You must, at some point, confront the harsh truth that you’re no Leonardo da Vinci. The guy was a painter and cartographer, an architect and botanist, a geologist and an engineer. He also designed hang-gliders. And dabbled in corpse dissection. And led a crime-fighting band of turtles. Look, it’s hot out. Most of us consider putting on pants to be an accomplishment.
But chins up, homo sapiens: Even if we are da Vinci lite, we’ve still come a long way from our prehistoric past. Now, instead of dragging our knuckles, we cover them with argyle alpaca-yarn mittens that took us a month to purl. Instead of clobbering each other with hunks of wood, we fashion those hunks into a spiffy entrance table. That’s progress. And this is the place for even more of it—because when it comes to the acquiring of mad skillz, Toronto is positively kitted out. Do you want to disassemble a whole hog? Overhaul your kitchen? Scale a 90-foot icefall? Hypnotize your brother? Pop and/or lock? There are very nice people in this city who will show you how to do these things. We know. We found them.
And if summer’s lethargy hasn’t quite left you, you can boost your knowledge just by cracking these pages. You’ll find solid advice on everything from curing hiccups to talking dirty to writing a pop masterpiece—talents that in no way require the wearing of pants. You’re welcome.
HOW TO BE…
Mad Handy
Mad Athletic
Mad Artistic
Mad Smart
Mad Crafty
Next page: more Mad Skillz you need to learn, from curing insomnia and hiccups to making sure don’t get eaten by a wild animal!
