"Which way are you going?"  the 20- to 21-year-old woman of indeterminate blood-alcohol level asked the streetcar operator as she boarded at Borden and College.

"That way," the driver said as he pointed west, the same direction the streetcar -- which weighs in excess of 27,000 kilograms, and travels on rails -- was pointed.

The young woman nodded, comprehension spreading over her face like a wave on a beach.

"That was a stupid question," she said a few seconds later as she walked to the back of the streetcar. Her friends, giggling, were only too happy to concur.

However, that was trumped at Bathurst Street.

The streetcar was stopped, and three guys were staring at one of the back passenger doors, trying to will it open.

"You have to step down," the operator called out.

The three looked at each other. They stepped down. The door opened. One of them muttered, "thanks."

And a special welcome to Toronto to all our late-night visitors from Oshawa! :)

I'm walking on the south side of Bloor Street near Honest Ed's, making my way to the Bathurst subway station -- not unusual for me on a Saturday afternoon.

However, as I did so, some guy who looked a little like Moby was walking backward at the same time.

He definitely had the jittery energy and crazy eyes thing going on.

As I passed him, he muttered: "I could be on your back and slashing you right now" -- although I'm not sure if it was directed at me or just to the air.

I started looking for a cop. None was around.

Based on peoples' expressions as they passed him, I suspect this wacko said a few creepy things to others as well. To me, it's an interesting question about when do you contact the authorities if someone is acting really, really weird, but hasn't yet done anything to harm anyone.

Maybe this guy will go his whole life without hurting anyone. Or maybe I'll hear a newscast or click on a story some day that says someone died in front of Honest Ed's with a maniac on their back slashing them.

You just don't know.

Some other films I saw at TIFF (that I haven't yet mentioned):

The Harder They Come, by Perry Henzell

The Prisoner ..., by Michael (the Putz) Tucker

Films I had tickets for but missed for reasons of sloth, disorganization  and/or poor planning (i.e. booking too early for my night owl body clock), fatigue, or simply being trumped by overwhelming more important other life priorities:

Taxidermia, by Gyorgi Palfi

Outsourced, by John Jeffcoat

My Life As A Terrorist, by Alexander Oey

I gotta develop a list of films I wanted to see but didn't. I thought I did some blogging on Hot Docs 2006, but can't find any postings, so maybe I didn't. Agghh!!

The wanted-to-see list is especially critical because I didn't have the time/resources to see everything I wanted to see. And if I don't write some of this stuff down, I'll forget about the great films that once piqued my imagination.

Allow me to recommend Sheitan.

Time the start of it so this 95-minute film ends about 12:10 a.m. on Christmas Day.

You're welcome! Make sure the kids stay up late! :)

Addendum

This was the last Midnight Madness screening of TIFF (Sheitan actually screened first on Thursday afternoon), not to mention the end of the entire festival. Programmer Colin Geddes trumpeted many of what he saw as the programme's highlights.

Oddly, he didn't trumpet Princess as one of them. Nor, given that it screened the evening before, did he ask the crowd if anyone saw it or if they liked it. I wonder why? :^)

Had I been granted the opportunity to interview the great Kazakh journalist when he was here for TIFF, here is what I would have asked him:

Not so long ago, l held a dinner party for some of your countrymen.

I offered what I thought were the standard Kazakh hors d'ouevres of goat penis and donkey testicles.

Then I offered up what I thought was the standard Kazakh toast: "Long life to the Jew!"

They immediately all got up and left.

What did I do wrong? Was I supposed to serve donkey penis and goat testicles?