Rob Ford - new low

Homer Simpson can run a marathon!

Rob Ford Crack Video - Altered

Editorial Cartoon - Toronto Star

This Editorial Cartoon from the July 16th Toronto Star is funny.

Background: Anonymous people have been going into Tim Horton's and paying for 500 coffees - the employee is to give out 500 coffees free to the customers.

Vice-Principal busy at work!

Here I am in a photograph with my school's mascot - taken in the fall. My secretary took a photo of me in the tiger head back in early July. Gotta have fun!

Rob Ford wins big at CNE

Wow - he's one lucky man at the CNE!

Hachiko: The World’s Most Loyal Dog

Hachiko: The World’s Most Loyal Dog

Dogs are known for being loyal companions -- but we've never met any as faithful as Hachiko, an Akita from Japan who spent 10 years waiting for his master.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on April 26 2010

If you’ve ever seen the canceled-before-its-time (but now revived!) show Futurama, you’ll probably remember Bender, the alcoholic robot; Leela, the beautiful one-eyed captain; and Philip J. Fry, the bumbling pizza delivery boy who was cryogenically frozen for a thousand years before joining the Planet Express intergalactic mail delivery team. But do you remember Fry’s loyal, loving dog, who waited for his master until the end of his life? If you didn’t think a cartoon character could make you cry, it might be time to reevaluate after you watch this heart-wrenching scene.

Now, of course, Fry’s dog never really existed (nor did the murderous Killbots, luckily), and you might scoff at the idea that any canine could really exercise such supreme loyalty. After all, your dog forgets that you’re alive whenever your sister stops by bearing bags of Pupperoni. And while it’s true that most animals are more loyal to their meals than to their masters, we know of an amazingly faithful dog that could be a real-life counterpart to Fry’s ever-loving pooch: Hachiko, an Akita from Tokyo.
Hachiko was brought to Tokyo in 1924 by his owner, a college professor named Hidesamuro Ueno. Each day, when Ueno left for work, Hachiko would stand by the door to watch him go. When the professor came home at 4 o’clock, Hachiko would go to the Shibuya Station to meet him.
Though this simple act alone shows a tremendous amount of loyalty, that’s not the end of it: The following year, Ueno died of a stroke while at the university. Hachiko didn’t realize that he was gone, and so the dog returned to the train station every single day to await his master. He became such a familiar presence there, in fact, that the station master set out food for the dog and gave him a bed in the station. Even so, Hachiko never shifted loyalties –every day at 4 o’clock, he hopefully waited by the tracks as the train pulled in, searching for his best friend’s face among the people getting off.
Hachiko’s love for his master impressed many people who passed through the station, including one of Ueno’s former students, who became fascinated by the Akita breed after seeing Hachiko. He discovered that there were only 30 Akitas living in Japan, and began to write articles about Hachiko and his remarkable breed, turning the world’s most loyal dog into a household name, and creating a resurgence in popularity for the Akita.
Hachiko died in 1935, after 10 long years of waiting for his master. But the dog would not be forgotten –a year before his death, Shibuya Station installed a bronze statue of the aging dog, to honor its mascot. Though the statue was melted down during World War II, a new version was created in 1948 by the son of the original artist. Go to the station now, and you’ll be able to see the bronze statue of Hachiko – still waiting, as ever, for his master to come home.
Want to learn more about Hachiko and the amazing Akita breed? Watch Hachi, the movie based on his story (co-starring Richard Gere), or check out these great books:
Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain, by Martha Sherrill
Hachiko Waits, by Leslea Newman

Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog, by Pamela S. Turner

Source: http://gimundo.com/news/article/hachiko-the-worlds-most-loyal-dog/

‘Lion’ outed as dog at Chinese zoo after barking

‘Lion’ outed as dog at Chinese zoo after barking; outfit had dog in wolf cage, fox in leopard enclosure (From National Post Newspaper, August 16, 2013)

BEIJING — Behold the regal lion and hear its mighty … bark?

A zoo in the central China city of Luohe attempted to pass off a Tibetan mastiff as a lion, state media reported. The large, aggressive breed has a trademark bushy mane that gives it a lion-like appearance, but its vocalizations are more woof than roar.

The Beijing Youth Daily said Friday the zoo also had a dog in the wolf cage, foxes in the leopard enclosure and nutrias in the snake den.

Though the zoo said it wasn’t trying to fool anyone, it issued an apology to the public and closed for “rectification,” reported another newspaper, the Beijing News. It also planned to reorganize its public-private management structure, although the details were still being worked out, the newspaper said.

The Beijing Youth Daily quoted zoo manager Liu Suya as denying any attempt at deception, saying the lion had been lent out for breeding and would be back soon. The dog belonged to a friend of a zoo keeper who was on a business trip and needed a place to keep his pet while away, Liu said.

Liu said the leopard had also been lent out for breeding, while the snake and wolf were merely sheltering from the torrid summer heat. The substitute animals had been drafted because an empty cage would have “looked bad,” Liu said.

“If visitors require an explanation, we’d be happy to give it to them,” Liu said.

Calls to the zoo rang unanswered. The facility, with more than 20 animals on display, sits inside the city’s People’s Park and is co-run by the municipal government and a private contractor.

The Beijing Youth Daily said it was informed of the odd situation by a zoo visitor who had been taking her son around the enclosures to teach him the sounds that various animals make.

“He said they were fooling us because the ’lion’ was actually barking,” the visitor was quoted as saying. “The sign clearly said African lion so I can only think that this was an attempt to fool the visitor.”

Source: http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/16/lion-outed-as-dog-at-chinese-zoo-after-barking-outfit-had-dog-in-wolf-cage-fox-in-leopard-enclosure/