Events

Barris brunches with Blunt

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“Giles Blunt writes with uncommon grace, style and compassion and he plots like a demon,” says author Jonathan Kellerman.

In another of his regular visits to Blue Heron Books’s “Books and Brunch” series, Ted Barris interviews bestselling author Giles Blunt in front of an audience at Wyndance Golf Club, south of Uxbridge. After spending over 20 years in New York City, Giles Blunt now lives in Toronto. His past work includes writing scripts for television programs such as Law & Order, Street Legal and Night Heat. His novel “Forty Words for Sorrow,” won the British Crime Writers’ Macallan Silver Dagger. “A Delicate Storm,” was the winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel and “Blackfly Season” was one of Margaret Cannon’s Best Mysteries of the 2010 Year. Blunt’s “By the Time You Read This,” was a national bestseller; and “No Such Creature” earned a place on the Globe and Mail‘s list of Top Ten Crime Books.

When: 11 a.m. Sunday, March 25, 2012.

Where: Wyndance Golf Club, Hwy 21 west of Coppin’s Corners, Uxbridge, Ontario.

Contact: Shelley Macbeth, proprietor, Blue Heron Books, 905-852-4282, www.blueheronbooks.com

Events

Barris speaks to Canadian Club in Orillia

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Ted Barris speaking at the Stephen Leacock Festival.

Ted Barris travels to Orillia on Wednesday, March 14, 2012, to speak to members of the local Canadian Club about the job of getting veterans to speak about their experiences; his talk is based on his bestselling book “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan.”

When: 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 14, 2012.

Where: St. Paul’s United Church, 62 Peter Street North, Orillia, Ontario.

Contact: Carolyn Cassells, 705-456-9630, bigbirds@rogers.com

Barris Beat

No life like it

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Canadian troops in Afghanistan had to deal with the climate, the combat and the loss. Photo by Stefano Rellandini.

I had a chance encounter with a member of the Wounded Warriors the other night. I had just completed a presentation about the battle at Vimy Ridge at the Whitby Public Library. On our way out of the library, he gave me an update on plans the group has to take about 30 younger Canadian vets on a bicycle tour of Normandy later this spring. (By the way, they’re doing it entirely on private donations. No government funding.) He recounted a recent exchange between his group and a Veterans Affairs Canada committee reviewing the needs Canada’s latest vets – those returning from Afghanistan. He was encouraging greater support for vets with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Give them time,” the VAC rep apparently said. “They’ll get over it.”

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Barris Beat

Difference, but not death

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Theodore Kontozoglus, my grandfather, doing what he would have considered man’s work on our the family farm in 1967.

It happened after dinner one night, many years ago. At the time, I think I was in my teens. My grandfather, who only spent part of the year visiting us, got up from the dining room table and invited my father and me into another room for a chat. He felt it was time for one of those man-to-man moments exclusive of the women – his wife (my grandmother), my mother and my sister. I promised I would be along shortly, but then added something that caught him off guard.

“I’m going to help clean up the dirty dishes first,” I said.

He gave the dishes and the table a condescending gesture with the back of his hand. Then he scolded me. “No. No,” he said. “That’s women’s work.”

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Barris Beat

Where do baby boomers come from?

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As apparently improbable as Truman defeating Dewey in the 1948 U.S. presidential race, was the realization that 80 million children would be born between 1946 and 1964.

It was the month that the longest serving Prime Minister – not just in Canada, but across the British Commonwealth – Mackenzie King retired after 21 years of service. The Communists officially took over East Berlin; the Wall soon followed. Democrat Harry Truman confounded the political pundits by defeating Republican Thomas E. Dewey and became president of the United States. For the first time TV cameras captured a production (of “Othello”) on the Metropolitan Opera stage in New York.

Oh yes, and sometime during November 1948, I was conceived.

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Barris Beat

Why is it news?

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With all that celebrity around, it's possible nobody noticed the football game that took place in Indianapolis.

I don’t know which was worse: the hype over last weekend’s so-called sporting match in Indianapolis, the anticipation over the new 30-second commercials (reportedly costing US$3.6 million each for the airtime), or the guessing about what Madonna would do during her half-time show at the Super Bowl. The newspapers, magazines and TV commentators were all atwitter all week.

“Would she employ her thin veneer English accent?” one asked.

“Would she be naked?” hoped another.

My answer was a resounding: “Who cares?”

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Barris Beat

The royal image

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Queen Elizabeth II in open car during 1959 Royal Tour (notice kids with cameras).

Buried away in a dusty, old photo album somewhere, a photograph I took with my Kodak Brownie “Holiday Flash” camera sits mounted in those black, triangular photo corners. There might actually be two or three photos in that series. But the best of them – if you look very closely at the snapshot – shows a long limousine carrying an apparently important person who is waving in the middle of the picture. The only sound I remember – above the nearly deafening cheering around me as I framed the shot – was my mother entreating me.

“Take it now, Ted,” she said. “There she is!” (more…)

Barris Beat

Maybe Chaucer was right

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Geoffrey Chaucer wrote "let sleeping dogs lie" in the 17th century with implications for 21st century politicians.

When my younger sister and I were growing up, our Greek-born American grandparents visited our home once a year. They came from the U.S. to stay during warm Canadian summer months. While visiting, my grandfather generally tolerated anything my sister and I did or said, with a few exceptions. We could never swear in front of him. We were never to call wrestling a “fixed” sport. And under no circumstances were we to criticize the U.S. president – in those years Richard Nixon – or the U.S. Vice-President (of Greek origin), Spiro Agnew.

“Let sleeping dogs lie,” my mother would warn us. By that, she meant that unless we really wanted to face my grandfather’s wrath, we should just avoid any discussion of Nixon’s near impeachment and Agnew’s resignation over tax evasion.

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Barris Beat

When you just gotta know

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"I just gotta know."
"I just gotta know."

Earlier this week, in a news-reporting course I teach at Centennial College, something suddenly interrupted the classroom discussion. It was just after 8:30 on Tuesday morning and a number of my students had their heads down. I recognized the posture. They were texting on their smartphones beneath their desks. I was about to call them on it, when I realized the source of the distraction.

“Oscar nominations just out,” one of them admitted to me.

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Events

Barris speaks at Centennial Hall in London

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Ted Barris at a Legion event in November 2011.
Ted Barris at a Legion event in November 2011.

As part of its fall 2012 program, the Women’s Canadian Club of London has invited Ted Barris to address the membership on Thursday, November 8, 2012, at London’s Centennial Hall. He will speak about the job of getting veterans to speak about their experiences; his talk is based on one of his recent bestselling books, “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan.” Copies of a number of Ted’s books will be on hand for sale and autographing.

When: 2 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012.

Where: Centennial Hall, London, Ontario.

Contact: Allister Cameron, a.c.cameron@sympatico.ca