See the 8 day forecast at the ottawan weather

HELLO OTTAWA

Reader Andrea C told us that she’s currently in the middle of her third year of creating custom beanbags to raise funds for Interval House.

These are the bags to use if you need heat or cold to soothe aches and pains. If you're still looking for a locally made gift item that you can pick up, this could be the one. $35.

Head to Interval House’s insta feed to check out the photo, and if you’d like to order one, contact beanbagfundraiser@gmail.com

– Martha and Darren

🎄the ottawan Christmas pages

•  10 Gifts Under $20
•  10 Local Experiential Gifts for Hard-to-Buy-For Loved Ones
•  Our constantly revised Christmas Markets, Festivals, and Parades page 
•  2023 Canadian-made advent calendar list
•  10 Made in Canada Christmas Gifts.
•  9 Locally Made Christmas Gifts. Please send your nominations for a locally made item to 'giftguide@theottawan.com'.

TODAY’S LINE UP

•  Ottawa Stats
•  City Hall Agenda
•  What Ottawa is Talking About
•  Events
•  Deals of the Day

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OTTAWA STATS

CITY HALL AGENDA

What’s going on at City Hall
 

No meetings tomorrow.

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

⛺  Housing

•  Gatineau is spending $600,000 from its contingency fund on ‘residents without homes’. The money will be used to hire workers and provide operation assiantance to homeless camps across the city. A city councillor reckons that amount is 38 per cent of the rainy day fund. (CBC)

🏒 The Sens

•  Detroit Red Wings forward David Perron has been suspended for cross-checking Sens defenceman Artem Zub. Perron will be suspended for six games, forfeiting US $148,437.48 in salary. Zub was standing next to Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin who was lying on the ice after himself being cross checked by Ottawa's Mathieu Joseph, when Perron struck him in the head. (Associated Press) 

🏢 Zibi

•  The co-living apartments at Zibi are now available to rent. The designy Chaudière Island tower will offer ‘48 shared apartments, totalling 175 bedrooms, along with shared kitchens and living rooms’. A bedroom with a shared bathroom starts at $1,281 per month. No, you don’t get to pick your roommates. (Arthur White-Crummey at CBC) (Common at Zibi)

🔥 Christmas Fire Safety

•  Normally a press release from the City headlined the ‘twelve days of holiday fire safety’ would not make the cut for What Ottawa Is Talking About but they just put so much work into it. To wit:
  
  ‘On the fourth day of holiday fire safety, Ottawa Fire told me: 
  
  Hear four beeps from your carbon monoxide alarm,
  
  Leave the house immediately to avoid any harm.’
  
  and
  
  ‘On the tenth day of holiday fire safety, Ottawa Fire told me:
  
  Keep three feet of distance at least,
  
  Between heating sources and your fabrics, presents or feast.’
  
  Okay, so it is obvious Alanis Morissette has not taken a job with the City but we’ll still give them an ottawan No-Prize for the effort to liven up a standard annual reminder.  (City of Ottawa)

⚕️ COVID 19

•  Dr. Vera Etches says older people should get the COVID and flu shots soon. Ottawa Public Health notes that COVID in the wastewater and patients in hospital are both significantly higher than this time last year, the difference being the vaccination rate was higher one year ago. More than 70 per cent of COVID patients in hospital right now are over 60. (Matthew Kupfer at CBC)

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MORE FROM THE OTTAWAN

• 🍺 Our Ottawa-Gatineau Craft Brewery Map

•  

• 🏆 The Best Of Ottawa Awards 2023

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• 🎧 Best Podcasts from Ottawa

EVENTS

Is there an event we should know about?
Please use our easy event submission form

Today

Find Ottawa’s most comprehensive – and ever-expanding – list of Christmas Markets, Festivals, and Parades on our website.

•  🕎 Day six of Hanukkah. You can donate to the 5th Annual Rabbi Bulka Chanukah Toy Drive here. There are still six gifts left on the Amazon wish list of toys wanted by a child. Yes, we know it’s Hanukkah and Chanukah in the same item.
•   Canada Centennial Choir’s Magnificat opens the choir’s 56th season. Tuesday December 12 at Woodroffe United Church.

•  Improve your skills with Life Drawing at Art House Café.
  
  Gigs

•  Half Cocked Trivia Night. Atomic Rooster

•  Noise/Experiemental show featuring Amarior, Girl Circles, Kronikov, Pity the Heel. Avant-Garde Bar

•  Trivia Tuesday. Irene’s Pub and Restaurant

•  Open Stag with Clarissa Fortin. Red Bird Live

•  Open Mic Night. LIVE on Elgin
   

Tomorrow

•  Tickets go on sale at 10:00 am Wednesday December 13 for Ashley MacIsaac shows at Red Bird on January 13 and January 14 2024.

•  Doors Open for Music presents a noon program of Holiday Jazz.

•  Groove to the jazzy seasonal tunes from A Charlie Brown Christmas as they’re played live by the Rousso Quarter. This candlelight show is at the Gladstone Theatre.

•  Enjoy an evening of board games at the Prescott.
  
  Gigs

•  Left to Suffer, Chamber, Tracheotomy, Mouth Breather. Rainbow Bistro

•  Rare Groove Wednesdays. Atomic Rooster

•  Spark Trivia with DJ Geoff Paquet. Spark Beer

•  Pretty Good, Maybury, Talia Aoude, Corduroy Moon, Franki. House of TARG

•  Eden Moore’s Slay Bells. LIVE on Elgin

•  Holly Cole: A Swinging Chrismas with the NAC Orchestra. NAC South Hall

•  Tyler Keeley’s Urban Campfire (December Edition). Red Bird Live

•  The Follow Ups, the Valveenus, Audio Visceral. Avant-Garde Bar

•  Climate Pub(lics). Irene’s Pub & Restaurant

•  Trivia Night. Pour Boy

Thursday

•  Kichesippi Beer hosts the Kichesippi Euchre Tournament starting at 6:30 pm. If you don’t know anything about the game show up early and learn how to play.

• I Love Turtles: Take a break from the distractions about the festive season today and attend an informative webinar about the turtles of Ottawa. Malcolm Fenech of the Petrie Island Turtle Project will explain how he spent last summer collecting turtle eggs from Petrie Island, incubating them at River House, and releasing them back into the wild after they hatched.
  
  Gigs

•  21st Annual 20th Century Boys Fundraiser. Rainbow Bistro

•  Comedy Night. Brew Revolution

•  Comedy Night. Pour Boy

•  The Glorious Sons. The Arena at TD Place

•  JW-Jones and Friends. Meridien Theatres @ Centrepointe

Just Announced / Now Booking

•  Farmgate Cider will welcome singers of all abilities to the barn for some carolling next Thursday (December 21) from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Your $15 ticket will include one mulled cider, snacks, lyric sheets, and a jolly good time.

DEALS OF THE DAY

BUT, ONE MORE THING ...

Dave Allston in the Kitchissippi Times has an interesting history of the occupants a stately home at 539 Island Park Drive between 1940 and 1944.

During the Second World War, at the invitation of the Federal government, 28 children and four staff from Highgate, London were evacuated and arrived in Ottawa to find: nothing. No arrangements had been made for them.

After brief residencies at Elmwood School, Ashbury College, and the Ottawa Ladies’ College the Island Park Drive house was turned over to them, and  nicknamed Byron House after their school.

On the BBC website, there is a short audio clip of students Polly and Geoffrey Carton speaking from Ottawa to their parents back in the UK on 27 July 1941.

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