File this one in the ‘You Can’t Make It Up’ folder.
A gaggle of eco-warriors wants us to kick the toilet paper habit and replace it with bidets, a piece of toilet paperless plumbing that goes back to the days of the Roman Empire.
A top-end bidet – with auto electronic flusher and nightlight – goes for $533 on Amazon, while a low-end version with manual handle that applies tushy warm water can be had for $122.
According to the group’s website, the average Canadian unravels 85 (standard, two-ply) rolls of toilet tissue per year, which makes us one of the world’s biggest users of toilet paper.
To feed this prolific use of toilet paper, 28 million acres of forest have been cut down since 1998. Somebody with too much time on his or her hands has figured that each household with a bidet will save 384 trees in the bottom-washing throne’s lifetime.
According to a story in the National Post, a Japanese outfit has designed a bidet called Washjet which, according to the manufacturer, does everything but your taxes.
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No. 10 street car converted in 1929 to a popular lunch counter set up on a slice of property on the southwest corner of Central Park (Horovitz Park) became a piece of history in July 1953 when it was sold and truck away.
The lunch counter, known for its fish and chips, closed a year earlier when owner John Perkins died. With the property owner, Ashworth Halliwell, unwilling to renew the property lease, new owner Rene Gauthier moved it.
But where? And did it live on as a lunch counter, serving burgers and fries, in another part of the city?
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A 150-year-old log cabin on the 65-acre dairy/ vegetable farm on Second Street West owned by the Bronson family was torn down in July 1953 after the farm was purchased by the city for the new filtration plant.
The cabin was believed to be the first home on the property, later replaced by a 10-room home.
In the late 1880s, a 120-foot water tower made of wood was built on the farm to supply the town with water. The agreement provided the farm with free water from the tower. When it came to build a new water plant, the city only wanted a small piece of the property, but when Bronsons refused to tear up the original agreement, the city purchased the entire farm. The property included a four-acre hickory wood lot. The former farm now includes the filtration plant, Cornwall Transit and the Benson Centre.
ALSO IN JULY 1953 – The annual Howard Smith Paper Mill family picnic on Sheek Island played host to 1,100 children and parents. Among the ‘non-Olympic’ events were the cracker eating contest won by Billy Primeau and Wayne Gallinger, the pie eating contest won by Betty Walker, the egg’n’spoon race won by John Lewis, the two-person wheelbarrow race won by Jamie Cameron and Paul Hempel and the plate race won by Carl Alguire and Deanna Stidwell. The draw for a new 10-speed bicycle was won by Harry Mattice. … Fern Guindon, 33-year-old Apple Hill oil distributor, won the Glengarry-Prescott Progressive Conservative nomination for the Aug. 10 federal election. … A powerful thunder storm knocked out Canadian Pacific telegraph service in the city. … The Christian Reformed congregation unveiled plans to build a church on Pitt Street North. Most of the 60 families came to Canada after the Second World War. … An addition to Le Juvenat du Sacre-Coeur in Summerstown (former Cariboo Cameron home) included two dorms, a chapel and three classrooms. … Cornwall Street Railway said that in the previous year its buses carried a record four million passengers and travelled 735,000 miles. … TCF and its union had a one-year contract that gave employees a seven-cent-per-hour increase, bringing the base rate to $1.65. The work week was reduced to 42 hours. … Convicted of hit-and-run, a Cornwall man, a member of Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR), was given a 30-day jail sentence. His bigger problem was being absent without leave, a charge he faced upon release from jail. … Cornwall Public School Board approved a new six-room school at Eighth and Sydney streets.
BITS AND BITES How hot was it last week? It was so hot some folks started putting ice cubes in their waterbeds. And, it was so hot, somebody saw two fire hydrants fighting over a dog. Out in the country, cows were producing evaporated milk. … When the town of Mattawa – southeast of North Bay asked for grass cutting bids, the lone bidder wanted $40,000, an increase from $17,000 the previous year for the same work. … Am I the only Cornwall Collegiate student circa 1950s/60s never inside iconic Lebano’s Store at Fourth and Amelia streets? … We now have something called ‘parenting experts’. … Why are some people surprised that a document shared with 135 employees was ‘leaked’? … When I worked for Thomson Newspapers, a Boston company was hired to do employee surveys in its Canadian division. Bosses weren’t excited about the surveys but the smart ones used the results to become better leaders. … One of my favourite radio sports personalities, Bob McCown, once the highest paid radio sports broadcasters in Toronto, has been silenced by a severe stroke. … Postmedia – the tri-weekly Standard-Freeholder is part its stable – is sinking in red ink. It is carrying a $250 million debt. Problem is, there isn’t much left to cut. … What happened to the 5G conspiracy theory that COVID-19 is disseminated by cellular towers?
TRIVIA When his father was transferred to Canada, this future Hollywood star lived in Ottawa for four years and attended Robert Hopkins Public School. He returned to the United States with his mother when his parents split-up: 1) Sean Penn, 2) Matt Damon, 3) Tom Cruise, 4) Dustin Hoffman, 5) Tom Hanks.
TRIVIA ANSWER Dan Blocker played Hoss Cartwright, one of three sons, in the television series Bonanza.
QUOTED “Police executives must be empathetic when dealing with their personnel looking for guidance when things become most dire; showing apathy only exacerbates any difficulties they may be facing on or off-duty.” – Martine Materasso, commanding officer of the New York Police Department anti-terrorism bureau.
