.. .. Chiquita Brands International, successor to the United Fruit Company, a cartel whose imperialist policies in Latin America gave life to the term banana republic (coined by O. Henry), has revealed the winners in its contest to replace the company's iconic fruit sticker. Here are Contrarian's favorites: . . . ...
Whenever business kept him overnight in Halifax, Irving Schwartz liked to stay at the Lord Nelson Hotel, as does his son-in-law and protégé, Adrian Noskwith. Late Monday night, Adrian checked into the Lord Nelson for the first time since Irving's death. On the desk in his suite he found a sympathy card signed by the hotel manager and 30 hotel staff. [W.R. MacAskill photo.]...
On the evening of September 12, a hit-and-run driver struck Neil Alan Smith on Fourth Street North, St. Petersburg, FL, throwing him off his mountain bike. Smith, 48, a dishwasher at the Crab Shack restaurant in St. Petersburg, died six days later at Bayfront Medical Center. When the Times announced Smith's death on its website, a reader commented: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead. Times editors swiftly removed the post, deeming it offensive and insensitive to the dead man’s friends and family. Then they took another, more...
Irving once helped sponsor a ship-wreck salvage operation off the northern tip of Cape Breton. One calm, sunny day, he ventured onto the salvage ship to see the work underway. Shortly after his arrival, an equipment problem halted operations for several hours. Irving, a notorious Type A personality, paced the decks restlessly. In the distance, he could see St. Paul's Island, the barren rock outcropping that lies a quarter of the way to Port-aux-Basque, NL. Irving directed the crew to lower the ship's tender into the water, and moments later, he was alone on Cabot Strait, rowing toward St. Paul's. Upon reaching the...
In his remarks at Irving's funeral, Dr. Richard Goldbloom, the celebrated Halifax pediatrician who is Irving's brother-in-law, re-told a story Irving liked to tell on himself. In the late-90s, the Canadian International Demining Corps, Irving's mine-removal charity, developed a center to train Mozambicans in the techniques of mine removal. Once up and running, the center was to be turned over to state government. The facility lay deep in the jungle. Irving flew in for the transfer ceremony, together with the state governor and the Mozambican Minister of Land Mine Removal. Upon landing, the government officials and their aides gathered into a tight...
Only a handful of people know that The Coast, Halifax's thriving lifestyles weekly, might not exist today but for the forbearance of Irving Schwartz. About 15 years ago, the paper was struggling to survive when a now forgotten freelancer wrote a hatchet-job profile of then-Public Works Minister David Dingwall. As part of his "research," the Coast reporter called Irving, who, with characteristic candour, offered a measured assessment of Dingwall's strong and weak points. When the story appeared however, the plusses had vanished and the minuses were torqued beyond recognition. To a reader who didn't know better, it looked as though Irving had gone out of...
Irving Schwartz, O.C., entrepreneur, humanitarian, community leader, devoted son of New Waterford, Cape Breton, and a leading figure in Atlantic Canada's Jewish community, died Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010, in Sydney. He was 81. Irving was the son of the late Abraham and Rose (Claener) Schwartz of New Waterford. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Diana Usher Schwartz; and his four children, Margo Schwartz (Adrian Noskwith), London, Eng., Joanne Schwartz, Toronto, David Schwartz, Halifax, and Stephanie Schwartz (Brian Brophey), Toronto. He had four grandchildren, Toby and Rose Noskwith of London, Eng., and Rachel and Sophie Fagan of Toronto; five siblings,...