Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

It has been a good year for the Massey Murder (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/charlotte-grays-true-toro_b_6004036.html#es_share_ended) Ottawa author Charlotte Gray   is the winner of the 2014 Toronto Book Award for her non-fiction book,   The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Country.  She is 40th author to capture Toronto's annual literature prize.  Gray $10,000 win was announced at last night's award ceremony, held at the downtown Toronto Reference Library.  "I offer my warm congratulations to  Charlotte Gray , who has drawn an unforgettable portrait of   Toronto's   social life at the beginning of the 20 th   century," said Acting City Librarian   Anne Bailey . "In telling the true story of   Carrie Davies , the maid who shot a  (famed)  Massey ,   Charlotte Gray   captures the class conflict and societal upheaval that marked our city's reinvention of itself at t...

A Prize Week For Authors In Canada By Stephen Weir  Published September 17, 2014 Huffington Post Story Yesterday it was the Giller. This morning it was the Griffin and the Weston Prizes and this weekend Word On The Street. This week is the busiest time of the year for authors, readers and the nation's book industry. On Tuesday it was the  Scotiabank Giller Prize  announcing their longlist of a dozen authors for the 2014 Canadian Fiction Prize. The Giller also dropped a bomb - they aare doubling the prize purse given to the winning author - first prize is now $100,000. Runner-ups will receive $10,000 each. The Giller is Canada's most prestigious fiction prize, and, with the new $10,000 award, it is now also one of the world's largest English language prizes. Usually the Giller announces here Toronto, but this year's shocker was made at McGill University's Moyse Hall Theatre  in Montreal. The award will be presented on November 10 and will be broad...

Haiti, Guyana and America - Three Films, Three Views on Political People in The  Caribbean - by Kevin Relyea Caribbean Tales International Film Festival   Films shown on Day 5 of the Festival at the Royal Theatre, Toronto The Royal, home of Caribbean Tales International Film Festival- Relyea Showing at the Royal Theatre as part of the Caribbean Tales International Film Festival, Political People is a trio of films that detail the domestic problems of a less than thought of region that deserves western attention. The three films are related thematically but are all drastically different in their  message, approach and style. The Caribbean Tales International Film Festival is a celebration of Caribbean art and culture that will excite any casual movie-goer or anyone with a political background. The films shown are more than just entertainment as they can be educational as well featuring history and politics of the region....

 The Mighty Sparrow on stage at the Royal Theatre - Photo by Weir From my Huffington Post feature about the Mighty Sparrow and Lord Superior in the movie The Glamour Boyz Again -  http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/a-documentary-to-be-seen-_b_5767108.html Toronto's  Caribbean Tales International Film Festival  kicked-off its ninth annual season last night at the Royal Theatre with a world premier screening of a new documentary about the  Mighty Sparrow  (Dr. Slinger Francisco) and Lord Superior (Andrew Marcano). Once dubbed the Calypso King of the World, an obviously failing Mighty Sparrow appeared on stage after the first showing of the  Glamour Boyz Again: The Mighty Sparrow and Lord Superior on the Hilton Rooftop . Written and directed by American author/filmmaker Geoffrey Dunn, the feature length movie follows a very simple format: two famous aging Calypsonians on a roof with one guitar and a bucket of Caribe ale. The two men ...

. ... If the Litton Logo Police Were Still Patrolling Outer Space but say what you want it still looks like a man on a toilet Logo for Sci-Fi Movie The Moon I was never a card carrying member of the Logo Police when I worked at Litton Systems Canada Ltd and later at Litton Industries.  Oh, I did a bit of sleuthing for the Force now and again, sniffing out internal fliers, memos and shower invitations that took liberties with the Li.  But, when it came to taking on companies that monkeyed with our trademarked symbols, it was a crack team of lawyers and PR directors from both sides of the border who manned the walls firing off lawsuits and writs at anything that moved. Hollywood's man on toilet logo Pre-Internet, a logo, its pantone colours and its careful designed typeface were as much a part of the company treasures as the patents for everything from dithering mechanism in ring laser gyros to the secret recipe of the chicken pot pie sold by Stouffers ba...

Shark Encounter Has Diver Using The Word Of Mouth (By STEPHEN WEIR, PUBLISHED IN DIVER MAGAZINE) Backside of Stephen Weir's Dental Implant. Some numbers obscured for privacy If you can see my social insurance number, it means you are my dentist, or I am dead. Eaten by a shark. Lost at sea. Or, maybe I was onboard an exploding airplane that somehow missed the crushed coral runway on a distant atoll. Late last year I got my Toronto dentist to tattoo my social insurance number onto the backside of my new upper left implant. You can’t see it without a mirror and me opening my mouth wide. It wasn’t cheap. But, as a diver who has had a few close calls underwater (all of them my fault), the tattoos give me peace of mind knowing that if my body washes up on a faraway beach, or if fishermen find my jaw in the gut of a shark, there is a good chance that I will be identified and my remains returned home for cremation. I have had two encounters with sharks ...