This is cross-posted from Misha's blog. Can anyone remember back in 2007 when the City of Montreal handed out 100,000 pocket ashtrays? Yeah... didn't think so. The goal was to help solve the litter problem. But after the press conference, I never saw another pocket ashtray until... I moved to Japan. People here actually use them sometimes. The little ashtrays are also at the heart of an anti-littering campaign lead by Japan Tobacco, with ads appearing on public transit and ashtrays all over the country. Complete with hilarious English translations, I just had to share a few of my favourites.   [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="333" caption="Inhaled. Burned. Thrown away. If it were anything but a cigarette it would surely be crying (photo snapped at Mount Fuji)."][/caption]     Read on for more litter haiku.

 (A dispatch from Winnipeg) The Winnipeg River Trail winds its way down the frozen Assiniboine (photo: misha warbanski) One of my favourite things about Montreal winters was skating at Parc Lafontaine. There are outdoor rinks all over the city, but the Parc Lafontaine rink had enormous charm (maybe it was just the classical music piped out over the speakers). Well, a few years ago Winnipeg started getting in on the action. They flooded trails around the Forks National Historic Site ...

Image by Sasha Plotnikova for The McGill Daily The McGill Daily's special issue on Housing is on newsstands and they've invented a new word for the invasion of student in the city -- studentification. There's more talk about Griffintown with a nice overview of the proposed Devimco project with comments from residents, urban planners and fellow blogger A.J. Kandy. And a reminder about why the Milton-Parc neighbourhood is often called the McGill Ghetto and why longtime residents are fed up. Graffiti anyone? "We’re not just talking about noise. We’re talking about pissing ...

I know this is about Toronto, but I thought it was cute.

A couple big things happened at the Sud-Ouest borough council meeting tonight. The most important: borough Mayor Jacqueline Monpetit annouced a series of public consultations on redeveloping Griffintown (Mark your calendars: Feb 21, 7pm at the ETS, 1100 Notre-Dame Ouest.) Also important: council adopted it's urban development framework for the area. Lots of people seem worried about the development as proposed by Devimco. But so far I haven't met anyone who is completely against some kind of development plan. In fact, some property owners in the area would like ...