By John Williams
Hello! And happy Friday!
As this column is already “slightly” past deadline and you’re likely visiting this page in search of useful information more so than my – sad face – witty repartee, allow me to get down to business. After all, it’s been a busy week and there’s a lot to cover!
OH BABY, BABY: Members of Nova Scotia’s Finance Department notwithstanding, Metro’s busiest ornithological –brained being struggling to make good on deliveries this week was the stork. Heartfelt congrats to News 95.7’s Scott Simpson and his social worker missus Amanda on the April 2nd arrival of their eight-pound bundle of joy, Gordon William Simpson. Social media users both, the Timberlea couple introduced their first-born to the world by way of a creative “Great Canadian Gordons” YouTube video.
Equally ecstatic over the March 28th birth of their seven-pound, 12 ounce daughter Alexis Jaymes is Atlantic Fashion Week founder/City Models director Angela Campagnoni and her hubby, Troy Henneberry of Henneberry Marketing Group fame. HMG, according to Troy’s LinkIn profile, is “a sales and marketing agency that services the golf, promotional and tournament business” throughout Atlantic Canada.
And congrats to Frank Magazine reporter Amanda Spriggs and her husband (whose name escapes me at the moment) on the at-last delivery of baby boy Jameson on March 29. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe Amanda is the first person to bring a baby into the bi-weekly tabloid fold since founding father David Bentley’s daughter Elaine welcomed a daughter in the mid-to-late 90s.
BOOK ‘EM: Fans of CTV’s Cindy Day will be thrilled to learn that the on-screen meteorologist’s best-selling book Grandma Says has been nominated for an Atlantic Book Award. Umbrella-collector Cindy’s tome, published by Halifax-based Nimbus, has been described as a collection of 80 Grandma-gathered, weather-related sayings and the science behind them, complemented by more than three dozen illustrations. Award winners will be announced Thursday, May 16 at the Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth. Cindy’s work has been nominated in the Best Atlantic-Published Book Award category.
If wind gusts and storm clouds don’t float your boat, then perhaps a book on sex work will. Near as I can tell, UBC-published Selling Sex: Experience, Advocacy and Research on Sex Work in Canada, is due to launch in June. Among the “eye-opening, challenging and necessary” book’s contributors is none other than Halifamous sex-work advocate Rene Ross, the Executive Director of Stepping Stone (a not-for-profit organization offering support to current and former sex workers), who’s collaborated with Gayle MacDonald, Leslie Ann Jeffrey and Karolyn Martin on a locally themed chapter titled, “Stepping All Over the Stones: Negotiating Feminism and Harm Reduction in Halifax.”
OPENING: RBC’s new state-of-the-art Tantallon branch is slated to open at 5280 St. Margaret’s Bay Road on April 22nd. Managing the “retail store,” which will be on par technologically with the bank’s revamped Quinpool Road site and its latest Larry Uteck-area location, is Prospect Bay denizen Karen Corney, a former branch manager at the TD Bank in Dartmouth Crossing.
CLOSED: Another vacancy sign can be found in Bedford’s Sunnyside Mall following the March 18 closure of Niche Day Spa – previously a Summit Day Spa & Wellness Clinic location. “Staff were blindsided” by the shutdown, a mall source tells me, “… crying, etc.” A sign currently located outside the space encourages former Niche customers to bring their existing gift cards nearby to Eve Arsenault’s mall-located Shades of Pink (where former Niche toiler Kate Hill can now be found), “and enjoy 50% off your first esthetic service.”
GOING, GOING …: In case you failed to notice those hard-to-miss, black-and-yellow “BACKYARD AND VERANDA IS BANKRUPT!” ads that have been running in The Chronicle-Herald lately, the inventory and asset sell-off at 40 Oland Court in Burnside, ends this Saturday.
SPOTTED: Former Backyard & Veranda employees Christine Cherry and Avind Mahabir, at the Backyard & Veranda inventory and asset sell-off, March 30.
Retired Police Chief Frank Beazley; Loblaws spokesperson Mark Boudreau; Halifax Public Libraries reference librarian Joanne McCarthy; Halifamous film fanatic and Twitter enthusiast Kendra Barnes; Customer Service Manager at TD’s Barrington & George Street branch Linda Frausell; and Federal Department of Transport toiler William McDuff, at the Exhibition Park garage sale, March 30.
Former Backyard & Veranda CEO Charles-Michel LeBlanc, at the Lacewood Starbucks, April 2.
Former federal Liberal candidate/Sun Life Financial Adolescent Mental Health Chair, Dr. Stan Kutcher & friends at Charlie’s Club, April 3.
Long-awaited, post-dated OpenFile cheque from CEO Wilf Dinnick, in my mailbox, April 3.
PASSINGS:
Brian Edgar Huggins, 81, Trailer Park Boys’ “Shitty Bill,” on March 29.
John Robert “Bob” Keddy, 72, former Halifax Ferry Services Supervisor, on March 26.
Ronald Raymond “Ron” Lagace, 67, well-known Dartmouth barber, on March 24.
Leonard James Lewis, 84, former Security Head at Nova Scotia Power, on March 27.
Lynn Margaret (Brenton) Williston, 64, former civil servant/Communications NS employee; niece of Don Brenton’s Fire Protection founder Don Brenton, on March 31.
Phew! I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted! See you next week!