680News - Lisa Brandt

Think you’ve heard everything when it comes to what some women will do for beauty and eternal youth? Not until you’ve heard about the bird poop solution.

In Japan, geishas have apparently been tightening their pores with Nightingale droppings, for centuries. Now a spa in New York City has started offering to pack on the poo, which has had its bacteria removed in a heating process. Women are paying big bucks to get avian crap slapped on their visages, in hopes of looking younger.

So how does it smell to have bird pucky layered so close to your nasal cavity? Like hay, apparently. Not poopy at all. So they say. I’m not about to find out, thank you.

I suppose injections and cuts are a lot worse than ladling birdy guano on your mug, but the idea of it is just a little more than I could stomach, thank you. Give me a good old fashioned mud pack. Or better yet, give me my Biore cleanser and a mild toner. Somehow I don’t think the fountain of youth can be found in the poop on a fountain.

Where were you when the TTC stopped rolling?

Several would-be transit riders sent me passionate emails about getting stranded by the surprise strike at midnight Friday. They walked long distances. They hoped in vain for cabs to come along and if they did see a taxi, they paid dearly for a ride.

Perhaps the worst part of the situation was the confusion it caused. Many people were caught totally unaware and stood out on the streets waiting in vain for red rockets that never launched. It must have been a very eerie feeling. The last they had heard, the union would give 48 hours notice before any strike action and predictions that the three-year deal would be ratified. Neither proved to be the case.

Now they’re back to work. Transit rolled as usual this morning, albeit with concerns about worker safety. Some feared they would be held responsible by angry riders, and spit on, or worse. It’s pretty disgusting that people would actually have to be reminded to be nice to drivers. Holding an individual responsible for the actions of a union isn’t just foolhardy, it’s wrong and it’s futile.

If you were inconvenienced, write a letter to union head Bob Kinnear or TTC chair, Adam Giambrone, who says he will have details on a Metropass rebate later in the week. Meantime we’ll watch the talks closely as they continue with an arbitrator.

Sometimes you just need a little good news, you know?

In a week of increasingly frayed nerves over the TTC contract offer, predictions of violence at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, a well-meaning Priest lost at sea while tied to helium balloons, murders, attacks, and everything else that people do to themselves and each other in this world, it was nice to see ONE story turn out well.

Some fool stole a baby monkey from a Zoo in New Brunswick. Whether a baby monkey out east survives or not won’t have an impact on your life or mine. But a baby anything is vulnerable and it’s awful to think that a thief who likely knew nothing about caring for an infant monkey might let it die from neglect.

Whoever took the little one, named April, had to jump a fence, kick in a door and take the monkey from its enclosure before getting away from the zoo without getting caught.

However, three days after the theft and following pleas from police that included an explanation about how hard it is to keep a fragile little life like this alive, the monkey was found after an anonymous tip to police. April is said to be in good health and has been reunited with its Mother. No one has been caught or arrested. But I’m happy to share a happy bit of news for a change!

Once you’ve been on the planet for some time, it’s easy to say “nothing surprises me anymore” but things still do surprise us. What happened yesterday is a classic example of an unpredictable news day.

First, we in the breaking news game got an alert that the crown in Robert Baltovich’s second, second-degree murder trial for the death of his then-girlfriend Elizabeth Bain, would not be presenting any evidence or calling any witnesses. The next alert came quickly: saying the jury was allowed to deliberate only a “not guilty” verdict, as directed by the judge. Shortly afterward we learned that Robert Baltovich was, indeed, found “not guilty” and could walk out a free man.

Then after more than two years of waiting in a Mexican jail without a trial, Brenda Martin of Trenton finally got her verdict in a fraud case: Guilty. Her sentence: five years in jail. Now she works along with Canadian officials for a transfer back home to serve her sentence and, likely, go free, when time served comes into account.

Many people thought Baltovich was guilty. Many people thought Martin was innocent. The courts have decided otherwise. And so it goes. As we say, the news is always changing!

Smoking makes me sick. No, really, I’m allergic to cigarette smoke, which is apparently quite common for ex-smokers. It’s a bit of a defence mechanism that kicks in, I guess. I’m empathetic to smokers because I was one of them and a hard-core one at that. This is my 20th anniversary year of quitting. I know it’s not easy.

Cigarettes are making news because as of May 31, retailers will no longer be allowed to have packs on display. Back when I smoked, I knew my brand well so it wouldn’t have been a problem to buy cigarettes sight unseen. Smokers tend to be faithful to one kind of cancer stick.

But the province is hoping that hiding the packages, wrapped as they are in huge health warnings, will make them less enticing to kids. At last word, about half of store owners said they wouldn’t be ready with their camouflage by the deadline. However, Premier McGuinty says they were all warned years ago that this was coming and there’s no reason they can’t be prepared.

Back when I quit, there were few quitting aids. I went cold turkey and chewed sugarless gum until my jaw hurt and ate carrot sticks until my hands turned orange. These days, there are gums, patches, pills and other doodads designed to ease the very real symptoms of withdrawal. And if you look up Toronto Public Health on the Web, you’ll find pages and pages of tips to help you quit and programs that are covered by OHIP. That is, if you want to quit! Whenever you’re ready, it’s there.

Gas prices are $1.20 a litre for regular as I write this, and some say they’re going to go even higher. Liberal MP Dan McTeague tells 680News he blames the spike on profit taking by the refiners.

Our morning business editor, Mike Eppel, finds even more reasons behind the rise.

“China is importing record amounts of crude oil to fuel a booming economy. American fuel supply levels have been declining. Americans are now paying a record for gas; on average $3.44 per gallon and so far they’re not driving any less.”

Mike predicts there’ll be some gouging if there’s a transit strike on Monday.

“Gasoline retailers in the GTA will also raise prices if there is a TTC strike, to take advantage of a bad situation. People seem to think the gas companies should be altruistic when setting prices, but it is still a business, in business to make money.”

And make money it does! And we, as consumers, appear to be entirely helpless on the never-ending roller coaster.

As I write this, Health Canada is expected to be preparing a statement designating the plastic additive Bisphenol A, a “toxic and dangerous” chemical. It’s already classified as a hormone disrupter which means it has been shown in studies to contribute to changes to prostate and breast cells and possibly make them more susceptible to cancer.

Environmental activists have been calling for a ban on BPA for years. They say infants and very young children are most at risk from the compound leaking out of vessels like baby bottles.

So where do you look for it in your home and how do you tell if you have it? It’s in everyday plastic products including soup cans, plastic water containers, plastic wrap and baby bottles.

One way you can tell if a product contains BPA, is if it’s marked with recycling code #7. However, not all products containing BPA have this marking.

Experts advise avoiding BPA by choosing products that are packaged in glass or stainless steel. Hard plastic containers made without BPA can be found at health and organic food stores. Choose pop and soup and other foods in glass instead of tins, when you can.

Several major retailers including Canadian Tire, Hudson’s Bay Company and Forzani Group have already removed the products from their inventories in anticipation of Health Canada’s report.

At 680News, we’re watching this story closely, with the health of our families in mind.

What’s it like for you when you get back to work after a great holiday?

I was only in England and France for two weeks, but I don’t usually take more than a week of vacation at a time. It feels like I’ve been away for a month. And when it comes to getting away from it all, that’s a very good thing.

The 680News experience, from the inside, is quite intense, so jumping back into it is quite a challenge! I felt like a newbie for the first hour or so, but as the first morning wore on, I got my groove back. I’m hoping that you didn’t notice any difference because it was mainly taking place inside my head!

As you likely know from your own travels, we have much to be thankful for here in the GTA. Big cups of bold coffee come to mind after the teeny espressos favoured in France! Not to mention more important things like the potential of wealth and a wide array of choices and good, fresh food.

We also have a lot we could be doing better. Some cities, like London, England and Nice, France, really know how to make tourists feel welcome. I’m not sure we do that as well here, but then again, I’ve never been a tourist in Toronto, so I don’t feel qualified to comment with certainty. But I’m home now and this blog will return to its normally scheduled issues as of Wednesday! Thanks for indulging my “vacation brain”!