Justin Bieber’s new perfume “Someday,” aimed at young girls, has had the most successful launch ever for a celebrity scent. Apparently, the perfume contains hints of mandarin, pear, wild berries, jasmine, coconut orchid, and vanilla. Bieber says it “smells like a dream.”
The stage at Ottawa’s Bluesfest collapsed under hurricane force winds on Sunday night, seriously injuring one man. The collapse came during a set by Cheap Trick, who had apparently just finished playing “I Want You to Want Me.” The closing set, by the too-aptly named Death Cab For Cutie, was cancelled. But the question is why anybody thought scheduling a show was a good idea when winds of at least 90 km/hour were predicted?
At the women’s World Cup of soccer, Japan defeated the heavily favoured US team in a shootout, after a thrilling game in which the Japanese came back to tie the game twice. Thousands of fans celebrated the victory back home in Japan, erupting in cheers when Sailor Moon scored the winning goal.
The scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s empire continues to grow in Britain. Rebekah Brooks, Murdoch’s former British chief executive was arrested and released on bail, and the Metropolitan Police commissioner resigned because of his close ties to Murdoch executives. It was all enough to force us to rewatch All The President’s Men, to try to remember a time when journalism was actually a profession with some nobility.
Archeologists are beginning to dig up the remains of Canada’s first permanent parliament building from under a parking lot in Montreal. The building opened in 1844 and then was burned down by an angry mob in 1849. Not that I’m suggesting I’d like to see history repeating itself in Ottawa. Not at all. Never.
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IDLER
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LOCAL
For those suffering in the heat, bad news. The temperature and the humidity are not expected to drop any time soon. To paraphrase General Sherman, or possibly General Sheridan, talking about the heat in Texas, “If I owned Toronto and Hell, I’d rent out Toronto and live in Hell.”
A piano sitting largely abandoned in a Forest Hill Loblaws found itself the focus of an impromptu and unauthorized concert on the weekend. Events like this are what give me hope that, despite the best efforts of city politicians, the arts will survive in the city one way or another.
Food banks, however, may not. The Parkdale Community Food Bank is on the verge of having to close its doors, having almost run out of both food and money.
Two men charged with running an $18-million drug lab in Scarborough were acquitted after a judge ruled a police search was illegal. An officer testified that he had a “hunch” that a burglary was being committed at the property and executed a search without a warrant. Amazingly enough, the judge ruled that a “hunch” was not a sufficient basis for a police search. Charter rights? That’s so 2000s.
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THE LAST
The world snail racing championships were in England on the weekend. The racecourse is about 13 inches long. The race began on Saturday and is expected to finish about mid-November. No, seriously, the winning mollusk crossed the line in 3 minutes and 23 seconds. The course record is two minutes.
A Mississippi woman attempting to shoot a pitbull puppy that had threatened some children ending up shooting her husband to death instead, although she did hit the dog once.
