Toronto and the Drake Hotel, among other reasons to defect

Combine Amsterdam's hashish boutique hotels (subtracting hashish) with Soho Grande/Royalton (subtracting price-driven tude) and maybe a future Williamsburg hotel (subtracting what currently seems to be the develop-out-the-interesting-artists-who- made-it-what-it-is and replace with bored-bankers-who-long-to-be-"artsy-n-funky" tude) and you have Toronto's Drake hotel, a 18 room haven of genius which supports and exhibits, even flaunts its love of artists, offering a raw bar, a 7a-10p cafe with da best flakey SCONES around, and two bars with performance spaces. And what other hotel rents out sex kits and a DVD collection spanning Nicholas Roeg's Walkabout to Bella Donna's XX finest?

AND not only are the smart cartes free in Canada, but like, the WI-FI is free in the hotel, too! Yippee!

Oh, and one more thing: I spotted a Sikh demonstration on the streets of Toronto. All I know is that I cannot imagine a similar peaceful demonstration here by Iraqis that wouldn't entail some American gun toting Fox News outrage-- if it were even allowed at all.