By Edward Keenan | Columnist | Jan. 3, 2016 |
Back in June, I wrote a column making fun of many of the busybody neighbourhood complaints that make the news, ones I characterized as “petty, whiny jerkiness.”
Exhibit A in that argument was the Cabbagetown fight against a local park splash pad, which some neighbours quoted in press reports imagined as a “Disneyland of Waterworks.” The ne plus ultra of entitled whining in that case was the complaint that the umbrella over the splash pad was to be blue, which “isn’t even a heritage colour,” according to one resident.
Well, in addition to the avalanche of thanks from residents of Cabbagetown and other places that arrived in my inbox, I got a letter from Randy Brown, the man who started the petition against the umbrella. He submitted a petition, the city said it would change the umbrella’s colour, everyone came out “smelling good,” he wrote. “Except for you, with your nasty sniping, self-righteous attitude and black-balling spew,” he said of my “condescending thoughts” and suggested the Star had reached some kind of new low by publishing me.