Driving westward on a streetcar through the Spadina/Queen intersection, a young woman gestured southward and told her male companion with a sigh, "I used to live over there in a condo."

Now, she added, "I live in a sem-detached."

For extra detail, she volunteered this bit of information, delivered with a hint of a grimace: "I can hear my neighbours having sex."

The big event starts at 8 p.m. EDT here, but it's come and gone in Sydney, Australia. Some Globe and Mail stuff:

Will the last one out turn out the lights?

60 things to do during Earth Hour

In training for the big event

Personally, I don't see Earth Hour hurting anything, but for it to be of real value, people should use the hour to think about how they can reduce their carbon energy consumption on an ongoing and permanent basis.

Along with historically high oil prices, the price of staples like rice, wheat and corn have doubled in the past year, causing unrest in places that already suffer stability issues.

From the NYT:

More fighting in Iraq. Somalia in chaos. People in this country can’t afford their mortgages and in some places now they can’t even afford rice.

None of this nor the rest of the grimness on the front page today will matter a bit, though, if two men pursuing a lawsuit in federal court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole or something else that will spell the end of the Earth — and maybe the universe.

Scientists say that is very unlikely — though they have done some checking just to make sure.

Henry Hill's life story was immortalized in the incomparable Goodfellas. He lived a high-flying life as a gangster before crashing in a drug bust and ratting out his associates to literally save his own life.

Late-night newscasts led with word of a shooting in a TTC subway car.

The "victim" and a friend had reportedly been yipping with two guys for some time. She reportedly pulled a knife; unfortunately, he had a gun (there is an alternate version; darned if I know what the truth is as I write this).

However, here's the key question I will be mulling as I lay me down to sleep: Where are the TTC police?

I never see them. And given the other crime issues reported on the subway, I'm surprised that I never see any transit cops just being seen walking the tube.

And I mean even once a year (I ride the tube at least six days per week).

Essentially, it would seem you're on your own down there -- which is fine as long as your fellow subway riders aren't packing. 

Addendum

I was on an eastbound Queen streetcar recently when one mentally ill fellow was acting out so much that everyone abandoned the back end of the car. The operator was oblivious.