Got a call from Port Place marketing guy Brian Tilley Tuesday.

Tilley had given me a tour of the partially completed, unfurnished model suite of the Son of Port Tower last week. During the tour, I  had expressed some skepticism over the suggestion it would be completed and fully furnished within a week.

Anyway, Tilley called to say he wanted to correct some information he had given me last week. He had told me the suite would be ready by Thursday. He was wrong. It was ready now.

How dare he toy with my emotions!

Assorted investors were down for a look-see on Tuesday.  Tilley said I was welcome to take a gander, too.

Hey, why not? It’d be the closest I’m likely to get to a $750,000 condo outfitted to the nines.

Nice unit. Groovy furniture. Impressive finishes. And the views will be wows-ville.

Lot of dough for the space, though.

But then, I’m way out of my league when it comes this sort of real estate. There may be some investment strategies at work  here that I’m incapable of understanding. Tilley told me at the end of the day they had doubled their sales, from eight to 16. And he was confident they would sell a bunch more on the Canada Day weekend when people who have registered interest in the project are invited in for a look.

There’s a ribbon-cutting on Friday afternoon for the model suite/presentation centre featuring Hizzoner Brian McMullan. Soon, the general public will be able to walk through and gawk at the furnished digs.

As I’ve noted before, this will probably be the biggest attraction at the beach this summer.

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Did you read this stuff about Thorold city council supporting a local business group wanting to split from the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce and re-activate a Thorold Chamber of Commerce?

I offer no comment because Thorold city council unintentionally parodies its small-mindedness better than I ever could intentionally.

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I’m taken aback by the on-line interest shown in the sleeping cop story and photo that ran in The Standard.

It received the most hits on our site this week, and the reader feedback was through the roof.

Granted, we’re not exactly getting Aristotle and Socrates providing reader feedback. It’s more likely to be guys named Bitter and Vitriol.

Still, there’s no denying the unusual interest in the story. But seriously, folks, lighten up.

I thought it was a funny photo, nothing more. Sheesh, some people reacted like it was a hanging offence.

Naturally, the police brass had to respond gravely, agreeing with the mob that it potentially was a serious safety issue.

Yeah, right.

Hello, she was taking a cat nap, she wasn’t in a coma. Tap on the window, and she probably would have jumped three feet.

Must be a lot of repressed anger at the police out there.

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Notice the lack of clamour in the local media this week?

Nik Wallenda is gone!

Amazing how quickly  white-hot publicity cools down in a matter of days, huh?

But I come to praise Wallenda, not bury him.

His high-wire act really did bring a lot of publicity to Niagara Falls. The TV shots were amazing as were the still photos that appeared on-line and in newspapers around the world.

Not sure if this will translate into a tourism boost for the Falls, but it can’t hurt.

To ensure his name is kept alive in Niagara, I hereby suggest he be selected the Grand Marshal for this year’s Grape and Wine Parade. High-wire act to follow in Montebello Park.

So here I was, all set to jot down some serious observations about the local scene, when Gosling-mania broke out in the newsroom.

Would you believe some semi-serious observations?

For the uninitiated, Gosling-mania is a reference to Hollywood heart-throb Ryan Gosling, who was at Brock Wednesday to take in his mom’s convocation. He was accompanied by his latest squeeze, glamourpuss Eva Mendes.

You may have noticed some coverage on our website. There was much social media traffic, too.

As fate would have it, I watched a movie of his, Ides of March, just the other night. It’s a cynical take on American hardball politics. Gosling played a high-placed political operative to presidential candidate George Clooney. Interesting enough flick. And Gosling is very good in the movie. In fact, he has a very impressive track record as an actor.

Something tells me, though, it was more than his acting ability that set certain hearts aflutter in the newsroom Wednesday.

Kind of reminded me of the bad old days 30 years ago when a male-dominated newsroom could be seen grunting admiringly at the latest Lakeside Beach sun-bathing pics taken by our crack team of male photographers.

Clearly, we’ve come a long way

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Maybe it’s because I’ve essentially been a non-factor in the office playoff pool for more than a month. Plus, I don’t have a fave team involved in the final series or, more importantly, a team I really dislike.

Whatever. This has to be the most insignificant, under-the-radar, least-talked-about Stanley Cup final I can ever remember.

Oh for those glory days a couple of months ago when violence was running amok and interest was through the roof.

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They paved the parking lot behind Gord’s Place on Wednesday.

That’s gotta be a good sign they’ll be opening this summer, right?

In a column earlier this week expressing surprise at how easily a proposed Port condo project breezed through St. Catharines city council, I listed a few reasons why that might have been the case.

I should have added another one.

Access to the condo property is gained via a glorified, one-lane driveway called Gary Road. The lane is owned by a couple of property owners who live above it on Dalhousie Ave. The developer had obtained legal rights to use it, but the property owners still weren’t happy with the prospect of others using their lane and the possible liability issues that may arise because of it.

Anyway, just prior to Monday night’s meeting, the developer struck a deal to buy the lane from the aforementioned property owners, eliminating a potential sore spot for city councillors.

Don’t know how much concerns over the right-of-way would have affected council’s decision-making Monday, but with the the issue off the table it was a slam dunk for the developer.

It was suggested to me by a city councillor that the Beaches of Port project may adversely affect Port Place’s ability to sell its units, the presumption being that Beaches’ prices would be more attractive.

Interesting comment.

I’ll ask Port Place pooh-bahs about it when I get the chance.

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I’m addicted to the city webcam that streams a live picture of the performing arts centre. Look at it every day. Two or three times.

Is this my life for the next two years?

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Last week, I had sport with the idea that it was going to cost upwards of $300,000 to build a pedestrian bridge over Twelve Mile Creek as part of the Laura Secord trail project. Plus, there all  sorts of bureaucratic hoops to jump through, including the need to have the federal Oceans and Fisheries folks to sign off on it.

Hey, if you didn’t laugh at this stuff, you’d cry.

Anyway, I hope my ridicule didn’t cause anyone to think less of the trail project.

I think it’s a terrific idea to develop a trail that will allow people to re-enact Secord’s 1813 journey to warn the Brits of an impending American attack.

And one can only hope that sanity will prevail in order that a reasonably priced span can be constructed over the creek.