Matt Fleming

“You see five- and six-year-olds on the back of their parents' bikes, all the way up to people in their 70s,” says the 18-year-old Beacher. “It's a lot of fun.”

As he gets set to join his sixth Ride for Heart on June 2, Matt can expect a few double-takes at the start line – his photo is splashed on seven by 10-foot posters advertising the ride.

“I feel like Ashton Kutcher or something,” he says, laughing.

Whether or not Matt can match the raw celebrity of a fashion model movie star, he does have more reasons than most to enjoy a ride that raised $5 million for heart disease and stroke research last year.

As previously reported in the Beach Metro News, Matt was born with two small holes and a defective valve in his heart.

Starting at just 11 days old, he needed a series of open-heart surgeries to strengthen his heart and keep blood moving to his lungs.

But at 16, Matt was lucky enough to join the first batch of patients to get a new, less invasive heart surgery through a long thin tube fed through a main artery from an incision in his leg.

“I was able to walk out of the hospital the same day,” he said.

That quick recovery meant the six-foot tall teenager didn't have to spend any more nights cramped in a child-size bed at Sick Kids Hospital.

Today, Matt's heart check-ups are relatively easy going. He goes in for a fitness test on a bike every two years, plus an annual check-up where doctors listen to his heart with special mics that he says sound like they are right inside his heart, Magic Schoolbus style.

“The heart stuff hasn't really held me back from doing anything that I want to do,” he said.

In fact, Matt said the experience has likely made him a better person.

For one thing, he can relate to people who get cooped up in hospital.

“There's really nothing to do,” he said. “It's boring. It smells funny, there's not really anybody to talk to, the television's fuzzy.”

As an ambassador for the Ride for Heart, Matt spoke to a group of 17 year-olds at Sick Kids who were getting ready to move across the street to Mount Sinai—the “big boy hospital,” as his mom calls it.

After giving talks like that and handling interviews with reporters, Matt says he has also decided that he would like to one day host or produce a TV show. That idea got a boost after Matt got to speak with George Stroumboulopoulos, host of a nightly current affairs show on the CBC.

“He really just seems genuinely interested in his guests and what they're saying,” Matt said. “He told me that if I can get into school, that’s great, but if not I should travel and see the world from everybody else’s point of view – and that’s almost a better way to gain education.”

That sort of hands-on approach has already served Matt well, not to mention the many other people at risk of heart disease and stroke that he is raising money to support. His family's team, Matt's Heart Beats, has already raised $2,300 this year, $875 from Matt alone.

To sponsor the team or register for the ride, visit www.rideforheart.ca. Registration is capped at 13,000 and will likely sell out, but some positions were still available as of May 10.

Arborist Todd Irvine and homeowner Art Wood explain how Wood's deck was built to protect the mature oak trees in the backyard of his home bordering the Glen Stewart Ravine on May 4.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson

Art Wood was leafing through his Saturday paper in the dappled shade of his back deck last week when his arborist, city councillor and 40 tree enthusiasts clambered out of the Glen Stewart ravine and into his yard to see his magnificent oaks.

Built in 1931 in a way that preserved the trees on site, Wood's home on Crown Park Road is now shaded by towering red oaks that are likely 125 years old.

So when Wood's back deck needed replacing, he went to great lengths – nine metres in places – to brace the new one with deeply driven supports that avoid the sprawling network of roots that feed his trees.

“You don't replace them,” Wood told the  crowd. “They're simply irreplaceable, at least in any of our lifetimes.”

The oaks at Wood's house were just a few of the outstanding trees seen on a May 4 Jane's Walk organized by local arborist Todd Irvine and Ward 32 councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon. Held every May 5 weekend since 2007, the free, city-exploring walks honour the birthday of the late urbanist Jane Jacobs.

As the tour wound up the Glen Stewart ravine and back down Balsam Avenue, Irvine and McMahon spoke about several issues facing Toronto trees – summer droughts, the Emerald Ash Borer, invasive plants and buried waterways.

But the focus of the tour was on what builders and city planners can do to protect Toronto's existing forest of 10.2 million trees.

“We all live in buildings where there was a forest at one time,” Irvine said. “How do we find that balance between the development that's taking place and keeping what we have intact?”

At Wood's house, Irvine noted that building a typical deck in other parts of the city is a one-weekend job, with the deck propped on shallow posts planted into concrete every few feet.

That was not an option for Wood, partly because his trees are protected by Toronto's ravine bylaw.

“It's a responsibility that comes with ravine-facing lots,” Irvine said, explaining that the city requires a permit to cut down or disturb all trees on such properties. Another bylaw requires a similar permit for any tree 30 cm or larger around when measured 1.4 metres above the ground.

But, true to his name, Wood also built his deck the way he did because he wanted to do all he could to keep his trees in good shape. That meant getting one city permit to install the deep supports, Wood said, and two more to bring heavy equipment onto his yard through a public park.

He also chose to build the deck using “tiger” wood – dense, teak-like wood that can be grown sustainably – and then girding it with galvanized steel beams.

“When the nuclear holocaust comes, this is where you want to be,” Wood joked.

That level of care comes at a high cost, but Wood's lot is steeper than most, and with older trees.

More typical of the Beach was a small lot for sale on Balsam Avenue, where Irvine and McMahon stopped to point out where a builder could install protective fences or plywood walkways to move equipment around a front-yard tree.

Such measures may not stop 100 per cent of the damage, Irvine said, but it's a big step up from the recent past, when on hot summer days some Toronto builders parked their trucks right under a shady tree.

Councillor McMahon said that when it comes to enforcing tree bylaws, residents need to be “eyes on the street,” using a term originally popularized by Jacobs.

Other City of Toronto departments are getting better at referring tree problems to city foresters, she said. But with 600,000 of its own trees to look after, enforcing the bylaws protecting every private tree is no easy task.

The end goal, McMahon added, is to grow Toronto's tree canopy from the 17 to 20 per cent coverage where it stands today up to between 30 and 40 per cent.

To cap off the tour, Irvine stopped at the site of a new house on Balsam south of Queen where the owner is building a 1,000 square-foot house in the midst of six mature oaks.

Arborist Todd Irvine stops on a May 4 Jane's Walk to explain how a new home on Balsam Avenue is built on a raised platform to preserve the six mature oak trees that surround it. The roots of a mature tree can grow out to a lateral distance two or three times the length of its longest branch.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson

The first architect to draft a plan for the house drew Xs over all six trees, he said. When the city rejected that plan, the owner opted to build the whole house on a raised platform instead, rather than digging a standard foundation and basement.

Not only did the plan require the same deep, screw-shaped supports that were built under Wood's deck, it also called for  mycorrhizae, a fungus that helps trees grow, to be spread all over the site, as well as a system of perforated pipes to feed them with rainwater from the roof.

Building that way likely cost two or three times as much, Irvine said, but the result is a house nestled under shady trees and a street that keeps more of its canopy.

“That's how you build a house on platforms,” said Irvine. “These trees will likely be better off than they were before.”

Shelly Hill shows a collection of nautical antiques inherited from her uncle to appraiser Alex Moshtagh.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson

Beach resident Shelly Hill says the nautical pieces she brought in – a captain's clock, a copper ship's lantern and a stash of aged Scotch whiskey – are just a few of the gifts her uncle John Wallace received from ships’ captains in his 27 years as a ship surveyor for Lloyd's Register.

Wallace, who passed away just last month, travelled up to 6,400 km a month to inspect and certify ships that had run into trouble in US, Caribbean or Central America.

The two-foot tall copper and glass ship's lantern  that Hill brought in for appraiser Moshtagh is the smallest of seven her uncle collected, she said.

Moshtagh, who curated a private collection for 10 years before joining Oakville's Treasure Antiques, said the lantern is worth about $1,000 and would likely fetch twice that in Baltimore, where it has a connection to a local shipyard.

Prices for such pieces have taken a hit in the current economy, he said. Nevertheless, he said Hill's lantern is fairly rare and has a particularly attractive look.

“Antique metals should look antique,” he said, advising Hill not to polish the lanterns. “For a lot of collectors, the patina is the most important thing.”

Moshtagh says the Beach has yielded some highly valuable antiques before. At another drop-in appraisal last year, one Beacher brought in a painting that Moshtagh recognized as a Franz Johnston, a Group of Seven painter. It is likely worth some $25,000, he said.

“You just never know what you’re going to find.”

Sheila Blinoff recently celebrated 40 years as General Manager of Beach Metro. You have no doubt read her pieces on the history of this amazing community newspaper. But how well do you really know her?

1. What is your favourite place in the Beach? – “Walking around the point at Ashbridges Bay.”

2. Do you have a favourite piece of music? – “Normally I would say classical music, but lately I find I enjoy folk music. I recently saw Far From the Madding Crowd. The soundtrack includes British folk songs from the 18th and 19th centuries.”

3. What is your favourite movie? – “Topsy Turvy. It is the story of Gilbert & Sulivan and how they came to write The Mikado. I went to see it in the theatre five times. Now I have my own copy. It’s a great story with great music.”

4. What are you currently reading? – “Bury Your Dead, by Louise Penny. Her detective has come to Quebec City to recover from mental and physical injury, but gets involved in a murder of a historian looking for the grave of Samuel de Champlain.”

5. Do you mostly drive, walk, cycle or take the TTC? – “I walk, drive and take the TTC. Since my knee replacement surgery I try to get enough exercise walking.”

Your author Bill MacLean has covered the Arts and Entertainment beat for many years. He is looking forward to doing more entertaining himself in the future.

1. What is your favourite place in the Beach? – “As for a physical place, I'd have to echo so many others and say the boardwalk. Alan Fotheringham used to say that most of the people who live in Toronto don't realize that they live on the shores of a great lake. People in the Beach do, and they celebrate and cherish it! Other favourite places include all the numerous art shows and studios I have attended over the years. You should see our art collection!”

2. Do you have a favourite piece of music? – “Classical: Bach's Six Suites for Cello; pop: The Beatles' Paperback Writer; folk: Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy; standard: Andy Williams' version of Henry Mancini's Dear Heart.”

3. What's your favourite movie? – “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. It's a perfect buddy movie with two classic movie stars, Paul Newman and Robert Redford. Another favourite is Payback with Mel Gibson, the theatre version, not the director's cut.”

4. What are you currently reading? – “I just finished reading a wonderful first novel, Kintyre, by Beach writer Janet Dowler, and now I'm halfway through Homegrown: the Journey Home, by another Beach writer, Gena Macoretta. This is considered a self-empowering book, and perfect as I approach retirement. And I'm looking forward to Ed Finstein, a.k.a. The Wine Doctor's first novel Pinot Envy. So many great Beach writers.”

5. Do you mostly drive, walk, cycle or take the TTC? – “I'm almost embarrassed to say that I still really prefer to drive. For several years we didn't own a car and cycled back and forth downtown to work. Once our son came along, though, we really needed a car, especially when he got into hockey. It takes me 10 minutes to drive to Beach Metro News from home, 30 minutes to walk … and 45 minutes by TTC. What can I say?”

Ontario darts champion Jayme Murphy with some of his trophies.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson

But give him three darts and room to wind up and there's a good chance the 2013 Darts Ontario winner will hit the mark.

“He's cleaning up,” says Jayme's father Kevin, a long-time darts player who lives in the Beach and plays with his wife Dawn at the local Royal Canadian Legion. “He's beaten quite a few good players.”

Kevin can include his own name on that list, as can Jayme's older brother Jack.

After teaming up with 12-year-old Azize Mompassi, who throws for Swansea's Golden Target Dragons, Jayme bested his older brother in a dramatic semi-final before taking this year's Tykes Doubles title at the Darts Ontario Youth Championship.

Jayme and Azize started the round-robin at some of the hundreds of dartboards set up on plywood backboards in the banquet hall of a St. Catherines hotel. Since cheering and yelling out scores can distract players, often the only sound in the room was the steady 'thud, thud, thud' of darts hitting targets.

Even before he and Azize took the main stage for the final match, Jayme won extra attention as the only player small enough that he had to ask the announcer to reach up and pull out his darts for him.

“A lot of people stayed to watch him play,” Kevin said, noting that Jayme has been throwing darts at the Legion's Sunday youth meets since age five. “They've watched him grow up playing and there he is playing on the stage.”

Dawn remembers the first set of real competitive-level darts that Jayme got his hands on – a gift from a local Team Ontario player who saw how glued Jayme was to a darts match on TV.

“He stood there maybe two, three hours watching them play – the professionals," she said. The dart set he got had heavier-weight shafts and a full set of new flights and rings.

“He played with those darts and won,” she said.

As for technique, Jayme says he throws darts “just like baseball,” winding right up to his ear for extra power.

Most players don't throw that way, he explains. Most players throw like his partner Azize, who aims his darts just below his right eye so he can draw a straight line to the dartboard seven feet away.

But at his height, Jayme needs a little extra muscle to arc his shots up to the board. Jayme says he aims most of his shots up at the high-scoring 20 wedge, but unlike some players he doesn't really favour the top or bottom of the board.

“Well, I'm everywhere,” Jayme says, adding that he prefers doubles to singles play, as partners can cover for each other.

“If we have an odd number, then I’ll leave him an even number, and then he’ll finish it.”

Along with his aim, the quick addition darts players need to use mid-game seems to be giving the Grade 4 student a jump in his math skills.

“What's a triple 19?” asks his dad.

“Fifty-seven,” comes the answer in no time.

Jayme's mother Dawn says that at big tournaments like the one in St. Catherines, it can be a bit nerve-wracking to volunteer as a “chalker” and keep score.

“It’s okay when you’re doing it here on paper,” Kevin explains. “But when you’re up on the chalkboard and there’s 100 people watching you – you go blank. And then a kid walks by and goes ‘Oh, that’s 25’.”

“They know the numbers they need to throw.”

When darts season starts again next fall, Jayme is hoping to team up with Azize again. If he does, it will mean moving up to the Juniors level, which is usually restricted to players 13 and older.

“That's good practice,” he says, sounding like a true champion.

Asked if he will defend his title in St. Catherines next year, Jayme's answer is equally matter-of-fact.

“I have to,” he says. “I have to take the trophy back!”

From left, Seannie Gibb, Delaney Archibald, Umer Akhter and Maija Rix show the family tree backdrop they used to shoot their short film, Bad Apples Gone Good. The film is up for a TVO Kids Choice Award and will screen at 1:30 p.m. on April 21 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of the Jump Cuts contest for young filmmakers held during the TIFF Kids International Film Festival.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson

Unfazed, the new apple proudly shows off his family tree, dotted with the likes of Granny and Grandpa Smith and his Pink Lady mother, not to mention his great-grandfather, Apple-Ham Lincoln.

Impressed, the red apples turn from sour to sweet, and eventually invite a pineapple, banana, orange and pear to join them in a friendly fruit salad finale.

Grade 6 classmates Umer Akhter, Delaney Archibald, Seannie Gibb and Maija Rix say they hope people who watch their movie see that it's okay to be who you are.

“People should respect that,” says Maija, 11. “People shouldn’t get mad at you just because you’re different. They should welcome you and be friendly.”

That message, and the film's original look – googly-eyed, big-mouthed apple puppets talking under a brightly-painted family tree – won it a top three spot among the 10 films made by Grade 4 to 6 students that were selected as finalists for the Jump Cuts contest at the TIFF Kids International Film Festival.

Until April 18, the two-minute film is also online at the TVO Kids website, where viewers can vote their favourite for the TVO Kids Choice Award.

Teacher Leah Jarvis says with all the behind-the-scenes work, finishing a short film on deadline takes a lot of team work.

“They worked really well together,” said Jarvis.

When their mic picked up the sound of rustling scripts, she said the students chose to memorize all their lines and cues for a cleaner sound. Using audio software, they even made their own soundtrack – a down-home country tune to match the green apple's Southern drawl.

Asked about their future filmmaking plans, all the students said they would like to enter another film in the Grade 7 and 8 category at Jump Cuts next year.

They wouldn't rule out a sequel, either, although it would require another round of casting given what Delaney said happened to all the characters in the first one.

“We ate them all!” she said, laughing.

We decided this would make an excellent destination for a lunch date, and we were not disappointed. The soup that day was just a a hint of the excellent food we'd find when we returned a couple of weeks later.

Our lunch date was on a dull and rainy day, not at all inspiring, but the atmosphere inside Le Papillon helped lift our sagging spirits. The huge, old brick home (which according to the restaurant’s website was built in 1919) offers an elegantly paneled entryway which leads into the bar before opening up into the well-lit dining area. Windows all along the east side of Le Papillon offer views of the sooner-or-later-to-be redesigned Pumphouse Park. In summer French doors open to the side patio, and there is a rooftop patio and bar. In the dining area there are two double-sided wood-burning fireplaces to add to the old-world charm and elegance.

Our waitress was soon tableside with our menus and wine list. Although our mouths watered for a taste of some of the tempting appetizers – Trio de Patés ($13), Champignons Sauvages ($11), or Moules Chardonnay ($13) – we knew we not have room for a main if we did. Another time I might try sampling several in lieu of a main. Also tempting, but left for a future visit are the four selections of that signature Quebeçois dish, poutine: Maison ($9), Poulet ($12), Chevre ($12) and Agneau Braisé ($13).

Instead we opted to go straight to the main entreés which, as it turned out, were more than adequately filling. Jan ordered an old favourite, Croque Monsieur ($14). Grilled ham, Swiss cheese, and Dijon mustard between slices of sourdough bread, grilled and served with your choice of a salad or 'frites' ($14). Add a fried egg, sunny side up for $2 and call it a Croque Madame. She said it tasted as good as she remembered from work lunches downtown at the old Wine Cellar Restaurant.

I had a harder decision. Would it be a Croque Madame? No, too copy-cat. How about Viande Fumeé ($14)? No, much as I love Montreal smoked meat, my doctor says it doesn't agree with me. Maybe Ragout de Lapin ($21)? Or the good old standby Steak Frites ($20)?

I decided instead to try something from the extensive crepe menu. For lunch you can choose from among 16 different crepes. I selected the Crepe Rafael ($19), seared shrimp and scallops, sautéed mushrooms in a Chardonnay cream sauce. Heavenly! It came served on a long rectangular plate – and still hung over the ends!

We enjoyed a half-litre of one of the house white wines, a very delicious Pinot Grigio ($30).

Le Papillon on the Park is one of those Beach/Leslieville restaurants that will have you coming back again and again, to soak up the atmosphere and to try another dish. We are thinking of going back in the summer, sitting on the rooftop patio and having poutine and beer. A long walk on the boardwalk after that should satisfy my doctor.

Le Papillon on the Park is at 1001 Eastern Ave. Contact them at 416-649-1001, or online at lepapillononpark.com.

“We believe in an individualized and more personal approach to family wellness,” McEwen says. “We strive to seek out the root of any problems, and not just deal with the pain.”

For more information, or to book an appointment at the Upper Beach Health & Wellness Centre, call 416-627-5006, or visit upperbeachhealth.com.

•

If your office is anything like ours here, there's a lot of stuff that needs dealing with – stuff that can sometimes overwhelm you and distract you from getting at your real work. Enter The Office Organizers. Peg Bradshaw and Susannah Coneybeare will come in, plow through your backlog of files, revamp and streamline your sorting systems and follow up to make sure things are going smoothly, leaving you time to get back to what it is you're there to do.

Susannah and Peg have a combined 16 years of organizing experience. Before launching The Office Organizers, they operated The Sorting House, a residential organizing company which over the years has helped hundreds of homeowners get out from under their mess. They both realized their services are sorely needed in small business.

“A couple of days spent reviewing and inspecting the contents of their office lets people analyze everything, keep what they need, and feel confident they are on top of things,” says Coneybeare.

If you think you can't afford such a service, think again. “People don't account for the loss of revenue when business grinds to a halt for a tax-time scramble through a disorganized office,” says Bradshaw.

It might be time for you to consider hiring The Office Organizers to help your business get more streamlined. Give Peg and Susannah a call at 416-200-3166, or visit theofficeorganizers.ca.

Peg Bradshaw and Susannah Coneybeare

•

Soccer – or football as it is known worldwide – is fast becoming one of the most popular sports in Canada, catching up to hockey in terms of interest and participation levels. The fact that it is fun and easy to play, requires little in terms of equipment – shin pads, shoes and a ball – and is generally played outdoors, has made the sport popular with a growing number of young people and their parents. As with any athlete wanting to take a love of a game to the next level, proper training is essential. René Kwol has started the Canada First Academy for Soccer Excellence to do just that.

“We are a new addition to the local soccer scene and provide high level training to talented, ambitious soccer players aged six to 18,” Kwol says. “We strive to provide the optimal environment for our students to become confident, outstanding soccer athletes with strong personalities, who also excel in their academic education.”

Established in 2012, Canada First Academy (CFA) offers several levels of training at varying age groups as well as personal training. CFA operates at Cherry Beach, Greenwood Park and the newly renovated Monarch Park Stadium where they can train all year around. Joining Kwol are Dave Butler and Robert Ellis, both certified soccer coaches, and kinesiologist Angela Wolch.

“[Soccer] has always inspired me and rewarded me with countless moments of excitement, pleasure and a sense of achievement and self development,” says Kwol. To find out how to achieve that reward for yourself or your young soccer player, call Canada First Academy for Soccer Excellence, call 647-973-9555, or visit canadafirstacademy.com.

•

The Mail Slot at 2192 Queen St. E. has a new owner. Kevin Graham was born and raised in the Beach, went to school at St. Denis, Danforth Tech (where he learned about printing and graphic arts), and Centennial College (graduating as a paramedic). He spent more than 20 years working at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, as well as a stint with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. When the current owner of the franchise decided to retire, Graham saw an opportunity to run his own business. Look forward to open house specials, and many new and exciting products over the next few months.

For more information call Kevin at 416-690-4990, or visit mailslot.ca.

Lindsey Stephenson’s Penny Paper Company offers custom paper products.

•

Combining her love of art with her business acumen, Lindsay Stephenson created an online art and stationery company that she has run in the Beach since 2004. It originated as Penny People Designs after cartoon characters that she had been drawing her whole life. In 2010 she retired those characters and re-branded as The Penny Paper Company. Since then her design work has been featured in Style At Home magazine, the National Post, and Today's Parent, as well as in retail outlets such as HomeSense.

The Penny Paper Company offers personalized alphabet prints, address labels, personalized stamps, invitations and art prints, each item as unique and creative as the company that created them. Stephenson is offering free delivery to Beach residents. For more information visit PennyPaperCo.com.

•

After 35 years at 2906 Danforth Ave., the Psychic Centre and Book Store is closing. Owner Jackie Lewis, who bought the business 21 years ago, decided it is time to devote her energies to art, writing and psychic readings rather than running a used bookstore.

“I love the people, and I love the books, but I'm bored of the business end of things,” says Lewis. The Psychic Centre originally began as a place for psychic readings, but gradually morphed into a used book store where readings still take place. Jackie explained the last owner, Ed, sold her the business for one dollar when he decided to move back to the US. “I even inherited two employees,” she said. “They taught me a lot about books.”

The Psychic Centre and Bookstore is closing April 30, and Lewis is offering 50 per cent off everything in the store until then. To find out more call 416-691-3335.

•

It's been a long wait – the sign has been up for months – but The WORKS, the gourmet burger bistro, has finally opened its Beach location at 1953 Queen St. E. To celebrate, The WORKS offered free burgers on April 10, with donations collected for Community Centre 55.

“We are excited to be bringing the ultimate gourmet burger experience to the Beach,” said Andy O'Brien, President and CEO of The WORKS. “The WORKS is the perfect bistro for burger fanatics.” The company was founded in 2001, and is famous for its 72 varieties of burgers. For more information visit worksburger.com.

•

“We are proud to be a part of this great village community,” says Su Willson, owner of Advanced Approaches to Massage, 927 Kingston Rd., in celebration of the clinic's 10th anniversary. “We have lots of great massage special offers available to coincide with it.” Specials will include couples massage, hot stone, paraffin waxing, a Mother's Day aromatherapy massage and others.

Su Wilson

Staff at Advanced Approaches to Massage are fully qualified RMTs with a wealth of experience in various forms of massage. The clinic's website has been redesigned, and bookings are now available online as well as by phone or in person. To make an appointment please call 416-694-6767, email info@advancedapproachesmassage.com or visit advancedapproachesmassage.com.

Herpetologist Winston Card stands in front photo taken by his wife Lisa over a creek near Lake Superior. While Card says the Beach can't match his native Flordia for amphibians or reptiles (the state has 63 species of snakes alone), he is impressed by the wild country north of Toronto, especially its bears.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson

“What really set me off were the venomous snakes,” he says. Those are the cobras, rattlesnakes and rhino vipers that collector Danny Steele bought just before Card and an Animal Planet TV crew showed up to shoot a pilot for Fatal Attraction: Interventions.

“There were just so many things wrong with what he was doing.”

Interventions is a spin-off of the four-season-old Fatal Attraction series about owners of exotic animals who get maimed or killed by their “pets.” In each episode, Card will leave his home in the Beach to spend a week trying to persuade the owner of some deadly animal or animals to give up before it's too late.

“Some of the situations we run into will just stop your heart,” says the retired zookeeper without a hint of irony.

At 21, Card was something like Danny Steele. He kept venomous snakes in his home, and quickly grew defensive if anyone questioned why.

One day Card was bitten while feeding his terciopelo – a venomous South American pit viper that can stretch nearly two metres long.

Card was lucky to have a friend with him, and lucky too that he had likely breathed small amounts of airborne venom whenever he fed his snakes, making him somewhat desensitized to it.

Still, in 30 minutes the bite knocked Card out cold. It stopped his heart twice, once in the ambulance and once in the hospital emergency room.

“It completely changed the way I thought about these animals,” he says. “I became more fascinated with the venom.”

At the time, Card was enrolled in a college biology program. It bored him. It was nothing like Wild Kingdom, the wildlife show he grew up watching in central Florida and that had inspired him, at 10 or 11 years old, to go out alone on the swampy edge of a lake and try to rope and alligator.

“I wanted to be around live animals,” Card says. “Not things in jars or counting scales on dead things.”

College did give Card a chance to meet George Van Horn, then one of three people in North America qualified to extract snake venom for pharmaceuticals research.

It was Van Horn who told Card to “stop screwing around with this stuff at home because you're going to get yourself killed.” Do it professionally, he told him, or not at all.

On that advice, Card switched to a uniquely hands-on school – the Sante Fe College Teaching Zoo in Gainesville, Florida. He studied animal nutrition, feeding and diseases, but also practiced management skills that are sometimes more art than science.

“When you have a collection of 800 animals, you've got to get to know them all,” he said. “You have to observe based on subtle behavioural changes. Wild animals try to mask the fact they're sick, since that's how they survive.”

Healthy snakes, for example, lie in a tight coil and a loose one when they're unwell. In Gainesville, Card continued to show particular interest in herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians. That led to a reptile keeper job at the Central Florida Zoo in 1987 and, four years later, an entry-level post at the Dallas Zoo.

“The program there was unlike any other zoo in the world at the time,” Card said. Not only did it have a huge collection, the Dallas Zoo was heavily involved in academic research.

In Costa Rica, Card joined a radio telemetry study of bushmasters, the largest venomous snake in the Western Hemisphere. He surveyed declining amphibian populations in the Amazon. And in Dallas, Card joined experiments that produced evidence for why snakes' tongues are forked – so they can keep their bearings when they when they follow the scent trails left by prey.

By 2004, Card had been promoted to managing the conservation program at the Cincinnati Zoo. That year, a series of snakebite deaths took his career on an unexpected turn.

Police in Cincinnati called on Card for help several times after residents were killed in their homes by venomous pet snakes. After seeing Card quoted in news reports following the death of a woman bit by her urutu viper, producers at Animal Planet asked him to be the resident reptile expert on Fatal Attraction.

Card, who had for years fielded emergency calls to send the zoo's stock of antivenin out to snakebite victims or to deal with pet tigers, says he welcomed the chance to bring the issue to a wider audience.

“It really bothers me that people are doing this because so many people get hurt, but also, animals end up getting hurt.”

While Card says he is glad to see several US states tightening laws on owning exotic animals, at the moment it means sanctuaries are “chock-a-block-full” with soon-to-be illegal pets. Too often, he says, the pets are simply euthanized.

Here in Ontario, where Card now lives with his wife Lisa (a zookeeper at the Toronto Zoo), he says the laws on exotic animals are more lax than any other province and basically don't exist outside municipalities.

As for Danny Steele, his first attempt at deadly pet intervention, Card is 0 and 1. Even after Steele spent a week handling reptiles with Card's former colleagues at the Dallas Zoo, he remains convinced his home set-up is safe. Supporters of Danny Steele have since bitten back at Card and called for a boycott of his show.

Card, having lived and nearly died for taking the same position once, says he knows why Steele and others are tough to get through to.

“It's a lot easier to connect with an animal,” he said. “They're not going to criticize you.”

Correction: This article incorrectly attributed the boycott of the Animal Planet: Intervention to Danny Steele. In fact, the boycott was started by his supporters.

1. What is your favourite place in the Beach? – “The boardwalk. There is no better place to walk the dog, stroll, muse and watch the world go by.”

2. Do you have a favourite piece of music? – “Whatever we are working on that week at the Toronto Symphony. This week it just happens to be one of my all time favourites, The Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel. For all of your readers who are between 15 and 35 years old, they can sign up for Soundcheck on the TSO website (tso.ca). This allows them come to almost any TSO concert for just $14 (and bring a guest of any age). Best deal in town!”

3. What’s your favourite movie? – “Must be because of my Edmonton upbringing (cold that is) but Dr. Zhivago is a movie that made a lasting impression on me. When I was a kid movies were few and far between and ran for many weeks. It was alway a big deal to go to a movie.”

4. What are you reading? – “Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. Galileo was a great scientist who suffered persecution because he challenged the prevailing beliefs. Sound familiar? I just signed a petition about the muzzling of Canadian scientists.”

5. Do you mostly drive, walk, bike or take the TTC? – “All of the above. I love to ride my bike along the lakeshore bike path to our TSO rehearsals at Roy Thomson Hall downtown.”

Helen Billett is an artist and a digital media designer, and the featured artist for this year’s upcoming Beach Spring Studio Tour, May 3 to 5. See my interview with her in our Arts section, and visit beachstudiotour.ca for times and locations.

1. What is your favourite place in the Beach? – “The boardwalk. I have a painting called The Kiss-Me Rocks. It’s where my husband and I used to go when we were dating.”

2. Do you have a favourite piece of music? – “I like the music of Vampire Weekend, an indie band fron the US. Their music gets me moving.”

3. What is your favourite movie? – “I love old movies like the Sound of Music, or Guys and Dolls.”

4. What are you reading? – “I used to be such a big reader, but with kids... Lately I’ve been reading an ebook about the business of art. I’m looking forward to the chance to curl up with a good book again.”

5. Do you mostly drive, walk, bike or take the TTC? – “I walk a lot, that’s what we love about living here. If I need to go downtown, I take the car. We bought a hybrid!”