Posts with the millennial tag

Barris Beat

Off-leash going a bit off-base

Written by Ted Barris on . 1 Comment
Rare moment when Jazz took a break from running at the off-leash park.

I generally arrive there about sunrise and make a second trip there about sundown. As usual, I have to restrain my four-legged pal each time I get there; my English springer spaniel knows we’re going to the off-leash park. With varying levels of success, I try to keep my dog Jazz leashed and at the heel until we get inside the entry area. Then, when he’s relatively still, I open the main gate and give him his release command.

“Go free,” I tell him. And away he runs and runs. Almost without exception, it’s only a matter of moments before he defecates. And even in the gloom of the dawn or the dusk, I make sure that I follow him closely, so that when he crouches I’m there to stoop and scoop. (more…)

Barris Beat

You think you invented social media?

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A British corporal from the front in Burma, with greetings for Joy.

A soldier with circular spectacles, corporal’s stripes on his sleeve and khaki shorts on, walks toward a stationary camera. He smiles as he acknowledges the commotion around him. Glasses clink. There’s a general hubbub of voices in friendly conversation. He’s in a military pub – circa 1940s – and stops in a kind of selfie-framing attitude and speaks right to camera.

“Hello, Joy. How’s this for a wartime miracle?” he begins. “And a novel way of saying, ‘I love you.’” (more…)

Barris Beat

Attitude for a new decade

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Team Canada celebrates gold-medal victory at 2020 world junior hockey championship in Czech Republic. dailyhive.com

I was heading home from the city, the other night. I dashed up the escalator from the TTC subway, and spotted the coach I had to catch sitting outside the bus station. I sprinted across the platform and landed just inside the front doors of the bus. The bus driver wasn’t pulling out right away, so I caught my breath and moved down the centre aisle of the bus to make room for others.

“Don’t crowd me, man,” said a young commuter next to me. “Keep the f___ away!” And I stepped back and apologized.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” said another man to the guy spouting the profanity.

And on it went. More expletives. More intensity. Back and forth between the two young strangers on the bus. So, before the bus left the station, I asked the driver to open the door and, as he did, I thanked him and said, “I think I’ll catch the next bus.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Bowing to young leaders

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Monte Winter announcing he’ll be stepping down after 32 years’ service in Ontario Legislature. Toronto Star

A few weeks ago, I read a story about the end of an era. A man who’d come from a family-run gourmet meat business and then had been elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1985, was stepping down. Monte Kwinter had served his constituents in the riding of York Centre for 32 years, but now he was retiring. The Toronto Star’s Robert Benzie asked the former solicitor general about his decision to leave.

“I am proud of what we accomplished during that time in my riding,” Kwinter told Benzie. But then the 86-year-old Member of Provincial Parliament added something I didn’t expect when he said:

“It’s time to turn over the reins to a new generation.” (more…)