Sunday 27 May 2007

Peter and Paul

In an early Toronto Sun promotional film, Paul Rimstead is sitting on a stool in the King's Plate Open Kitchen explaining how Peter Worthington's mission in life was to "look for communists under every rock."

We haven't viewed that clip in more than a decade, but we could clearly see and hear Paul mouthing those words while reading Peter's heartfelt Saturday Sun tribute to Paul on the 20th anniversary of his death in Florida.

Peter's full page tribute to Paul - he was out of the country on assignment when Paul died from cirrhosis on May 26, 1987 - no doubt made thousands of veteran Sun readers, former colleagues and friends from all walks of life nostalgic for the days of The Rimmer.

His column took us back to the newsroom of the 1970s and 1980s.

Peter's column, from beginning to end, captured the man, his talent and his idiosyncrasies and generated a wide range of emotions, from laughter to regret. The regret is that we couldn't find the words needed to convince Paul to stay on the wagon.

The memorable salute to one of the giants of the Toronto Sun is what TSF is talking about in saying there is another Sun book to be written, preferably authored by Peter.

No comments:

Post a Comment