vermin

Thursday November 9, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 9, 2017

High anxiety in Hollywood amid sexual harassment allegations in the industry

February 25, 2017

The curtain has been pulled back, and, oh, is it messy.

Hollywood has always revelled in scandal. The rumour. The whisper. The unfortunate photograph. The apology and return to grace. But the recent sex abuse stories have turned into a parade of tawdry violations and twisted passions, the stuff of movies acted out in real lives against the unglamorous air of disgrace, endless transgressions that even Ray Donovan, Showtime’s half-shaven mercurial fixer, couldn’t clean up with all his hush money and muscle.

March 1, 2016

The rape and sexual abuse allegations surrounding Harvey Weinstein, Brett Ratner, James Toback and others have shattered the awards-season aplomb in a town that imagines itself bold and freewheeling but prefers the tempered and scripted. The entertainment industry has slipped into a multi-polar catharsis of emboldened women, nervous men, threatening lawyers, broken deals, spoiled careers and the uncertainty that comes when cracks run like lightning through facades.

March 5, 2014

“I think the industry is forever changed,” said Marcel Pariseau, a publicist whose clients include Scarlett Johansson and Olivia Munn, one of six women who accused Ratner of sexual misconduct in the Los Angeles Times last week. “Every morning we wake up and we don’t know what’s going to be next. You’re almost afraid to get on your gadget to see what the new story is.”

“No one is going to be going to a producer or director’s hotel suite anymore,” he added. “All meetings will be done with somebody else in the room for protection for both sides. It’s a defining moment. It’s vigilance.” (Source: Toronto Star) 

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Friday January 27, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday January 27, 2017

Hamilton’s rat problem 5th worst in Ontario

Ranking based on rodent calls to pest control company Orkin Canada

Why President Trump might not be the worst for Canada

March 12, 2015

Hamilton is known for a lot of things, and its rat population is starting to become one of them.

To be sure, we’re not in the big leagues. New York and London, England are definitely the places to go if you want to see furry vermin.

But a recent rodent ranking by a pest control company suggests we are becoming a contender.

Orkin Canada says Hamilton is the fifth “rattiest city” in Ontario. Cities were ranked by the number of rodent (rat and mice) treatments the company performed from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2016. The ranking was based on both residential and commercial calls.

Toronto was number one in the province followed by Ottawa. An Orkin spokesperson said the results were “not weighed for population size.” So the top five “rattiest cities” list resembles closely the top five municipalities by population in Ontario.

“In theory it is probably correct to see a correlation (between population and rodent treatments) but some cities, Brampton (10), Windsor, (7) and London (12) for example, do not follow this pattern,” a spokesperson for Orkin said. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Terry Whitehead is the Pied Piper of Hamilton I was a little disappointed when I arrived at Larry Easter's home, the informal command centre in the war against the rats that are overrunning 50 or so back yards in a neighbourhood on Mohawk Road West. Ward Councillor Terry Whitehead was there as arranged. But as we shook hands in the driveway of the modest brick bungalow, I noticed he was dressed in an open-neck shirt, lightweight summer suit and dark shades. I was kind of hoping Whitehead would be carrying a flute and wearing a feathered cap, curly-toed shoes and parti-coloured leotards and tunic -- the traditional garb of the legendary Rattenfanger of Hamelin, who rid the German town of a plague of rats in medieval times. After all, if mechanic Larry Easter is the whistle-blower who alerted the city to the invasion, Whitehead is the Pied Piper of Hamilton who forced it to get off its duff and do something about the teeming vermin. Easter, a lithe, quick-moving man with a shock of grey hair standing upright on his head -- by style, not the result of his frightful experience with king-sized rodents -- has nothing but good things to say about Whitehead. (Source: Andrew Dreschel column, Hamilton Spectator) Hamilton, Mountain, rats, vermin, Pied Piper, Terry Whitehead, rodents, infestationÊ

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Terry Whitehead is the Pied Piper of Hamilton

I was a little disappointed when I arrived at Larry Easter’s home, the informal command centre in the war against the rats that are overrunning 50 or so back yards in a neighbourhood on Mohawk Road West.

Ward Councillor Terry Whitehead was there as arranged. But as we shook hands in the driveway of the modest brick bungalow, I noticed he was dressed in an open-neck shirt, lightweight summer suit and dark shades.

I was kind of hoping Whitehead would be carrying a flute and wearing a feathered cap, curly-toed shoes and parti-coloured leotards and tunic — the traditional garb of the legendary Rattenfanger of Hamelin, who rid the German town of a plague of rats in medieval times.

After all, if mechanic Larry Easter is the whistle-blower who alerted the city to the invasion, Whitehead is the Pied Piper of Hamilton who forced it to get off its duff and do something about the teeming vermin.

Easter, a lithe, quick-moving man with a shock of grey hair standing upright on his head — by style, not the result of his frightful experience with king-sized rodents — has nothing but good things to say about Whitehead. (Source: Andrew Dreschel column, Hamilton Spectator)