Toronto principal in controversial controversy over explicit poems he wrote and posted to his website. This is of course the first recorded case ever of somebody getting in trouble for something they wrote on the Internet, and the scandal has sent shock waves through the online community. "Wait, somebody actually reads this shit?" said Patrick Metzger. "Dammit, I better re-emphasize that my erotic snuff story about Geri Halliwell is purely a work of fiction!"......

The Hudson's Bay Company, the storied Canadian retailer built on the flayed and eviscerated corpses of a million fur-bearing mammals, is looking to make amends. The display window of the Yonge and Bloor store is currently offering passersby a few suggestions on how to make their lives greener. Notably absent from the eco recos is "Buy Less Stuff." Photo by Patrick Metzger.......

Toronto Zoo to go green. The Zoo will now focus on biodiversity and sustainability while presenting animals from around the world in small, depressing, joke-like habitats that offer a crude mockery of how the animals would prefer to live, focusing on the fact that while their lives in the zoo might suck, at least nobody is killing these animals for fun, as would frequently happen in the wild. Prince Harry being withdrawn from Afghanistan. It......

Provincial Conservative leader John Tory, battling to stay employed in the face of disaffected fellow partiers who want to hold a leadership review next month, says in a letter on his website that he has travelled the province listening to members and coming up with ideas to address their concerns. The Tories are lucky; a leader who also had a job as an MPP probably wouldn't have time for stuff like that. Provincial education......

When New York City billionaire Leona Helmsley died in 2007, who inherited her $12-million trust fund? If you said a white Maltese terrier named Trouble, you may want to tune in to CBC television at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 20th for Test the Nation: Trivia. The quiz show, now in its third edition, pits in-audience teams against each other while viewers at home can play along via the interweb. Later, the national quiz......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. As the tenants who inhabited the warehouses of the Queen West Triangle were evicted to make way for demolition......

Equal Voice, a group which advocates for more women in government, reports that there are 22% more women running in this year's provincial election than in 2003. However, they also note that because many women are competing in ridings where they have no hope of winning, the numbers may not translate into more female legislators. You know, rather than spending time and money trying to elect more women, the whole inequity thing could be......

Environment Canada reports that this has been the driest summer in fifty years for Toronto, with the city only receiving around half of its usual rainfall. Short-term predictions suggest that fall will be equally dry, with the the long-range forecast calling for global warming followed by drought, famine, plague and societal collapse. Sounds like great picnic weather! Provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton has said that, if elected, he will roll back college and university......

Background photo of Queen's Park by Scott Chandler from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. Last week, Ontario MPPs gave themselves a Christmas present that any of us would have enjoyed: a 25% pay hike. Was this just a long-overdue catch-up, finally bringing MPP salaries into line with their federal counterparts, or the worst kind of political trough-feeding? In our new feature, two Torontoist staffers -- Patrick Metzger and Ken Hunt -- square off to debate......

We admit that it's a bit of a stretch to file this post in the food category, but after a long night out, a fast-food breakfast sandwich can be pretty damn tasty. With that in mind a gang of Torontoist's finest minds (Patrick Metzger, David Topping, Karen Whaley, Christopher Bird, and myself) got together one morning and decided to stack up the classic Egg McMuffin against the upstart Tim Horton's Egg, Cheese and Bacon/Sausage......