Irving Schwartz stories – I

Irving Schwartz, whose death yesterday leaves a gaping hole in Cape Breton, loved to trade stories, so I offer this space to share a few about him. I hope you'll send me yours. [caption id="attachment_6585" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Creative commons photo. "][/caption] Irving's outrageous TV furniture pitches — always ending with his over-the-top delivery of the tag line, "I guarantee it!" — earned him nearly universal face recognition throughout eastern Nova Scotia. When my own weekly television debates brought me a tiny fraction of his notoriety in the 1990s, Irving liked to embarrass me by introducing me to strangers. At the Mull Cafe in...