Gettin' old. My morning paper (the Globe and Mail, which styles itself "Canada's National Newspaper") arrived with its monthly "magazine for men" called Toro. Besides being short for Toronto, I guess, "Toro" is supposed to connote "bull" in the sense of tough, muscular, masculine. Of course, bull has other connotations.

The magazine amounts to Playboy Lite. (I don't read Playboy except when I accidentally come across a copy lying around. Unlike Hugh Hefner, I stopped being a thirteen year-old boy when I turned fourteen.) As Playboy is soft porn with articles, Toro is ultrasoft porn with even softer articles. The cover come-ons include "Exclusive: How a normal kid became Canada's pedophile killer", "Stripper fitness" and "High cholesterol? No Problem."

"Canada's pedophile killer" shot two men listed on the Maine registry of sex offenders in April. It's a sad story all around. The article adds nothing of substance to the newspaper stories of four months ago. It certainly does not deliver the explanation promised on the cover. What grates on me is that the newspaper that aspires to be Canada's answer to The Times (London or New York? Take your pick) assumes I want supermarket tabloid trash delivered to my doorstep.