Not The Hockey Player » People

Ave Maria

Gary Roberts — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:11:26 +0000

My walk home after work tonight was completely different to yesterday’s. As I made my way, I had to pass by Roy Thomson Hall. As I approached the hall, I heard the sound of Ave Maria drifting through the air, and I could see an old Chinese guy across the street from me, playing this beautiful hymn on …

Neil

Gary Roberts — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:51:39 +0000

“Hi, my name’s Neil!” says the guy, loudly, as he turns the corner right in front of me and moves into my way. I’m walking home from work, it’s just after 5PM and starting to get dark. The temperature is 4°, unseasonably warm for January—a nice night to walk home. I have to stop, because …

Corrado’s Barber Shop. Men’s Hair Stylist.

Gary Roberts — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:01:10 +0000

Adam is sitting in the steel and leather barber’s chair, his back to the small table displaying the tools of his trade and the large mirror on the wall, as he talks to an older guy seated across from him. The mirror competes for wall space with a number of vintage Playboy pin-up posters, the edges of …

Two kickass Canadians

Gary Roberts — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:47:22 +0000

I have a singer/songwriter friend named Andy Stochansky. He’s quite well known in the Canadian music scene, as well as in the U.S. and internationally. Andy’s lyrics have been sung by artists worldwide, including Australian Idol winner Shannon Noll. Some of his works are included on best-selling albums, like the soundtrack for the latest Twilight …

100 Strangers on New Year’s Eve

Gary Roberts — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 22:04:04 +0000

Walking home along King West today (after braving the crowds at the LCBO to buy a bottle of bubbly for tonight’s New Year’s Eve festivities, which in our case involves sitting at home with cheese, hummus, bread, olives, bruschetta, wine, and a selection of our favourite pre-recorded TV shows), I saw a young couple in front of me with cameras …

A morning walk to work

Gary Roberts — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:57:28 +0000

Walking by the TIFF Bell Lightbox building on King West on the way to work this morning, a guy in front of us strolls along with a hint of a drunken swagger. Dressed in ripped and soiled jeans, a dirty jacket that’s too big for his slight frame and carrying a green plastic bottle crate, he weaves …

Pale Blue Dot

Gary Roberts — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:30:00 +0000

On this day in 1996, American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist and author Carl Sagan passed away. Sagan is known for the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which he narrated and co-wrote, a series I remember watching avidly in my youth. Along with David Attenborough, Sagan was one of my heroes as I was …

Abusing animals is such fun!

Gary Roberts — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:37:20 +0000

This morning on Breakfast Television there was a segment on GatorLand in Florida, where they showed an alligator with a heavy rubber band around its snout, being straddled by a not-too-small man, stamped on and having its tailed pulled. This was, I believe, classed as a ‘ride’ at the park and the host, Dina Pugliese, and her …

Benetton and the pope

Gary Roberts — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:35:00 +0000

There’s an (primarily) online phenomenon called the Streisand Effect in which any attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely. This happens because the information in question gets picked up by news sites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc., thereby causing it to be disseminated more and more. Well …

Damian Goddard, fired for tweeting

Gary Roberts — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:49:23 +0000

Damian Goddard was a Toronto-based broadcaster for Sportsnet who was fired from his job six months ago for a tweet he posted on his personal Twitter account, expressing his views that only marriage between a man and a woman is a “true” marriage. The posting on Twitter was in support of hockey agent Todd Reynolds’ …