Posts with the Instagram tag

Barris Beat

Cellphone ban? Try discipline in sips.

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Breaking cellphone addition. Photo – Business Insider.

When I was about 12, I had my first taste of alcohol. I guess my parents were breaking the law by allowing a minor to consume booze, but one Christmas when our extended family got together to celebrate at our house, my mother and father made a point of giving me a wine glass for what amounted to a couple of sips of the stuff.

“Merry Christmas!” we all toasted, and like the adults around the table, I was invited to clink my glass with theirs and enjoyed that first taste of alcohol.

From then on, it turned out, if I wanted a bit of wine with our family dinners, my parents always set the glass out for me. (more…)

Barris Beat

Friending versus finding truth

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
MP Erin O’Toole speaking in the House of Commons. Hamilton Spectator.

He almost could not speak, the response around him seemed overwhelming. But he finally raised his hands in gentle protest to the standing ovation and when the applauding stopped he offered these words:

“Today, I rise for the last time in this chamber,” MP Erin O’Toole said in the House of Commons on June 12. “It’s been the honour of a lifetime to serve Durham in Parliament.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Where news comes from

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Lisa LaFlamme at the CTV News desk each night.

It’s the last thing my wife and I do each night and nearly the first thing each morning. It’s been that way for nearly 50 years. We turn off the light at night and wake up each morning in sync with broadcasters and their newscasts. At 11:30 p.m., Lisa LaFlamme says:

“That’s it for us at CTV News. Have a good night.”

Then, each morning at the top of the hour, we catch Nil Köksal introducing us to, “World Report…” on CBC Radio. (more…)

Barris Beat

Keeping social media in perspective

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
They are few, but this Facebook posting inviting readers to send veteran Fred Arsenault a birthday card, was a redeeming use of social media.

It’s just over a year now – Feb. 9, 2019 – that a young woman produced a video that showed her pitching a patio chair from a balcony 45 floors above the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto. Her stunt on Snapchat got thousands of social media hits. Instagram later picked it up and carried her response to the resulting charges of mischief endangering life.

“Chair girl wants charge dropped,” social media outlets said. (more…)

Barris Beat

Time to confront the trolls

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Team Canada captain Maxime Comtois in his penalty-shot attempt.

It was one of those breathless, white-knuckle moments. At the end of regulation time, the quarter-final, elimination game at the World Junior hockey championship was tied – Canada 1, Finland 1. Then, a couple of minutes into sudden-death overtime, a Finn rushing to catch a Canadian forward on a breakaway, slashed the Canadian’s hands from behind. The referees awarded a penalty shot, and Coach Tim Hunter chose Team Canada captain Maxime Comtois to take the shot.

“I was thinking (I have) to score,” Comtois told Canadian Press later, “and I didn’t. … It hurts.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Twits and the Twitter-verse

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Rachmoninoff genius with her hands on the piano... Valentina Lisitsa on her smart phone, not so much.
Valentina Lisitsa with her hands on a piano, a Rachmaninoff genius … with those hands on her smart phone, not so much.

Under different circumstances, classical piano fans in the Greater Toronto Area by now might be raving about a unique performance they’d seen and heard of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2. They might have joined the thousands of concert-goers who’ve witnessed her brilliance on the piano keys at such venues as Carnegie Hall and Royal Albert Hall. They might have been able to say they saw the once child prodigy now internationally celebrated concert pianist Valentina Lisitsa. Instead, she took advantage of her celebrity to offer her pro-Russian view of Ukrainian politics.

“The new school year begins in Odessa with teachers forced to wear tribal dress, a truly European custom,” she tweeted (in 2014) in an apparent slam at the cultural dress of her native Ukraine. (more…)