Top O' The Mornin'

It's a lovely sunny morning and the leaves on my maple are mostly still green.Half of the tree behind it, in my neighbour's yard, has been various shades from soft pink to deep red to russett and now gold and turning since August.

If you have read Ivor Tossel's story, in the Globe and Mail ,there are a couple of comments I would like to make about it.

I have four nephews. Patrick lives in Cobden, Ontario with his wife Patti and their two sons. Cobden is closer to Pembroke than Ottawa. Sadly, we only see each other occasionally.

Neil, his brother lives in Ottawa and I see him on the same occasions .

They are my sister Kathleen's sons.

Ross and Craig Finnigan live in London, Ontario. They are my late brother Terry's sons. I see them less than Patrick and Neil.

I have no idea how the phrase"abysmal ignorance of my nephew" worked it's way into Ivor Tossel's story. I must have been talking about somebody else. You pick.

Also, it's always a good thing to get the last word in a story and I did. But "dead" is a bit of a clunker. I didn't care for that one.

Ivor talked to many, many people. I had understood the story would appear at least three week-ends ago and came to the conclusion there was just too much information, spread over too long a time, for it to be condensed to the size it needed to be to fit into what an editor had in mind.

I thought it wasn't going to happen after all.

Obviously he persisted. He is a young man. He has a byline already. Watch him grow.