Are liquor gift cards inappropriate teacher gifts?

According to Metro, this on-site promo from Ontario's liquor monopoly is not sitting well with parents:

Parents watching their kids play outside the Waterfront School at the foot of Bathurst Street on Monday afternoon were surprised by the campaign, and felt LCBO ads shouldn’t appear geared to kids. 

“Why target children?” asked a flabbergasted Jackie Allen, who was there to pick up her son Jaden, 7. “Since when is it OK for kids to give liquor to their teachers?”

The response from the LCBO, quite naturally, is that this online seasonal are not targeted to children. It's for the parents.

My wife is an elementary school teacher, and she occasionally gets LCBO gift cards from parents. It's a  welcome gift, and avoids the awkwardness of sending your child to school with a bottle of Chianti.

Perhaps the real scandal here is Metro going out of its way to manufacture outrage.

To review, here is the extent of their research:

Parents watching their kids play outside the Waterfront School at the foot of Bathurst Street on Monday afternoon were surprised by the campaign, and felt LCBO ads shouldn’t appear geared to kids.

That's right. They apparently ambushed some parents, showed them the "ad" out of context, and pressed for reactions. Poor.

Canadian radio station offers "No Nickelback Guarantee"

Just saw this on the cover of today's Ottawa edition on Metro. Live 88.5 also promises to be "Katy Free" and "Kardashian Free", but the Nickelback hate is particularly poignant in their home country.

Metro should win an award for Worst Contextual Front Page Layout Ever

As seen on Copyranter.

It's still there, as of 12:20 EDT. If you missed it, Magnotta is the Canadian (assumed) psychopath who is accused of killing and dismembering Lin Jun, a Chinese international student, and sending his left foot to the Prime Minister's Office. He was caught in Germany (reading about himself in an internet café) and has been extradited home.

Nice one, Metro. Very sensitive.

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The United States of America: Now up to 70% off!

If you want to see some timely evidence of the sad state of the American economy, look no further than today's Ottawa edition of Metro:

Click to enlarge and read

This unimaginatively art directed full-page ad, by "Canada's only U.S. real estate expert" Steve Martel, promises fabulous discounts on foreclosed properties. "You can buy a $35,000 home and sell it for $1000+ or rent it for $900/m like I do!"

Profiteering from our neighbours' misery aside, there is an obvious flaw in this hype. If you buy a house for $35K, you own a $35K house. That is, unless you can magically transport the house to a better market, or magically fix the local economy. The banks may be pricing to sell, but these foreclosure sales weigh down the rest of the market.

The big irony to me, though, is that using real estate as a get rick quick scheme is what put the American economy in the toilet to begin with. I don't think we really need that kind of speculation fever up here—particularly when it concerns the very same properties that ruined the lives of so many economically ambitious Americans.