By BERNIE FLETCHER People pass through the Main Street Subway Station every day, but how many know the name of the little park across the street? Stanley G. Grizzle Park runs from Main Street to Chisholm Avenue where the Grizzle family lived for many years. Who was Stanley Grizzle? Born in Toronto in 1918 to […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Scams seem to be everywhere. Fraudsters try to redistribute wealth from your pocket to theirs. Apparently Canada Revenue is after me. Not only that, but my grandson is in jail, which is odd because I don’t have a grandson. One notorious conman sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap…twice. In Nightmare Alley Bradley […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Almost two years after a film crew descended on the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, Nightmare Alley opens this Friday, Dec. 17. The psychological thriller from Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro features a stellar cast, but it takes hundreds of talented people working together behind the scenes to bring a movie to […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Beachers love our four-legged friends, but critters can be unpredictable. Name these films in which animal actors are put in tricky situations. 1.) In 1961 Sheila Burnford wrote a novel based on her own pets though it wasn’t a true story. Two dogs and a cat travel across the Ontario wilderness trying […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER We all have our “guilty pleasures”, especially during a long pandemic. Sometimes we just want to turn off our brains and laugh at dumb comedies like, well, Dumb and Dumber or Weekend at Bernie’s. I’ve been watching Impeachment: American Crime Story about the President Clinton / Monica Lewinsky scandal of the late […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Cancer touches all of us, but it can be beaten. Thousands “stood up” to cancer with the Terry Fox Run and the Weekend to Conquer Cancer. With Thanksgiving weekend upon us, it’s a good time to remember small miracles like a healthy “cancer graduate” Lisa Ray taking part in the This is […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been a busy summer for film production in Toronto. Besides the usual superhero fantasies, cameras rolled on some serious dramas about brave women confronting past abuse. Sarah Polley is directing a stellar cast (including Frances McDormand, Rooney Mara and Claire Foy) in Women Talking adapted from the […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER The Tokyo Olympics officially opened earlier this week and we’ll be rooting for the Beach’s Penny Oleksiak, gold medal winner in swimming at Rio in 2016. Go Team Canada! The last time the Olympics were held in Tokyo, at the 1964 Games, we had another young hero to cheer on, distance runner […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER Here’s a quiz question to celebrate Father’s Day (today) and Canada Day (coming up on July 1). What do these talented Canadians have in common besides being born in Toronto: Neil Young, Norman Jewison, Glenn Gould, Christopher Plummer and Eric McCormack? Answer: At some point in the 1940s their fathers all lived […]
By BERNIE FLETCHER The red robes and white bonnets are back. The Handmaid’s Tale began its intense fourth season (CTV Drama) with more dark and disturbing images of the Republic of Gilead. When we first saw this adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed 1985 novel, many thought the dystopian world it portrayed was far-fetched, including an […]
