ON THE WRITE ROAD: Words without boundaries

I lasted a mere nine years in the profession I had gone to school for, which is unusual. Most of the journalists I know are either still in it or were at it for at least double the time. I probably would have done the same but there was a matter of a boy.

My departure from the Daily News was precipitated by the breakdown of my marriage, which left me with custody of my six-year-old son. There was no way that I could be a full-time, single parent and still be a reporter. I would either have huge babysitting costs, need to lean too much on family, or need to take him with me on assignments - all of which were untenable.

I noticed an opening at the Friendship House for a Program Director and, while I had no background in program development and staff management, I was a writer, and proposal writing was a big part of the job. And so it was, in 1997, after nine years as a reporter, that I moved into the world of administration.

I still kept my foot in the journalism door. I wrote columns for the Daily News and, then, the Northwest Weekly and Muskeg News. I freelanced news and sports stories for Aboriginal papers including Ravens Eye and Native Journal. I also wrote the All Native Tournament program for many years.

The program director position had just a slightly better salary but the extra cash that I earned by freelancing put me in a less stressful financial position. And, now, I wrote about what I wanted to when I wanted to. There were occasional assigned topics for my freelance columns, but I could basically write whatever I desired as long as it was within the parameters of decency.

No longer having to worry about being biased, I waded more into politics, both social and political. Occasionally, this resulted in angry letters or confrontations on the street, the shopping line, or in a bar but nothing serious (although I did receive one "I should punch you in the head" on the street). The majority, though, of my writing was observational, humorous, and personal.

I wrote on a wide variety of subjects but there was one that I wrote on most often – so many times that a wonderful woman put the articles together in a binder, saving it as a future gift. That subject was my then only son, Eli, and that wonderful woman was his grandma, Mary. I loved watching Eli and sharing my thoughts on him (and kids in general), while also noting my efforts, hopes, and fears as a father.

The Eli columns were very popular and I was often stopped on the street by readers to tell me how much they enjoyed them. In becoming a reluctant celebrity, he was frequently baffled by strangers who said hi to him by name.

Meanwhile, the move to Friendship House did more than allow me the chance to write articles of my choosing. It gave me a chance to explore another type of writing that I had been thinking about for some time but found it difficult to dive into while in reporter mode. The creative writing itch could be scratched at last!

The idea of a novel always lurked in my mind but at this “stage” of my life, I was surrounded by theatre types, some of whom were my best friends. So, with no theatre training whatsoever, I decided that I was going to write a skit, as a warmup, and then a play.

I mean, how hard could it be?

NEXT: One False Move and an alien with a cow head!

ON THE WRITE ROAD: A man of many faces

I love movies.

Recently, I helped to sell the idea of shooting one in Rupert, assisted in the production, and acted in it. I have a shelf full of DVDs of my favorites and, one day, I plan to make a movie.

I also reviewed movies during my time with the Daily News, in a column titled VideoView, when the format was VHS tape (be kind, rewind!). It would have been just like any other column except for one decision I made that turned it into a monster, an obsession: I decided to have a different mugshot of myself every week, one that would match the feature movie.

The format called for me to review 2-3 movies; one would be featured with a long write-up, while the others simply received a “Got to” (thumbs up) or “Not to” (thumbs down) and a quick comment.

It seemed like a great idea, doing myself up as a character in the featured movie, but it set a standard, one that was hard to keep up while maintaining my sanity.

I used to be quite the costume maker, especially masks. There is virtually nothing you can’t do with poster paper! If you look at the shots in the photos, poster paper has been used in many of them.

I also used makeup even though I have never liked using it for Halloween or other costume events. Lyle McNish did his whole body in green (yes, he was the Hulk)! No one’s topping that.

In making this mugshot decision, my torment became others’ torment. My two main photographers were my then-wife, Cathy, and a co-worker, Gleremy Bainsworth, who went on to become an editor, top reporter, and member of an Emmy-winning team. You’re welcome, Gleremy.

Of course, in those days, digital cameras were still a few years away from becoming available to anyone that wasn’t a wealthy, world-class photographer, so you only got that one chance. Doubt was a bully to me: you blinked. Yes, you did. The grimace wasn’t menacing enough. She waited too long to snap the photo. Gleremy’s shaking like a teacup in the back of a truck!

Getting the shot was just the beginning. Then came Exacto-knife time, so the mug can be put on any background, and it had to be just right or it was back to the darkroom for another print. And, often, I stuck it onto a photo with scenery, so the layout guy had to place it just so …

In the end, it all paid off. It was a very popular column and I won the Sterling chain’s “Best Feature Column” award.

My favorite VV mugs were:

- James Bond, Tomorrow Never Dies: where I was actually allowed to get onto the wing of a plane, lying on my stomach with a gun in one hand, and a martini in the other. (I borrowed a white suit from the late, great, Odd Eidsvik – don’t know how I fit into it!)

- True Romance, where I was “driving” a car with a woman’s feet, in high-heels, wrapped around my neck from the backseat.

- Jack Skellington from A Nightmare Before Christmas (a lot of Exacto work on that one!)

When I moved on from the paper, the staff gave me an engraved pen set and a large, framed collection of the mugshots (see photo) I had used in the column, with the brilliant words: From all of us to all of you. It is one of the best, most clever, and appropriate gifts I’ve ever received.

I thought I would end this appropriately, with a recommendation, and that is to Mads Mikkelsen movies! Pretty much any of them, is a can’t miss. I recently watched two of his 2020 movies, Another Round and Riders of Justice, and they were great.

Of course, keep your eyes open for the release of Island Between the Tides, which was shot entirely in Rupert and surrounding area and features many locals in the cast and as extras. I’ll be sharing info and plans for local activities as soon as I get them!

NEXT: Final thoughts on The Daily News and the loss of the paper of record

ON THE WRITE ROAD: I may have embellished

When I say that my sports reporting was unique, it is not a brag.

Although I do think I was a good sports reporter, my belief that I was unique is not about quality. It is about how I colored outside the lines – how I was allowed to color outside the lines. I can’t think of no other reporting given so much rope, so part of the blame surely falls on editors who didn’t follow the sports pages close enough!

At first, I covered sports normally: an opening paragraph summarizing the result, followed by a breakdown of how the game played out, who scored, who made a crucial play, and a quote or two. But then (I can’t recall the exact game or sport), I decided to add more color to it by embellishing, at first, then completely making shit up.

I should give credit to my good friend, the late Rod McNish, who was the Daily News sports reporter while I was still pondering college and allowed me to submit a weekly floor hockey league write-up called Rudy’s Report. This was a precursor to my sports editor antics as I embellished and editorialized considerably – although the men’s floor hockey league was an absolute gong show most times and didn’t need much enhancement.

I did get actual quotes from players at first but, then, at some point, I decided the quotes needed more flavor because, well, you know how rote they can be most times:

“It was a full team effort tonight.”

“We battled hard.”

“This is what we play for.”

A lot of them don’t even make sense:

“Everyone gave 110 percent.”

“We all showed up today.”

“It wasn’t just me.”

“It could have gone either way.”

That’s not to say that there weren’t some thoughtful, original quotes but they were few and far between. But even the thoughtful ones weren’t really, well, that funny. Yeah, I wanted some funny too.

The first one I can recall was from a player whose softball team had just lost in the championship game. His bogus quote was along the lines of “We came up short but at least I know that I played a great game.”

After the story came out, there was a bit of a buzz about the quote because, well, people believed it, including some of his teammates, who took offense. Days later, he approached me, genuinely bewildered, and asked why I had printed the false quote. My answer was a phrase that I would use many, many times in my life, regarding my writing, my theatre performances, or off-the-cuff comments in a social setting: “I thought it was funny.”

My favorite comedian, George Carlin, once said that his job as a comedian is to find the line and deliberately cross it. I did that often in my sports reporting, in my columns, and onstage. I regret some of it (there were a few huge blunders that I had to profusely apologize for) but most of them were recognized as jokes as I can only recall a few people who got very angry with me. Some people saw it as a badge of recognition, waiting to become part of the club.

Some guys didn’t even know they were victims of a gag. This one player, I’ll call him Larry Swenson, was a terrific athlete and, thus, a member of numerous championship teams in different sports. Like most reporters, I would take several photos of championship teams and pick the best one for publication. Whenever Larry was on the team, I would take a few more photos to enhance the chance of having one in which his eyes were closed – and that was the one I would print.

It wasn’t until the third or fourth time that Larry noticed his eyes were always closed in the photos and, being somewhat naïve, he attributed it to plain ol’ bad luck. But I couldn’t hold back my smirk, giving away that I was doing it on purpose, prompting his trademark response of being slightly amused but also irked, followed by an ineffective retort.

I also got one in on my buddy, Rod McNish. I will not repeat it as it definitely straddled the line, but it was a different gag in which I took a tragic wire story on a famous athlete and inserted a bogus quote from Rod among quotes from other famous athletes and coaches. Rod, while in disbelief, got a good laugh out of it. His mother did not.

A week or so after the gag quote was printed, I ran into Rod’s mother, Grace, at a theatre event and she expressed her displeasure at the article. I’ll always remember her husband, John, barely concealing a grin as he occasionally glanced at me.

Like so many things I have done over the years, I have some regrets about my rogue style of sports writing. Today, I still make slips in my writing and in group conversations, when I think something is funny and put it out there without really thinking about it. But, while my regrets are real, I have also learned to accept myself as someone who is always going to make such mistakes. I will continue to experiment and occasionally fail horribly; to do otherwise might make me lose some of the good things that I produce.

NEXT: The monster that was VideoView!