Humour and stoplights

Here's some advice for you: if you're looking to buy a humour book, there's an easy way to tell whether a book is likely to be bad. If you can tell from the title of the book what its comic premise is, it's probably not worth buying.

For example, 103 Uses For A Dead Politician is likely to be bad, whereas Three Men and a Boat is more likely to be good (which it is).


For a pedestrian, the corner of Broadview and Danforth is very frustrating. If you just miss a light, you have a long wait ahead of you. For example, if you're standing on the southwest corner waiting to cross Danforth:

• First, there's the advance green from Danforth to Broadview. During rush hour, this is long enough to send about 10 to 12 cars through the intersection.
• You then have to wait a long time as the through traffic travels on Danforth before the light finally changes.
• Then, there's another advance green for traffic turning left from Broadview towards the viaduct.
• If a streetcar is going through the intersection on the advance green, the advance green won't change until the streetcar is through, even though the streetcar isn't turning.
• Finally, the light goes green on Broadview, and pedestrians can cross. Though not for very long.

It's a minor annoyance, I know. But a lot of people cross Broadview just north of the lights, and I'm convinced that part of the reason for this is that the light takes so long to navigate.