Couric interviews Peter Magee

Hi peeps! We're back today with my amazing and inspirational high school teacher, Peter Magee. Interviewing him will be the slightly chubby, very white trashy and brash, Kelly Couric.

Yes, it is a little odd. I'm quite capable of conducting MY own interviews on My own blog with MY own high school teacher. But, whatever, Kelly got the gig, and I think we should all just be professional about this. So, I'm kicking back with a cup of hot Red Rose tea and a plate of Peek Freen biscuits, waiting to see how this pans out. Kelly's your basic reality-TV, screw-top-wine kind of gal. And she's interviewing my well-read, cultured English teacher. Should be interesting...




Thank you for that intro. Not. Anyway, Little Ms. Organized, what took you so long to get this post rolling today?




I was at a school assembly. Child #4 got an award for Student of the Month.





Aw, congrats to Child #4. You should buy her a pony or something. Okay. (claps) Let's get this show on the road. I have other things to do today, places to go, yada, yada, yada. I'm a busy Hollywood wannabe. Besides, people are at work and only have so much time to surf the blogosphere. So, Hi Peter Magee!




Hi Kelly. Thanks for interviewing me. Although from our phone conversation, I actually thought the interview was with Katie Couric.




Katie. Kelly. They sound pretty alike. Your bad. Although I totally understand how you'd get them mixed up.



(opens and closes mouth in surprise) Here. I brought you some flowers.



Flowers? Oh, how sweet. Let's give them to Barrie. FYI for the next time, I'm partial to those little bottles of alcohol you get on airplanes. Gin, vodka, rum ... I'm not picky. So, Peter, where'd you grow up?



London, Ontario. I went to the University of Western Ontario there too.




Is that near Buckingham Palace?




Uh, no. London, Ontario, Canada. It's about 120 miles southwest of Toronto. Halfway between Toronto and Detroit, if you will.




Toronto? Detroit? North America, right? Moving along. How many years were you a teacher?



Thirty-two!




Whoa, duuude! I haven't done anything consistently for 32 years. Well, except breathe. Ever teach anyone famous?



I attempted to teach public speaking to Alan Thicke.




(squeals) Alan Thicke? The hot dad from Growing Pains? Can you hook us up? He could really jump-start my career.




I'd like to answer a few questions from the list Barrie sent me. (rattles paper in the air) How about this one? Yes, I had a couple of favourite teachers. The late Miss Louise Wyatt was my grade 13 English teacher. She was David Suzuki's favourite teacher too. In case you don't know, David Suzuki is a well-known Canadian science broadcaster and environmentalist. My other favourite teacher was James Reaney, a famous Canadian poet and playwright who has won the prestigious literary Governor General's Award. I'm still in touch with James. I visit him in palliative care.




That's sad, but neat.





(looking at printed sheet of questions) The books I most enjoyed teaching were: Hamlet, A Streetcar Named Desire and Endgame.



You read entire books? I'm more of a magazine skimmer. Cosmo's pretty good. You ever teach from that?




(shakes head and continues with list of questions) I'll read any Canadian novel, and I also like autobiographies. I'd like to do a blog on Ostomies and their trials and tribulations.




Hey, I could do your blog interviews!




Oh, uh, maybe.




So, who would you rather have in your English class? Me or Barrie?




Kelly! I'm right here! And I have the power of the delete key. Peter, one last question: What's your favourite cookie?





Cookies made by David with Duncan Heinz cake mixes. Recipes available on request.



Thank you, thank you, Peter Magee. Great job with the interview. Against all odds, I might add. And especially thank you for all that you did for me in high school English. We're looking forward to the book review you wrote for this blog. :)