... It'll probably be another billboard à la Yonge and Bloor. Or a huge poster of Tanya Kim and Ben Mulroney. Ugh.

The question remains: when push comes to shove, who will have the Skydomes (Roger Centres?) to start 'Save the Zanzibar store front!!!1'?

Report on Bidness: Slim gets Gates, Pensioners get Bell, You get Taxed

Queue the Minutemen. While Canadians are taking top speech-writing and campaign positions for the Republicans from Washington to Shwarzenegger's Gahlifornia, as jobs are outsourced to Thomas Friedman's Bangalore, it looks like Mexicans aren't only taking the jobs nobody wants anymore. It looks like it's 'Slim'-pickings for Microsoft founder Bill Gates who has been dethroned as World Richest Rich Person. That's what you get for giving it all away!

The new Richest Rich Person (no, I haven't yet found his e-mail address for solicitations) is Carlos Slim, Mexican financial dynamo and owner of America Movil. Slim's rise has been meteoric, because that's a word they use a lot to describe really fast rises: He has gone from Latin America's Richest to overtaking Warren Buffet (formerly Mr Gates' #2 - uh, I mean the second richest...) in April and now Gates. Besides having the name of a cowpoke, Slim's wealth is equal to 8% of Mexico's GDP. No word on whether he likes Eminem.

Before we all get high and mighty that US jobs are going to us foreigners (MUHAHAHAHA), Canadians are not above trying to protecting our jobs. In the recent 'hollowing out of Canada' debacle that has just concluded. An all-Canadian (wave the flag, queue the Maple Leaf Forever or something, Darren) merger between Telus and BCE, lovingly named 'Belus' like a celebrity couple, was averted. Instead the company is now majority owned by Canadians (as was always its CRTC-ordained fate) and a group of American private-equitizers. So, Mr Gates notwithstanding, Americans can be proud they've managed to break a record this week (this is the largest private equity buy out EVER, ever, ever), and we will smugly take pride that it couldn't happened without us. Courtesy the EEEKonomist.

Tony's gonna be pissed...if he's still alive. A story about New Jersey and turnpikes! I've already made a stereotypical Soprano's reference! Before I run out my welcome with the locals, I'll try get through this. The E-Z Pass(American 'Zee') is a new computer-aided innovation that makes getting ou-er, around a lot easier on the highway. For those who live in the modestly named GREATer Toronto Area, you may be familiar with the Express Toll Route transponder, it's much the same. You drive zip-bloop-bleep you're charged the toll. Will the ETR-economy is not a good buzzword. For those who are angry about David Miller's newly sanctioned land tax (GTAers?), the NYT presents a story about all the taxes you DON'T know about in the EZ Pass Economy.

Alright, let's never do this again...until next time.