• blogTO considers some of the spendthrift things a millionaire could do in Toronto.
• James Bow remembers his 9/11 experience.
• Crasstalk features an essay by a New Yorker reflecting on her 9/11.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog reflects on how white power and white powerlessness can co-exist.
• Language Hat shares one book's evaluation of Neapolitan dialect.

Thanks to Robert for sending me a link to this Toronto Star review of the Ristorante Boccaccio, and the art gallery associated with it at the Columbus Centre up at Dufferin and Lawrence. It's literally on my street. Why not go?

Eating at the community centre usually involves casseroles, dartboards and stacking wooden chairs ( Read more... )

NOW Toronto's Daqniel Rotsztain describes gentrification in what may as well be my neighbourhood.

Where I live at Dufferin and Davenport, the modest dwellings of Corso Italia meet the larger houses of Regal Heights ( Read more... )

Another writer in the Montreal Gazette, Mario Micone, reflects on the history of the Italian Canadian community of Québec. As he notes in his introduction, Italian Canadians have been set apart from the established communities of Québec by any number of factors--the ongoing mafia inquiries into corruption in Montréal aren't helping.

With Italian- ( Read more... )

I'm not really surprised by the news coming from Québec--here, sampled from the National Post but see also the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail and the CBC--arguing that, contrary to Canadian stereotypes, Italian organized crime families are as strong in Ontario as they are in Québec. La belle province has a reputation for particularly high ( Read more... )

I've a post up at Demography Matters with links and extended excerpts from interesting population-related posts ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

As you've no doubt gathered so far, this year's Toronto mayoral election is positively pregnant with possibility. One of the interesting things is that this year's slate of candidates was full of Italian-Canadians: TTC chair Adam Giambrone, Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, and Liberal Party fundraiser Rocco Rossi. Giambrone withdrew in February ( Read more... )

I'd like to begin my making special mention of the latest massive news roundup at Sublime Oblivion. Covering some two dozen different items from the end of the Pax Americana to post-Soviet politics in Eurasia, it's a must-read.

• At 3 Quarks Daily, Frans de Waal writes about how the cultural perceptions of the Japanese has led to innovations in the ( Read more... )

The Canadian Press reports that Italian Canadians in Ontario (and elsewhere) are mobilizing to help survivors of the L'Aquila earthquake in the southern region of Abruzzo region.

Pal Di Iulio, the head of Villa Charities, one of the Canada's largest Italian-Canadian foundations, spent Monday taking phone calls from people wanting to know what they ( Read more... )