Joshua Jackson sighting in New Westminster

 

By Jessica Hewitt

y obsession with Joshua
Jackson began at a young age.
I spent countless hours in front

of the T.V. watching many seasons of
Dawson’s Creek with an eye on Pacey
Witter. More recently, I day dreamed
about being on the back of his motorcycle
as he trekked across Canada in One Week.

When I moved back to Vancouver
from Calgary, I knew that my dream of
meeting Joshua Jackson could potentially
become a reality. This was because we
were both living in the Lower Mainland
and Jackson’s television series, Fringe,
was filmed in and around Vancouver. I
mean, really, it wasn’t totally impossible.
Highly unlikely, but not impossible.

Before I moved to New Westminster,
I hadn’t ever heard of Front Street or
Antique Alley. I never actually planned
on living in New Westminster, but when
I enrolled in classes at Douglas College,
it seemed like a good way to avoid a
long commute. When I moved into a
new apartment on Columbia Street, I
did not consider Front Street to be more
than just musty, old antique stores and
an obvious tractor-trailer route. Front
Street runs parallel to Columbia Street
along the waterfront and at night it can
be a bit alarming. It is not rumbling with
pedestrian traffic or well-lit with street
lights like Columbia Street.

It turns out that Front Street is
actually considered to be endangered,
according to the New Westminster

Preservation Society. They argue that
because of business abandonment and
lack of exposure, the street’s uniqueness
and history will soon be forgotten. Many
years ago, the “other side” of Front
Street was the waterfront and not a pay
parking lot, as it exists today. Areas along
Columbia Street are getting face-lifts,
leaving the heritage street behind.

One Thursday afternoon, I
discovered an appreciation for Front
Street when I was out for a walk along
the Quay. Looking to catch a glimpse
of a celebrity, I walked down the street
toward the film crews that always seem
to be filming there. I look to the left and I
see a piece of paper taped to the window
of a local business. It read “We thank you
for your patience as we film Season 4 of
Fringe.”

The next thing I know, I am walking
slowly down the street, trying to pretend
that I am not looking for Joshua Jackson.
I duck into one of the many antique stores
and take a quick look around as I also
have an appreciation for funky furniture.
It was when I stepped out of the store
when I saw him. I didn’t know what to
say, so I awkwardly smiled at him. In
the end, Joshua Jackson and I locked
eyes on Front Street and to this day it
was probably one of the best moments
of my life. Well maybe not the best, but
definitely top five.

So maybe venture on down to
Front Street. You never know who you
might run into. Until next time, Joshua
Jackson...

 

Cc

2

Lotmon

Eat for free at the Heart Attack Grill

That is if you are over 350 pounds

disease increase yearly, we continue

to see fast food restaurants such as Mc
Donald’s popping up on every corner.
Along with the restaurants come the
Philly Cheesesteaks that secrete copious
amounts of cholesterol and saturated fats
to your unsuspecting arteries. Bread is
being replaced with chicken such as KFC’s
Double Down, and at the top of the list
for 2009’s worst foods, Baskin Robbins,
chocolate Oreo shake with an incredible
total of 2600 calorie and 263 grams of
sugar. But all of these seem so minuscule
when you hear about a restaurant that
offers your meals for free if you are over
350 pounds.

This lard factory calls its self “The
Hard Attach Grill-Diet Center” with the
lovely slogan, “its worth dying for”. Oh
and I wasn’t kidding before if you are
over 350 pounds; you eat free at this
restaurant. Of course you will only find
this outstanding company in the gluttonous
United States of America - home of 1.3
million heart attacks annually.

Opened in 2005 by a former
nutritionist John Basso and a Jenny Craig
employee, the heart attack grill can be
found in Chandler, Arizona. This “diet
center’s” spokesperson is 570-pound
Blair River who appears in the restaurants
online advertisements. These online
advertisements are spoofs that consist of
waitresses in scandalous nurse uniforms
and false health claims. Just in case you
wanted to take advantage of their “health
services,” they don’t have a telephone but
on their website, they insist that you call
911 if its an emergency.

     

. liner French fries are also on the menu, did

I mention they are cooked in pure lard?
And for drinks a lovely assortment of hard
liquor, beer and full sugar Coke. Desert
you ask? Well how about some non-filtered
cigarettes which you can also find on their
menu and at this rate, who really needs the
filter anyway when you’re eating an entire
cow cooked in twice its weight of lard?
Now the website does not have a
section for nutritional information, in place
of it, they have tee shirts for sale that state
“Quadruple bypass burger, if you have
to ask how many calories, you shouldn’t
be eating it.” Do you really want to know
anyways? Well I did. After much research
I found out that the media has quoted this
burger at approximately 8,000 calories!
8,000 calories? Suddenly a Baskin
Robbins Oreo shake doesn’t seem so bad.
This should be illegal. More than
312 billion dollars is spent each year to
fight heart disease. Restaurants like this
are costing our countries 312 billion
dollars! Ever complain about how the
government wastes your money.? Well
start complaining about the preventable
issues that could be reduced or maybe
even eliminated if authorities would
only shut places like this down. Maybe,
less funding would be needed to fight
preventable diseases. There needs to be
more regulations and rules about what
restaurants are allowed to serve to the
public, and how they are allowed to market
them. Until then, we can be sure we will
continue to see a significant increase in
obesity and heart disease worldwide.

17

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