#Mayor Chow

[lighthousedann]

Who Gets The 40 Million?

The Department of Public Works are paid full-time employees. Removing the paint and whatever else is involved in removing the bike lanes is conducted by government employees.  I do not understand where these politicians are getting these figures from.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Source

[hotgirlmeg]

this entire province is such a joke

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The latest public opinion poll in Toronto's mayoral race has Anthony Furey gaining ground, with the longtime conservative newspaper columnist even edging out several high-profile rivals.

A Forum Research poll released Monday shows Olivia Chow expanding her lead among decided voters, with 38 per cent saying she's their top choice compared to 13 per cent for her closest rival, ex-police chief Mark Saunders. One point behind Saunders is city councillor Josh Matlow at 12 per cent. 

It also puts Furey's support among decided voters at 10 per cent, up a percentage point from the week before and ahead of former city councillor Ana Bailão (eight per cent), former Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter (seven per cent) and sitting councillor Brad Bradford (five per cent).

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

In good political news today, Toronto elected Olivia Chow as mayor and I'm super stoked to have her back in City Hall.

From this CBC Article:

Olivia Chow was elected Toronto's next mayor in an unexpectedly close race Monday, promising to bring a more progressive approach after more than a decade of conservative leadership at city hall. The former downtown Toronto NDP MP and city councillor bested a record field of 102 candidates that included about a half dozen established contenders. Among those rivals was second-place finisher Ana Bailão — a past deputy to former mayor John Tory, whose shock resignation in February triggered the byelection. Chow, who was born in Hong Kong and came to Toronto at age 13, will become the third woman and first racialized person to serve as mayor in the city's history. She steps into the top spot as it grapples with a massive budget shortfall, an affordability crisis and public safety concerns. "If you ever doubted what's possible together, if you ever questioned your faith in a better future and what we can do with each other, for each other, tonight is your answer," Chow said in her speech to a crowd of cheering supporters. "Thank you to the people of Toronto for the trust you've placed in me and the mandate for change as your new mayor." [...] Among her headline commitments is a pledge to get the city back into social housing development and an annual $100 million investment in a program to purchase affordable homes and transfer them to non-profits and land trusts. [...]

Chow campaigned from the left, promising to boost rent supplements by introducing a "luxury home tax," an expanded land transfer tax on homes sold for $3 million and over. She also said she'll triple the city's existing vacant homes tax to three per cent. Chow will inherit largely untested strong mayor powers, however she has repeatedly said she wouldn't use them to override "majority rule" in council. In theory they would allow Chow to pass budgets with just one-third council support, veto bylaws and unilaterally shape the city's top-level administration. She did not release a fully-costed platform, and repeatedly declined to say by how much she would need to raise property taxes to pay for her suite of commitments — a focal point of criticism from her main rivals throughout the campaign.

The last week of the campaign saw Ontario Premier Doug Ford all but formally endorsed Saunders, warning at an unrelated news conference that a Chow mayoralty would be an "unmitigated disaster" and that she would raise taxes at an "unprecedented rate." Saunders finished third with 8.4 per cent of the total vote share.   Ford's pointed attack raises questions about Chow's relationship with Queen's Park as the city faces a $1.5-billion budget hole that will almost certainly require provincial help to fill. In a statement Monday night, Ford struck a conciliatory tone, saying he will "work with anyone ready to work with our government to better our city and province.  "Throughout Olivia's life, she has proven her desire and dedication to serving the city that many of us call home. While we're not always going to agree on everything, what we can agree on is our shared commitment to making Toronto a place where businesses, families, and workers can thrive."

Chow has long been a fixture of Toronto politics. She became a school board trustee in 1985, served 12 years on city council representing Trinity-Spadina and eventually became a New Democrat parliamentarian alongside her late husband and former federal NDP leader Jack Layton. Some of her notable policy stances include supporting an anti-homophobia curriculum in the 1980s, helping bring nutrition programs to Toronto schools in the 1990s and fighting against exploitative immigration consultants in the 2000s. For much of the last decade, she has run the Institute for Change Leaders at Toronto Metropolitan University where she trained community organizers.

The city being in basic bankruptcy position that will require provincial bail-out support is going to be contentious because Doug Ford is a nasty piece of work and vindictive as fuck - especially against Toronto Mayors - so we will see what she'll be able to get out of him (if anything). The Federal level will be able to help some, but it's really a municipal-provincial issue.

[uglyandtraveling]

Toronto's Santa Claus Parade: 120 Years of Magic and an Uncertain Future

Discover the magic of Toronto's 120th Santa Claus Parade, a cherished tradition since 1905. Learn about its future, challenges, and watch the festive celebration in 4K!

[elliscraddock]

Here's my #8thRocksShuffle #8thRocks dance video w/#CanadianJazz song called A Moment by #CaityGyorgy.

(w/heavy rain sound effects/high tone version). I don't own this song but enjoy. This tap dance video is pay tribute to the #MayorofToronto, #OliviaChow #MayorOliviaChow #鄒至蕙. #Toronto #Canada #Canadian 🇨🇦🍁🇨🇦

[studentprotests]

Olivia Chow paints a bright future on election night..

After a tumultuous year in municipal politics, the people of Toronto have chosen progressive change.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Lies, damned lies, and Uber

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT in PHOENIX (Changing Hands, Feb 29) then Tucson (Mar 10-11), San Francisco (Mar 13), and more!

Uber lies about everything, especially money. Oh, and labour. Especially labour. And geometry. Especially geometry! But especially especially money. They constantly lie about money.

Uber are virtuosos of mendacity, but in Toronto, the company has attained a heretofore unseen hat-trick: they told a single lie that is dramatically, materially untruthful about money, labour and geometry! It's an achievement for the ages.

Here's how they did it.

For several decades, Toronto has been clobbered by the misrule of a series of far-right, clownish mayors. This was the result of former Ontario Premier Mike Harris's great gerrymander of 1998, when the city of Toronto was amalgamated with its car-dependent suburbs. This set the tone for the next quarter-century, as these outlying regions – utterly dependent on Toronto for core economic activity and massive subsidies to pay the unsustainable utility and infrastructure bills for sprawling neighborhoods of single-family homes – proceeded to gut the city they relied on.

These "conservative" mayors – the philanderer, the crackhead, the sexual predator – turned the city into a corporate playground, swapping public housing and rent controls for out-of-control real-estate speculation and trading out some of the world's best transit for total car-dependency. As part of that decay, the city rolled out the red carpet for Uber, allowing the company to put as many unlicensed taxis as they wanted on the city's streets.

Now, it's hard to overstate the dire traffic situation in Toronto. Years of neglect and underinvestment in both the roads and the transit system have left both in a state of near collapse and it's not uncommon for multiple, consecutive main arteries to shut down without notice for weeks, months, or, in a few cases, years. The proliferation of Ubers on the road – driven by desperate people trying to survive the city's cost-of-living catastrophe – has only exacerbated this problem.

Uber, of course, would dispute this. The company insists – despite all common sense and peer-reviewed research – that adding more cars to the streets alleviates traffic. This is easily disproved: there just isn't any way to swap buses, streetcars, and subways for cars. The road space needed for all those single-occupancy cars pushes everything further apart, which means we need more cars, which means more roads, which means more distance between things, and so on.

It is an undeniable fact that geometry hates cars. But geometry loathes Uber. Because Ubers have all the problems of single-occupancy vehicles, and then they have the separate problem that they just end up circling idly around the city's streets, waiting for a rider. The more Ubers there are on the road, the longer each car ends up waiting for a passenger:

https://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Uber-Lyft-San-Francisco-pros-cons-ride-hailing-13841277.php

Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. After years of bumbling-to-sinister municipal rule, Toronto finally reclaimed its political power and voted in a new mayor, Olivia Chow, a progressive of long tenure and great standing (I used to ring doorbells for her when she was campaigning for her city council seat). Mayor Chow announced that she was going to reclaim the city's prerogative to limit the number of Ubers on the road, ending the period of Uber's "self-regulation."

Uber, naturally, lost its shit. The company claims to be more than a (geometrically impossible) provider of convenient transportation for Torontonians, but also a provider of good jobs for working people. And to prove it, the company has promised to pay its drivers "120% of minimum wage." As I write for Ricochet, that's a whopper, even by Uber's standards:

https://ricochet.media/en/4039/uber-is-lying-again-the-company-has-no-intention-of-paying-drivers-a-living-wage

Here's the thing: Uber is only proposing to pay 120% of the minimum wage while drivers have a passenger in the vehicle. And with the number of vehicles Uber wants on the road, most drivers will be earning nothing most of the time. Factor in that unpaid time, as well as expenses for vehicles, and the average Toronto Uber driver stands to make $2.50 per hour (Canadian):

https://ridefair.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Legislated-Poverty.pdf

Now, Uber's told a lot of lies over the years. Right from the start, the company implicitly lied about what it cost to provide an Uber. For its first 12 years, Uber lost $0.41 on every dollar it brought in, lighting tens of billions in investment capital provided by the Saudi royals on fire in an effort to bankrupt rival transportation firms and disinvestment in municipal transit.

Uber then lied to retail investors about the business-case for buying its stock so that the House of Saud and other early investors could unload their stock. Uber claimed that they were on the verge of producing a self-driving car that would allow them to get rid of drivers, zero out their wage bill, and finally turn a profit. The company spent $2.5b on this, making it the most expensive Big Store in the history of cons:

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/infighting-busywork-missed-warnings-how-uber-wasted-2-5-billion-on-self-driving-cars

After years, Uber produced a "self-driving car" that could travel one half of one American mile before experiencing a potentially lethal collision. Uber quietly paid another company $400m to take this disaster off its hands:

https://www.economist.com/business/2020/12/10/why-is-uber-selling-its-autonomous-vehicle-division

The self-driving car lie was tied up in another lie – that somehow, automation could triumph over geometry. Robocabs, we were told, would travel in formations so tight that they would finally end the Red Queen's Race of more cars – more roads – more distance – more cars. That lie wormed its way into the company's IPO prospectus, which promised retail investors that profitability lay in replacing every journey – by car, cab, bike, bus, tram or train – with an Uber ride:

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1RN2SK/

The company has been bleeding out money ever since – though you wouldn't know it by looking at its investor disclosures. Every quarter, Uber trumpets that it has finally become profitable, and every quarter, Hubert Horan dissects its balance sheets to find the accounting trick the company thought of this time. There was one quarter where Uber declared profitability by marking up the value of stock it held in Uber-like companies in other countries.

How did it get this stock? Well, Uber tried to run a business in those countries and it was such a total disaster that they had to flee the country, selling their business to a failing domestic competitor in exchange for stock in its collapsing business. Naturally, there's no market for this stock, which, in Uber-land, means you can assign any value you want to it. So that one quarter, Uber just asserted that the stock had shot up in value and voila, profit!

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/02/hubert-horan-can-uber-ever-deliver-part-twenty-nine-despite-massive-price-increases-uber-losses-top-31-billion.html

But all of those lies are as nothing to the whopper that Uber is trying to sell to Torontonians by blanketing the city in ads: the lie that by paying drivers $2.50/hour to fill the streets with more single-occupancy cars, they will turn a profit, reduce the city's traffic, and provide good jobs. Uber says it can vanquish geometry, economics and working poverty with the awesome power of narrative.

In other words, it's taking Toronto for a bunch of suckers.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/29/geometry-hates-uber/#toronto-the-gullible

Image: Rob Sinclair (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Night_skyline_of_Toronto_May_2009.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

[hotvintagepoll]

Charlotte Greenwood (Oklahoma, The Gang's All Here)—gotta submit Queen of the Dancing Scrungle charlotte greenwood! she was a lovely very tall lady, but when she gets dancing you know there's gonna be some scrungle on the floor 2nite

James Cagney (Yankee Doodle Dandy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Public Enemy, White Heat, The Strawberry Blonde)—Whaddya mean I've gotta SUBMIT Cagney? You look up scrungly in the dictionary and there's a picture of him RIGHT THERE. He IS the scrungle. -SHORT KING 5'4 3/4 (1.65m) I could put him in my pocket -When he rolls down his car window (in Mayor of Hell) sticks his head out and makes some snarky comment (which I didn't hear because I was way too distracted) it's like struck by lightning, let me tell you -His hair is so wavy and sometimes it falls over his forehead and then I die a little -He plays The Public Enemy number one, everyone thinks of this as "the one with the grapefruit scene" but it is SO SO much more than that, it's also the one where he wears little striped pajamas -Multilingual (Yes, I'm the same person who submitted EGR and listed this earlier. Yes, this is a big thing for me.) He spoke Yiddish, guys and you can hear him speak it in a movie (Taxi) AND when the Warner Bros. tried to discuss him without him knowing they used Yiddish not realizing he'd understand everything -He talks so fast. Like. Staccatto. It's so fascinating -Loved animals & owned CHOW CHOWS (that's a very scrungly dog, c'mon) -Plays Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream, that's the guy who gets turned into a DONKEY, nobody else could've played it like he did -Messed with Warner Bros. all the time, threatened to quit, told them he was going to go be a doctor instead -He does this little nose scrunch thing oh my god -Boy Meets Girl is a supremely underrated screw ball comedy and he has lots of silly little outfits in it and acts ridiculous the entire time -Was fascinated by farming and just puttered around on his tractor, like he's just a little guy! -There's a movie where he has a silly little mustache (I haven't seen it yet though) -They've dressed him up as bellhops, sailorsn cowboys and itty bitty gangsters [in movies] and frankly that should be enough -His first show biz job was a female dancer on the chorus line

This is round 1 of the contest. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. If you're confused on what a scrungle is, or any of the rules of the contest, click here.

[additional submitted propaganda + scrungly videos under the cut]

Charlotte Greenwood:

James Cagney:

James Cagney is such a scrungler. He could dance, he could sing, he embodied the gangster role, he was a short king, he had curly hair, what more could you possibly want?? Something about his face just feels so Looney Toons to me. He's like a little bug and I'm observing him through my magnifying glass. I'm obsessed with his hair and his scrunging demeanor!!! He's the most guy to me of all time. I tried to draw him once and completely failed. You could crumple him up like a tissue and watch him float away in the breeze.

Fanvid

A second fanvid

A third fanvid

He is the SCRUNGLIEST of gangsters, it’s the role that made him famous, and by god that’s for good reason. He also plays a peculiar little guy in musicals and occasionally westerns, all with a particular flavor of scruffy city rat energy that you can’t help but adore!  

[antilovett]

who else is serving cunt like toronto mayor olivia chow

[hannahhook7744]

Descendants Background Characters Names (Redone) Part 1;

Judy the guidance counselor.

Nessie, daughter of Marlon (Ariel's cousin).

Elle Athanasiou of Tirulia, Eric and Ariel's adoptive daughter.

Christopher 'Topher' Thompson, great nephew of Smee.

Hershel Fenner, son of Harvey Fenner.

Tsunami, niece of Ariel.

Cascade daughter of Ariel's friend, Coral.

Beryl, daughter of Attina.

Harmony, youngest daughter of Ariel.

Jamilah, daughter of Jasmine and Aladdin ( @cleverqueencommander 's oc).

Hilda Bjorgman, daughter of Kristoff Bjorgman and Anna.

Jacoba/Coba, daughter of Bernadette.

Nora Nattura, daughter of Honerymaren and Elsa.

Catharina/Cato Bones, daughter of Katrina and Brom Bones.

Addy Colyar, is the daughter of Buford (from Princess and the Frog).

Demurra Foxworth, daughter of Nibs and Jenny Foxworth.

Sappy the tall Dwarf, Coach Jenkins's husband.

Coach Reese Jenkins.

Girls in the back:

Chi Fu's daughter, Min.

Roger and Anita's daughter, Amy.

Chien-po and Su's daughter, Chao.

Girls in the front:

Jehan Frollo's daughter, Jeanette Frollo.

Prince Lars Westergaard and Charlotte La Bouf's daughter, Princess Carolina Westergaard la Bouf of the Southern Isles.

Ling and Ting-Ting's daughter, Tyra.

First girl is Naveen and Tiana's daughter, Nina. Twin of Tyrone. @cleverqueenchild 's oc.

Girl behind Chad is Chi-fu's daughter, Min.

Girl behind Doug is Prince Lars Westergaard and Charlotte La Bouf's daughter, Princess Aloisia Westergaard la Bouf of the Southern Isles.

Guy behind Doug is Prince Lars Westergaard and Charlotte La Bouf's son, Prince Brendan Westergaard La Bouf of the Southern Isles.

Guy next to Doug is Naveen and Tiana's son, Tyrone. Twin of Nina.

Girl behind Audrey is Ling and Ting-Ting's daughter, Lian.

Demurra Foxworth is the daughter of Nibs (From Peter Pan) and Jenny Foxworth (Oliver & Company).

Princess Aloisia Westergaard-La Bouf is the daughter of Lars Westergaard (Prince Hans' brother) and Charlotte La Bouf (from Princess and the Frog).

*Chow is the daughter of the Matchmaker (from Mulan).

Becca Colyar is the daughter of Buford (from Princess and the Frog).

Princess Reyna Olympian-Westergaard is the daughter of Alana Olympian (Ariel's sister) and Maximilian Westergaard (Hans' brother).

Princess Shi is the daughter of Prince Jeeki.

(I only named the ones who faces you can kind of see).

Sheldon is the son of Mole.

Ronan is the son of Maudie (Brave).

Zoey Marquez-Madrigal is the daughter of Isabella Madrigal and Bubo Marquez.

Inaya is the daughter of Prince Achmed.

Mary-Grace is the daughter of Vladimir.

Mary-Ellen is the daughter of Phil.

Macarla is the daughter of Megara and Hercules.

Ronnie is the son of Phlegmenkoff.

Kaiyah is the daughter of Raya.

Kaida is the daughter of Raya.

Cesar is the son of Malina and Kuzco.

Spencer is the son of Mole.

Sawyer is the son of Mole.

Shen is the son of Mole.

Tanya is the daughter of Colette Tatou and Alfredo Linguini Gusteau.

Braxton is the son of Joshua Sweets.

Robbie is the son of Audrey Ramirez.

Gabe is the son of Vinny.

Fatima is the daughter of Kida and Milo.

Agatha is the daughter of Vidia.

Zara is the daughter of Maui.

Topher Thompson is the Great Nephew of Smee.

Cassius 'Cash' Clayton, son of William Clayton.

Shan Deja, daughter of Shan Yu.

Gemma LeGume, daughter of Gaston LeGume and the Enchantress.

Raymonda Snoops, daughter of Madame Medusa and Mr. Melvin Snoops (who is under Harriet's care).

Kathleen 'Cat' Bimbette, daughter of Claudette Bimbette.

Top Row:

Claire Bimbette, daughter of Claudette Bimbette.

Domonic Salt, son of Damien Salt.

2nd Row:

Everton 'Evie/Ev' Montgomery, son of Susan Montgomery (A Corrupt Mayor). Not to be confused with Wilson 'Will' Clayton, son of William Clayton, who looks and dresses similar.

Chantelle and Imani; they are the children of petty criminals.

3rd Row:

Hassan, bio son of Mozenrath and Sadira, and adopted brother of Reza.

Axel Huntsman, son of the huntsman.

Lamar, son of one of the Jolly Roger's Crew.

Last Row:

Alya and Omar, adopted children of Mozenrath and Sadira, and adopted siblings of Reza.

Top Row:

Henry McLeach, son of Percival McLeach.

Edith Olympian, daughter of Eris.

Mako, son of Sharky.

Middle Row:

Nova, orphan girl under Harriet's care.

Lin, Su, and Fen; daughters of the Huns.

Sean, son of the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Anais, orphan under Harriet's care.

Last Row:

Wolfrick Wolfe, son of Big Bad Wolf and enemy of Harriet Hook.

Jia, orphaned daughter of one of the Huns.

Top Row:

Raven Bog, daughter of Chernabog and enemy of Harriet Hook.

Na’vi, orphan boy under Harriet's care.

Middle Row:

Kingsley King, son of the Horned king and enemy of Harriet Hook.

Queenie Bog, daughter of Chernabog and enemy of Harriet Hook.

Last Row:

Holiday 'Holly' Sinclair, daughter of Helga Sinclair.

Donnie Salt, son of Damien Salt.

Rory Ratcliffe, son of Governor Ratcliffe.

Top Row:

'Mark' and 'Misha' Mullins, twin sons of Mullins from Hook’s crew and member of Uma’s crew.

Steward Starkey, son of Mr. Starkey from Hook's crew.

Middle Row:

Annalise, orphan girl who is Rachel's bestie.

Rachel Ratcliffe, daughter of Governor Ratcliffe.

Last Row:

Brigitta, Annalisa’s sister.

Alvar, son of Vor.

Raina, daughter of Prisma.

Aj Slade, daughter of Amos Slade.

Wilson 'Will' Clayton, son of William Clayton.

Magnus, son of King Magnifico.

------------------------------------------------------------

More will be added later as I come up with them, as will ages.

Feel free to suggest ages for any of the characters or potential parents.

Thanks for the help @casinotrio1965 .

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Jerry Grafstein

In recent years, however, it feels as if Canada has taken a step back.

Dr. Ayelet Kuper published a report in 2022, “Reflections in Addressing Antisemitism in a Canadian Faculty of Medicine” about antisemitism at the University of Toronto Medical School and problems with the school administration’s handling of Jew-hate. No one was chastised.

The hatred of Jews at universities is rampant today. Islamist extremists, a sliver of Islam, populate our universities, despite theologian Cardinal John Newman’s “idea of a university” as a place of tolerant exchanges. Victoria University, for instance, invited an iman who advocates the eradication of Jews to speak and Ottawa University hired an Islamist convicted in France for bombing a synagogue—imagine his classes.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and her cohorts in City Hall have not done nearly enough to combat antisemitism and hate across the city. During her administration, a rampage of pro-Palestinian protestors blocked the entrance at Mount Sinai Hospital, and Jewish schools and synagogues have come under gunfire.

What caused this antisemitic surge? Islamists and far-left radicals. The Muslim Brotherhood is alive in Canada with its aim to eradicate Jews and Christians.

In 1988, Toronto hosted the Group of Seven Summit with leaders from around the world. Then Mayor Art Eggleton appointed me co-chair of the Toronto Preparatory Committee where I liaised with Royal Canadian Mounted Police and then-Police Chief Bill Blair. More protesters were arrested in the four days of the summit than from all the violent, anti-Jewish protests that have taken place in Toronto since Oct. 7. Police today are overworked and underfunded.

Chow fails to protect Jews or curb antisemitic protests. No doubt there is a correlation between the lack of movement on fighting Jew-hatred and the overall criminal spike in Toronto that is affecting the entire city. She is the uncrowned queen of lawlessness, the modern Ninevah. Violence against Jews begets violence against all citizens. The cost of crime is Chow’s latest tax on all taxpayers.

Appeasement erodes democracy, and that’s what we are witnessing today in Toronto and across Canada.

My father, a wounded war veteran in the Polish War of Independence, who received an award for gallantry, fell in love with my mother and settled in London, Ontario, in 1930. During World War II, he would pour over the London [Ontario] Free Press, pointing out where Canadians gave their lives for liberty. My brain was branded with Canada’s love of liberty. Today, I live with high expectations that the Canada my father loved will re-emerge.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

There was a solidarity protest in Toronto last night I believe. Muslim & Indigenous women were horrifically attacked by Toronto’s terrorist cops and denied access for medical treatment. Shame on Olivia Chow for allowing this to happen. Our right to protest is being violated by spineless mayors and the thugs of the state. Soon enough, we’ll all be targeted by municipal policies that rather give raises to the police rather to public services. Never mind that, it’s already happening…

~~~~

[geibuchan]

Pepper and Mayor Covenplate get ready for a picnic in the park.

It's the third day of autumn, and as they head out from Covenplate's private estate in their coats, all of Faramore Town is adorned in leaves. The air is chilly, but somewhat toasty, as the smell of a distant fireplace burning from someone's abode can be taken in from where they're standing. Pepper packed a large sum of turkey, salami, and swiss sandwiches with extra pickles, fried eggs, and baby spinach on brioche bread, which had been chilled in the fridge overnight. Covenplate packed assortments of their favorite berries, and the kingdom's famous pub cheese to serve with a cracker assortment.

As they enter the entrance to the park, Lord Kari can be seen trying to sweep all the leaves nearby, but he seems to just be scattering them as the breeze continues to carry them his way. To the right of them is the playground Covenplate paid for with everyone's taxes, but he didn't know the layout of the park, as he only okayed its construction a decade ago. Pepper, having been a citizen all her life, was happy to show him the way, but it had been years since the last time she visited.

As they continue on the walking trail, the maple trees block the playground from view and completely wall the path from both sides. The path ahead darkens from the shade of the trees looming overhead, but a strong breeze rushes in from behind them as leaves continue to flow in past their legs. The two continue on when the path they're following leads them up a hill, where they come across a wooden bridge overlooking the entire park, where they find a cherry tree perched above a hill towering above the west side. The perfect spot!

The two eventually find a break from the walking trail, which would of otherwise lead them through the whole forest area surrounding the park, and back where they started. With the hill with the cherry tree in sight they cut right through the croquet field nearing the fishing pond, and held each other's hands going up. Covenplate readies the blanket and settles down, ready to eat, when Pepper directs his attention to the left of the cherry tree, away from the rest of the park.

And over there is the most gorgeous view of the flower meadows nearby. Sporting assorted hues of pink, yellow, and baby blue, on each rolling hill, with the sun setting overhead past the clouds, shooting its heavenly rays past each and every one. The majesty of it all was enough to make Covenplate hold back his tears, he almost didn't even notice Pepper offering a sandwich wedge beside him. The two began eating under the gentle caress of the fall wind, and under the stars that were forming overhead.

Delighted by the sights around him, the mayor reached into their basket for a dollop from his supply of pub cheese over a round poppyseed cracker, but to his surprise found a hot thermos beside it and two mugs, with some whipped cream. Pepper had also prepared some hot chocolate for their picnic, and was delighted to serve it for herself, and her wonderful future husband! She leans over to share some of her cocoa with him, when a cherry drops into the mug. After a pause, another cherry falls into the mayor's wig.

They both share a laugh over it and sit closer together to share their warmth, amplified even further by the chocolate they shared. With the tree shedding its cherries above, they delightfully added them to their picnic as they continued to chow down on their loving work, leaning their heads on each other's the entire time. Covenplate was so overjoyed from Pepper showing him such a fantastic place in his own town, and so very touched that he had a loving girlfriend to spend this moment with him. Pepper steals a kiss in his teary moment of taking it all in, and with the chocolate kiss mark on his cheek, a shooting star darts across the sky behind him, and the tree began shedding more and more cherries over the two of them before they could make a wish.

They enjoyed the new additions on top of everything they had already packed, spitting the cherry pits down the hill, and by the end, the dainty little couple had more than enough cherries in the basket to take with them on their happy trip home.

The End

[jeppiner]

This is ridiculous. This is terrorism against children who live nowhere near Israel. You are doing this just because they are Jewish. You are a bigot; an antisemitic, violent, bullying piece of trash. You should be ashamed of yourselves.