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In the cards

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:36:15 -0700

Jessica Werb

We finally meet at the Cactus Club in Richmond, a couple of days after the March 2008 Canadian Open Poker Championship in Calgary, where Booth came in second, winning a cool 50 Gs.

He emerges from a gigantic yellow Hummer in flip-flops, loose jeans and a black hoodie emblazoned with logos for Full Tilt Poker, a website he’s paid to support. A large gold ring with multiple diamonds catches the light as he offers his right hand, delivers his “cutie” line again and decorously leans in for a two-cheek peck.

Called to the bar

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:53:18 -0800

By Jessica Werb

Rupi Gill, a 38-year-old mother of two young children, can regularly be found hanging out in pubs, bars or nightclubs in the Surrey area. If a place serves booze, she’s there.

But don’t get the wrong idea; it’s all in a day’s (or night’s) work for Gill, one of 35 liquor inspectors working for the B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch.

A million little pieces

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 10:47:38 -0800

By Jessica Werb

When Rebecca Pavitt was eight years old, she took an egg, made a couple of little holes in it and blew out its contents. Then she smashed it. Why? you ask. “There was an anecdote that the nuns at my Catholic school told us about this bad little boy who broke a Fabergé egg, and as punishment he had to put it back together again. I thought what a lot of fun that sounded like,” she recalls, laughing.

Ms Manners

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:47:42 -0700

By Jessica Werb

Five minutes into my meal with Connie Sturgess, a harsh realization dawns on me. For the past 30-odd years, I have been eating my dinner rolls all wrong. Sturgess, etiquette coach and principal consultant of Western Protocol & Etiquette Services, has been putting me through my paces to demonstrate her “executive dining” seminar. “We don’t butter our bread in the air,” she says, after gracefully offering me a roll. “We take the butter we think we’ll need – would you like some butter? – and we break the roll into small, bite-sized pieces as we want to eat it. And we always butter it on the bread plate.”

Score a Living

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:33:57 -0700

By Jessica Werb

It’s been a strange ride for Marc Baril, Radical Entertainment Ltd.’s composer in residence. Only two decades ago he was drifting somewhat aimlessly, unsure of where his life was headed. Today his name appears in the music credits of such gaming hits as Scarface: The World is Yours, Crash Tag Team Racing and The Simpsons: Hit and Run.

Good buzz

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:44:08 -0700

By Jessica Werb

Paul van Westendorp, B.C.’s provincial apiculturist in charge of overseeing and regulating the 50,000-odd colonies of bees in B.C., practically buzzes himself.

Celebrity pay dirt

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:56:54 -0800

By Jessica Werb

Video killed the radio star, so the song by one-hit-wonder The Buggles goes. And bloggers, it seems, may just kill the entertainment magazine. Take Elaine Lui, a Vancouver-based celebrity gossip whose decidedly irreverent blog, laineygossip.com, has garnered her thousands of fans across North America and landed her a regular TV spot on CTV’s eTalk.