I believe I’ve written compelling and highly informative stories on important subjects of late on Digital Journal, the online news site I sometimes write for. Let us offer proof of same with a nod to my recent collection of edifying articles, most written late at night:
Comedy ensues as rat terrifies New Yorkers on a subway car.
This was written after coming home on the water-taxi from a day on set. It was a fine water-taxi ride, incidentally, beautiful evening and David Smith was, as always, loads of fun and a great and safe pilot, and fellow travellers Josh, Derek, Maggie and Tim, and others, were excellent companions. I felt buoyed by my journey and decided to seek a story to write upon my arrival home.
People read quirky stories and the rat on the subway story only took about seven minutes to write. Found two sources and linked to a video posted on Youtube by a guy who was actually on the subway car the vagabond rat rode upon.
An excerpt:
Mr. Kader filmed the car, with all the screams and all the people standing on their seats or raising their legs up to prevent the rat from running over their shoes or, worse, climbing up a leg. No one seems to have had the courage to do anything about the rat and in the end, Mr. Kader could not say what became of it.
Woman complains to cops about buying bad marijuana, gets arrested.
This was a no-brainer. My experience has shown me that people read about stupid people (doubtless it helps us feel smart). A 37-year-old woman in Lufkin, Texas bought pot and felt it to be sub-par. Her dealer refused a refund so she called police. In Texas! They came over, whereupon she showed them what was left of the pot (she had it stashed in her bra) and was promptly arrested.
As of this writing, the story has had 568 page views, 89 people have Facebook shared it and, oddly, just one tweet. Extra money is earned by ‘likes’ but it only has 11 (people don’t click ‘like’ often. Rats!)
Mudder, I’m stuck! Ellen shows viral video of snow-stuck Canuck.
This high-brow tale has 4,561 pages views from all over the English-speaking world, 149 Facebook shares, 11 emails and 9 tweets. It’s on a Newfie who gets stuck in snow trying to get out of his mudder’s home. Ellen Degeneres gave him his 15 seconds of fame and including her angle, her name, makes for a better ranking on Google. It is a funny video and here’s my lead:
Mudder I’m stuck” and “Jumpin’ Jesus” were the refrains of choice on the Ellen Degeneres show this week when she showed a video of a Canadian man, well, getting stuck. Barry Horlick got stuck in snow trying to walk out of his mudder’s Newfoundland home.
Honey Maid produces loving ad in response to homophobia.
This won’t get many hits so I ain’t likely to make much but it is enjoyable to put up positive stories. The Honey Maid cracker company did a commercial with families and one of the families was a same-sex couple and their kid. They got homophobic hate-mail (though more positive mail) and what was wonderful is what they did with that hate-mail. Here’s an excerpt:
“The response? Honey Maid hired two artists to take a print-out of all the hate mail and make something different of it. They sure did, those artists, they collected all of them up in a printed form, rolled them up and banded them together to make them spell the word ‘Love’.”
Other recent stories include one on the tax windfall Colorado will make from legal pot sales (pot stories get lots of views), one about Alanis Morissette turning ‘Jagged Little Pill’ into a Broadway musical (one of the greatest Canadian rock albums ever), Justin Bieber (he’s fading), Rob Ford (always gets thousands of views) and a story about a naked bee keeper in China who covered himself with 460,000 bees.
Here’s the deal: writing news on so many subjects is a challenge. So is writing op-ed pieces where I get to make fun of people and institutions like Sarah Palin (like shooting ducks in a barrel), B.C. Ferries (shooting ducks in a barrel) and the Maple Leafs (shooting ducks in a barrel). And I’m proud that I’ve written more stories on the Costa Concordia, the doomed Italian cruise ship that continues to sit 300 metres off of the coast of the island of Giglio, than anyone else on this planet.
Hey, it pays (kind of) and has a certain cachet (kind of).
