Column: Readers, lend me your stories
Why?
Journalists puff out their chests at any mention of that word, and tell you their profession decreed that “Why?” should be the fifth and final question in every search for truth.
“It’s the Five Ws,” they say, proud of inventing something so profound. “Who, what, when, where and why?”
Predictably, though, we news folk are several centuries off with our “discovery” of this clever interrogation method.
Starting at the present and heading backward, the famous five (or six, or seven) questions have been attributed to British author Rudyard Kipling, philosopher/theologian Thomas Aquinas, and even all the way to pre-Christian days and the Roman politician Cicero.
Perhaps Cicero hit the inquiries a bit too hard, in fact, given that he was assassinated in 43 BC.
Yes, originally our “rules of journalism” originally were Latin:
Quis, quid, cur, quomodo, ubi, quando, quibus auxiliis.
(Who, what, why, how, where, when, with what?)
In the case before us today, the question is what I’m doing here — looking up at you from the first of what I sincerely hope will be many columns on various subjects.
So with the promise that, yes, I’m typing this in Coeur d’Alene (well, Hayden, if you want to split hairs), the key question thus becomes…
Why?
All the other puzzles have been answered, except quibus auxiliis — with what?
The answer to that one is a now-fried Buick, which along with its driver suffered considerably over 1,630 hot, hot miles from Kansas (please spare me those Oz jokes).
The poor vehicle and I eventually bumped through the mountains of Montana — not to mention about a dozen work-zone nightmares that offered gravel flying in all directions.
In addition to the Buick’s damage, the guy at the wheel somehow suffered a bee sting while wandering inside the Wyoming Visitors Center.
I’d advise all but experienced beekeepers to avoid that travel attraction.
So I’m here, and I probably should tell you why.
First of all, look around: If there is a significantly prettier place with more year-round attractions, I’m betting that to live there, you’d need a cabin with no running water — and certainly there would be no nearby newspaper worthy of the name.
Yep, there is an obvious appeal to the spectacular Inland Empire — and please note that I avoided naming Coeur d’Alene alone right there, thus avoiding emails from Post Falls, Dalton Gardens, Harrison and heaven knows where else.
Trust me, I belong to you all.
And for the record, I know about wonderful places. I grew up in San Francisco and served in whatever worldwide outposts that the U.S. Air Force deemed I should deploy. I’ve worked in almost every part of America — and even lived right on the sea in Scotland.
If you want to find a cozy coffee house in Edinburgh, Charlotte, Doha, Warsaw, Flagstaff, Munich, Citta di Castello, Steamboat Springs, anywhere in Kansas or central Illinois…
I’m your guy.
But beyond geography, I’m now your neighbor because I’m still addicted to the newspaper biz — despite decades of banging away at it.
I’ve worked for the Hagadone Corp. once previously and loved it, I have boundless admiration for my longtime colleague and now boss Mike Patrick, and I see exciting potential in a young staff headed by city editor Mo Dolan.
So the thrill of newspaper work is still there, believe me, and this seems like a wonderful place to pursue it.
No matter what management decides I should do to help this product you’re reading, I’m down with it.
We do know, however, that I’ll be tasked with some of these opinion pieces, along with various news and feature stories. And for those, I need your help.
In fact, no matter what topic might be on your mind, I’m begging you to get in touch.
I may have left Dorothy and the Wizard back on the plains, but I expect to make plenty of new friends — and write about them, as well.
So…
RSVP!
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Steve Cameron is a special assignment writer for The Press. He can be reached at scameron@cdapress.com.