Small Town Woo

[Whydoe]

This was on the front page of our local weekly newspaper, complete with a photo.

Naomi Lepage, of Saskatoon, spent a lazy, grey Wednesday afternoon building a snowman along the Muskoka River. Lepage, a natural healer visiting Bracebridge to study with a healer from Greenland who is working at Fenbrook prison this week, gave the snowman a view of Bracebridge Falls. To ward off the rain falling on her snowman, she put some tobacco in the river and asked the spirits to hold off on the wet weather.

The picture is of her building the snowman - no need to include it.

1) This is a small paper, usually 8 to 10 pages long. And this was front page!
2) What is a natural healer? I stubbed my toe. I waited. It healed - naturally! Is that it?
3) There was apparently no survey around town whether she should tell the spirits to hold off on the wet weather or not. She just did it anyway. Some of us may have wanted the rain.
4) Tobaco in a river? It is apparent that she chose the wrong brand as it rained most of the week. Perhaps the spirits were pot smokers.

This was funny at first glance. But now it just disturbs me. This was just thrown in the paper like we were supposed to read it and accept it.

FYI, it is still raining today!

[AnotherSillyAlias]

Why don't you see if they'll print a story from you. Something along the lines of:

Naomi Lepage, of Saskatoon, decided to pollute the local river for her own selfish ends but, fortunately, her plans were foiled by the weather.

[Whydoe]

That's not a bad idea! People have written back for less reason.

[CurtC]

What kind of tobacco was it? I'd like to throw some in the river around here to bring us some desperately needed rain. Oh, wait, the rivers have dried up. You think it would still work?

[Nick Bogaerts]

There ought to be more 'natural' healers working in prisons.

[Amapola]

Man, you guys must have a low crime rate if that was on the front page.

Write a letter to the editor. If you want more interesting articles in your paper, write some! Or call them up and tell them about something really fascinating going on in the area that needs to be covered. Or call them up and tell them how wonderful you are and how they need to write a story about you. Obviously you qualify, since they are putting pictures of POLLUTERS building snowmen on the front page! ;)

I used to work at one of these small-town weeklies. They are sometimes crying for copy; so give them something to write about! Tell them about TAM or whatever strikes your fancy. And DO write a letter to the editor; I'm sure they will be happy to print it.

[Whydoe]

Crime rate? The last crime wave/ripple (if it isn't pot smoking) was the great garden nome raid back in the mid 90's. Small town? You betcha!
And, yes, I will be writing something to the paper.

[Loon]

This was just thrown in the paper like we were supposed to read it and accept it.

Doesn't sound like the paper has said anything untrue. The lady is employed as a healer (they don't say whether she is successful or not), she did build a snowman, and the other "healer" is at the prison this week.

[Whydoe]

This is what I'll be sending back to the paper - whether they print it or not is to be seen.

Saskatoon Missing An Idiot

I’m still trying to rationalize the front page picture and description from the Friday 13th edition of the Weekender. It’s a joke right? I don’t see a problem with building a snowman, but we are lead to believe that throwing tobacco into the Muskoka River to apiece the spirits is just commonplace. Come on! Kids who are highly influential read this paper. Are they supposed to believe that throwing random chemicals into a river is going to bring about a change in the weather? I’m ashamed of the editor for not using a more appropriate heading; “Visiting nut pollutes river with tobacco”. This is right up there with homeopathy, dowsing for water, and psychic readings. If Naomi’s tobacco river-spirit weather miracle is any testament to her “natural” healing abilities, I’d sooner visit a witch doctor.
If your paper is in such desperate need for more material, then how about a weekly article on critical thinking? And if that isn’t going to happen, at least include explanations to the quackery in your news. Ms. Lepage, Saskatoon thanks you for setting them back 2000 years.

[Kell]

Kids who are highly influential

I think you mean "kids who are easily influenced". What you've written means "kids who have a great influence over others".

[Whydoe]

Doh. Hope the kids don't read that. :book:

[sophia8]

Doh. Hope the kids don't read that. :book:
Or this:to apiece the spirits . The word is appease.

[shalomsteph]

Crime rate? The last crime wave/ripple (if it isn't pot smoking) was the great garden nome raid back in the mid 90's. Small town? You betcha!
And, yes, I will be writing something to the paper.

Gotta love the small town stuff. Where my parents live, the big criminal activity was some high school kids tearing up landscaping "downtown". (Downtown is one street, about two city blocks long. No home delivery of mail, the only thing open after 6 pm is the liquor store and a corner gas station, and the graduating class is about 30) It's a nice place to visit, but I would lose it if I had to live there. Oh wait...I did....

[AnotherSillyAlias]

Gotta love the small town stuff. Where my parents live, the big criminal activity was some high school kids tearing up landscaping "downtown". (Downtown is one street, about two city blocks long. No home delivery of mail, the only thing open after 6 pm is the liquor store and a corner gas station, and the graduating class is about 30) It's a nice place to visit, but I would lose it if I had to live there. Oh wait...I did....


I do live in a place like that and I wouldn't live anywhere else. To me, cities are giant slums to be avoided.