Yellow Journalism

 

It’s been made known to The Republic that cash winnings are not the object of interminable ball games played at a certain Eastside Vancouver park. We understand there is a woman living within sight of the park whose open apartment door is the prize that awaits the daily winner of the meandering ball game lazily making its way around the park on any given Sunday. The cash raised in antes prior to the start of the afternoon covers the cost.
 
Remember back a few years ago when a certain very rich man’s daughter was kidnapped for ransom? Police were at a loss and could chase no leads. But in the end, and rather abruptly and against expectations, the daughter was released unharmed, no charges were laid, no reports of the ransom ever being paid surfaced, and the story fell out of the local press like a brick. But shortly thereafter, that very rich businessman was spotted at a long-time but quiet Commercial Drive spaghetti house shaking hands with several motorcycle enthusiasts. What the police were unable to do for the businessman perhaps a private, for-hire security agency could. The Republic can only speculate.
 
The unconfirmed story going around a certain Commercial Drive grocery store is that the owner, who retired a few years ago, handed over the business to two sons-in-law who appeared to live at the store, they worked so hard at it. But when he decided to come back out of retirement—and threaten their plans to update the store—the two sons found that, while they got the business, the father-in-law kept the lease. Did they think he was sitting across the street staring at his store while absent-mindedly thinking of Tuscan meadows? The trick was enough to cause one of the sons to walk away from the business altogether; the other continues to toil as before, under the lease-holder’s unblinking gaze.