Every week, there are those who inspire us and those who disappoint us. Welcome to Champs ‘n Chumps, a weekly feature in the Star in which we shower praise on our best and lob (virtual) tomatoes at the people who have disappointed us. Plus: scroll to the bottom for the big number that defined the week.
Champ
Conrad, the expired raccoon whose rotting corpse inspired an ironic candlelight vigil and countless social media tributes a decade ago, is now the subject of a honest-to-goodness (complete with QR code) at Yonge & Church.
Chumps
TTC fare inspection, pictured here at Spadina station Thursday November 9, will now be done by provincial officers with titles that form an unfortunate acronym.Â
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ StarThe newly rebranded Provincial Offences Officers tasked with battling fare evasion on the TTC must first navigate the snickering caused by their fecal acronym. As they now know better than anyone, the Commuter Revenue Assurance Program happens.
Champs
The ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Blue Jays are on a hot streak and fans and commentators alike are loving the turnaround.
Nathan Denette/The Canadian PressWhat’s the secret behind your suddenly terrific ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Blue Jays? Ernie’s infielding? Bo’s haircut? The cotton candy fries? The watchful eye of Edward S. Rogers III? Whatever it is, may it last longer than the pleasant weather.
Chumps
Metrolinx, already under fire for enormous delays on new lines, is also under fire for outsourcing some call centre operations to a third party.
Vince Talotta/ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ StarBetween the long-delayed Eglinton LRT and GO Train snafus at Rogers Stadium, this seems like a good time for Metrolinx to listen to riders. Instead, the provincial transit agency outsourced its customer service to a third-party call centre.
And now, the figure that defined the week:
The big number
100%
That’s the average grade of the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ District School Board’s four top scholars. What can we learn from those at the head of the class? This week, Sheena Qin, Andrew Peng, Sowmya Ramanan and Safiya Vohra-Bangi shared their study tips with the media. Good old fashioned sticktoitiveness was of course important — ensuring the “do date†comes before the due date as per Peng’s clever mantra, writing out class notes by hand, and maintaining study groups with friends — but the real no-brainer they cited was using AI tools to accelerate their learning. No extra credit for guessing they’re all off to study computer science or engineering in the fall.
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