March 29, 2007
PHILIP
“What’s news?”
TONY
“You know, I can’t figure those British guys out. The Iranians kidnap their sailors and the Brits go around threatening the Iranians right there in public. Well, you just know for sure that the Iranians won’t be giving those sailors back if the Brits try pushing them around; I bet the Iranians would shoot those sailors instead of losing face in front of the whole world.
“You don’t go pushing folks up against the wall if you want something from them. You got to be nice and do things quietly. Maybe the Brits might lose their face, but it’s their sailors they want back, so they should just stop being so mouthy. Then they could get their sailors back and everyone would be happy.”
_______
PS: [Apr 5] It looks like the British Prime Minister took Tony’s advice.
Posted in Brits, diplomacy, gunboats, Iran, losing face, mouthy, news, sailors, saving face, UK | 2 Comments »
March 29, 2007
TONY
“You remember that woman who gave me my Christmas card and the birthday card? Well, she came by the other day and invited me to a Bible reading.”
PHILIP
“Have you ever been to one?”
TONY
“Nope, no idea what they do at Bible readings. Like they say, there’s a first time for everything.”
Posted in bible | Leave a Comment »
March 28, 2007
TONY
“Yup, I’m a dinosaur, alright.
“Even the guard captain said it at the jail. Believe it or not, he remembered me from 20 years back when he started working there. He said I was there when the last guys got swung from the ropes. I don’t know about that.”
——
P.S.: The last hanging in Canada occurred in 1962; notably, it took place at the Don Jail.
Posted in 1962, dinosaur, Don Jail, hanging | 1 Comment »
March 25, 2007
PHILIP
Found the man himself up the street, a long block north of his normal perch. Looking only slightly worse for wear, he expects to be back in his normal spot before the coming week is over. Tony had to uproot himself because he had — what might be charitably called — a misunderstanding with the Alternative Grounds folk. This is notable because the AG folks are a reasonable and decent lot, a claim that Tony would corroborate, I believe. So it’s hardly a stretch to point out that Tony should have known better than to even allow the appearance of impropriety, whatever the actual circumstances. To be sure, better judgement would change his life in vastly more substantive ways too.
More to come. Thanks to those who led me to him.
Posted in amazing grace, appearances, better judgement, found, impropriety, judgement, lost, thanks | 2 Comments »
March 24, 2007
PHILIP
Well, it’s come to this: If you see Tony, have him call me. Despite having been up and down Roncesvalles a dozen times in the last several days, I’ve not seen him, even following up on the sightings of those of you who have.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
March 14, 2007
PHILIP
“Tell me about school.”
TONY
“When I was 13, I tried to burn the school down. I was at Palmerston Public School, and I didn’t want to go to school that day. So I told my mom but she said I was going to school anyway, and I didn’t get any breakfast. We didn’t have a lot of money. So I went to school and we were having some sort of exam I think, and I asked Mr. Hoffman my teacher, if I could go to the bathroom and he said ‘no’. I figure he thought I was trying to cheat.”
PHILIP
“Were you?”
TONY
“No. He finally let me go anyway but I was really pissed. so I tried to I set fire to the school. You see, I was smoking since I was pretty young so I had lots of lighter fluid, and I just sprayed it all on the bulletin board in the hallway and lit it up. Then I kind of ‘woke up’ and I went back to the classroom to tell him their was a fire in the hallway. So they got everyone out of the school and then Mr. Hoffman asked me if I knew how the fire happened. I told him and he sent me down to the principal’s office. I got the strap and then they kicked me out of school. They sent me to Parkway Vocational and I learned more there in the shop class than I ever learned at school.”
Posted in bathroom, breakfast, burn down, cheating, fire, kicked out, lighter fluid, Palmerston Public School, Parkway Vocational, raging fire, school, shop class, strap | 1 Comment »
March 11, 2007
TONY (written while he was in jail)
“Forget the loneliness, here in jail, all you hear about is how someone is going to kill the guy who put him in here, and that’s the only thing you hear all day, everyday. I go to the chapel when I can but it still doesn’t help the loneliness or anything else.
“To me, I feel like I’m wasting other people’s time and letting them down. I need to talk to someone so I don’t feel like I’m always going crazy, with all this talk of killing people all around me.
Jail is all about death and I feel like I’m dying myself too.”
Posted in bad choices, behind bars, chapel, dead, death, depressed, dying, feeling bad, going crazy, jail, jail bard, jail bird, kill, letting people down, loneliness, menace, wasting time | 1 Comment »
March 9, 2007
TONY
The Leafs got slaughtered last night. They dropped the game 5-1. It was a total disaster.”
———
Update on Tony: He’s dealing with the cold, the leg brace, the one crutch, the inconvenience, the pain, plus the everyday pedestrian stuff. On the bright side, Tony’s got a reasonable prospect of long-term, affordable accommodation in the near future.
Posted in disaster, slaughtered, son, sun, Toronto, Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Sun | Leave a Comment »
March 5, 2007
PHILIP
“What do think about the news on Britney Spears?”
TONY
“[Begin Tony’s response by inserting your favoured phrase for conveying unfettered heterosexual enthusiasm.] Well maybe some people think she’s nothing special, but I like her because she does her songs for the common people.
Yeah, I saw in the newspaper about her shaving her head which they should just leave her alone about, if you ask me. What’s wrong with shaving your head? The fire guys and the cops do it, when they’re raising money for cancer. People with cancer go bald with those chemicals and they need wigs too. So what’s someone’s big problem with that?”
PHILIP
“I saw a story that said she’s been suicidal too.”
TONY
“That’s probably that she’s got some problems upstairs. I always learned that you can’t pick on people with a sickness, like with crippled people. They should just leave her alone.”
Posted in big problem, Britney Spears, britney's breakdown, cancer, heterosexual enthusiasm, not knowing, People magazine, problems upstairs, shaing your head, sick, sickness, suicidal | 4 Comments »
March 2, 2007
TONY (written while he was in jail)
“Two months just before I turned 10 yrs. old, I met this man called Jake. He drove this horse called Betty and pulled an old wagon with iron wheels. We’d go through the back lanes collecting scrap metal. Some of it was good but most days were really bad. On a good day, I made $1.00. I guess that was 1959.”
Posted in $1.00, 1959, alleyway, back lanes, Betty, horse and wagon, Jake, poverty, scrap metal | Leave a Comment »
February 28, 2007
TONY
“Believe it or not, this woman comes up to me yesterday and says: ‘You’re just a faker.” So I showed her my official hospital bracelet and then I said to her: ‘You think this is a fake, lady?’. Then she just huffed up the road after that.”
Posted in fake, faker, fakes, the power of the unconscious | 4 Comments »
February 27, 2007
Feb 27 — 12 pm
1) It happened at noon yesterday at the SE corner of Lansdowne and Dundas. He was dragged 3 feet beneath the car. And he was riding his bike “home” following his court hearing (more about which later).
2) Tony’s mangled bike is being held at 14 Division. “That bike saved my ass.”
3) The scene was witnessed by several firefighters from firefighters (from 426 Division), who — incredibly — happened to be driving their truck right behind the car that hit Tony. “As far as I’m concerned, the guys from 426 are the best in the city.”
4) Tony’s left leg has very severe bruising and ligament damage (at minimum). “The pain is bad. It’s from my ass to my ankle. I’m on Tylenol 3’s and I need to get working on a place to sleep until my leg gets better. Plus I need a smoke.”
5) His out-of-pocket costs arising from the accident: $85 for the leg brace (to be paid this week); $20 for the crutches (payable today); $25 prescription (also payable today).
Posted in 14 Division, about last night, be thankful, bicycle, bike, car accident, cigarettes, costs, firefighters, justice, police, stay alive, surviving, Toronto Fire Department, Toronto Police Department, Tylenol 3 | 7 Comments »
February 27, 2007
Feb 27 — 8 am
He spent 5 hours at Mount Sinai Hospital. I believe that one of his legs is broken. I fear he might have been riding his bike (Toronto streets are covered with snow and slush). I don’t know what happened at his court hearing, nor do I know where he slept last night. You’ll know more as soon as I do.
Posted in car accident | 1 Comment »
February 23, 2007
TONY (written while he was in jail)
I don’t know how many people remember the old horse and milk wagon that used to go around the streets picking up empty bottles and replacing them with fresh bottles of milk. When I was about eight years old, the milkman would pay me 2 cents a bottle. Some customers would put their weekly milk payments on top of their empties on the porch; they were always people who lived in big houses and who had big money. My family had to live too, so a few bucks here and there plus my $1.50 per day helped us stay alive.
——–
PS: Tony has a court date on Monday, Feb 26. It’s also his 58th birthday.
Posted in $0.02, 2 cents, bottle deposit, cream, delivery truck, empties, horse drawn milk wagon, job, milk, milkman, morning ritual, poor, right to eat, schoolkid, skimmed milk, skimming, stay alive, stealing, surviving | 8 Comments »
February 20, 2007
TONY
“I’ll tell you about this schoolkid who came up the street this morning [Feb. 20]. I see him some days, but this time he’s carrying some musical instrument in a case and his face is kind of depressed.
“So I say to him: ‘What’s the problem?’ and he shows me the musical instrument case. I can tell he’s got a trombone in there and then he says to me, no joke: ‘My teacher won’t let me wear earplugs.’ So I say: ‘You can’t be that bad’ and he says ‘yup’ he certainly is.
“Anyway, I looked at him and I told him to just stick with it and that it will get better. Believe me, when it can’t get worse, it gets better.”
Posted in believe, depressed, earplugs, get better, musical instrument, schoolkid, teacher, that bad, trombone, worse | 1 Comment »
February 19, 2007
TONY (written while he was in jail)
“See, when I was growing up [ages 5-7], we had what people call a soup line. Kids and parents were lined up for blocks and when I say blocks, I mean 10-12 blocks, literally. We had to have stamps for bread: 1/2 a stamp for a loaf and one stamp for so-called butter, which was really lard).
“Me and the crew would steal food from the navy to feed my family and crew. There was five kids in my crew: Pete (the milk man), Dave (the meat man), Jimmy (the pick pocket), Larry (the clothing man) and me, Tony. I didn’t have a specialty; I took everything I could get my hands on. If I could sell it, I took it.”
Posted in bad choices, bread, burglary, butter, childhood, clothing, dockside, Don Jail, food, food stamps, lard, letter from jail, meat, milk, picking pockets, poor, poverty, right to eat, soup kitchen, soup line, stealing | 1 Comment »
Homeless Man Speaks 