Welcome back to this, that and the other thing. It’s been awhile.
What can I say, it’s the summer. Column ideas are at a premium. But the non-stop screaming from my legions of blog followers has prompted me to publish Part 15. Hey, allow me my delusions.

How about ol’ what’s her name, eh? You know, the interim leader of the federal NDP, Nycole Turmel. I realize the party was hoping to get some quick name recognition for its new boss, but I’m not sure becoming the butt of jokes across Canada (except for Quebec, of course) was what the Dippers had in mind. I like the one I read this afternoon – Turmel: not necessarily a separatist, but a separatist if necessary.

Funny times for the NDP. Until a few months ago, they had almost zero presence in Quebec. Now, thanks to a freak election result, the Quebec contingent dominates the party, despite the dubious lineage of many of its newly elected members. Tail wags dog. Welland MP Malcolm Allen was singing from the party songbook Tuesday, dismissing Turmel’s former Bloc Quebecois membership as nothing to get excited about.  Hmm, I wonder if his constituents feel the same way …

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Attended the annual extended family picnic up at the Parry Sound cottage compound on the long weekend. A good time was had by all. Of special note, my team won the hotly contested slo-pitch game. A special shout out to my nephew Peter Kneulman who played a solid second base and hit a home run. Most importantly, though, he’s a loyal reader of this blog. My son Andy was also strong in the field and hit a homer, but he doesn’t read this blog, so the heck with him. In other sports news from the picnic, my brother Dennis won the prestigious horseshoe competition. But his victory is being challenged. He refused to consume alcohol while playing, a clear violation of recreational horseshoe rules.

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My column Wednesday noted the DeDivitiis family was taking over the old Midtown Hotel on James St. and bringing back the iconic Gord’s Place name. For space reasons, I had to omit a couple of things. Thus, my return to limitless cyberspace.

First of all, there’ll be student housing on the top two floors. The old owner renovated this space four years ago for the same purpose, but Paul DeDivitiis told me this week the family wants to upgrade them further before putting the rooms on the market.

Secondly – and more importantly – I probably should have stressed even more what great news this is for downtown St. Catharines.

Yeah, I know we’ve got a lot of bars downtown. But this one’s different.

It has a long, mostly positive history as a watering hole. And its location is an important, high-profile one. That’s why it’s been such a shame these four years that the building has looked so dumpy. A vacant, gone-to-seed, 19th century structure next to the closest thing we have to a civic centre – city hall, Market Square, the library and the old courthouse.

Giving the building a major makeover will do wonders for the area. And the DeDivitiis family is the right group for the job. They’re local and take pride in what they do. Look at Stella’s, for example. It occupies a cavernous building that formerly housed Duthler’s Textiles. One shudders to think what could have gone in the old store at the prime corner of King and James. A giant tattoo parlour, anyone?

Instead, the DeDivitiis clan transformed it into a nice-looking restaurant/bar, which, by the way, will be getting a facelift of its own late next spring, according to Paul D. When Gord’s is open and Stella’s is redone, both will have nice outdoor patios. That’s no accident. Depending on what happens in Port Dalhousie, i.e., the closing of My Cottage and other watering holes, action may shift to the downtown in the summer, and the DeDivitiis’s want to be positioned to take advantage of the situation.

The new Gord’s Place, brought to us by a family with a proven track record, can’t come soon enough.