New Bridgehead Opens In Snowbank

A new Bridgehead location opened in an Ottawa snowbank Saturday.

Ottawa - The recent heavy snowfall throughout the Ottawa region has left large snowbanks on many city streets, causing numerous traffic complications. The Bridgehead coffee company has embraced the abundant snow however, and has opened their 437th location in a tall snowbank just off Somerset. St. West near Preston St. The heavy snowfall has left many curb side areas with over 15 foot snowbanks, and Bridgehead is seizing the opportunity to carve out the snowbank and open one of their popular coffee houses inside the snowbank.

Bridgehead Vice President of Operations Dan Burgess says the opportunity has presented itself to open the new location and offer customers their delicious selection of coffees and foods in a compostable building structure. "We thought the large snowbanks that the City Of Ottawa snowplows piled up on regional streets provided a sustainable and ecologically friendly building opportunity for us to open a new location." said Burgess. "We know Ottawa stays damn cold all winter so it won't melt away until April, at which point we will move the location into a recently built condo development." Burgess explained.

The new snowbank Bridgehead opened Saturday to crowds of coffee thirsty customers who enjoyed the innovative use of the perpetual Ottawa city street snowbanks. The location even provides a stroller drive-thru window for those West-end customers with oversized baby strollers on skis.

Ottawa Sun Switches To Gender-Neutral SunShine Person

Ottawa - The daily pin-up girl in the Ottawa Sun got a make-over today as the newspaper launched its new gender-neutral "SunShine Person" feature to replace the typically scantily clad women. The new idea features a gender-neutral model that can be enjoyed by both male and female readers. Normally featuring a clothed or swim-suited female model, actress, athlete, or regular "girl next door", the new feature showcases some of the more androgynous persons in the Nation's Capital. 

The growing trend of providing gender-neutral options to consumers prompted Sun Media to make the switch to the new feature which is published in the Sports Section of the daily and online versions of the newspaper. Regular sponsor CHEZ-106 Radio has opted not to re-new their contract for the SunShine Person feature and will be replaced by Mountain Equipment Co-op as the new sponsor.

The 2012 O-Dot Christmas Wish Book

 Welcome to the 2012 Ottawa Christmas Wish Book...Enjoy this catalogue of Ottawa gift ideas. Feel free to download a
PDF Version to share...Merry Christmas!

O-dot Christmas Wish Book PDF

Unused Scotiabank Place Turned Into Giant Hickory Farms, Calendar Club

The empty hockey arena is now home to the seasonal
 businesses of Hickory Farms and Calendar Club.

Ottawa - The recent NHL lockout has left the Scotiabank Place arena vacant for months, but it will soon see new life once Hickory Farms and Calendar Club move in for the remainder of December. Both retail operations usually take over empty retail spaces in shopping malls, but with the over 20,000 square foot hockey arena being vacant, it was decided a larger venue would be a good opportunity to reach a larger range of customers. 

Known for their delicious assortment of spiced sausage meats and flavourful cheeses, Hickory Farms will begin unloading over 30,000 cases of Snack Baskets and cheese balls into the facility this weekend. Calendar Club will also join Hickory Farms by stocking over 3 million calendars that are popular with many Christmas shoppers. Large signs were put in place earlier Wednesday to denote the new retail space. Equally splitting the floor space of Scotiabank Place between the sausage/cheese and calendar markets, the two businesses are hoping to attract large crowds of shoppers in need of reasonably priced Christmas gifts over the next few weeks. 

Hickory Farms Vice President of Canadian Operations Judy Topleson thinks the empty Scotiabank Place is perfect for their meat and cheese selection. "We are excited to get in there and offer our customers the finest array of pre-packaged spiced sausage and nut-encrusted process cheeses." Topleson remarked. "The Scotiabank Place staff has been great in organizing special events for us that are normally used for hockey games, such as a cheese-ball gun that will launch tasty cheese-balls into the crowds." said Topleson, who is hoping to open this Monday.

Calendar Club is also excited at the prospect at selling their delightful calendars in the vacant hockey arena, and is offering a free "World's Cutest Kittens" 2013 calendar to the first 3,000 visitors.

Bridgehead To Install Stroller Flap Doors

Stroller & parent exit Bridgehead through the new flap door.

Ottawa - Bridgehead locations in the Westboro and Wellington West areas will have new stroller friendly flap doors installed over the coming weeks that allow stroller pushing parents to easily enter and exit the facility without clogging typical door entries.

The hinged door flaps operate in much the same manner as pet flap doors, with a stroller being pushed into the door flap that hinges open, allowing the stroller and pushing parents to enter the Bridgehead with ease. Previously, entry to the Bridgehead was plagued with multiple over-sized strollers being jammed into the doorway, with many non-stroller customers being run over, or forced to hold open the doors for the stroller and pusher. Congestion at the doors is now removed and stroller traffic will be able to enter and exit Bridgehead using the new flap doors.

A pet stroller exits through the new flap door in Hintonburg.

"I used to spend 15 minutes trying to manoeuvre my $1200 stroller into Bridgehead, and injuring at least 2 people in the process." exclaimed stroller pusher Tammy Gorling, who visits Bridgehead twice a day on her way to Lululemon in Westboro. "Now I can just push my stroller through the flap and be in there getting my infused latte without all the hassle." Golring remarked. 

Bridgehead says the new flap doors should be in full operation by the end of the week, and hopes strollers of both babies and pets will allow customers to avoid any past unpleasant door entry incidents. "These new flap doors will allow customers to get their lattes with greater ease, and allow non-stroller customers to avoid injury." explained Bridgehead Manager of Operation Janet Sprague. "The stroller flap doors also facilitate thesis writers that may need to dolly in their home office to set up their thesis writing in our store." Sprague explained. 

Canada Goose Wearing Hipsters Experienced Arctic Program Before You Even Heard Of It

Ottawa - A group of bearded, youthful aficionados of all things retro and un-mainstream banded together recently to discuss their combined adventures in the Canada Goose Arctic Program, before you even heard of the Arctic Program.  Meeting over micro-brewed organic beers at the Elmdale Tavern in the burgeoning arts district of Hintonburg, the group of 10 or so bespectacled, bearded leaders of the avant-garde reminded themselves, companions and others surrounding them that they were in the special Arctic Program before it was mainstream sometime in the early 2000's. 

Hume in the 2007 Arctic Program before you heard of it.

Cory & Nathan on ice floes in the  2006 Arctic Program

The Canada Goose jacket company launched the gruelling Arctic Program in 1989 which is commemorated with a special patch emblazoned on each of their cold weather jackets. Many current hipsters in urban centres wear the jackets, with most of the general public being unaware that the Canada Goose wearing hipsters all endured the special Arctic Program prior to wearing the jacket for personal use.

Being flown in by the hundreds, many hipsters travelled to the extreme northern latitudes to hang out drinking Pabst Blue ribbon beer, discussing obscure 1980's music albums while building glacial hangouts with ice picks and acetylene torches. Once in the Arctic Program, some decided to explore Iceland, and familiarize themselves with Sigur Ros, a now popular music group that wasn't so mainstream back in the first days of the Arctic Program. Teaching each other how to play banjos and harmonicas while eating deep-fried narwhal blubber tacos on free floating ice floes, many hipsters mapped vast expanses of the Arctic in the Arctic Program before returning to their current urban neighbourhoods. Most of the Arctic Program hipsters used their valuable Arctic Program experience to gain employment at local organic grocery stores, used record shops, vintage clothing stores or coffee shops, and relate their knowledge of Sigur Ros and other Arctic Program experiences to friends.

Josh, and girlfriend, Malaya, in the Arctic Program

"We all ventured into the Arctic Program before you even heard of it, experiencing the unbelievable thrills and cold weather that allow us to wear our Canada Goose Jackets with pride." said Kyle Rayson, 32, who completed his Arctic Program in 2006. "We wear these jackets because we did something before it became mainstream." Rayson remarked. "A lot of people are now wearing these jackets, but we did it before it became popular." he remarked. 

Cat Bus Drivers Hazardous: Watchdog

Wiggles, an OC Transpo cat driver under fire from city watchdog.

Ottawa - The recent hiring of cat bus drivers within OC Transpo has one city watchdog upset and warning they may pose a serious hazard on city streets. With most cat drivers taking over the more stressful bus routes within the city, watchdogs are warning that the cat drivers could suddenly turn erratic, causing sudden changes in direction of the bus, or even applying the brakes dangerously. 

City watchdog, Rufus, says the cat drivers can not be trusted and should be placed in a training program before being allowed to operate transit buses within the city. One cat driver, Wiggles, is upset the watchdog would make such a statement when no accidents or incidents involving cat drivers have ever been reported.

Rufus, city watchdog, thinks the cat drivers are a bad idea.

Passengers riding cat driven buses seem to enjoy the relaxed driving by the cats who are uncannily always on schedule and have not been in any accidents. Some passengers have reported some allergic reactions but no formal complaints have been lodged.

 City officials will continue to monitor the cat drivers and will take the watchdog's recommendation into consideration during the annual Transit Commission Review in early 2013.