Sip on this

Right when you were getting tired of Tab in the early ’80s, Coca-Cola was quietly working on the next big thing. In ’82, diet Coke arrived. You had to try it. Not “just for the taste of it”, but because how many drinks debut at Radio City Hall? 😎

Brands aside, you’ve surely had a few diet colas since the ’80s. Ever notice they can leave you feeling hungry? It’s not just you. Research suggests that the artificial sweeteners in these drinks can trick your brain into thinking you’re not full! 

Hmmm, everybody’s got a hungry brain? ;)

(Love nostalgia? Play today’s trivia below for a chance to win a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card!)

IN THE NEWS

Provinces bottlenecking homebuilding

While housing has increasingly become a federal policy topic in recent years, it remains the case that provinces and municipalities are much more influential in the progress—or lack thereof—of homebuilding in Canada.

The Task Force for Housing and Climate, a philanthropic body not associated with the government, published a report yesterday evaluating provincial efforts in homebuilding across the country, and no province received a grade higher than C+. The federal government itself received a B, and every province but Alberta (D+) was in the Cs.

“Provinces really hold the key here. They have the most policy levers and, in many cases, they’ve actually done the least,” said report author and economist, Mike Moffatt.

The report was a retrospective on progress made so far, meaning policy proposals—such as Ontario’s Bill 17—were not considered when evaluating provincial efforts. Ontario was one of three provinces that got a C+.

The federal government was awarded a B for its housing accelerator fund, which partly bypasses provincial governments and directly incentivizes municipalities to ease their zoning laws and get to work on building. Moffatt said the fund is a good start, but requires stronger enforcement mechanisms in order to make municipalities comply with the terms of the agreement after obtaining funds.

CONSUMER

First bread price-fixing settlement approved

The legal saga over the decades-long bread price-fixing scandal between Canada’s top grocers is coming to an end, with the Ontario Superior Court approving Loblaw/Weston’s $500 million settlement a few weeks ago.

The settlement for the second class-action, which was filed in Quebec, still needs to be approved in order for the overall funds to be disbursed. That settlement hearing will take place on June 16, and it’s expected to be approved.

According to a Quebec settlement notice, the $500 million pool will be distributed with 22% going to Quebec residents, and 78% spread throughout the rest of the country.

Individual compensation amounts will be determined by how many claims are made and how much is left after legal fees, administrative fees, and other expenses come out of the settlement pool.

Those eligible for compensation were automatically included in the Ontario class action settlement, meaning no action is required for those individuals to get their piece of the pie. That includes anyone who bought prepackaged bread from one of the defendants between Jan. 1, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2021.

HEALTH

Study identifies trend driving family doctor shortage

A study published the other day in Annals of Family Medicine analyzed Ontario data from 1993 to 2022, and found a growing number of doctors are choosing to work in ERs or other hospital areas instead of practising comprehensive family medicine.

The researchers identified this as a part of the reason for the province’s family doctor shortage, revealing it’s not only doctors leaving this area of the profession, but never joining it in the first place.

The number of general family physicians rose from 104 to 118 per 100,000 in the timeframe studied, but the number of comprehensive family doctors fell from 71 to 64 per 100,000.

Family doctors are moving out of family practice as well, though. Of the 6,310 who entered the workforce during the decades the study analyzed, 40% of them are now working in a focused practice, prompting the study’s authors to speak out about how the system is failing to retain talent where it’s needed.

“It’s not enough to just train more family doctors,” said senior author Dr. Tara Kiran, a family physician and researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto. “We have to support them and ensure our systems and incentives are in place so that they preferentially choose family medicine in the community.”

FEASTING FRIDAYS

Dinner party faux pas

It may be hard to imagine there being such a thing as a “dinner party faux pas,” but make no mistake about it. There are just certain things you shouldn’t do when attending one.

That’s according to the Barefoot Contessa herself, Ina Garten, who spoke on Sunday Sitdown with the king of versatility, Willie Geist, and gave her top dos and don’ts for attending an evening function hosted at somebody’s home.

First off, never bring an item “that the host feels is something they should serve.” The host usually puts a great deal of effort into planning a meal for a group of guests, with each course often fitting together in some sort of theme.

Something like Jell-O salad would likely throw that entirely off course, and possibly freak out some guests. Bringing such a dish may be well-intentioned, but a host would rather not feel pressured into serving such a dish.

The other faux pas is bringing flowers that aren’t cut and haven’t been placed in water. In pretty much any other scenario, just the flowers would suffice, but when a host is busy juggling 15 different things to keep dinner on track, they will add a 16th by putting the flowers in a vase, but they’d rather not.

In other words, bring a vase and water yourself, or make sure to help cut and get those flowers in water when you arrive.

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TRAVEL

Beware of fake reviews

Tripadvisor is a hell of a resource for those looking to make travel plans, but make sure to do your due diligence when using the site. While the vast majority of reviews are legitimate, some of the millions of fake ones submitted do manage to get published.

According to the site’s Transparency Report 2025, roughly 8% of 31.1 million reviews submitted to the site last year were fake, more than doubling the number found in 2022.

The huge jump is partly because of 2022’s deflated travel numbers. While travel had picked back up in some regions, pandemic restrictions were largely still in play in 2022.

At the same time, fake review submissions are growing partly because of the growth of “incentivized review” perks, where companies offer patrons or their own employees some sort of perk to write them a positive review online.

“The employees get their mom, best friend or cousin to submit reviews, mentioning their names,” she said. “It ends up leading to businesses having reviews that aren’t actually valuable to our community.”

There’s also the fact that detection methods are improving, meaning the same number could be submitted, but Tripadvisor is catching more.

There are four main types of fake reviews, including “boosting”, “vandalism”, “member fraud”, and “paid reviews”, which you can read more about here.

PETS

What’s up with orange cats?

Scientists long believed because so many orange cats were male, that the gene which codes for this color must have been somewhere on the X chromosome. Now the latest research has found that of the 51 mutations on the X chromosomes present in orange cats, 48 of them were also present in non-orange cats.

Of the three remaining mutations, the one driving the orange color actually wasn’t even found in a gene, but “between two sites associated with a nearby gene called Arhgap36,” which has no known connection with pigmentation, and is present in basically all mammals.

“It’s a genetic exception that was noticed over a hundred years ago,” lead study author Christopher Kaelin, a senior scientist in genetics at Stanford University in California, said in a news release by Stanford University. “It’s really that comparative genetic puzzle that motivated our interest in sex-linked orange.”

“We see the same mutation in all orange cats that we’ve looked at over a wide geographic area, so there’s a single mutation that occurred,” he said. “And we know that mutation is quite old because there are depictions of calico cats in Chinese art that dates to the 12th century.”

MUSIC

John Fogerty rerecords CCR hits

John Fogerty won a longstanding legal battle two years ago over the publishing rights to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s songbook, and the fruits of his victory are available on his upcoming studio album Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years, which arrives Aug. 22.

Taking a page out of Taylor Swift’s book, each track on the album is listed with its original title, followed by “(John’s Version).” Three of them have been released ahead of the album, including Porterville, Have You Ever Seen The Rain, and Up Around The Bend. The latter will also be featured as the theme song for Prime’s NASCAR coverage this year, with Fogerty joined on the track by country rock legend Eric Church.

“Fogerty celebrates the songs that shaped rock history—on his own terms,” a statement for the album read. “For the first time, he fully owns the rights to his music. This marks both celebration and reclamation.

“With newly recorded versions of his hits, Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years captures his raw energy with renewed fire. Backed by his family band and buoyed by a wave of fresh recognition, he remains both fierce and joyful. Legacy is not just a celebration of one of the greatest catalogs in rock ’n’ roll—it’s the sound of an American original claiming his place, once more, at center stage.”

STAKE TRIVIA

Pickin’ up on a theme

Not every James Bond movie has been a hit, but you gotta admit that the theme songs are always bangers 😎 

Then again, Bond films aren’t the only movies with wicked theme songs. In fact, there are plenty of others, and we’ll be quizzing you on them with today’s trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified on Monday afternoon—keep an eye on your inbox!*

Have a great weekend Staker!

Today’s issue written by Michael Cowan, Joey Cowan, and Maureen Norman.


*SEE FULL STAKE TRIVIA CONTEST RULES HERE.