a College, a Scarborough alderman, a real estate agent, a black bridesmaids dresses Metro councillor, and city councillor since amalgamation.He says he was the first historian to detail the contribution of Chinese workers to the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia.He currently chairs the government management committee and sits on the executive.While on former mayor David Miller s executive, he made a futile attempt to get the media to stop using the name Scarborough to identify the location of any crime that occurred east of Victoria Park Avenue.More recently he rankled environmentalists when he declared global warming will bring more trees and later voiced skepticism about the degree to which the climate is changing and what lies ahead.Asked about it on Friday, he said he believes in climate change, but maintains a measure of skepticism is healthy considering the massive amounts of money governments are slated to spend to prepare for it.Although he ran for mayor of Scarborough twice, he never thought about being deputy mayor.phoned me, and said, what do you think?And I thought, well, you know, nothing is ever perfect.The situation is never perfect, it s very difficult to project the future.But I thought, that s interesting.Maybe it gives me a bigger audience to talk to.Maybe it gives me a chance to explain the mayor s initiatives to that audience, he said.Councillor Paula Fletcher deemed him a wise choice.He s kind of a quiet guy who can move things forward, and generally I think he will just be a calm, steadying influence, she said.Shinan: Separating Saks from fiction in the history of a storied department storeOn a hazy Friday in July 1999, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy took a jaunt to Saks Fifth Avenue.There was a wedding she was attending the next day, and she was in the market, pronto, for a dress.Knowing what she liked, and having a knack for getting what she wanted, she zeroed in on a short, black number designed by Alber Elbaz, then working for Yves Saint Laurent.en route to Hyannis Port.Nobody on that plane survived.Carolyn’s dress bridesmaid dresses online would never be worn.The dustbin of history?Sure, but also part of the lore that makes the fashion world go ’round, and what was in part the Saks appeal (there, I said it) for Hudson’s Bay this week.billion including debt, as per reports.is more than a little yarn.Which brings me to Winona Ryder.The eternal gamine may never want to hear those four itty letters again, but the iconic retailer got more than its share of free advertising from her little incident of 12 years ago.worth of clothing and accessories, and later charged with four felonies.Girl Interrupted wore a darling Marc Jacobs to court (complete with headband).The actress agreed, eventually, to reimburse the store, plus beared three years probation, a bunch of fines, and 480 hours of community service.The media went mental.the actress can at least take solace, perhaps, in knowing she was Bling Ring before there was a Bling Ring.And way before Winona, there was Irving.The great Irving Penn.once served as Saks’ art director.as The New Yorker wrote in a post this week, with the first package out its doors bound for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.silk top hat, sent to President Calvin Coolidge.Named Tatiana du Plessix Liberman, she was affectionately known as Tatiana of Saks and also once considered the finest hat-maker around.had her own custom-design salon at Saks Fifth Avenue where she advised thousands of women how to lure men, keep their husbands, and enchant their luncheon companions through the proper tilt of a beret or the sly positioning of a black dotted veil.A long time ago, indeed.the company, hatched by English royal charter in 1670, is older than both Canada and the U.it now finds itself wrapping its cozy, striped blanket around some additional iconography.Think Farrah Fawcett’s one-piece swimsuit.Poster-friendly and purchased, legend has it, at Saks.both in life, and in art.In the film Shopgirl, Claire Danes meet-cutes Steve Martin while peddling evening gloves at the same Saks where Ms.Ryder had her downfall.In glorious reality, meanwhile, Gene Hackman was once on his long lace bridesmaid dresses knees quite regularly at a shop on the other coast.Lex Luthor, you see, used to be a ladies’ shoe salesman at Saks.Meanwhile, back at the ranch:Julianne Moore was found enjoying some Lazy Susan action with her family last weekend at Toronto-go-to Dynasty, in Yorkville those Dsquared twins, Dean and Dan Caten, back at home, and spotted doing the all-new Cibo, on King West, Wednesday night Peter Gallagher out of The O.and, here on Dundas, eyespied grabbing a bite this week at The Grove.As an example of social mobility, she is a hard act to beat.From Southall council flat to grandmother of the third in line to the throne is a long way to travel in 58 years.It would be forgivable if Carole Middleton, looking down to where she came from, had the occasional dizzy spell, but vertigo is not a problem for the former British Airways’ stewardess.Poise at altitude is her forte.So is rising above the doors to manual jibes of some of Prince William’s friends, who found it amusing that Kate’s mother once had the kind of job that ordinary people do.The new royal baby will neither know nor care that the smiley lady cooing over his Moses basket was herself born working-class through and through, as Carole’s brother, Gary Goldsmith, described the family.To Prince George, she will always be the most central and beloved of figures: Granny Carole.Unlike any previous royal baby, this one is blessed with a normal grandmother who brought up her own children, and a mother who is clearly determined to do the same.Would Kate have had the confidence to defy centuries of tradition, and not hire a Norland nanny for the little prince, if she weren’t able to go straight home to mum after just one night spent in Kensington Palace?The grandmother on the maternal side is always in pole position when her daughter gives birth, but that is doubly true for Caro