Nomenclatura Mea Culpa

Vancouver, British Columbia
49°15' North; 123°08' West

"Closer to home, on Hornby Street, signs tell us that this was "Jack Wasserman's Beat". I bet there isn't one in 50 passersby who know who Jack Wasserman was.
Most monuments have almost no long term impact."

Rafe Mair wrote that in 1998.

Jack Wasserman died in 1977.

Lemme tell you, I remember Jack Wasserman.

Because in a town where ink-stained wretches were a dime-a-dozen he stood out as a guy with a nose for the story, a sense of humor, and a POV.

In other words, he was an old time 'Front Page' type of journo who practiced the 5 W's, had his finger on the pulse of the city of Vancouver, and he didn't take crap from anyone - especially politicians.

And as a kid, when I was going through my own 'boy reporter' phase, I wanted to be just like him.

So, when I started this little enterprise a few months ago, I figured, why not.

Why not call this a Wassermangle Production because, while I figured we would try to follow JackW's example, there was no way we would be able to write straight ahead, to the point copy the way he did (and this post is probably a case in point).

Unfortunately, this started to cause problems almost immediately. First off, the JackW handle was mistaken for the other long gone Jack from around these parts that everybody does remember, mostly because he made the transition to television.

That would be Jack Webster, the back of whose ghost I never wanted to be so presumptuous as to suggest we were riding.

The other problem is that in the rest of Left Blogistan, and especially south of the 49th parallel where I've spent a good chunk of time, I'm known as RossK.

The latter name is not nearly as interesting as the wassermangle angle because it is just a re-worked chunk of my real name.

Anyway, to avoid further confusion, and to nip the weird split personality disorder that was starting to develop (a strange CanadianPoliteness vs. AmericanOutspokenBelligerence syndrome) in the bud, I've decided to put JackW to rest and just go with the boring old RossK universally in the future.

(but we will attempt to keep Jack's memory alive by introducing a 'Wassermangle's World' feature in the near future)