The White Lotus: Treading water in paradise

Dynacare labs quickly reach capacity ahead of strike

Patients were being turned away from several Dynacare locations Saturday morning as people packed the labs in hopes of getting their blood collection done before workers strike.

By 10:30 a.m. the lobby at the Dynacare at 1581 Regent Ave. was standing-room only and walk-up patients were being turned away as the wait time for those lucky enough to get in creeped past two hours.

One woman got in right before workers cut off walk-ins at 10 a.m. after travelling to two other locations.

“I was driving by at 7:15 this morning and there was already a line-up to the road, so I was like ‘nope, not going there’ so I went to the one on Sterling Lyon (Parkway) and it was closed, and then I went to the one at St. Vital Mall and there had a line zig-zagging all the way through the corridors so I gave up and came back,” said Joanna, who declined to give her last name.

Shtetl story: Rainbow Stage, WJT stage classic Yiddish tale

Reb Lazar Wolf (Dov Mickelson) marched down Selkirk Avenue last Friday afternoon to collect sustenance for his Fiddler on the Roof castmates, who’ve spent the past two weeks rehearsing at the Ukrainian National Federation Hall.

“Rugelach?” Mickelson offered after making a quick stop for a bag of sweet pastries at the 89-year-old Gunn’s Bakery, following in the footsteps of his parents’ and grandparents’ generations, those Jews who sought refuge in this neighbourhood after the world they once knew in Eastern Europe was obliterated by continental campaigns of anti-semitism which ultimately led to the Holocaust.

The pre- and post-war focal point of Winnipeg’s Jewish community, the North End became for thousands of refugees and immigrants a stand-in for shtetls — the small, yet sprawling communities that existed under tenuous and ever-threatened autonomy as satellite communities across the Pale of Settlement, the region within the Russian Empire where Jewish people were allowed to reside.

Under the rule of the Tsar — pheh — opportunity was scarce and any expression of Jewish joy or celebration — a bar mitzvah morning, a wedding night or a bris for a newborn boy — could occasion brutal suppression by either the ruling class or by the villagers at the gate.

All that glitters … could work here

Sometimes, it’s hard to even suggest a change, because it seems there is always a plethora of people ready to tell you that your idea just won’t work.

Grieving mother, local leaders want review of Interlake intersection after teens die in crash

A two-vehicle crash that killed four teenage friends in the Interlake Sunday night prompted outpourings of grief in several communities and calls for safety improvements at the intersection, which was also the site of a death in July.

Veronique Vermette, whose 18-year-old daughter, Chloe Vermette, died in Sunday’s collision, said she was unable to comprehend the tragedy when she went to Highway 8 and Provincial Road 229, just west of Winnipeg Beach, on Monday.

“We sat in the rain for hours, and it blew my mind that four lives were taken,” she said. “(Chloe) was a very bubbly, loving personality. Always giving, always caring. Her friends meant the world to her.”

RCMP said the crash happened at about 9:15 p.m. when a car, headed west on PR 229 while crossing Highway 8, was struck by a southbound van. The intersection has stop signs for westbound and eastbound traffic.

For newcomer pizza purveyors, it’s all about crafting solid foundations

A recent poll conducted by an Internet-based market-research firm determined that close to 20 per cent of people eschew their leftover pizza crust.

Some argued that the residual crust lacks flavour. Others submitted that it’s too hard or crunchy to enjoy sans toppings. Given that information, what are we to make of Crusty Craft Pizza, a five-month-old takeout spot whose owners are so confident in their European-style pizza crust that they’ve chosen to highlight it in their business moniker?

Whenever somebody informs them they don’t like pizza crust, their response is, well, they haven’t tried theirs, says Oleksii Samokvhal, who together with his wife, Iryna Mehedyn, opened Crusty Craft Pizza in early April, at 1311 Day St. in Transcona.

“It’s thin in the middle, with raised edges we hand-form ourselves,” says Mehedyn, a native of Ukraine who, like her Kyiv-born husband, relocated to Winnipeg to escape the conflict in their home country.

Slow start but gritty play not enough in Bombers OT loss to Roughriders in Labour Day Classic

REGINA – Leave it to Brady Oliveira to succinctly describe that fine line between jubilation and the alternate.

In the aftermath of another Labour Day Classic that went down to the wire, Oliveira went through the joy of tying the game with no time left on the clock to the empty feeling that came moments later when the Saskatchewan Roughriders finished off a 32-26 victory on Sunday night before a raucous crowd of 34,352 at Mosaic Stadium.

“It’s terrible,” said Oliveira. “You just kind of feel all of the emotions. I’m pretty pissed right now. We were close, we were right there. We didn’t play our best football and we still gave ourselves a chance, which could be a silver lining.

“I don’t like to look at silver linings because the fact of the matter is we play this game to get positive results. We want to win the game and we didn’t win the game. So, I’m pissed.”