Thanks for the story, Reggie.

Willie-O, I agree that the writer has a snotty view towards real buskers - perhaps best evidenced by the conspicuous lack of quotes from buskers, when he appears to have interviewed everybody else he could think of.

However, I expect that this article will have some positive effect for real buskers, despite the writer's bias. It may not be many people, and it may not be lasting, but there will be some people who read this article and take it as a reminder to stop and smell the roses... with the result that they will be more likely to take note of the next busker they see.

For example, one of the poems that intermittently appears on Toronto's subways is this:

Elegy for the Gift (Elegy for the Light)

Sometimes, when the subway car
comes briefly out of the tunnel,
we don't look up, miss the light.
And it's as though, inattentive,
we'd never had that moment
of brightness. A life may be full
of such small losses, or full,
equally, of small, dense gifts:
the child on that same car
dipping her face into her mother's;
that perfect regard.

(I can't read my own writing where I copied down the poet's name: it's Rhea Tregebou, or something like it. And the title I have above is correct, though it looks like I can't remember and offered two versions....)

Anyway, whenever I see this poem, I for one start looking out the window more and looking for other "small dense gifts" more. So, I expect that the Post article will have a similar effect.

Marion