Boy Reporter

At the San Francisco conference, a special columnist for the sedate Christian Science Monitor was rapidly winning readers and influencing teen-age kids. Nice old ladies were writing him fan mail. Ecstatic schoolgirls wanted his autograph.

The journalistic meteor was Kenneth Langley, 16, an auburn-haired, apple-cheeked high-school student. He sold Erwin Canham, the Monitor's shrewd and scholarly editor on a kid's eye report on UN CIO. His column has appeared in the Monitor under such headings as: "Boy Reporter Offers Proof China Will Be Strong Nation." Kenneth got off to a slow start. Racing back & forth between his classes and the Opera House a block away, he filed 500 words of stiff schoolboy prose to Boston every night. Soon Editor Canham offered a suggestion: let the grown-up reporters cover the news ; you tell us what you think of it. Kenneth thereupon got into the groove. One of his stories began: "This story starts one winter night in 1942 in a He waggled a solemn finger at his contemporaries : "I think it's pretty important to know just why this conference is being held. And if you don't know the purpose of it, don't feel bad, because a lot of adults don't either." His eye sharpened: "I saw an interesting and pretty hat walk into the dress circle today — it turned out to be Hedda Hopper under it." He pontificated : "On the whole, I'd say the conference has done remarkably well." In Boston, Editor Canham, well pleased with his new columnist, suggested that Kenneth could stand a few spelling lessons but might one day become a topnotch newspaperman. Kenneth was pleased too.

A Day Full of Politics

I've been keeping one eye on Toronto City Council because they're voting on the postering by-law. Unfortunately this meant that I missed the breaking news that Belinda Stronach jumped off the S.S. Harper and joined up with Team Martin.

Also, I'm sad that I won't be able to help take down the Liberals in the BC election. Gordon Campbell has hacked social services in that province, the NDP didn't do a great job running the province considering how long they were in power but giving the Liberals free rein of the province wasn't that much fun either. I'm actually more interested in seeing how BC will vote on all the interesting voting reform initiatives.

Toronto the Good

When I first found out about Spacing Magazine I fell in love with the idea of a magazine dedicated to Toronto's public space. I've written one piece to the mag which is now online and will have pieces in the next issue.

Spacing is also having a fundraiser at the Steamwhistle Brewery Distillery District next week. It's only 10 bucks (20 if you can afford it!). I'd love to see you there.

MediaScout

If you haven't already subscribed to Maisonneuve's MediaScout, what are you waiting for? MediaScout is Maisonneuve's daily analysis of what the Big 6 media outlets are covering (Four papers and two TV news programs). The sages at MS break down the papers and show you what they're leading with, how the newsrooms are spinning the stories and any missteps in coverage.

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Go, now!

Now That's Good Eatin'

One of things I did when I was in NYC was visit the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas, a little museum tucked right in the middle of Chinatown. The museum was showing an exhibit on Chinese restaurants in the US, which is also lovingly reviewed here by Gish Jen.

Chinese restaurants have been on my mind a lot lately because of Cheuk Kwan's great 13-part documentary series which is screening around Canada because of Asian Heritage Month.

If there's a single type of business that speaks of the immigrant experience in Toronto, restaurants would have to be it. Once any nationality or ethnic group reaches a certain size it seems that invariably a restaurant pops up in Toronto. Interestingly, I still can't find a decent South East Asian place in Toronto (one that serves decent Singaporean, Malay, Indonesian)....

I love my neighbourhood

Sooner or later something really bad is going to happen in my neighbourhood. But for now I just have to contend with the silliness of urban life.

Reflecting on 9-11

I finally got around to reading William Langewiesche's American Ground, his long feature turned into book on the 9-11 recovery efforts. Langewiesche, who writes for the Atlantic, managed to get access to the site less than a week after 9-11 and was there for months afterwards. It's probably one of the best pieces of long-form journalism in the last couple of years and well worth getting (it's already hit the syllabus at Ryerson).

Reading Langewiesche also prepped me for Joel Meyerowitz's 9-11 exhibit (http://www.911exhibit.state.gov/) which is currently showing at Contact. Meyerowitz' a NYC street photographer is showing some large format photographs of the site at an old empty building turned into a gallery on King St. W. They're a perfect compendium to Langewiesche's wonderfully reported book.

Sweet Sweet Vindication!

It's in a study it's gotta be true!

I'm Putting This Up In As Many Places As I Can

I'm using the power of the blogosphere to get the word out. The posters are available from the Toronto Public Space Committee to download or you can buy a package of 50 and start your very own anti-Nike campaign. I also post about it on Torontoist.