Tuesday, 18 September 2007

We'll dig our way out.

The PATH network is a series of underground food courts and overpriced retail outlets designed to separate Toronto residents from their money during the six months of the year when going aboveground is about as sensible as giving a raccoon a piggyback ride.
Today I wandered aimlessly around this subterranean salute to capitalism with a map in one hand and a compass in the other. I had not sun, nor wind, nor any other thing of nature wrought to guide me. Despite my orienteering accoutrement, I was a poor sub-urbanite: I surfaced twice when I intended to dive, and found at two points that I had completed a tight circle, at one point passing the same Tim Horton's three times. In my defense, I would have passed twenty Tim Horton's while in the bowels of the city.
For lunch, I had a Coke Zero and a pack of Ruffles chips: 'All-Dressed' flavour. Nowhere was there an explanation of what this meant.
I continued my search for items of perfection. Yesterday I had found the perfect notebook, or as close to perfect as CAD$5.00 gets you. Today I bought (at 'Essence Du Papier') a zip-closed ringbinder folio in fake leather for $35, or $40 at the till. I leveraged out the metal bindings with a quiet fury and a screwdriver, and zipped my laptop inside. Almost. The now-unreturnable ('Loganized') folio is 8mm too small on one side to zip up completely. When I un- the zip, it sighs open like a fat man releasing his belt after an all-you-can-eat buffet.
I'm an idiot, yes, but, from above and to the side, a stylish idiot. With a compass.

No comments: