Toby Manhire is a New Zealand journalist and columnist. He describes himself as a "freelance writer & editor, mostly scribbling for Listener, Herald, Guardian". He is the son of poet Bill Manhire.
Manhire was editor of student magazine Salient in 1997.
From 2000 to 2010 he worked at the Guardian. He has edited the Guardian's comment pages.
In 2012, he edited a book The Arab Spring: Rebellion, Revolution, and a New World Order, published by Guardian Books.
He is currently a columnist at the New Zealand Herald and the New Zealand Listener.
Manhire is active on Twitter, and was included in Bryce Edwards and Geoffrey Miller's list of the top 100 tweeters to follow in the 2014 election. On reviewing the list, social media blogger Matthew Beveridge concluded that Manhire's place was deserved: "Toby always has a quick comment for whatever is happening. Engages in a lot of discussions, and doesn’t retweet too much. Overall deserving of his place on the list."
Toby is a popular male name in many English speaking countries. The name is from the Middle English vernacular form of Tobias. Tobias itself is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew טוביה Toviah, which translates to Good is Yahweh. Yahweh is the name of the Jewish god. Tobit is also an alternate form of Tobias.
It is also used as a contraction of Tobin, an Irish surname now also used as a forename.
Toby is the seventh studio album by American soul group The Chi-Lites, produced by lead singer Eugene Record. The album was released in 1974 on the Brunswick label.
By 1974, Brunswick had started to struggle financially so Toby was less heavily-promoted than the group's previous albums and fared less well commercially. It was the first Chi-Lites album since 1970 to stall outside the R&B top 10 (peaking at #12) and to miss the top 100 on the Pop listings. Three singles from the album were top 20 R&B hits. In the UK however, where the Chi-Lites had previously established themselves as a successful singles group, none of the issued singles made any impact on the national chart.
Toby the Tram Engine is a fictional anthropomorphic tram engine in The Railway Series by the Rev. W. Awdry and his son, Christopher; he also appears in the spin-off television series Thomas & Friends. Toby, a tram engine with cowcatchers and sideplates, carries the North Western Railway running number seven and works on the same Ffarquhar branch line as Thomas the Tank Engine.
Toby first appeared in the seventh book in The Railway Series, Toby the Tram Engine in 1952, and appeared in several subsequent books. The second book focused on Toby was the sixth of Christopher Awdry's books, Toby, Trucks and Trouble.
Toby is based on a J70 tram engine from the Great Eastern Railway (GER Class C53). His cowcatchers and sideplates allow him to run on roadside tramways, which other engines are not allowed to do for safety reasons. J70s were used for light duties, such as branch line work and dock shunting.