Frank Magazine Issue 578.pdf - Besthostingplanever.com

HURRICANE STU HITS SLEEPY LITTLE WINDSOR
BY A. FRANK GRUNT
I REMEMBER STU DUCKLOW AS A VERY
WOOLLY, WIREY CHARACTER, A MAN WITH THE
MOST PRECIOUS OF ALL GOD’S GIFTS — THE
PERFECT TABLOID NEWSPAPER MIND.
Yes, in a media world too complete
with pretenders, where every
early morning DJ thinks him or herself
the latest incarnation of
Howard Stern, and the Halifax
Herald anoints former Best Donair
Magazine hackette Lezlie Lowe as
its latest “edgy” columnist, Stu
Ducklow stands alone.
Stu is 62 years old now.
I knew him in his prime, when in
the mid-’80s he brought his London
paparazzi energy and imagination
to the Halifax Daily News
as both a reporter and a photographer.
He was artistic and artful, and most of all,
fearless.
BY A. FRANK GRUNT
WEEKLY CHRONICLE HERALD COLUMNIST
JIM MEEK, THE PAPER’S FORMER DIRECTOR
OF SPECIAL PROJECTS, OR SOMETHING LIKE
THAT, (REALLY, DOES IT MATTER?) HAD AN
INTERESTING DISPATCH IN THE PAPER OF
RECORD THE OTHER SATURDAY.
Not that I read the Herald much anymore,
and Jim’s column I often find a bit dry. But it’s
not the writing. It’s often times the subject
matter. Like business, which bores the piss
out of me.
But his discourse of Saturday, January 24,
caught my eye. If only for the reason he mentioned
CBC-TV reporter Susan Ormiston.
Of course, as a younger man I used to be a
regular media watcher. Less so today. But old
beat-up one-time observers, and once-dashing
MacInnes Cooper lawyers, will recall that
the lovely Susan, 50, used to co-host First
Edition with Jim Nunn, who himself is now a
man of leisure. But with money.
Meek, 58, was writing about cheap sentimentality
in journalism after watching
Ormiston do an “I love you, too” piece from
Haiti, in which she single-handedly transformed
herself from mild-mannered reporter
to Florence Nightengale.
“The viewer,” wrote Jim, “was treated to
moving pictures of CBC-TV reporter Susan
Ormiston, who held the hand of a small Haitian
child as they walked through a devastated,
crowded neighbourhood...”
Stu Ducklow
So, I congratulate Stu on his new gig as the
managing editor of the Hants Journal, the
150-year-old weekly newspaper out of the
pastoral, quaint, stuck in the missionary position
town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, which
may or may not be the birthplace of hockey.
Stu is about three weeks into his
new Transcontinental Media gig,
and I look forward to following this
bold experiment as, I fear, the local
Cabbage Report may never again be
the same.
Stu Ducklow is the antithesis of
another ol’ leftover from those glory,
blood & guts days of the Halifax Daily
News, that being Mr. Carl Fleming.
Fleming is now the managing editor
of another TransCon borefest.
This one is called the Truro Daily
News.
I can think of no greater talent to run a
borefest than former sports reporter Fleming.
But the Hants Journal with a weekly circu-
QUEEN OF PATHOS STRIKES AGAIN
Later, Florence, er, um, Susan swept the
child up into her arms.
Frightfully moving moving pictures.
But Meek wondered if it was all a bit too
contrived. Was our own Susan Ormiston trying
just a little too hard to out-Anderson
CNN’s professional mourner Anderson
Cooper?
I don’t know. I didn’t see Susan’s latest piece
of pathos.
Susan likes doing that type of thing on camera.
The furrowed brow. The deeply cut,
deeply concerned, penetrating eyes. That
eternally puzzled and frightened look on her
face, like somebody just told Susan Ormiston
that her goldfish died.
Few television hacks can turn it on like
Susan Ormiston.
About 20 years ago a number of fisherman
from, I think, the Herring Cove/Sambro area,
fishermen from the same family, drowned. It
was late in the year.
On First Edition that night, Susan Ormiston
did her two-way.
She asked grieving female family members,
widows, if this fishing tragedy was going to
put a damper on their Christmas.
But Susan was only doing her job, I guess.
You see, television works best when it
makes people cry, that’s why the camera will
always close in the minute those tears begin
to well up in the eyes.
And if Susan Ormiston can make you cry at
home, too? Well, that’s just two birds with the
same stone, then, isn’t it?
lation, we think, at the 3,000 mark should not
be a borefest much longer, given Stu
Ducklow’s unflinching resolve to get the news
out in a manner both entertaining and exhilarating.
He has “two great reporters” working with
him. Their names unfortunately elude me at
the moment, as it is 9:26 p.m. (Friday, Jan.
29) and the Clyde Street Liquor Store sadly
ceases daily operation at 10 p.m.
However, I will conclude by saying the days
of comfort and ease in sleepy Windsor, N.S.,
which may or may not be the birthplace of
hockey, are about to come to an end.
There is no risk of boredom where Stu
Ducklow is concerned.
And we are also safe, for at least one more
generation, as Stu’s daughter Stella is a diminutive
but indomitable photography student
at something called NSCAD University.
Whatever that is.
Does Frank Know?
Atlanticfrank@eastlink.ca
Susan Ormiston
BAD STUFF GOING ON
In other Hants County media news, I was
v. sorry to hear about the devastating January
18 fire that razed the Centre Rawdon
home of Christine Withrow, the gal behind
What’s Going On, a well-read, locally
distributed newsletter.
Last I heard, Christine and her husband
Harold, of Withrow’s Farm Market fame,
were still regrouping, though I’m assured
What’s Going On will continue to operate
despite the life-changing setback.
The Withrows’ dog, Molly, perished in the
fire.
FEBRUARY 16, 2010 ATLANTIC CANADA FRANK 15