Glenn Kubish

John Sexsmith was good with words. Let's try that again. John Sexsmith was magic with words. He loved to cast spells with words. He loved to use words to make meanings appear and disappear out of thin air. That's what a pun essentially is, right? A bit of hocus focus.  I first saw Johnny's deftness with the language in a TV news feature sports story he did back in the ITV News/Global Edmonton days. All I can really remember about the piece is that he did his standup in a military tank. "This," he said to the camera, "is the tanks we get?!" Boom. I laughed out loud.  For years, we kept the joke going. If either of us saw a propane tank or an acetylene tank or a septic tank, we'd send each other a note. The joke grew. If we were chatting about bicycles, someone would use the line, and this is the cranks we get? A Bugs Bunny reference would lead to, and this is the Mel Blancs we get?! An actor in the news: this is the Tom Hanks we get?! A hotdog stand: ...

Happy end of the week, friends! Here are three things that left behind tracks of happiness and gratitude. Three Things podcast, episode 129: 1. Double play I pedalled across the LRT tracks north of the ruins of the Coliseum and found a baseball diamond where I didn’t know one existed. I was on one of those lazy rides where I hope to see something new. The diamond was that. A real game of uniformed players was happening on it. I stopped and watched from a picnic table beyond the left field fence. A line drive was caught, but bobbled, and then dropped by the third baseman. I scored it an error—E-5. The base runner then moved to second on a single. My infield position in my corporate slo-pitch years was first base.That’s where I was safe. I preferred playing third, but our manager didn’t. Prefer me playing third base. I was okay fielding the ball on the hot corner, even the balls hit hard right at me, but throwing the ball on target to first base in real time, ...

Happy end of the week, y’all, from snowy Edmonton. In addition to the 22 trick or treaters who came up our front steps on Halloween, here are three other things that left behind tracks of happiness and gratitude.                                         1. Franciscans   The dark season is upon us in Edmonton, and the red eyes out there are watching the days get shorter. The red eyes I mean are the stop lights at intersections in the evening, the taillights of the cars lined up on Fox Drive, the aviation lights on top of university buildings on Saskatchewan Drive.  These red lights remind me of Jawas, the miniature, humanoid scrap dealers from the sands of Tatooine.   All we know of the faces of the Jawas are the glowing eyes set in the recesses of the cowls of their rough habits. They look like little Franciscans. I pedal by a house on 102 Avenue with five, metre-high cypres...

Speller explains that Hank started as a film camera news shooter. Hank shot on a CP-16 with a supply of film that lasted 10 minutes. Back in those days, most camera guys were frugal with the footage. Shooting more than 10 minutes of film meant you would have to load up a new magazine using the black bag procedure, and that was a pain in the ass. Economy was a way of being, as Fitz says. I got to know Hank in 1995 when I started working in the ITV newsroom. I was the assignment editor. My job was to match all of the incoming stimuli—news tips, scanner chatter, stories that Speller thought were important, reports of stuck trucks in underpasses—with available camera resources. I assigned the shooters. Korbs, 10-6 at 137 Ave and 66 St, go.  Hamish, can you get six shots at the cake cutting, please. Rudzy, golf highlights at the Belvedere. I once sent Chuck to a house fire in northwest Edmonton. It was actually a forest fire in Chisholm. He got back three days later. I think...