Re: October cover story
What a pleasure to meet Dr. Andy Smith again. This time he’s written Leaside Life’s October cover story.
If you jumped off page 8, Dr. Smith, and landed on 38, you’d meet my charming wife, Carol Burtin Fripp. She has long been our magazine’s rear-gunner.
Dr. Smith and I first met in 2009. I was unconscious at the time in the OR, and he was missing his dinner while probing my guts. My colon cancer op was almost done, and the surgeon was stapling my bits together when the final staple misfired. It vanished into my anatomy. Hunting for the staple, they called in Dr. Smith, the then-head of surgery at Sunnybrook. Later, my I.V. pole and I teamed up to walk around the ward. Dr. Smith caught up. I may have been a bit woozy, because I remember introducing him to my I.V., with “Let me introduce my Auntie Ivy.”
Jolly memories. Hear this, cancer patients, past, present and to come: 15 years later I am still fit, at 81. Thank you, Sunnybrook. And thank you to your surgical teams. With special thanks to Drs. Andy Smith and Darlene Fenech.
Robert Fripp
Traffic – calming?
I read the Dec. 2023 edition of Leaside Life regarding traffic. The very word ‘calming’ when referring to traffic gives me the collywobbles!
I used to live at Mt Pleasant and Soudan before buying a house in Leaside, and all manner of bizarre so-called ‘traffic-calming’ devices were installed in the streets.
I recall, for example, a massive concrete box with a tree planted in the middle of it. Fine. But it was right at a traffic light thus making it impossible to make a right turn if there was a car in front of you. What’s the point of putting an obstacle at a stop sign – cars come to a halt there anyway! That doesn’t calm anyone; in fact, it is very frustrating.
After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on this silly business, all obstacles were finally removed! What a waste!
What exactly does ‘calming’ mean? Does it mean slowing vehicles? If so, proper traffic bumps are probably the wisest course. The best ones are on the grounds of Glendon College. If you fail to slow down, expect your teeth to rattle!
James Findlay Sleigh