Over the years, Uncle Ben’s famous catch of the marlin in a skiff off the coast of Maine became suspiciously similar to Hemingway’s famous novel, The Old Man and the Sea. There were some details which remained somewhat believable — like, the fact that he actually caught something. But of others, the exaggerated embellishments — of some “unknown sea monster, likely a Great White Shark or a Killer Whale” which gobbled up most of the catch by the time he arrived on shore, the skiff barely seaworthy by that time; of how the townspeople had to “fight off” the sea monster and hit it with various implements; and of the photograph taken — but somehow lost — of the skeletal remains of the large fish caught and lost. Alcohol on nights gathered seemed to exponentially embellish the story of Uncle Ben and the Sea, when as twilight tended to quiet the lips of nodding heads, it would begin with, “Did I ever tell you about the Big One that almost got away?” Everyone, of course, had heard the story 10x over and more, but it was more told by tradition than a query for interest or information. It was like the Hasidic challenge as told by Chaim Potok in The Chosen — where a new and inaccurate twist would be inserted in the narrative, and someone would say, “But Uncle Ben, you never told us about that, before!” There would be a pause, and everyone would laugh uproariously, knowing that the Fish Story had added to it anther saga that was to ever develop as the years ensued. That was, in the...
Patrick Brown has been mayor for almost eight years and one of the many promises he has failed to keep is the one that angers Brampton voters more than any other. For almost a decade he has claime...