By now, I’m hoping you’ve heard about the famous Sour Toe swallow up in Dawson City. For years, they’ve had a grizzled, green, gross-looking preserved toe on display at the Downtown Hotel. Brave souls (I did it) take a drink of pop or whiskey or what have you with the digit floating inside in what’s called the Sour Toe Cocktail. If the toe touches your lips when you drink, you get to join the Sour Toe club and you get your name on a certificate. Mine is not proudly displayed on my mantle but I have it somewhere. They’ve had Read more
tourism
We hear a lot about the Riviera Maya, with glittering Cancun and the ruins of Tulum and the great beaches. It’s a wonderful part of Mexico. Most Canadians also have heard of Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas, the latter on the tip of Baja California. The words Riviera Nayarit probably don’t sound as familiar. But it’s a hugely popular stretch of Pacific coastline north of Puerto Vallarta, and it looks wonderful. The folks from Riviera Nayarit on Tuesday put on a great lunch at Frida restaurant on Eglinton West, thanks in part to a virtuoso job by Mexican chef Betty Read more
HANOI – I arrive in Vietnam and the first sign I notice on the side of the road is a giant, powder-blue sign affixed to an apartment building with giant red letters that scream “English for Future.” Yeah, I guess you could say this country has adapted rather quickly. It was only 40 years ago that the USA, the country where I was born, was bombing the living bejeezus out of this part of this most beautiful of countries for reasons most Americans never quite understood. But a lot has changed. The government here labels itself as a Socialist republic, Read more
THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO – A visitor hears Kakabeka Falls outside Thunder Bay is the “Niagara of the north” and immediately thinks lesser of the place. I mean, we all hear that nonsense about how Toronto is Hollywood North and we know it’s not true. Or maybe it’s Vancouver. Anyway, I didn’t think much of the analogy and the photos I saw didn’t quite overwhelm me. But the tourism folks suggested I take the 20 minute drive from the airport out to see the falls so I figured they knew what they were talking about. I made the short drive as Read more
We haven’t heard as much about it as you might think, given that Canada and the U.S. are playing on Saturday in Toronto for a berth, but the Rugby World Cup will be in England and Wales in two years time. And it promises to be a massive show. Sure, the Super Bowl is big. Ditto for the Stanley Cup and the Pan Am Games, which will be in Toronto in 2015 in case you forgot and will have more athletes than a Winter Olympics. But the Rugby World Cup is said to have the third largest global audience of Read more
