The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

[via Reddit] Just ignore for a moment that it’s posted on the World Socialist Web Site and read this account of someone who was on the Accordion City subway when someone committed suicide by jumping in front of the train at Dundas Station a couple of days ago:

Then this man in a three-piece suit who was also in the car started saying very loudly that “this piece of trash should have killed himself at home” and that he had an appointment and was going to be late because of this “piece of shit” and now even his taxpayers’ dollars will be wasted cleaning up his “shit-guts” from the station, etc. etc. Well, I couldn’t allow that to go unchallenged so, in a deathly silent and dark, jam-packed car I piped up, “Keep your poison to yourself. We don’t need to hear it. A man is dead. He was a human being.”

Okay, maybe you’ll also have to ignore the hokey writing, the reference to a “three-piece suit” (the Bay Street uniform is two-piece, you sackcloth-wearing commie dolt) and the made-for-TV-movie line “Keep your poison to yourself!” as well.

The question is: did this happen? A quick Google search revealed no news about a subway jumper. Then again, there’s the prevailing meme that the local media doesn’t report subway- or bridge-jumping suicides out of fear of inspiring copycats.

Were any of you there or nearby?

We’ve got just over a week to go until Blogstravaganza, the Toronto blogger get-together taking place on Friday, December 8th at 8:00 p.m. at Fiddler’s Green (27 Wellesley Street East, just across the street from Wellesley subway station). We’ve got the entire second floor reserved just for this gathering, which means that we’ll get our own server, pool tables, couches and space to chat with our fellow Toronto-and-area bloggers. If you’ve got a blog (or LiveJournal, MySpace or some similar thing, we’d like to see you there!

Blogstravaganza is being organized by:

• Yours Truly, author and editor of this blog, as well as Global Nerdy and the Tucows Blog
• Jason Cherniak
• Bob Tarantino

Bob wrote this about the event:

As in the past, it usually makes sense to start showing up a little after 8 – but there’s people who work downtown who will probably be there earlier to grab dinner, so pretty much show up whenever the hell you want. And if you don’t recognize anyone at first – don’t leave. Just ask around, we’ll eventually find you. Last time around, we did a pretty damn good job at packing place, with people from across the political spectrum, along with bloggers who don’t have time for politics and cover everything else under the sun – wherever you stand, whatever you blog, read or talk about – come on out. We need bloggers from the left! The right! The centre! People who hate politics! people who blog about cats! And every! Body! In! Be! Tween! It’ll be good times.

I’ll be there a little before 8, and will have the accordion on hand. Perhaps I’ll even do a number in the karaoke room downstairs…

I’ve seen all sorts of variations of business card, but this one’s new to me: it’s for local trainer Poul Nielsen:

Once again, it’s Miss Fipi Lele coming through with the photos!