Strobel's 40

Mike Strobel's ode to the Toronto Sun's 40th.

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/29/strobel-a-number-of-reasons-to-love-the-sun-on-our-40th

Betty's it is

The third Toronto Sun 40th anniversary party?

 

Pssst, it's at Betty's, Tuesday, 7 p.m. to who knows when. 

Hoist a few to Doug Creighton and the 40th anniversary of that tabloid across the street.

 

It started with Tim Fryer and Woody McGee, two former veteran Sun desk aces, casualties of the Quebecor crunch, agreeing to meet for a few beers to mark the anniversary.

Then they decided to invite selected people to The Rim Pigs Ball via private Facebook  messages.

But the Facebook invite went viral and, at last count, 28 people have posted messages saying "see you at Betty's."

"John, I've had my thinking corrected since this party (originally just me and Timmy getting together for a beer) has gone viral," says Woody. "So feel free to mention the event on your blog."

 

Some Toronto Sun Family members who are going to the Westin party for former employees and the secretive Pier 4 party for current employees say they will also be swinging by Betty's.

 

Three parties, one clear message: Friendships made at the Sun over the decades are binding.  

John Downing

Memories of the Toronto Sun - John Downing

Read Dunf's remarks like I was drinking cognac. What a wonderful thinker! No wonder he didn't survive against the Barbarians.

He mentions five or six of us taking Liz Braun to the House of Lancaster for lunch. It is burned into my memory. Liz sat there, stared at the strippers, and muttered "what am I doing here? I have five sisters." And I sunk low in the seat since this was the south end of my own neighbourhood.

Then we headed across the street to one of Doug Creighton's favourite restaurants, Latina's, had an enormous drunken lunch, and everyone stuck me (and the Sun) with the $200 bill.

Which reminds me of Barney Danson, who just died. Danson, a great veteran and defence minister, was Canada's guy in Boston. Then Creighton phoned me and said the Tories had fired him. I was to go to Boston and get the story.

I was too busy (stupid thinking on my part) playing editor, so I phoned Danson and arranged for him to dine with me at the Sun's cafeteria, called Winston's, the next time he was in town.

So Mary and I joined Barney and his bride there a few days later. He seemed to take a great interest in the wine list so I passed it to him and told him to order something nice. We ate modestly, no desserts etc., but the bill was over $400. I winced and paid without question.

The next day, I was there with Creighton in his place of honour, table number one, and said to the waiter who had served me earlier with the Dansons that I was surprised at the bill. He said Danson had ordered wine costing more than $200 a bottle. When I put in my expense account, I wrote a note opposite this dinner and said "you should never let Danson order the wine."

I was sitting in Paul Godfrey's office while he was yelling at me and signing a stack of expense accounts. He signed mine without reading it. I said I wished I had known years before that he didn't read my expense accounts before authorizing them. And I pointed out the Danson listing. Paul, who has never drank, was shocked. 

I doubt that would happen today, either the Braun lunch or the Danson dinner.  

One thing that we all slide by in our memories of the early days of fun, glory and heartache is that we were carrying on in the grand tradition of the Tely. Almost everyone of the Day Oners had also been at the Tely, where Creighton was one of the leaders in the final days.

It was almost as wacky as the Sun. I remember two Day Oners, Andy Donato and Glen Woodock, in the final Tely days cooking up a scheme to mortify me. They descended on my office when I was city editor and looking after entertainment and other departments in my spare time and said I had to decide on a huge portrait Donato had done of some entertainer.

It really was tired. Donato said he would quit if Woodcock didn't run it. Glen said it was terrible and ripped the drawing in two. Donato and Woodcock left my office, cursing each other. I didn't know wotinhell to do. As I leaned back in my chair and stared out the door, I could see Donato at his drawing board laughing like a maniac. Those bastards had set me up. So I Scotch-taped the drawing together, marched past Donato and told Woodcock to run it. So you figured it out, Glen said.

So for the survivors of the Tely, the Sun was an arduous extension of our newspaper lives. All of us were capable of doing a number of different tasks. And, believe it or not, even when the toilet paper was rationed by Art Holland, the pay wasn't. Ed Monteith looked at every penny on every expense account, so Paul Rimstead made sure that Ed never saw his expense account.

And there was a revolt, now forgotten, by 99% of the Day Oners, against Creighton's spending. Doug survived because he made the case, and it was the right one, that by dining with the elite in the Sun's cafeteria, Winston's, then one of the best and most famous restaurants in the land, Doug showed that his paper was not just a tabloid or a shopper's that was going to blow away, but we were here to stay to play with the big boys. 

Which we did for many glorious wacky years that were the highlight of every Day Oner. 

John Downing

Toronto

If you are a Toronto Sun Day Oner and have a bio or memories to share, please email with a photo before Nov. 1.

If you are one of the hundreds of men and women in all departments who followed The 62 and want to share your memories of the Toronto Sun, email TSF.

Sun memories

Updated 31/10/11
One more day to share Toronto Sun memories with TSF readers.

Memories of any length can be submitted by email until midnight Tuesday, Nov. 1, the 40th anniversary of the flagship tabloid and the sign-off of TSF as an active blog. 

What a nostalgic and heart-felt collection submitted to date by current and former employees representing various departments over the decades:

Linda Barnard - Bruce Borland - Bill Brioux 

John Cosway  

BJ Del Conte - John Downing - Joe Duffy - Gary Dunford 

Trudy Eagan 

Len Fortune 

Chris Gillespie - Paul Gillespie

Ian Harvey 

John Iaboni 

Wayne Janes 

Rob Lamberti 

Sean McCann Sr. - Cal Millar 

Steve Payne - Les Pyette 

Calvin Reynolds 

Bill Sandford - Jim Slotek -  Nancy Stewart - Joan Sutton Straus - Joan Sutton Straus 2

Peter Worthington 

Gail Zangen

Three parties

One big day - the 40th anniversary of the Toronto Sun - and three separate parties.

One at the Westin for former employees; one at Pier 4 for current employees and a third that organizers have asked TSF not to publicize, but most will guess its location.

All the result of a media conglomerate that will no doubt share in the celebration with empty rhetoric about the flagship tabloid's achievements, while refusing to finance a party for all employees, past and present.

Rather than being one big happy family on Tuesday, as Doug Creighton would have guaranteed, as he did for the 20th, the celebration will be divided.

The spirit of Toronto Sun Family members is alive and well in wanting to gather for the milestone occasion, but shame on Quebecor on down.

Len Fortune

Memories of the Toronto Sun - Len Fortune

The following is a list of Sun people, living and dead, who influenced my performance, my progress and my humanity while at the little paper on King Street:

Doug Creighton : Provider of the best work environment that anyone could possibly hope for: It really was paradise. I miss you Big Guy.

Peter Worthington: Canada's most prolific journalist and my idol..

Les Pyette: Made it possible for me to fulfill most of my dreams while at the Sun. I owe Lester the most.

Julie Kirsh: A true friend and a great lady, it was a privilege to have her in my corner.

Trudy Eagan: Her kindness and encouragement in the early years helped me find my way.

John Webb: The late John "Gentleman" Webb hired me and taught me tons about life and managing.

Andy Donato: I was always in awe of his genius and his warmth. 

Mike Simpson: A friend and a man of integrity (copy edited two of my books).

Joe Duffy: My life at the Sun would have been a lot less exciting without the presence of "Hollywood Joe".

Thomas Williams: This ex-Sun staffer made me laugh until my gut split - funny guy and great story teller.

Gary Latham: A man of great humility, I enjoyed his friendship.

Ed Moran: An extremely brilliant man who tolerated my antics for a number of years.

Gord Pick: One of the most talented people ever to leave the Sun. He was forced to the Calgary Sun.

J.D. MacFarlane: The journalism chair while I was at Ryerson and editorial director for a time at the Sun - he begrudgingly liked me.

Ed Monteith: A true man of print who bled Sun 75 red and who had my respect.

Peter O'Sullivan: One of the few who influenced my design style - a great tabloid editor.

Peter Brewster: His toughness and his ability to run a tight ship always impressed me.

Wayne Parrish: An incredibly talented journalist who always had honesty on his side.

Paul Henry: I loved the guy, but his tragic end raised my awareness of hiring too young. The bright lights of the big city knocked him out.

Barry Gray: Loyal amidst a tough run on the photo desk; an honorable guy to have covering your back. 

Jac Holland: Probably the most relaxed man on the planet, great human being. 

Wanda Goodwin: A great gal who it made it possible for me to do my first book. 

Veronica Henri: Proved me right by becoming a thoroughly professional and outstanding photographer. 

Stan Behal: The most charming of all the pixels gatherers, all-around good guy. 

Silvia Pecota: A visual genius whose passion and dedication to her art knew no equal.

Sandra Macklin : The consummate news editor, she knew her stuff.

Howard MacGregor: The ideal desk person, he asked the right questions.

Paul Heming: "Fair dinkum" all the way good buddy.

Ben Grant: Benny and I jointly hold the Sun record for the using the headline "Brrrrrrrr" in weather spreads.

Valerie Gibson: Vivacious, vivacious, vivacious and chants like hell - that's a good thing.

 

Rita DeMontis: Beautiful woman, but way too generous  Thanks Rita.

George Gross: A lovable "kiddo" who was always on my side, even when he wasn't.

Linda Leatherdale: The world's first multi-tasker: Along with being my personal chauffeur (the Oakville run), Linda managed a business section, busted out a daily column, did TV spots, ran seminars, looked after a family and still found time to party . . . WOW!

Tim Peckham: A talented Newfoundlander who I should have listened to more.

Jim Thomson: Jim edited all of my over-the-top e-mails to my overlords. I'm forever thankful.

Gord Walsh: Gord's in my dreams a lot lately - I don't know why; any old how, he is/was a straight-talking guy all the way.

Al Parker: A journalist with a big heart; I always appreciated Al's "forgive me" hugs.

Jim Jennings: To get me out of his beard, Jim appointed me managing editor of the Baby Suns (Durham, Hamilton, York and Brampton ) giving me chance to show how a real tabloid gets done. It was appreciated.

Paul Godfrey and Mike Strobel: Two lovable guys who, I know, are still trying to find my missing stock options from the Great Quebecor sale.

The Stapley Brothers (Gord and Chuck): Outstanding work ethic and fun guys to be with.

Nancy Stewart: Beautiful, stylish, gracious, kind and good with a knife, Pez and badges.
 

Greg Viens: I owe my career to Greg - he told me about a job opportunity at the Sun way back in the '70s.

Larry Craig: Pressroom superintendent and my production confidant.

Patrick McCormick: My partner-in-crime for a spell before his departure to 1 Yonge St. 

Shiela Chidley, who endured my renditions of "Sheila, Sheila, oh my little Sheila, her name drives me insane" which I sung to her almost daily; always in a different key and always with different words.  

Oh! I almost forgot the Rimmer (Paul Rimstead) and Don Ramsay.

Paul's early words, which captivated Toronto in the '70s, inspired me to write simple.

And from Don, I developed a phobia of microfiche.

All the best to the present staff at the Toronto Sun, I wish you many successes and a happy 40th.

And to the past staff, I hope your memories of the Sun are as precious as mine. 

That's all folks. Peace and wellness to all.

Love Lenny

Len Fortune

Toronto

If you are a Toronto Sun Day Oner and have a bio or memories to share, please email with a photo before Nov. 1.

If you are one of the hundreds of men and women in all departments who followed The 62 and want to share your memories of the Toronto Sun, email TSF.

Les Pyette

Memories of the Toronto Sun - Les Pyette

The first day on the job at the upstart Toronto Sun was July 9, 1974. Believe it was election  day and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau won in a landslide.

I sat on the rim, but was hired by Ed Monteith to be the paper’s new city editor. Problem was, Ed had yet to tell City Editor Ken Robertson that I was the new kid on the block.

Wearing clogs to give me more height and curls dangling past my shirt’s collar, I tried to lay out my first tabloid page.

I had come from the Soo Star, Belvidere Daily Republican and most recently the Windsor Star, all broadsheets. Yikes!!! Was out of my depth, but Ed and others, I believe Bob McMillan was in the slot, were all very patient with me and the next day I was on the  city desk, directing seven reporters and four photographers.

It was the old Eclipse building on King St. West. What a hoot. We watched the CN Tower being built. Every day, Ed would instruct me to get a picture and story on the thing.

One day I got bored and a fellow who called himself the Amazing Randi, an escape artist, came by the office to drum up some publicity for his show. I convinced him to lock himself in a safe and escape. Problem was, he got in the safe but couldn’t get out. He almost died and finally I called the fire department and they, with axe a-flailing, broke open the safe and the Amazing Randi rolled out.

It was a slow news day and the tower wasn’t going anywhere. Ed came in later in the day to put out the paper - he was a very solid newspaperman - and asked what was going on. At first, he was concerned a fellow had almost died in the company safe. I was nervous, my career at the Sun cut short by a Houdini wannabe? But Ed ran with the pictures and story of the drama in the Sun newsroom.

Those were the good old days. The Sun was rising and we were a part of it. I was 29, wet behind the ears, had my first of several families, having moved from a secure job at the Windsor Star to the Little Paper that was going to grow.

We made a lot of mistakes in the coming 29 years, but we enjoyed a tremendous amount of success too . . . travelling the world with the legendary Doug Creighton, No. 1 newspaper publisher; playing softball catch with Peter Worthington as we spent some beautiful off-hours while helping get the Ottawa Sun off the ground in 1988; being part of what Creighton called the A Team, himself, Bob Jelenic, Tom MacMillan and myself, although there were a lot more members on that team that started the Calgary Sun in 1980, John Webb, Hartley Steward, George Gross, Trudy Eagan, Lynn Carpenter. I will never forget carrying Trudy’s luggage through the Calgary airport, her hands ravished by arthritis and her making me go home at night when the party was just getting going.

My six years in the old Toronto Sun newsroom before Creighton shipped me to Calgary for the first time in 1980 were probably my most fun. I wasn't much of a city editor and couldn't begin to compare myself to Monteith, but when they let me get hold of the front page in the late 70s I had a ball. 

With the Sun growing in the early 70s, Monteith got orders to hire more reporters and editors. Believe Ron Base and Brian Vallee were among the first to storm out of Windsor and step into the brights lights of Toronto. 

Monteith hired me at the Imperial Room of the Royal York Hotel. It was a memorable night, Ed telling Toronto Telegram stories. Bruce Blackadar, Mark Bonokoski, Bob Burt, Benny Grant, Lloyd Kemp and others were quick to head east on the 401 from Windsor to Toronto, thus someone coined the Windsor Mafia. 

There were others from Windsor, but my memory from those days can sometimes be a bit foggy, if you get the drift. We were a special group, very tight-knit in Windsor and eager to help each other in the Big Smoke. 

I remember bringing Base and Blackadar home to my apartment at Islington and Dixon. We had been out solving the world's problems, only thing was I had a wife and three little kids waiting up for me. She was not amused. Not sure where the fellows slept but they were gone in the morning.

Other memories: The long nights at Paul Rimstead's backyard pool; the many dinners with Creighton; playoff softball and hockey with the Sun teams; Talk about characters! The Tonks brothers, Andy Donato, Mark Bonokoski behind the dish; the Star's Marty Goodman trying to hire me one night in Mississauga, not so much to work in his newsroom but to play shortstop for him. Marty was a heck of good pitcher.

And hanging out with MacMillan, Creighton, Steward and Jelenic in Calgary and Las Vegas; in London, England, a couple of times trying to start a television daily newspaper; representing Creighton in Taiwan, Japan, South Africa and England. I guess it was his way of rewarding me - or his way of getting me out of the office.

In 1984 in Calgary, Doug came to my house and said I had to return to Toronto to help Steward with the Toronto Sun. Once again, no one told Monteith, the foundation of the Sun newsroom, that I was coming to be Executive Editor, which was a great nine-year gig.

Ed and I worked out the details and I grew up a lot under his guidance.

In 1992, I went upstairs to help Paul Godfrey after a great run in the newsroom. Two years later, Paul shipped me back to Calgary where we had a ball helping to grow the Calgary Sun into a loud voice in the West.

In Calgary, it was riding horses and producing more children - hey, it's cold out there - and catching a wave with the ever-improving western economy. It was a good fit for me and I made ever-lasting friendships with the Calgary business community.

The London Free Press had never experienced a wacko tabloid editor, but they got one in 2000. The world was supposed to end, but we drank champagne in London the night the clock struck 12 on the millennium.

I will never forget the Toronto Sun atrium and the thunderous applause I received when I returned for the third time in May of 2001. Sadly, a lot of hard slogging had taken its toll and I was running out of gas, but what a ride, 29 years working at the Sun.

It was never really a job until the corners had to be cut, people had to be released, downsized. That was no fun . . . a nightmare for all.

I loved the old Sun. Who would have thunk that kid sportswriter from the Soo would some day actually end up publishing the Toronto Sun, the Calgary Sun, the London Free Press and later on, the National Post. 

What a trip.

The only sadness, as I wrestle with the fact that I am now 66, is that along the way we lost Sun colleagues, some of them very close friends. 

I miss talking boxing with Jerry Gladman and others who have passed on way too early, but hardly a day goes by that I don't think of little Jimmy Yates. He certainly was one of my favourites.

But as I used to say when we won a battle against the Star or the Globe, or when we got our butts soundly booted, Onward and Upward.

Les Pyette

London, ON

If you are a Toronto Sun Day Oner and have a bio or memories to share, please email with a photo before Nov. 1.

If you are one of the hundreds of men and women in all departments who followed The 62 and want to share your memories of the Toronto Sun, email TSF.

Author No. 57

The Toronto Sun Family's list of authors inches closer to 60 with the addition of three books by Gary Dunford, the tabloid's popular former Page 6 columnist.  

Gary is author No. 57.

Dunford, Gary: Good Buy, Canada, 1975, co-authored with Murray Soupcoff and Rick Salutin, J. Lorimer & Company, 100 pages (NF); Never Sit Where the Cat Sat: Gags, Giggles and Gossip, 1980, Best Sellers, Inc., 180 pages (NF); There's A Leak In My Litterbox: Laughs, Gaffes and Depression Cures, 1982, Best Sellers, Inc., 158 pages (NF)

Meanwhile, we are disappointed a publisher didn't agree to a 40 Years of Toronto Sun Donato Cartoons book with Andy's favourites.

We've updated the NNA winner's publishing track record to date:

Donato, Andy

The Best of Donato: Political Cartoons, 1974, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, Toronto Sun (NF); Would You Buy a Used Country from This Man? - Trudeau’s Ten Years in Cartoons, 1979, contributing cartoonist, Coles (NF); Chins and Needles: Political Cartoons, 1986, Key Porter Books (NF); The Strife of Brian: Political Cartoons, 1987, Key Porter Books (NF); Gucci Blues: Political Cartoons, 1988, Key Porter Books (NF); The Agony and the Exit: Donato's Political Cartoons, 1988, Grosvenor House Press, 200 pages (NF); Neverending Tory, 1993, Key Porter Books (NF); The Little Book of Canadian Political Wisdom, 2004, illustrator for author Rick Broadhead, Key Porter Books, 200 pages (NF); Canadian Editorial Cartoonists, 2010, contributing cartoonist, LLC Books, 54 pages (NF)

The online list is open to any current or former employee of the Toronto Sun. Deadline for additions, updates and corrections is Nov. 1. Email us.

38 Jac Holland

A salute to The 62

Jac Holland, one of the three lens men amigos on the photo staff on Day One, along with David Cooper and Norm Betts, recalls all three having so much fun they never took a day off until Ray Biggart, the city editor, insisted. The fun in photo assignments near and far and the parade of SUNshine Girl volunteers kept Jac glued to the tabloid from 1971 to the mid-80s. Ironically, one of the biggest benefits of working for the Toronto Sun, a two-month sabbatical after 10 years of employment, turned his thoughts elsewhere. "I was spoiled after that," Jac tells TSF. "I realized there was more to life than work."  In 1985, or 1986, he left the Sun, went to OCAD U for three years and travelled to Peru and Bolivia with long-time Sun reporter David Kendall. He also married Angie, one of the Sun's circulation department part-timers. Jac was freelancing extensively for General Motors covering their races and promotional events when it happened: "I finally retired when I had to covert to digital. Retirement has been good. I have had the opportunity to sail on my beloved CS22 (Toto); sea kayak in BC, travel to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Barbados, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and Florida; play lots of tennis; spend time with family and friends; and have tried to avoid getting underfoot from my better half." Life has been good to Jac Mazereeuw, who has gone by Holland since he immigrated to Canada. "I never actually changed my last name. When I first immigrated to Canada, I started my own business in Deep River. Mazereeuw was too difficult for native-born Canadians to remember so in honour of my birth country, I used 'Holland' professionally."

If you are a Toronto Sun Day Oner and have a bio or memories to share, please email with a photo before Nov. 1.

If you are one of the hundreds of men and women in all departments who followed The 62 and want to share your memories of the Toronto Sun, email TSF.

We want to give everyone the opportunity to mark the 40th anniversary.

Gary Dunford

Memories of the Toronto Sun - Gary Dunford

Bruno Gerussi - the Stratford actor-turned-Beachcomber - scored me the longest gig I ever had.

He was chums with TV critic Bob Blackburn and the amazing Kathy Brooks and knew more than most about the death of the Tely and birth of the Sun.

As the Sun invented its new Sunday edition, Gerussi insisted I meet Brooks and pitch a humour column. I added it to my handful of freelance gigs, which included Bruno's radio show and his fledgling Beachcombers.

My weekly Sunday Sun playlets mostly centred on Tiny Perfect Mayor David Crombie and his civil circus. Three or four people found them funny. I was at the one year mark and counting - mostly counting myself lucky. But then Brooks calls . . .

Kathy drags me in to see J.D. MacFarlane when Slinger left for the Star. The scowly editorial director owl seemed dubious I could file 34 column inches, five days a week. But Brooks charms him. "I want items!" he'd thunder. 

On a good day my space was an odd mix of jokes, media whispers, quizzes, blind items. It took about two years to become Page Six, a smart alec spreadsheet of local heroes, CBC excess and sheepdogs.

John Downing was my Sun guardian angel and mentor. It was Downing's IBM Selectric I used til he came over from city hall late afternoons. It was Downing who often advised on what was total or partial B.S. in the flotsam I collected. And it was Downing's unseen hand that allowed a wildcard freelancer - who "served at the pleasure of the publisher" for 23 years - to be treated like Sun staffers, which was very well indeed.

To repay him, I kept an ugly eight-foot tall cardboard palm tree on his desk for about 10 years, an eyesore to most, but a fine landmark for incoming Strip-o-grams. 

"Gary," a worried Marj Henry would whisper into my extension: "I think there's another crazy person here to see you." Keep them in the lobby. I'll come out.

For a few years, Mark Bonokoski and I shared a back corridor office, prime real estate with a glass window allowing us to scout every model, actress and bunny wannabee, rushing with her makeup bag to a SUNshine Girl photo shoot. I think Bono missed a few stunners while out at the city desk, barking at some hapless editor about his missing adjectives. Go figure.

Old fogie that I am, I well remember Jim Yates handing me my first Radio Shack TRS-80 Model100 word processor, the cutting edge of 1983 technology. With about 10 pounds of cables and teacup-sized couplers, you could be 60% certain of filing a column into the Sun's cranky computer room. It was a miracle that dwarfs the iPad. Okay, some nights, you had to file four or five times. Up to a dozen if there were thunderstorms.

Since I was a pioneer telecomuter, my space at the Sun changed as often as fall fashion. My desk was once close to Peter Worthington's editor space: I was aware of every column complaint he took from the boss of CFTO.

Did Doug Bassett know how many iffy items came hand-written on cream-colored Desk of Douglas Creighton memo paper? Maybe. Gossip fresh from Winston's. I was a hapless pawn in some decade-old Tely payback I knew nothing about. Honest.

For two happy years, I got to see every crutch, sling, bandage and ankle cast editor Barbara Amiel sported, rolling into the office from her exercise, falls and social wars. It made me much more health-conscious.

Much has been made of what a party school the Sun was. How many Columnists' Dinners were there? Too few. Doomed by wretched excess. It was Sun style. Party hearty. Go big or go home. Rent SkyDome. Get a carousel in there. And don't miss the after-party at Hoofer's. Crooks. Betty's. Go if only to hear the Star people bitch.

Tom MacMillan was every columnist's co-conspirator, mine more than most.

What newspaper in North America underwrote every-10-year sabbaticals? Played Santa Claus in good years and bad? Cut some stock aside for those who weren't Day Oners in Sun Media's IPO? Did we know how good we had it? You bet.

A dozen wage slaves were airlifted annually to "Sun Seminars" in distant cities. Mine was in New York City in 1984. There, in the swank Hotel Pierre ballroom, I showed the directors a home-made video that mocked the paper, its editors, its readers. The legendary Amiel Reel, tagging her as the Black Queen of King Street. Always bite the hand that feeds you. It was possible. Humour was not a firing offence. MacMillan intro'd me as asked as loner and loon. True.

I'm always amused when Cos includes some whippersnappers' complaint that TSF is for and by boomers looking backwards at an amplified, impossible, golden and glorious past. How can the present ever compete with such B.S?

Memory is a blessing, kiddos: time erases most of the petty, stupid and awful. (Did we really drag Liz Braun to lunch at the House of Lancaster? May we all burn in Hell.) But you have total recall of the good stuff. Memory is sweet.

And for Sun staffers of most of the last 40 years, there was a generosity of spirit afoot that quite simply was unique. 

Worth celebrating. 

Awesome.

Gary Dunford

If you are a Toronto Sun Day Oner and have a bio or memories to share, please email

If you are one of the hundreds of men and women in all departments who followed The 62 and want to share your memories of the Toronto Sun, email TSF.