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INTERSECTION - Jack of Wpg

Photos of Todd Douglas, AKA Jack Sparrow, at various iconic spots in Winnipeg including, St-Boniface Cathedral, on the Red River with Esplanade Bridge, at the Forks and next to the Splash Dash boat at the Forks.

His partner, Corinne Bremner, AKA Mrs. Scarlet, also in one of the photos.

What: This is for an Intersection piece on Todd's alter-ego, Jack in the Peg. For close to a decade, Douglas, an actor, has hit the town as the Jack Sparrow character from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It started off as a Halloween lark, he now gets paid to show up as Jack for b-day parties, work events, restaurant launches, etc.

See Dave Sanderson's story

August 9th, 2023

A pirate's life for him: Todd Douglas carves career as Jack Sparrow

David Sanderson 8 minute read Friday, Aug. 11, 2023

July marked 20 years since the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the movie that introduced the world to Captain Jack Sparrow, a fictional scallywag portrayed on the big screen by Johnny Depp.

To say the Sparrow character went on to become a pop culture icon is putting it mildly. Not only have the five films in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise collectively reeled in close to $5 billion at the box office, in 2016 a 46-year-old woman traded “I dos” with Sparrow’s ghost, on a boat off the coast of Ireland, six months after she “met” the swashbuckler in a dream.

Yo, ho, yo, ho, it wasn’t a pirate’s life for her; she filed for divorce 18 months later, arrr-guing the two were no longer compatible.

Closer to home, Todd Douglas has spent the last nine years impersonating Jack Sparrow at everything from birthday parties to restaurant launches to Blue Bomber games to bar mitzvahs.

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Broadway Florists, Cholakis family celebrating 100 years of passion for flowers

Gabrielle Piché 7 minute read Preview

Broadway Florists, Cholakis family celebrating 100 years of passion for flowers

Gabrielle Piché 7 minute read Monday, Jul. 31, 2023

Once upon a time, a dozen roses sold for $1.

They’d come in wooden boxes filled with ice from Brampton, Ont. via train. Customers pulled out cash or cheque at Broadway Florists’ Portage Avenue hub, streetcars rumbling past, to buy roses, and maybe a chrysanthemum for 35 cents.

It’s been 100 years.

Broadway Florists is preparing for its centennial anniversary, a milestone the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce’s president estimates happens to just one in every 1,000 Winnipeg businesses.

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Monday, Jul. 31, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Ernest (left) and Costa Cholakis, co-owners of Broadway Florists. At least one customer has been buying from Broadway Florists for 70 years, the Cholakises said.

City hall gardens grow veggies, public connections

Cierra Bettens 4 minute read Preview

City hall gardens grow veggies, public connections

Cierra Bettens 4 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023

Three years ago, the City of Winnipeg’s gardening team swapped its flower beds on the west side of city hall to welcome three sisters: squash, corn and beans.

Originally planted in 2020, at then-mayor Brian Bowman’s request, the gardens are sprouting their fourth edible harvest for the 2023 season. In the concrete jungle of downtown Winnipeg, it’s the area’s greenest-kept secret.

“Our downtown gardening staff who maintain all the florals on site maintain those beds,” said Karl Thordarson, park superintendent for north and downtown. “We plant them up every spring. As the vegetables become ready, we have signs out there that invite the public to pick them while they’re available.”

After successful trial runs in 2020 and 2021, the city opted to replace another bed of florals with fresh greens and goods.

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Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Karl Thordarson estimates around two to three crates of produce were delivered to Harvest Manitoba by the end of last season.

Fairmont has given pride of place in its lobby and Gold Lounge to works by four local artists

Alan Small 6 minute read Preview

Fairmont has given pride of place in its lobby and Gold Lounge to works by four local artists

Alan Small 6 minute read Friday, Jul. 28, 2023

Four Manitoba artists have found a unique way to check in at the Fairmont.

Winnipeg’s Amanda Onchulenko and Charlie Johnston, along with Wendy Seversen of Anola and Cindy Dyson of Oakbank, are the first to be chosen for the Portage and Main hotel’s artist-in-residence program.

Onchulenko, a painter, and Johnston, a sculptor and muralist, have their works on display in the Fairmont’s lobby, while Dyson’s paintings and Seversen’s glass designs adorn the hotel’s Gold Lounge, a 19th-floor bar that has spectacular views of downtown Winnipeg and The Forks, an exclusive enclave for Fairmont Gold members staying at the hotel.

”I think it’s a positive thing that the Fairmont is looking to local artists and I was really honoured to be selected to be among the first group of artists in there,” Seversen says.

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Friday, Jul. 28, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Wendy Seversen’s glass sculptures can be seen in the Fairmont’s 19th-floor Gold Lounge.

Drag show celebrates Barbie

AV Kitching 4 minute read Preview

Drag show celebrates Barbie

AV Kitching 4 minute read Friday, Jul. 28, 2023

‘I never had a Barbie of mine growing up, but I’ve become the Barbie I always wanted,” Lady Fortuna says.

The drag queen, who regularly performs at venues across the city, is the brains behind tonight’s Hi, Barbie! Drag Show and Dance Party at Club 200.

“Each queen and king that I asked to be part of the show brings something so unique to it,” says Lady Fortuna, who has a assembled a lineup at the downtown club that includes Queen Adrian, Prairie Sky, Joss, Ruby Chopstix, Zova Da Silva, Kymera, Orion Sbelt, Marquesa, the Yellow Belle and Edyn Peaches, to name just a few.

“They are one-of-a-kind collectibles for the show and will be donning the persona of the different types of Barbies, with all their various styles and careers.”

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Friday, Jul. 28, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Drag queen Lady Fortuna’s Barbie-themed drag show is at Club 200 tonight.

Rising temperatures have sparked calls for legislation to help keep Winnipeggers cool and safe

Julia-Simone Rutgers 15 minute read Preview

Rising temperatures have sparked calls for legislation to help keep Winnipeggers cool and safe

Julia-Simone Rutgers 15 minute read Thursday, Jul. 27, 2023

In June, Bethany Daman posted a free fan on her local Facebook giveaway page. She could never have anticipated the response from neighbours desperate to seek relief from the heat.

It was a sticky hot mid-June week — temperatures soared to over 30 C, hotter still in the treeless concrete tangle of downtown Winnipeg. Rural and northern communities across Manitoba were smashing decades-old temperature records. Across the city, residents flocked to spray pads, air-conditioned coffee shops and pools for a break from the swelter.

Daman was fairly comfortable. The 1958-built house she’d purchased two years ago has central air conditioning. When it seemed the heat wave wasn’t passing quickly, she decided to try to do her part by passing on an extra fan to someone in need.

Within hours of her Facebook post, Daman received dozens of responses from neighbours desperate for anything to mitigate the stress of extreme heat.

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Thursday, Jul. 27, 2023

Handmade by Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal

Multimillion-dollar homes for sale a sign of Winnipeg’s changed real estate market

Gabrielle Piché 6 minute read Preview

Multimillion-dollar homes for sale a sign of Winnipeg’s changed real estate market

Gabrielle Piché 6 minute read Thursday, Jul. 27, 2023

Got a few million bucks for a new place to lay your head?

Several are on the market in Winnipeg, from a $5.4 million Wellington Crescent mansion to a $5.2 million five-bed, nine-bath property with an infinity salt-water pool.

Garry Parkes remembers the day he sold a $1 million home in Winnipeg, roughly 10 years ago.

“It was the most expensive house that was sold,” said Becky Parkes, his wife and business partner. “In 10 years, it’s changed dramatically.”

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Thursday, Jul. 27, 2023

Mike Thiessen / Winnipeg Free Press
A luxury house at 12 Ruskin Row, in Winnipeg’s Crescentwood neighbourhood.

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Retiring Donut House owner hands off business to Gunn’s Bakery

Cierra Bettens 8 minute read Preview

Retiring Donut House owner hands off business to Gunn’s Bakery

Cierra Bettens 8 minute read Monday, Jul. 24, 2023

In late June, the owners of Donut House on Selkirk Avenue passed on a dough-stained, near-century-old recipe book to their neighbours down the street.

North Enders have been enjoying the baked treats for 76 years, 49 of them at the hands of the Meier family, who kept the doors open, the ovens warm and customers happy.

“Some of our products are 75 years old, for sure. Some of them are older,” says now-former owner Russ Meier.

About a year ago, Meier began having casual conversations with Jon Hochman, who had acquired Gunn’s Bakery, another Selkirk Avenue institution, in 2019.

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Monday, Jul. 24, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Russ Meier (long-time owner of the Donut House, left) and Jon Hochman (owner of Gunnճ Bakery and new owner of the Donut House) at the Donut House on Selkirk Avenue on Friday, July 21, 2023.

Cockeyed creativity and the art of keeping fringe-goers in the loop for 30 years

Eva Wasney 6 minute read Preview

Cockeyed creativity and the art of keeping fringe-goers in the loop for 30 years

Eva Wasney 6 minute read Sunday, Jul. 23, 2023

Jenny is a lot of things. She’s a mischievous imp, a multi-talented chameleon, a well-travelled astronaut and an occasional trapeze artist. She’s also — as per an amended dictionary definition — “just another braying ass.”

Appearing in editorial cartoons and as a coveted trophy, Jenny the donkey has been the eponymous mascot for The Jenny Revue, a grassroots publication covering all things Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, for the last 30 years.

The revue was launched in 1991 and is celebrating a belated 30th anniversary in 2023 following one skipped edition in the ’90s and a recent pandemic pause.

“We were 29 and holding for a few years there,” Jenny editor and “web wizard” Murray Hunter says with a laugh.

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Sunday, Jul. 23, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Longtime fringe volunteer Murray Hunter edits the The Jenny Revue, which got its start in 1991, first as six three-page issues containing ‘down and dirty reviews, gossip, rumour, off-the-program and on-the-edge reporting.’

Gimli Glider’s story can’t be told without perspective of the boys on the bikes

Jen Zoratti 15 minute read Preview

Gimli Glider’s story can’t be told without perspective of the boys on the bikes

Jen Zoratti 15 minute read Friday, Jul. 21, 2023

July 23, 1983. It’s a beautiful Saturday evening at the Gimli Motorsports Park. It’s a Winnipeg Sports Car Club family day, so the Gimli drag strip — a converted runway at a decommissioned Royal Canadian Air Force base — is humming with activity. Racing is finished for the day, but people are hanging out, barbecuing and taking advantage of the perfect summer weather.

Cam Berglind, 13, Kerry Seabrook, 11, and Art Zuke, 14 — buddies whose family cottages are in nearby Sandy Hook — decide to ride their bikes down the length of the drag strip. They want to watch the planes come in on the nearby active airstrip.

Meanwhile, 41,000 feet over Red Lake, Ont., Air Canada Flight 143 is in trouble.

The Boeing 767, en route to Edmonton from Montreal with 61 passengers and eight crew on board, has run out of fuel. A grim calculation reveals Capt. Bob Pearson and First Officer Maurice Quintal will not make their planned emergency landing in Winnipeg without engines. Their only shot is to try to glide the plane to the decommissioned runway in Gimli, where Quintal had been stationed with the RCAF.

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Friday, Jul. 21, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Kerry Seabrook (left) and Art Zuke chat with the Free Press in the cabin front porch in Sandy Hook on Monday, July 3, 2023. For Jen story.
Winnipeg Free Press 2023.

Barbie collector looking forward to film

AV Kitching 7 minute read Preview

Barbie collector looking forward to film

AV Kitching 7 minute read Thursday, Jul. 20, 2023

She’s been a pilot and an aerobics instructor. A nurse, a robotics engineer, a video game developer, a ballerina, a veterinarian and even a NASCAR driver, to name just a few of the jobs she’s held.

In her 64 years her hair has been coiffed into countless styles and shades, her figure shaped and reshaped into at least nine body types, in approximately 35 skin tones.

In 1965, four years before Neil Armstrong, she “walked on the moon” and in February 2022, she went to space for real, when she visited the International Space Station (ISS) to tour a plant-growth facility with NASA astronauts.

Barbara Millicent (Barbie) Roberts is quite the woman — and that’s why Lucy Cook has always loved her.

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Thursday, Jul. 20, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Lucy Cook, president of the Manitoba Dolls Club, has a special connection to Barbie.

What better for the dog days of summer than… hotdogs! We check out the city’s best

Eva Wasney 7 minute read Preview

What better for the dog days of summer than… hotdogs! We check out the city’s best

Eva Wasney 7 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 18, 2023

Wieners, weens, smokies, footlongs, links, street meat, glizzies. Whatever you call them, hotdogs are, frankly, the best.

That is, unless you’re looking at the quintessential summer snack through a health lens. Then, according to nutritionists and doctors, they might be the wurst.

But I’m not here to discuss the cons of processed meat. Today, in this National Hotdog Day-inspired edition of Tasting Notes, I’m here to share the findings of a local “Tour de Chien-Chaud” I recently embarked on for the sake of journalism (and shameless self-indulgence).

Last month, I wrote about my love of hotdogs in Dish — a biweekly food and drink newsletter I publish with colleague Ben Sigurdson — and asked readers to weigh in on their favourite local franks. The goal was to try as many dogs as possible, the only stipulation being that wiener vendors were located within city limits since a provincial road trip wasn’t in the cards.

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Tuesday, Jul. 18, 2023

Clockwise from top left: Bright Side Kitchen’s Good Dog, Deek’s Dog House Kolbasa Smokie, Dug and Betty’s Don Juan, Shaw Park’s Goldie Dog, North Star Drive In’s Bacon Cheese Dog, Willy Dogs’ Smokie.

Tiny dancers hope to make the leap to the RWB’s professional division program

Jen Zoratti 6 minute read Preview

Tiny dancers hope to make the leap to the RWB’s professional division program

Jen Zoratti 6 minute read Monday, Jul. 17, 2023

For many kids, these are the lazy, hazy days of summer vacation.

For the hopefuls who got into the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School’s three-week Professional Division Summer Session, which began July 3 and wraps up this week, these are the days that could determine their future in dance.

The students have been spending full days in the studio, six days a week, honing their craft and vying for an invitation to study in the RWB School’s Professional Division in the fall.

Students from all over Canada and the U.S. audition for the summer session — itself a three-week audition — but many are from here in Winnipeg and, in some cases, are already familiar with the RWB School.

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Monday, Jul. 17, 2023

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Mara Rivers from the RWB School’s Recreational Division is hoping to get into the Professional Division’s Ballet Academic program.

Landlubber’s self-built pirate ship pool ready for cannonballs

David Sanderson 7 minute read Preview

Landlubber’s self-built pirate ship pool ready for cannonballs

David Sanderson 7 minute read Saturday, Jul. 15, 2023

Build it and they will come; freebooters, buccaneers and picaroons included.

Doug Cook was busy in the kitchen two summers ago when he heard a knock on the door of his Wilkes Avenue residence.

Upon reaching the entranceway, he discovered a person dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow, the fictional character portrayed by Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, standing on the stoop outside.

It turned out Cook’s visitor had been driving east on Wilkes earlier that week when he spotted what appeared to be a full-scale wooden pirate ship to his right. He did some digging and learned that Cook was the owner of the land-locked frigate, which measures an impressive 23 metres long from stem to stern.

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Saturday, Jul. 15, 2023

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Doug Cook’s full-scale wooden ship is 23 metres long, from stem to stern.

Founded in Missouri, the world’s only other Winnipeg disappeared from maps by the 1980s

David Sanderson 21 minute read Preview

Founded in Missouri, the world’s only other Winnipeg disappeared from maps by the 1980s

David Sanderson 21 minute read Friday, Jul. 14, 2023

There are no roadside billboards welcoming visitors to Winnipeg; no overhead banners billing it as one great city or detailing what it’s made from. Heck, there isn’t even a playful poke à la an old episode of The Simpsons, when Bart and the gang are greeted by a panel reading “Now entering Winnipeg: we were born here, what’s your excuse?”

Instead, the only clue to indicate we’d reached our destination after close to 18 hours behind the wheel was a street sign spelling out “Winnipeg Drive.” Thankfully, we’d been told to keep watch for the green-and-white marker, which sits atop a stop sign where said drive meets Route 32, a two-lane highway that stretches 459 kilometres from El Dorado Springs to the west, to Ste. Genevieve to the east, passing through places such as Bolivar, Lebanon and Farmington along the way.

No worries if those locales don’t ring a bell; the thing is, Toto, we weren’t in Manitoba, anymore, but rather, southern Missouri, home of the only other Winnipeg on the planet.

Situated in picturesque Laclede County, approximately 100 kilometres southeast of Lake of the Ozarks, where the popular Netflix series Ozark is set, our U.S. counterpart boasts a population of precisely zero. That is, unless you count the three dozen or so souls occupying the perfectly manicured cemetery adjacent to the Winnipeg Christian Church, where, as scheduled, we are joined by sisters Renee Taylor and Stephanie Stiller.

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Friday, Jul. 14, 2023

David Sanderson photo
The Winnipeg Drive sign at Route 32.

Summer wedding season slides away waiting for Fort Gibraltar report: caterer

Tyler Searle 5 minute read Preview

Summer wedding season slides away waiting for Fort Gibraltar report: caterer

Tyler Searle 5 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 11, 2023

The indefinite closure of Winnipeg attraction Fort Gibraltar, pending an engineer’s report, has had a “devastating” impact on a catering service that has been forced to relocate, reschedule and cancel events at the Whittier Park site.

“It’s been incredibly difficult,” said Shawn Brandson, owner of Gibraltar Dining Corp. “I couldn’t have imagined something like this happening.”

Fort Gibraltar was shuttered after a section of its elevated palisade walkway collapsed May 31, sending 17 school children and one teacher to hospital.

Festival du Voyageur built the structure in 1978. The historic replica is now owned by the City of Winnipeg, and managed by the annual winter festival organization.

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Tuesday, Jul. 11, 2023

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