SERIAL DINERS RULES HISTORY

Over the years, one particular Serial Diners rule has required extensive revision due to ever-changing circumstances. Namely, rule 6 originally stated simply that "We skip no listings", i.e. we proceed alphabetically through the entire Restaurant section of the Toronto Yellow Pages. However, this raises the question of what constitutes the "Toronto Yellow Pages". Due to the 1998 amalgamation of Toronto suburbs into a new combined single Toronto "megacity", and various changes in the Yellow Pages publishing policies, our interpretation has varied somewhat over the years:

• Originally, "Toronto Yellow Pages" referred to the Yellow Pages of the pre-1998 [central] city of Toronto.
• When the Yellow Pages were later split into the Toronto Central West Edition and the Toronto Central East Edition, we proceeded by merging those two listings together into a single listing, and using that instead.
• When the Yellow Pages were combined in 2009 into a single "One Toronto Core Centre" Yellow Pages for the entire amalgamated city, this rule was changed to refer to the entire combined listings.
• In 2011 we added the new proviso that we will skip any restaurant whose location falls within the geographic boundaries of the pre-1998 suburban regions of Etobicoke, North York, or Scarborough, if it is not on a subway line and if we cannot confirm in advance that the restaurant exists and is open for dinner on Fridays.
• In 2011, we also added the proviso that for restaurant chains with multiple separate listings, while we must still go to the first chain listing (regardless of location), and also to any subsequent separate listings whose locations fall within the geographic boundaries of the former (pre-1998) city of Toronto, we now can and will skip all subsequent chain listings whose locations fall outside the geographic boundaries of the former city of Toronto (thereby sparing us 4 extra weeks of Kelsey's in Etobicoke and Scarborough).
• In January 2012, the Revised Amalgamation Accord allowed us to skip any restaurant in the (combined, amalgamated) Toronto Yellow Pages which falls geographically in the former (pre-1998) city of Etobicoke or North York or Scarborough, and is more than 20 minutes by TTC from a subway or RT stop.
• In 2014, the rules about multiple separate listings were modified to distinguish between restaurant chains (where we only have to go to the first address within the former (pre-1998) city of Toronto), and non-chains (where we must go to every address listed).
• In 2016, the Yellow Pages returned to segregating the city by neighbourhood again, rather than listing all Toronto restaurants in every edition. So to include all restaurants in the core city, we shall combine the listings from the Toronto Core Centre, Toronto Core Northeast, Toronto Core Southeast, Toronto Core West, and Toronto North directories (but not the Etobicoke and Scarborough directories).

We note in passing that, over the years, certain other rules have been added as well. For example, at some point in the 1990s, it was decided that we did not have to eat at any restaurant which has nothing on the menu other than Stew of Cods' Heads, or is known to contravene the official Serial Diners code of ethics. But these are mere trifles -- the issue of which restaurants should be included in the official agenda has been our most vexing rules debate.

With these additional historical insights, you can now return to the Serial Diners rules with greater understanding and context.