The Best Journalist can Confuse Adjectives.

 

Excerpt from   Prime Time at Ten ~

"One of the mixed blessings I found in my first year of anchoring The National was the number of invitations to judge things, everything from beauty contests to hog-calling competitions.  One such affair, which included both plus a number of other events, was the annual Binder Twine Festival in Kleinberg, Ont., just outside Toronto.  The emcee was the Squire of Kleinberg, Pierre Berton, dressed like a top-hatted circus ringmaster.  Cartoonist Ben Wicks, an old friend, my wife Lorraine, and I did satisfactorily in judging the hog-calling, the milking, the dancing, and the nail-hammering, but we ran into an arithmetic problem with the beauty contest.  The problem, frankly, was Ben.  He'd mixed up the scoring, giving low marks to the best and high marks to the least best, the reverse of what it should have been.  Our numbers were added up and when Berton announced our choice as the winner, we were all as astonished as Pierre and the audience.  Boos and cat-calls greeted our apparent selection, but she gamely came forward and accepted the honours.  The verbal abuse and protest at the judges continued interminably, while we puzzled over what had happened and finally discovered Ben's error.  In momentary panic, confusion, and embarrassment, it was decided to award two first prizes, one to the real winner and the other to the unfortunate lady we had mistakenly announced.  Neither Ben nor Lorraine and I have ever been invited back.

~ Knowlton Nash, journalist, foreign news correspondent, TV anchor, author.
Prime Time at Ten, Behind-the-Camera Battles of Canadian TV Journalism.

[Please click on letter for larger image.]

Saturday, May 24

"Television news will never and should never replace the printed word of newspapers, magazines, and books, and if it's doing its job in the years ahead it must stimulate people's interest so that they read more not less."

Knowlton Nash, Canadian journalist, foreign correspondent senior broadcasting executive and TV anchorman.  (Nov.18, 1927 - May 24, 2014)  Prime Time at Ten, McClelland and Stewart, 1987.

Armed with a typo-correction kit, Jeff and his friend Benjamin set out to locate and correct signs with typos.  Their initial kit contained:  elixir of correction, a thick black marker, a black Sharpie, white and colored chalk and vinyl stick-on letters.
There was no worry about the goal of finding a typo per day ~ of greater concern was the possibility of resistance from shopkeepers and restaurateurs.  Jeff mused, "I could even be arrested if I rankled the wrong folk...I would need to confront strangers about spelling, punctuation, and grammar.  These people would not necessarily share my zeal for such things, particularly in regard to their own errors."

~ Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson, THE GREAT TYPO HUNT - TWO FRIENDS CHANGING THE WORLD ONE CORRECTION AT AT TIME.  Crown Publishers, 2010.

Tomorrow:  What could possibly go wrong? Vandalism at the Grand Canyon?
[Photo:  files lbw]

Good News Toronto ~ Our Everyday Heroes

We meet a lot of fascinating people in the Neat Little Bookshop. Kirk Mathieson, a Toronto-based freelance writer, came in one day in the summer and was kind enough to later send us two issues of Good News Toronto ~ Our Everyday Heroes. Stories of acts of kindness, generosity, hope and bravery fill this inspiring little newspaper.

Perhaps one letter to editor, Eva Karpati, says it best, "I was on the bus when I saw someone reading Good News Toronto. It looked very interesting. I asked her if I could have it when she finished. She passed it on to me and I read it cover to cover. This is exactly what we need because we hear too much negative news."

First of all, it is difficult to imagine strangers on a city bus chatting over a newspaper. Or perhaps this is exactly the reaction that good news can foster.

To read some of Kirk's articles and others, visit "the little paper with the big heart." Website: http://www.goodnewstoronto.ca/