Pique'n Yer Interest

Nineteenth-century American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox once wrote that, "A poor original is better than a good imitation.

This may come as a surprise to you, but being a reporter isn't all private jets and super models. I know what you're thinking.

I posted a story on Twitter last week about drunken louts pouring beer and aiming racial slurs from a luxury box at a hockey game in Rapid City, S.D.

Sadly, we live in a world of ever-increasing deceit. Despite — or likely because of — the lightning-fast dissemination of information, ever more within our daily purview is portrayed dishonestly in order to gain attention.

The week before I was born almost 50 years ago, an unknown American musician called Paul Simon performed on BBC Radio for the first time.

As a writer, sometimes you're fortunate enough to come across that rare story that's simply begging to be told. It practically bursts off the page with the same irrepressible force you had to corral in order to put pen to paper in the first place.

Sometime in the early hours of Christmas Day, a fire tore through a Main Street business in my hometown of Shellbrook, Sask. There's nothing left of the convenience store that's been a staple of my town for nearly three decades.

Before coming out to Whistler, I was immersed in civic election coverage for my previous employer in Winnipeg.

In my line of work, covering arts and culture for Pique , I am dependent on press releases. Every day I get far more than is relevant.

By almost every metric you can apply, I'm not your prototypical Whistler dude. The last time I stood on a pair of skis, Bill Clinton was in office and I still considered "Ninja Turtle" as a viable career choice.