War on Trash: Day 32 (Salute to Mr. Lakey, Star)
Posted on July 23rd, 2009 – 6 CommentsEvery Saturday(ish) as I sit in my favourite breakfast joints gobbling up artery-hardening goodness and flipping through the comics section, I remember how much I’d been wanting to write about the Toronto Star. I do like to link to this paper so I guess it’s no secret, I think it’s the bee’s knees.
The outstanding feature of this city stalwart is how it seems to maintain that great journalistic root of hit-the-pavement reporting. It has the fewest misleading or indeterminate headlines of any of the major dailies, probably even fewer than this blog. And they’re not afraid to go where the action is.
Today, for example, I discovered an article by a brave front-line journalist named Jack Lakey. In it, he recounts a horrific scene of utter devastation; a forgotten mound of burnt wood, broken cinder blocks, smoked glass, and protruding hunks of dangerous metal; remnants of an iconic bicycle store. And garbage:
It doesn’t get any more raw than that. A salute, Mr. Lakey.
For obvious reasons, I didn’t want to stick around too long. The overcast sky was bringing an early evening and soon the crack-heads would be rising from their graves, hungering for human brains. Brains on crack. *shiver*
By the time I regained my composure, I was already halfway up Spadina in CHINATOWN! I hazily remembered the last time I’d been here; it was only day two of the tactical strike and already the troops were taking a beating. The memories of that day were like dark, hellish, black-and-white photographs. I didn’t even want to imagine how the area had ended up.
And as it ended up, I couldn’t even have imagined:
Clean streets and empty garbage bags, even in Chinatown; who’d ‘ve thunk it?
I’m actually starting to feel a little sorry for the 416/79 command. A sizeable number of their strikers have hoisted the white flag and requested to defect to our side. I believe they have seen the error of their ways and should be afforded clemency and dignity. We must eliminate this savage brutality; that wanton barbarism; those angry little picketers with their bashy smashy little placards. Take it easy, lady!
We can all still emerge from this with a little humanity. A little understanding. A little peace.
Dream of magic and unicorns, sweet prince. Or winning the lottery.
(Click on that link, I promise the story’s interesting – it’s the Star!)
... with pictures
... with sounds
... with videos
... with opinions
... that's shorter
... that's longer
