Barris Beat

Dog days of summer

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A Kerry with dual citizenship (and neither is Ireland).

Late last month – I think it was just before the Civic Holiday weekend – I got a message on a net-serve account. A writer friend of mine was in a bit of a jam and she needed help. So she put out an all-points-bulletin to her writer colleagues for help on the Internet. Normally, this online service helps writers find editors, publishers, venues for reading and other aids that writing professionals require. Her call for help this time was a little unexpected.

“Anybody know where I can kennel my dog over the holiday weekend?” she asked.

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Barris Beat

Fewer epics, please

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Christine Sinclair of the Canadian women’s soccer team. Courtesy The Record, U.K.

The Olympics have dominated much of our attention the past week. And as I suggested in my column last week, nobody deserves the attention or the applause more than these dedicated young athletes. However, there is one side effect to watching, listening to and reading about the Games I find bothersome. And it came up the other night just before the women’s soccer semi-final match between Team Canada and Team U.S.A. Somebody asked an analyst how important the game was for the Canadian women.

“Hugely,” she said. “It’s the most important game ever.”

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Barris Beat

Empty Olympics

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Courtesy CBC.ca, Susan Nattrass, Edmonton-based trap shooter.

Somewhere in the palatial offices of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland, they missed something. Yes, they’ve awarded the successful bids: it’s Sochi, Russia, in the winter of 2014 and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the summer of 2016. They finally got all nations signed on to having women recognized as athletes. That’s all good. But when it came down to the most basic quotient of the games – putting bums in seats – it appears the IOC brain trust has bobbled the baton. The commentators spotted it right away.

“Why are there so many empty seats?” one of them said, Sunday.

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Barris Beat

Between the eyes question

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Toronto Police march in tribute to officer killed in the line of duty in 2011. Photo courtesy Octavian Lacatusu.

Everybody’s been talking about it this week. Most people have an opinion. Some blame gangs. Others point their fingers at government. A few say the courts are too lenient. But just about everybody has something to say about guns and gun crime. It came up at the milk store the other day. One man looked at it this way.

“Hey, it could be a lot worse,” he said. “Look at Detroit.”

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Barris Beat

Suffering for art sake

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Jennifer Carroll as Maud. Photo courtesy Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario.

The great English poet and satirist John Donne called it a treasure. French impressionist painter Claude Monet considered it torture. American author Helen Keller said it was an inspiration. Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner claimed humankind could endure vast quantities of it, but that it resulted in greatness. Then there was philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s view of suffering.

“That which does not kill us, makes us stronger,” he said.

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Barris Beat

A trio is born

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The Three Musketeers

We got the call the morning after the official start of summer and the day before the actual due date. Our son-in-law phoned that Friday to say that our daughter was in the Port Perry Hospital maternity ward and contractions were coming fairly quickly. A couple of hours later – at 8:52 a.m., June 22 – her third baby was born. And we were grandparents for a fourth time. A few hours after that, we were in the hospital room, holding him, enjoying his first sounds and wondering.

“Have you decided on a name?” my wife asked.

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Events

Barris addresses CWHM Remembrance event

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MCing Remembrance Day Toronto event.

Ted Barris has often appeared as a guest speaker and supporter at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. This year, since Remembrance Day falls on a Sunday, he has agreed to attend the Nov. 11 ceremony and offer his thoughts on the importance of remembrance. His talk is based on his most recent bestselling book “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan.”

When: 10:30 a.m., Sunday, November 11, 2012.

Where: Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Mount Hope, Ontario

Contact: Bill McBride, 905-730-9988.

Barris Beat, Events

Barris speaks to Etobicoke Historical Society about the challenge of recording history

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Speaking at the Stephen Leacock literary festival.

At the regular meeting of the Etobicoke Historical Society in November, Ted Barris, the author of 16 bestselling, non-fiction books will deliver one of his most sought-after talks – his recounting of the “Victory at Vimy.” It’s a unique telling of the famous WWI battle at Vimy Ridge, that, he says, gave birth to Canada’s nationhood. Barris will offer insights and images gleaned from some of the individual accounts – old interviews, memoirs, letters and diaries of the Canadian Corps troops – he assembled in the research/writing of his book “Victory at Vimy: Canada Comes of Age, April 9-12, 1917.”.

When: 7:30 p.m.,Thursday, Nov. 22, 2012.

Where: Montgomery’s Inn at Islington and Dundas, Toronto.

Contact: Nicholas Doran, director, 416-231-0438, dorans@direct.com

Events

Barris speaks at Take A Vet To Dinner

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MCing last year’s Centennial College Remembrance Day event.

At the eighth annual “Take A Vet to Dinner,” this year, Ted Barris brings his unique storytelling to enhance the event. The author of 16 bestselling, non-fiction books will addresses the dinner about the job of getting veterans to do what they pathologically cannot – talk. Based on his bestselling book, “Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan,” Barris offers some insights to a few of the nearly 4,000 interviews he’s done with Canadian veterans.

When: 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012.

Where: Best Western Mariposa, on Memorial Drive, Orillia, Ont.

Contact: Dick Johnston, 705-325-9018, johnstonwendy44@hotmail.com

Barris Beat, Events

Barris returns to Shedden with Days of Victory theme

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Speaking to veterans at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allied armies in Europe, ending the Second World War in that part of the world. Canada had played prominently in the victory. But many of the great human interest stories have rarely been told. In his well-known raconteur style, bestselling author Barris offers visuals and accounts from his book “Days of Victory: Canadian’s Remember 1939-1945.” As usual, copies of his wartime Canadian books will be available for sale and autographing after the talk and Remembrance ceremony.

When: 9:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012.

Where: Keystone Complex, Shedden, Ontario.

Contact: Michele Lant, Township of Southwold, 519-769-2010, mdrewitt@twp.southwold.on.ca