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Fighting with Strangers
When I first moved to Toronto, I didn’t know anyone. I had left behind a town I’d lived in for seven years in an effort to change my career path. In addition to leaving my job behind, though, I also left my friends…and our twice-monthly Dungeons & Dragons sessions. Our little band of nerds changed over the years, with people coming and going as their lives dictated, but our love of fantasy, bad jokes and epic stories had us all eager for the next session. None of us had grown up playing tabletop games. Like so many of our generation of players, we owed our new-found passtime (and dice-collecting addictions)…
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Mom’s Basement: For Nerds and Nostalgia
The rush of warm air greets customers’ rosy cheeks as they step into the bar from the winter’s chill on Danforth Avenue. The glow from the fluorescent lights and TVs playing classic ‘80s movies surround the patrons as “Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus echoes through the room on the sound system. The bartender says a friendly “hello” and welcomes them to Mom’s Basement; from then on, they’re home. Derek Van Dyken and Jon Bratt worked in the service industry for years and always talked about how one day they would own their own business. All it took was “a bad day” in early 2019 for them to realize that they were…
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On the Map: The Once-Sleepy Danforth Neighbourhood Finds its Place in the 6
“There are so many studies that say that once you get a Starbucks in a neighbourhood, you’re A Neighbourhood—with a capital A,” says long-time Danforth resident Jack Howard as we discuss the transformation of the once-sleepy locality into a vibrant and culturally diverse pocket of Toronto. Howard and his wife chose the Danforth area for their future family home back in 2006 because, at the time, it was one of the more affordable areas of Toronto. Since then, the once-tired, inner-city east side quarter has changed dramatically—for the better. “I can share with you that our excitement of getting a new shop [in our neighbourhood] ten years ago was very…
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Helping Homeless Cats
Decreasing the abandoned animal population on the Danforth and in Toronto.
