WOTS At Random This Year

Another Word on the Street has come and gone. Intermittent rain dampened my enthusiasm this year, and diving for cover every so often made it a sort of random experience. So some random thoughts about what is a Hogtown cultural staple. 

In the Toronto Star tent columnists Joe Fiorito, Carol Goar and Christopher Hume held forth about the columnist's lot. Fiorito, who, I suspect, could be or would be a large pain the ass if provoked, was the most engaging of the three. He was in turn witty, passionate, critical, informed and analytical. Decked out in dark hornrims and a knit tie of brown and bilious orange, Fiorito reminded me of a latter day F. Scott Fitzgerald, strong moral compass and all. Hume, puffy and rumpled, was frank about the role of the columnist and the media, and his loathing of Mayor Rob Ford, but I got the impression he'd rather have been anywhere else Sunday afternoon. In fact, either Fiorito or moderator Dan Smith, also from the Star, expressed mock surprise that Hume was out of bed so early. Goar came third in this three-horse race, mainly because I found she wandered off topic.

Strolling around the perimeter of Queen's Park Circle I spotted outside another tent what I thought at first was a human-size wax figure, spiffily dressed and wearing a large straw hat. However, on closer - well - inspection, the unmoving mannequin turned out to be journalist Allan Fotheringham, who was pushing a book, likely his memoirs. He's just turned 80, so props to Dr. Foth for coming out. But next year one of his publisher's flacks will have to tell him to show some signs of life. Seeing him sitting stock still like that was unnerving. 

At the Guernica Editions tent, poet Sonia Di Placido was selling Exaltation of Cadium Red, her book of poetry from Guernica. Sonia is a good friend and a fine poet and deserves far more attention than she gets. I hope she sold a ton of copies. I know she sold one to Max Layton (son of Irving), who had his own book to sell.

At the admirable Quattro Books - is there any small publisher that tries as hard as these guys? - I spoke to John Calabro, one of the four figures behind Quattro, and bought his second novella, The Cousin, about a transvestite Sicilian and soon to be translated and published in French. Since I'm just finishing Robertson Davies' The Cunning Man, this new book seems just right as a follow-up read.

In a couple of other places authors were giving away their self-published efforts, not something I readily understand. There was one on the U.S. Air Force and another called The Book of Psychological Truths that I took a chance on. I'm suspicious of anyone who purports to know "the truth", and a quick look suggests the book might be a touch prescriptive, but it was written by a Utah psychiatrist with extensive experience in the trade, so we'll see.   

Overall, WOTS was OK this year, weather excepted. Not vintage, but not rotgut either. Still, I'm hoping for a better harvest next year.