COSTAS HALAVREZOS WAS ASKED to keep his retirement a secret from nearly everyone he knew. So he didn’t tell almost any of his CBC Radio co-workers, some of whom thought he’d never leave. He didn’t tell his band mates, who jammed with him the night before his announcement. And he didn’t tell his 19-year-old daughter, Maria—until he sent her a text. “I’ve decided to retire,” it read. “My last day is September 17.” She was in the middle of class, and her jaw dropped.

“Generally speaking, whatever fucking stupid ideas hatched by the most powerful people in Toronto—and trust me, if you don’t like these two ideas, we can come up with some fuckin’ stupider ideas—that’s the rule.”

This one’s a bit longer. My journalism Honours project. It feels truncated to me even at 2,000 words, but there it is. A cover story for the King’s Journalism Review.