Even with the return of windchill factors, I hope Canadians will keep our politicians in the hot seat and insist on real measures to alleviate global warming. This begins a series of four cartoons that will deal with this issue from a personal side -- and will have great ramifications for Weltschmerz. Stay tuned.

10 Years Ago This Week: January 23, 1997
mbanx ads were everywhere at the outset of 1997. Now defunct, it was the Bank of Montreal's first foray into virtual banking. The fact that Bob Dylan allowed his song, "The Times They Are a-Changin'," to sell a bank was a matter of some controversy. At the same time, Ontario Premier Mike Harris' plan to amalgamate all the boroughs of Toronto into one megacity was generating heated debate -- which he was, in turn, trying to stifle. The below cartoon used the feel-good imagery of the mbanx ad campaign (a native girl on a swing; a boy with his hand to his ear in a field) in an ad that promotes Harris' monolithic mcity. "Maybe it's time for a new relationship with your city."

I just checked through my files, and low-and-behold, I still have some copies of the mbanx print ads, which included a hefty colour four-page insert. Set in the then-futuristic font, Matrix, these ads seem almost quaint now. I found them irritatingly smarmy at the time. Note how prominent the phone number is, while the URL is almost buried -- odd for a pioneer in Internet banking. The wired revolution was still in vitro.

Retailers for Attack of the Same-Sex Sleeper Cells:

Toronto:
Pages, 256 Queen Street West (at John).
The Beguiling, 601 Markham Street (near Bloor and Bathurst)
Book City, three locations - 501 Bloor St. West, 348 Danforth Ave., 663 Yonge St.
Hairy Tarantula, 354 Yonge Street (near Dundas).

Guelph:
The Bookshelf, 41 Quebec Street.
Macondo Books, 18 Wilson Street

Waterloo: Words Worth Books, 100 King Street South

Kitchener: KW Bookstore, 308 King Street West

Hamilton: Bryan Prince Bookseller, 1060 King Street West