Make a wish

Inside the Toronto Eaton Centre there are no watering holes, but there is a hole of water. Well, it’s a wishing fountain to be more precise. But like a watering hole, the fountain serves as a meeting group for all people.

Just over a dozen people --mostly exhausted parents and their children-- sit around the rim of the fountain as 44 streams of water arc into the mouth of a bowl, like an oversized high school water fountain. Others are on their lunch break, munching away at their sandwiches or pecking away at take-out pad thai.

While most onlookers arm themselves with sandwiches or chopsticks Olivia Hill arms herself with a penny, hoping to strike rich. “I wished for a million dollars,” said the nine-year-old after tossing a penny right into the mouth of the seaweed green fountain.

But for Jon Reinhardt and Amie Crone, the wishing fountain takes a more personal meaning. For Crone, her wish is for more time to spend in Canada. “I’m from England and all I wish for is to come back to Canada someday, I love it here,” said Crone.

The two met each other on St. Patrick’s Day at a bar and have traveled together ever since.

“I was kind of buzzed when I first met her; she had this goofy green shamrock sticker on her face that kept falling off. I told her, ‘your sticker’s falling off’ and that’s how we got talking. That was in Quebec; since then we’ve traveled to Ottawa and now we’re here in Toronto,” said Reinhardt, “I just want to see her again,” he adds, throwing a nickel into the middle of the fountain.

Don’t get caught flatfooted

With temperatures reaching 25 degrees this Eater long weekend, Torontonians can ditch their winter boots and break out the spring foot ware. While the weather’s on your side for showcasing your flip-flops and flats down Yonge Street, you might be asking for discomfort later down the road.

Elma Bucan, a first-year nursing student at Centennial College wears flats whenever she can, even if they're sometimes uncomfortable. “I know they’re not very supportive and I get blisters from them all the time but once you break them in they’re not so bad,” said the 19-year-old.

But blisters are just the beginning of what can result in some serious health risks.



Flat shoes can "strain the Achilles tendon that runs from the back of the heel as well as the calf muscles in the back of the leg", said Mike O'Neill, a spokesman for the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, in an interview with the Guardian, adding that, "the strain can then result in pain in as little as two weeks."

For Toronto chiropodist, Dr. Eddie Yuen, a key feature of good supportive shoes is one with stiff heel counters. “It’s found at the back of the shoe and should be very stiff and non-compressible. This will control the motion of the foot,” said Yuen.

Samantha East, 20, works at Spring and understands why people buy flats despite the health risks. “It’s spring time, you want to look fashionable, show off some skin and in that process comfort gets sacrificed for style.”