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I came across a marketing concept when I was last in Toronto and I think it could work very well here for both Collingwood and the BIA. Most of us are already familiar with the standard promotion racks that hold flyers and cards for local events, places to visit, visitor maps and so on. This is more of a downsized version, but in many ways more effective. Here's a typical card, front and back:
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I think the only thing I ever really missed about the city when I moved up here was the variety of food we had within walking distance of our house in Toronto. We could walk to Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, Greek, Korean, Italian and Szechuan restaurants, all within 10-15 minutes of home. A little further, but still not very far, we had Thai, Mexican, Lebanese, Moroccan and new-age vegetarian.

Today in Collingwood, we can walk to almost as wide a variety of national and international tastes. This town has come a long way in the past 20 years, in terms of its culinary landscape. Pizzas, doughnuts, burgers and pasta dominated it when we first arrived. Now our choices are very broad and urbane, although they are still with us.

I don't...

Why aren't all psychics filthy rich? I mean, if you can predict the future, surely something as basic as the stock market's rise and fall should be a snap. Surely they can predict the winning lottery numbers, too. I never buy lottery tickets because there's always a lineup of psychics ahead of me, cashing in their winnings. No wonder there's never any money left for me...

Why don't all psychics drive BMWs and live in $3 million waterfront condos? Why do psychics get caught in traffic jams? Why do psychics lose bids on eBay? Would a psychic smoke of he or she could see the future with lung and other cancers?

There is an endless supply of such questions no one (especially not self-proclaimed psychics) can...

No, I won't tell you who you should vote for. This is rather a reminder to everyone of how the process works. I'll post something like this again closer to the election.

First: you should vote. It's not mandatory, but it is a right you should not treat lightly, even in municipal elections.

Second: it's another mail-in ballot (council would neither hear of any alternative nor allow a public discussion of any options - just like council refused to hold public meetings on a ward system).

The ballots will be mailed out in early October.

You have to make your selections on one piece of paper (the ballot), then seal it inside the provided envelope.

Next you sign another piece that says you're really you (like anyone...

One of the lesser know successes in town is a small but rapidly growing chess club for kids and teens aged 7 to 18. Run by Tim denBok, this group meets every Thursday at the Collingwood Public Library, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. It's no cost to join, but participants have to register (call 444-5516).

Local sports always get a lot of attention and recognition. Chess, like the arts and most intellectual activities, get less. Sometimes a lot less.

We have the mayor's golf tournament every year, but never the mayor's chess tournament (something I proposed back in 2008...

We spent more than two hours, Saturday, in the cat rooms at the new Georgian Bay Animal Rescue shelter, on the Tenth Line in Collingwood. GBAR has an unusual concept - open rooms, not individual cages. That way cats can socialize, play, move about, interact with each other and with visitors.

We had a friend up from Guelph over the weekend - another cat lover - and I'm not sure what moved us to take him to the shelter, but it became the highlight of his visit. Well, actually adopting the little cat you see at the left was the highlight. But the visit was entertaining, too.

There are two cat rooms at the shelter: the large or main room, and a smaller 'quiet' room. I've posted a couple of photos of the main room in ...

After three years of enduring frequent, snide and insulting comments from our mayor about local bloggers (me included), our mayor has decided to join us. That's right - the mayor has a blog.

Is his imitation the sincerest form of flattery? I doubt it.

As Scoop comments on the Eastend Underground...