the conversation
League of His Own
Okay, so our timing on this wasn’t the best. Who knew—besides prognosticating baseball enthusiasts and psychics— that the Jays would have their worst start in franchise history and that Donaldson would end up on the disabled list before the daffodils came up? Fortunately, Jays fans can’t get enough of JD, whether he’s winning or losing or flamenco dancing in his kitchen…
“Great profile on Josh Donaldson. I hope he heals fast, because damn, is he fun to watch.”
—@BigNiceJohn, Twitter
“I heart everything about Josh… his relationship with his mom, his drive, his determination, his focus. That he channels all of his pent up stuff INTO his game is unbelievable. I love that he didn’t come from the typical privileged background.… Good on you Josh... Be who you are and don’t change a thing. Your mom is proud for sure, and that’s all that matters!!” —Nicole Levesque Kreutzberg,
“So well-written! I feel like I know him so well now. Thanks T-Life!!”
—Leslie Hilary, Facebook
“My mom’s in an art class. She uses the Toronto Life cover of Josh Donaldson to practise drawing oval faces because his is ‘perfect’ she says.”
—@kaitlyn cmcgrath, Twitter
“His jawline was a gift from the gods.” —@TM416, Twitter
They especially loved the old family photos…
“Those pics of him as a kid are fucking hilarious. I love the rolled up acid wash jeans.”
—ElDiario, Reddit
“Come for the Josh Donaldson baby pictures, stay for the solid read.” —@HLNordman, Twitter
A lone naysayer was roundly shot down by a fierce Donaldson defender…
“This is a great article, but it leaves me a bit ambivalent about him—i.e., should I consider him a joy or a jerk? His injury-plagued season seems to have been ignored in the article, too. It hasn’t ‘rained’ much lately given that tissue paper calf of his.”
—Terry Corcoran, torontolife.com
“We wouldn’t have been in the playoffs the last two years without Donaldson. He gets hurt for the first time since his time in Toronto and you start to run him down? You’re just like the bullies he left behind. He has given us all he has and you crap on him for an injury. What kind of fan are you? Do you cheer when people get T-boned in an intersection too?”
—Alex Murphy, torontolife.com
Rental Health Issues
Kristen Hutchison’s apartment hunting memoir received equal parts admiration and venom: reader reaction ranged from “One of my all-time favourite Toronto Life stories” to “Way to go, girl, you just humiliated yourself in public.”
“So she doesn’t want to seem entitled, lazy and spoiled, but she expects to be able to move to… some of the trendiest neighbourhoods in the city, where you must be if you want a 21st-century job, without said 21st-century job…”
—mrmigu, Reddit
“Her first apartment was 342 square feet. She’s accepted that she’ll have to live in shared
accommodations in order to be in the city. She has a college education, but understands that she’ll be in job churn. She’s grateful for a job that pays $27K base and might hit $40K with commission. Man, I don’t know what to say. Do you really think her expectations are too high?”
—dkwangchuck, Reddit
“I’m convinced that Toronto Life exists solely to usher in a class war.”
Bitter Tweet
The Twitterati went berserk over Mark Pupo’s review of Grey Gardens, Jen Agg’s new Kensington restaurant. A few choice rebukes: “Sexist pointless tripe,” “Passive-aggressive click-bait trash,” “Crappy, half-assed article.” Plus, a letter to the editor from Agg herself. The unabridged version clocked in at 1,800 words—almost double the count of the piece it was addressing—which made it impossible to run full-length in this space, but the basic gist was that she considered it a character attack, and a sexist one at that. Here are some highlights:
“Mark Pupo takes every opportunity to slyly and aggressively reinforce his dislike of me, and everything I represent.…”
Agg strenuously objects to Pupo’s assertion that she deliberately upstages her partners:
“He writes that I haven’t shared the spotlight since I fell out with my ‘arch-nemesis’ Grant van Gameren, which makes me sound like a fame junkie (no offence to junkies) and is also not true. Ask Win Butler and Régine Chassagne of Arcade Fire (who are my partners at Agrikol in Montreal). I have no trouble sharing the spotlight with them. As for the ‘arch-nemesis’ reference: a) I’m not a comic book villain; and b) it’s not true either—the whole arch-nemesis thing was constructed by the media.”
Her central beef is about gender:
“The food, according to Mr. Pupo, is ‘all Bates.’ He’s right that Mitch Bates is a major talent, certainly the best cook I’ve ever worked with. But he says that Mitch is my ‘exact opposite,’ implying that I’m a braggart tweeter who yells at her staff and lacks serious talent. Which is ridiculous. Yes, I tweet. But I don’t brag. It’s disappointing that confidence in women is so often equated to bragging. I also don’t yell at my staff. (Okay, one time I yelled at a cook because he showed a dick pic— his—to a server. Then I fired him.) But I didn’t get where I am by lacking talent.”
And finally, the bit she found most offensive:
“Mr. Pupo suggests that the restaurant is better when I’m not in it, which it most certainly is not. Everything about the restaurant, aside from the food, is me.… Focusing on my persona rather than my work is the very definition of sexism. No doubt the traffic to your website massively increased when you posted the piece, so if that’s all you care about, then congratulations, I guess, and you’re welcome.”
—Jen Agg, Toronto
Oops!
The May issue Editor’s Letter incorrectly identified the German pharmaceutical company Bayer as American. We also misidentified Brittany Churchill on our Camera page as Natasha Negovanlis. Apologies to all.