SaltWire E-Edition

You can’t always be an expert

TINA COMEAU tina.comeau @saltwire.com @TinaComeauNews

There are countless times we have to switch gears in my line of work during the course of a week, not to mention in the course of a day.

Our multi-media journalists are writing multiple stories a week and the subject matter varies greatly from one story to the next – sometimes from one hour to the next.

In the past few weeks

I've written stories or briefs about court trials, court sentencings, fire department equipment donations, health-related issues, doctor recruitment, highway improvements, sports teams, paramedic training, RCMP investigations, people who enhance our communities, a boys' cooking program, deer management, homelessness, inclusion, and more.

Sometimes the subject matter is complex, but you're expected to be an expert no matter what you write about.

Over the years, I've discovered at times that I have different levels of expertise.

Take golf, for instance. The only golf I play is mini golf. Beyond that my knowledge of the sport consists of the basics – you hit a ball with a golf club and you try to get it into a hole with as few shots as possible. Start throwing pars, eagles and birdies at me and I'm clueless.

I remember a long time ago we had received a poster in the newsroom from the Yarmouth Links about a Tuesday night men's league. The poster referred to nine-hole and closest to the pin, which I presumed to be golf games. Sandwiched in between this was hamburger and draft. It was all in list form: nine-hole, hamburger, draft, closest to the pin.

I was stumped. Hamburger? So I called the golf course and in one of my moments of non-expertise I asked the person who answered the phone, “Is hamburger a type of game?”

“No,” they explained politely, while obviously trying not to laugh at me. “It's a thing that you eat.”

“So draft is a beer,” I said quickly, as opposed to asking if it was a game that required a putter or an iron. “Yes,” they said.

In my defence, the structure of the poster was a little misleading. But boy did I feel stupid.

Kind of like the time many, many years ago when our newsroom was on a frantic search to track down Sean Triubhas before deadline to take his photo to go with a story we had received about dance medal recipients.

Although not a familiar Yarmouth County name, this kid's name was everywhere in the media release so we figured he must be local, although most likely not from West Pubnico.

This was back in the days of no internet and no Facebook.

After an unsuccessful search through the phonebook and phone calls to other people asking if they knew the Triubhas family, we eventually tracked someone down who told us Sean Triubhas was not a person.

It was the name of a dance. Obviously, we opted not to go with the headline: Sean Triubhas wins 36 medals.

That day still makes me laugh.

A few weeks after that I was driving to Bridgewater with my youngest son for a hockey team event. After a while of driving and taking note of the exit we had just passed, I told him, “We should get there at 4.” He was growing tired of the drive and said, “If we don't I'm going to call you a liar,” but I managed to throw in an “ish” before he finished his sentence.

“Four-ish!” I said. “Fourish!”

“You said four!” he replied. “You said we'd get there at four!”

“Yeah,” I said, “but then I added an ish. You can't hold someone to something definitive when they add an ish.”

“No, you said four,” he said. “You said four.”

We actually got into an argument about whether a lastminute 'ish' counts.

“I said ish! I said ish!” I shouted back. “If we get there at 3:55 I'm covered and if we get there at 4:10 I'm covered.”

As it turns out we got there at 4:01.

I had travelled Highway 103 enough times over the years for hockey to know how long it takes to get anywhere.

I guess you could say that made me an expert – even if in my world I think it's perfectly normal to swing a golf club at a hamburger, especially if the player is named Sean Triubhas.

OPINION

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2023-03-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281565180003265

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