Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

The article printed below is a work of fiction, and it is not new ( I have updated it twice. The latest was submitted to the CBC two years ago - this is that version).   I think I wrote Version One in the Eighties. It was used in a long-gone magazine called Valley . It was published by General Store Publishing House in Burnstown, Ontario.  The faded clipping has been pinned to my corked lined office wall for over 20 years. I wanted to post it on my website before the clipping (my only copy) fell apart and the story returned to being just a fading memory.  I figured out the Optical Character Reader on my printer this weekend and so Presto Chango ... another story in my ongoing mostly fiction series about Renfrew in the Sixties and is now on stephenweir.com. Title : TIME IS A BOUNCING BALL by Stephen Weir  It's too long ago now to remember how we got onto the roof of the Howard Haramis restaurant. I can't imagine climbing up the fire escape, but 50 years ago there was o

Sub-Title : Photo at left: Rendering of a proposed downtown Toronto condo: One Bedford The Toronto Star, like every publication I write for, edits and rewrites my copy. Don't mind, always amazed at how many mistakes I make. I send in what I think is a bullet proof story and then the questions from the editor begins (I call it death by a thousand questions). My answers/changes, are one of the reasons that the story gets modified. I also hand in copy that it is too long ( hey, we freelancers are geared towards being paid by the inch). So, to make a short story long, the Toronto Star ran a story yesterday: http://www.thestar.com/living/Athome/article/298644 that I wrote after a month of research. The story was about how new buildings in Toronto are casting long shadows over the city and rate payers are unhappy. Anyway, check out the link above to see the Star's version of my piece. Below is the original text -- mistakes and all. Star headline: OUR PLACES IN THE SUN The shadow

PROS AND CONS Made in the shade » Shadows can be healthy. Toronto City Council has a shade policy committee, which is expected to issue a report by summer. The committee has heard from the board of health, which is in favour of increasing shade in "areas where children are most likely to be in attendance." » The shade policy committee reports that from 2002 to 2004, 238 Toronto residents died from skin cancers. Of these, 186 were attributed to malignant melanoma. Shade, especially in public areas, helps protect people from the harmful ultra violet rays. » The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that in the summer, about one-third of a home's heat enters through the roof. This ages shingles, blisters paint and robs a house of moisture. » Some experts say shade can reduce homeowners' air conditioning costs up to 30 per cent. » Some garden plants thrive in the shadows. Begonias, hosta, lobelia and Japanese anemones like shade. The sunny side » City of Toronto planning st

Diver Magazine has just published my feature article on Ghost Diving in Grenada. Similiar to the story I wrote for the Toronto Sun -- they are both about the same underwater incident -- but this story is aimed at the certified diver. The Toronto Sun is very much a working man's paper and most of the readers probably do not dive, so every effort was made to make it a fun travel piece that was light on dive technical terms. The Diver story was edited by Peter Golding. Most of the pictures used in the article weren't taken by me and only have fleeting reference to the story - don't know the photographer at all, I gather Peter Golding bought them from a freelancer. If anyone would like a copy of the printed article, let me know, I will mail it to you. My address is on the splash page. Here is my original version of the Diver Magazine story. Live aboard stories from the Wind Dancer A ghost of a chance for unusual underwater sightings in warm Grenadian waters By Stephen Weir

In December I was part of a six-person panel which looked at all the "new" products that were going to be shown at the 50th anniversary Toronto International Boat Show. At boat shows the word "new" is used loosely. In North America most marine companies debut products at the Miami Boat Show, so, for trade fairs being held after Miami (The Toronto show runs in January 08) new becomes new-to-Toronto, or, first-showing-Canada. We choose the ten best products. I wrote a story and press release about our panel's picks. The story appeared in the showguide (cover at left) and I have seen it also in the January/February issue of Boating Business. I believe a coupla other magazines used varients of the story as well. Since the content of the story is only germane to the show, which ends Sunday, I haven't bothered to post the story. If you want to see it (can't imagine while) drop me a note and I will forward it to you.

Every year for the past five years I have written travel stories for the annual 2008 Marinas and Destination Guide - Boating Ontario. Late last year I updated last year's story for the annual guide. That small format magazine came out in January and made its debut at the annual Toronto International Boat Show. HEAD: Lake Huron and Area DECK: Catch the sun on a sandy beach. Cruise and fish the open water. Lake Huron is ready to thrill with every visit. By Stephen Weir What was once called La Mer Douce (the fresh water sea) by early French explorers and later, Lac des Hurons (The Lake of the Huron Indians), by the First Nations people, is a vast on-water playground where excitement is king. The second largest Great Lake with a surface area spanning 23, 010 square miles, approximately the size of West Virgina, Lake Huron is considered the third largest lake in world (if the saline Caspian Sea is included) and boasts a shoreline spanning 6,157 kilometers. While the west coast of the

In September I wrote a couple press releases for Holmes Communication to be used as long-lead stories in boating magazines. Boats and Places, a magazine started by Ted Rankine and now owned by Brian Minton, used my piece as the basis of a two-page article in their January 2008 issue. What follows is the original piece that I wrote. 2008 -- Golden Anniversary for Canada’s biggest boating event Toronto International Boat Show launched 50 years ago This January 11th the Toronto International Boat Show will be celebrating its 50th anniversary by doing what it does best -- opening the hatches on the Direct Energy Centre and inviting the public to come on board and see the fleet of 2008. The nine-day Toronto International Boat Show is turning fifty; it is a major exhibition milestone but more importantly, it is a time for celebration for the show, the boating industry and the Canadian economy. The world’s biggest indoor harbour! Exciting wakeboard boats, rooftop aluminum fishing boats,