Sharing ...

One of the nice things about being in the newspaper business is that it is not too difficult to get copies of photographs from other reporters, no matter what part of the country they’re in. That’s how it was when I contacted reporter/photographer Erin Haluschak at the Comox Valley Record newspaper.  She was more than happy to share this photo of Ronald from the Remembrance Day ceremonies in their town. Ron’s photo was the cover of the local paper and in a special photo feature. Have to say he looked pretty good. Thank you again Ms. Haluschak.  

Good things happen

I have to admit I wasn’t sure at first. It was about a few weeks ago I got a phone call from a fellow I remembered from several years ago. He was a reporter-editor on the mining beat.

Now in Northern Ontario you cannot get away from that. This is the heart of the Canadian Shield and the mines give up every mineral you can imagine from the gold in your jewelry, to the copper, silver and platinum in your electronics to the zinc that keeps your car from rusting too quickly.

Plus it is fun to witness the pouring a new gold bar like this one at the Bell Creek Mine in Timmins. 

So this fellow was kind enough to suggest I might want to consider applying for a job with a well-known mining journal.  I wasn’t sure. I like my work in the daily newsroom. It is challenging and there is always something urgent going on. The other thing about this job is that it is in Sudbury.

The fellow said he liked my mining stories and especially the fact I had experience as a hard rock miner.  I thanked the fellow and said I would work on it.

I think it was that night that I called Jennifer and had a chat. I told her about the offer and she was encouraging. I still wasn’t sure about the job. I think I was just getting too comfortable in the news game. Maybe I was getting too laid back and lazy.  A few days later, I got an e-mail from Sudbury asking where my resume was.  Truth is I had been working on it, but was so busy on news things I had not sent it in.

That night, I spruced up the resume, added a cover letter and dug up couple of old mining stories.

Next day I got a call from the company president. He said he liked my stories. So we had a chat and then we talked about people we both knew from back in the day; I mean wayyyy back in the day.

So he made a nice offer and said he would follow up with a letter.

So here I am now getting ready for the big move in the New Year. I am looking forward to the new gig but of course the best part will be spending more time with my family. You can’t put a price on that.

Invading their privacy ...

Private conversations are just that; private. I say that in reference to the now infamous Uber tape that appeared on YouTube showing a group of six or seven professional hockey players who were on a social outing and jumped into a van for transportation. During the ride, some of the players were talking among themselves and were bad-mouthing the coaching staff for the Ottawa Senators.

The Uber driver had an interior camera that recorded everything. The players were not aware of the camera. Some days later, the five-minute recording, complete with all the trash talk, appeared on YouTube. It caused something of a minor kerfuffle in some media circles. 

I think that’s wrong. Just because somebody said something in private that others might disagree with, it was not a serious matter that had to be reported. This wasn’t national security. This was not revealing anything important. It’s just sports for crying out loud. But still I think it was intrusive for the Uber driver to do what he did.

Thank goodness Uber agreed to have the YouTube recording removed and then apologized to the players.

Small world or what?

We were just having a chat in the newsroom with the city editor and managing editor about the different customs in different cities as Canadians celebrate Remembrance Day. The boss said he had been to so many and began rhyming off the names of different towns, when he said Portage La Prairie. Well, there you go.

Small world eh? I had to chime in about the fact that RCAF Base Portage La Prairie was Dad’s first posting when we all came back to Canada from France. It’s also the town where Debra was born, so I will avoid mentioning the year. I did however recall sitting by the CNR tracks in the north end of town near the Campbell Soup plant to watch the trains coming in – Steam trains they were!  It was a nice place with cold winters. 

Gary, and Ronald and I sure enjoyed some fun times there as kids…. Including the time we begged Mom to let us push the baby carriage over to the next block, where there was a big baseball game going on.  And then we came home. But we forgot the baby.  Hey, it was safe. It was all Air Force families. But when we got back home, mom was wild! Where’s the baby!? So we rushed back to the baseball field and sure enough we found Debra in the carriage right behind the home plate fence. No harm. No foul. LOL