TorontoIAM Daily Blog Report: Injuries Can't Stop Raptors, European Wine-Bar Experience, Time to Trade Sundin

by Inveslogic | December 4, 2007 at 10:33 am

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This is a selection of recent popular blog articles from TorontoIAM where you will find the best blogs from Toronto, Ontario as well as video uploads, social networking, rumors, and blog authoring

Raptors Still Victorious Despite Injuries

Over at NBA’s Raptor’s News, we get a summary of the beating Toronto gave the Bobcats last night (98-79)… despite the Raptors best players being out with injuries. Chris Bosh was out with a strained groin, Andrea Bargnani has a hyper-extended knee, and guard T.J. Ford is still out with an injured thumb. Regardless, “The guys who needed to step up, stepped up,” said Raptors’ coach Sam Mitchell. Humphries and Delfino both had 17 points, Graham had 13, and Calderon got 12 and nine assists with “double-digit scoring from five others to post their fourth straight home win.”

The post notes that Charlotte’s poor shooting performance proved costly. Charlotte coach Sam Vincent said their core players “just couldn't get it going. We don't have the depth for two or three of our core guys to not perform.” Depth was not an issue for Toronto, “who buried Charlotte by shooting 11-for-20 in the first quarter.” Our team began the second quarter with a 10-3 run and by half-time had a 54-33 lead. Calderon said that the team needs everyone to win games. “Without Andrea, without Chris and T.J., everybody plays together,” he said.

Navigating Culture and Difference in Toronto Literature

An interesting post from Reading Toronto by Amy Lavender Harris addresses culture and difference in Toronto’s literature. In response to a recent article in the Toronto Star called “Bridging the Cultural Divide,” which explores how “art and multiculturalism plays out in this city” and interviews four local artists, Harris points out that “the article makes one surprising omission: it doesn't reference the city's literature or talk with any of Toronto's writers or poets.”

In her post, our blogger references The Global Soul, by Pico Iyer, a book that explores “difference and dwelling in a transnational world.” Iyer calls Toronto “the city as anthology. Citing… Toronto-based novelists including Rohinton Mistry, Shyam Selvadurai, Nino Ricci, Neil Bissoondath, and Anne Michaels.” The author examines their varied visions of Toronto, “alternately welcoming or cold… where wounds of the past heal and bleed at the same time.” Harris prefers not label Toronto literature as “successfully multicultural” due to its many “ethnic backgrounds,” rather that its success as a “multicultural project is found in… writers probing into the ways culture and difference… across the terrain of this city.” It succeeds when we “bridge the gaps… confronting the hardest truths about difference and the limits of tolerance.”

Wine for the Masses

Sheryl Kirby at Taste TO, food and drink in Toronto, reviews a local wine-bar set to change our attitude about Parkdale, which has a reputation for being “a bit dirty and gritty.” Café Taste on Queen Street West, a “warm and welcoming little wine bar” run by wine guy Jeremy Day, has been open for the past year and has made Parkdale not just “a destination for good wine, but [it] has embraced the community in the process.”

In her post, Kirby features an interview with Day. She asks him how he got started in the wine-bar business. Day responds that he grew up on an organic farm “before a time when that meant something” and had a calling for the “hospitality” industry. After several trips to Europe, he “fell in love with the history and roots of wine, spirits and food.” Café Taste is modelled on his European experience: “local produce featured around the experience of treating oneself… In Europe, each cafe features local wines and cheeses.” When asked why Parkdale Day responds, “Why NOT Parkdale… my vision for this place is that wine & cheese is for everyone… not be put on a pedestal, it should be enjoyed by the people!”

Mats Sundin Position Could be Missed Opportunity

Howard Berger speculates in Hockey Buzz about the future of Mats Sundin as a Maple Leaf. During this moment of “serenity” around our teams’ recent back-to-back win, we can’t forget about this issue, which seems to have been swept under the rug by all the good vibes. This “soon-to-be 37-year-old captain of an inferior team -- playing maybe the best hockey of his career” is currently coveted by the Detroit Red Wings. “With Swedish players Lidstrom, Zetterberg and Holmstrom key figures on the Red Wings, it's not difficult to imagine why the perennial powerhouse in MoTown might be thrilled to add a skater of Sundin's caliber.”

The problem, Berger believes, is that we’re ignoring a golden opportunity. “How often is a bad team blessed with an older player performing at Sundin's level?” Sundin’s absolute best efforts “are having a negligible impact on a mediocre ensemble.” In his post, he states that in “a reasonable hockey environment” we would embrace the strategy of trading “an ageing player -- still performing marvelously, but having virtually no impact on the team -- for players and/or prospects that could help in the years after he's retired.” In the after-glow of the recent, rare success, though, we’ve lost sight of considering “any and all options that might abet [our team’s] future.”

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