More weird news as LCBO shelves in Ontario are getting bare a few hours before the impending strike. Favorite panicky line so far: "...people left with their arms laden with bottles and cartons as if preparing for doomsday." Sure, it's dooooom when you can only get domestic beer, right. See, the wonderfully named alternative monopoly, The Beer Store, will still be open but they can't sell spirits or wine. Other things to recall as we walk forward into the unknown:

• The LCBO controls the wholesale trade as well so restaurants, bars and hotels would lose the ability to sell if this goes on enough.
• The also have some weird snitchy data products which seem rather intrusive if they can drill down to the individual purchase combinations.
• It's the first hot patch of the summer and Toronto city workers are already on strike. The grumpy don't like being dry.

I have to admit that my favorite media moment in strike 2009 is the item on the CBC's website this evening - displayed clickably above - which shows Ontario booze buyers in such a frenzy that they are wearing down coats and wool hats as they race to fill their cars with a summer's worth of gin and plonk.