Ottawa, Ontario - Canada's Capital

It's Baaack!

Friday, February 2, 2001 - I find this hard to believe, but while I was talking on the phone the other day with someone who's a regular visitor to the site here, this person (who will remain anonymous to protect her reputation - such as it is) actually thought I should state here in the Northern News my thoughts on the recent Presidential election in the United States. Well, I have to say that anyone who voluntarily asks for my opinion on anything is a certified masochist and one sick puppy.
    Coincidentally, for several days before her call, I had already been thinking about resurrecting my old editorial feature, The Editor's Corner, that I'd had so much fun with in the original print version of the Northern News.
    So...as a result of all this, I'm happy to say..."It's baaaack!"
    I expect that some of you who remember the drawing above from before will view this little guy's return with nostalgia; while others, not. Well, on the bright side, at least the NN isn't required reading. I will try to make opinions expressed in this feature as entertaining and biased as possible.
    But, before I wade into the morass of my thoughts on the election, newcomers to the NN (and oldcomers who have forgotten) might find it interesting to know the background behind this feature's banner drawing and title.
    I grew up in New Carlisle, Ohio and when I was a small lad (who, amazingly enough, bore a remarkable likeness to the boy in the drawing above) my father worked as a commercial artist at the local newspaper, The New Carlisle Sun (another coincidence since I too was a New Carlisle son), and I always found it quite humorous, and clever, that the editorial column in the Sun was called 'The Editor Sits & Thinks' with an accompanying cartoon illustration of an old-fashioned outhouse, complete with half-moon in the door, as I recall.
    Since I always liked this so much, my first thought was to use it myself, more or less in honor of the Sun's editor back in those days, the now long deceased Mr. Mount, who I always liked and admired even though sadly I have forgotten his first name. Then I thought that since I have a reputation of being something of a creative person myself, I should come up with an idea of my own (which would also avoid any possibility of copyright entanglements in the event the Sun might still be claiming rights to this editorial theme).
    So, if Mr. Mount did his best thinking in an outhouse, I began to reflect on when and where I did mine and figured it had to have been back in those same days when I was a boy and who, having been caught in some act which had fallen short of my mother's high standards of behavior, had been sent to the corner to consider the error of my ways.
    Therefore, to explain the obvious, the drawing for The Editor's Corner is me, when and where I did my best thinking. I expect Mr. Mount would approve.
    Well, enough background on this feature and on to the election.
    Naaahh...I'll cut you a break and save it for another day. I've probably already taxed the expected attention span of most people as it is, except perhaps for the odd sick puppy here and there.