It might have given a false impression the other day when I was complaining about the stupidity of certain conservatives. I hardly have the right to be pedantic. Despite his deplorable lack of respect for education, Doug Ford actually has more formal education than I. Neither of us has a university degree. And I have never been excessively concerned with detail unless I have responsibility for things happening that depend on detailed follow-through.
The difference between Ford and I is probably that I have a much more varied life experience and I worked hard at university extension courses and different trades training. I have also had wonderful mentors in many different aspects of working life. For example, how many writers have their news releases critiqued by a former publisher of a major regional daily newspaper. I surprised Ted Rogers and some of his people when I first went into his make-shift studio on Adelaide Street in Toronto. When they told me I was producer, director and switch operator for an as-live production, I got to work. Nobody had told them of the time I had worked with a brother’s TV production company.
I also have to admit that I have learned from my mistakes over the years. You cannot always know which road to take. I had my fill of public relations work in the 1990s and went to work selling for Bell Canada. I found out why so many people had given up on Bell. When I retired from Bell it was my manager who was disappointed as I had always made his numbers look good.
But I still loved to write I registered Babel-on-the-Bay.com shortly after coming to Barrie, Ontario. I was experiencing condominium life at the time and was not ready to give a blog any attention. When the wife and I had enough of Ontario condominium rules we gave up our wonderful view of Kempenfelt Bay.
After twelve years of writing Babel-on the-Bay, I have a good sense of what my readers like and dislike. Talking with an aspiring blogger a while ago, I was telling him what my readers seemed to like and what did not appeal to them. He interrupted me and said “That’s the difference between us. You have readers.”
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