Wednesday, March 10, 2004
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8:46 p.m.
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While the full transcript from Colin Mochrie is slowly being worked on (the interview went for nearly 40 minutes) I'll attempt to tide you over with excerpts from another interview I did with a Toronto Star reporter named Cal Millar dealing with pick ups.
For those of you who don't know what they are, it involves going to the house of someone who has been killed or in a serious accident and asking the family members for a photo. Sounds ghoulish, doesn't it? Ah, but it's part of the game.
Here are four incidents related to me by Millar that I hope to include in the upcoming Convergence. Strange, bizarre, but examples of how messed up this world can be. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the Colin Mochrie transcript, though. He's a great guy and very funny though much more shy than you'd think. Jer will be pleased that I managed to work his name into the conversation.
PICK UP TALES:
*A car accident involving five teenagers, three of them from the same family where two sisters had died, had Millar reluctantly climbing the steps to ask for a photo. When the father appeared and Millar expressed his condolences the man had no idea what he was talking about. The father was a long-distance truck driver and had only arrived home a short while ago. Apparently the police notified the uncle, whom they thought was the father, by mistake. Millar had to explain to him what had happened as they waited for the police to arrive and inform the shocked father.
*Back in the day there was a crime called “alienation of affection” that involves one spouse leaving the other for someone else. While this is not an uncommon act, what makes this case strange is that it involved one midget stealing another midget’s normal sized wife. While trying to get photos from the bizarre situation, Millar wound up with a shotgun being pointed at him. At least he got the photo.
*On a pick up in Hamilton for the Toronto Star, Millar noticed that someone from the local paper was heading to the same house, presumably for the same thing. Millar beat the other reporter to the punch and asked a man for a photo of his wife who had just been killed in a car accident just as the other reporter reached the door. From the top of the stairs the man, holding two pictures, loudly proclaimed one for the local paper and the other for the Globe and Mail. Millar began to correct him, but the man laughed and only said he was joking. Millar was shocked that the man was in such a good mood but soon found out the reason why: his wife had been in the middle of divorcing him and cleaning him out at the time of the accident.
*A man had been killed who had no other family members left which made getting a photo a bit of a challenge. Millar went to a neighbour’s house and asked if they had any photos he could use. One neighbour claimed he didn’t have a photo, but did have permission to enter the dead man’s house. Millar assumed this meant he had a key, but saw the man climbing through a window of the man’s house which he quickly exited with the photo Millar was after. Millar asked him again if he had permission to do such a thing. The man just grinned and said, “Absolutely.”
For those of you who don't know what they are, it involves going to the house of someone who has been killed or in a serious accident and asking the family members for a photo. Sounds ghoulish, doesn't it? Ah, but it's part of the game.
Here are four incidents related to me by Millar that I hope to include in the upcoming Convergence. Strange, bizarre, but examples of how messed up this world can be. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the Colin Mochrie transcript, though. He's a great guy and very funny though much more shy than you'd think. Jer will be pleased that I managed to work his name into the conversation.
PICK UP TALES:
*A car accident involving five teenagers, three of them from the same family where two sisters had died, had Millar reluctantly climbing the steps to ask for a photo. When the father appeared and Millar expressed his condolences the man had no idea what he was talking about. The father was a long-distance truck driver and had only arrived home a short while ago. Apparently the police notified the uncle, whom they thought was the father, by mistake. Millar had to explain to him what had happened as they waited for the police to arrive and inform the shocked father.
*Back in the day there was a crime called “alienation of affection” that involves one spouse leaving the other for someone else. While this is not an uncommon act, what makes this case strange is that it involved one midget stealing another midget’s normal sized wife. While trying to get photos from the bizarre situation, Millar wound up with a shotgun being pointed at him. At least he got the photo.
*On a pick up in Hamilton for the Toronto Star, Millar noticed that someone from the local paper was heading to the same house, presumably for the same thing. Millar beat the other reporter to the punch and asked a man for a photo of his wife who had just been killed in a car accident just as the other reporter reached the door. From the top of the stairs the man, holding two pictures, loudly proclaimed one for the local paper and the other for the Globe and Mail. Millar began to correct him, but the man laughed and only said he was joking. Millar was shocked that the man was in such a good mood but soon found out the reason why: his wife had been in the middle of divorcing him and cleaning him out at the time of the accident.
*A man had been killed who had no other family members left which made getting a photo a bit of a challenge. Millar went to a neighbour’s house and asked if they had any photos he could use. One neighbour claimed he didn’t have a photo, but did have permission to enter the dead man’s house. Millar assumed this meant he had a key, but saw the man climbing through a window of the man’s house which he quickly exited with the photo Millar was after. Millar asked him again if he had permission to do such a thing. The man just grinned and said, “Absolutely.”
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