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This is another one of mine. Quite an amazing story.

http://www.almaguinregion.com/almaguin/article/111415 (http://www.almaguinregion.com/almaguin/article/111415)

That's really neat.

Good story, but I'm surprised that, with your rapier wit, you've been assigned to the soft news beat.  Don't your employers recognize your obvious potential as a curmudgeonly gadfly?

Nah, we all cover these types of stories. And we all cover municipal government, divided geographically. Of the few beats that are defined by subject, I also do police, court, a lot of the technology stories and just about anything related to the new highway under construction. Of course, I don't consider stories like the wedding ring to be light news. To me, those are the important stories for a community paper, although that's probably a minority opinion in the business. People read them, cut them out and hang them on the fridge, and they're fun to do. I wish there was a light news beat here.

No offense itended... I thought it was a great story, and well written.  I meant to a compliment: I think you're a good enough writer to be a featured editorial columnist. 

For some reason, all I could think of is this guy reading this story...
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Smeagol_5.jpg)

 :bouncegiggle:

Yeah, the parallels did not go unnoticed. Believe me, it took some willpower to avoid making the reference. Some people wouldn't like their little girl compared to Gollum.

Now, if it was my daughter, there's no doubt her new nickname would be Smeagol. But that's just me.  :teddyr:

Well ain't that just cool ... guess there is hope yet for all the crap I've lost in the lake.

When I was in high school, a guy named David in the class ahead of mine went fishing over at Wind Point Park (site of the giant spiderweb I documented for the forum last year).  He had lost some weight after getting his ring and it was somewhat loose on his finger.  As he was casting off the fishing dock, the ring slipped from his hand and dropped into the lake.  The water was about five feet deep; he jumped in and bobbed and dove for it for awhile with no luck.  He griped about it for a year after that.

Here's where the story gets weird.  Last summer, on the 4th of July weekend, David took his family to Wind Point Park for a fishing and camping trip.  He set a "jug line" near the boat ramp, on the opposite side of the park . . . and on the second day he caught a big, 28-pound blue catfish.  That evening he was dressing the fish he'd caught, and when he got to the big one, he decided to slice open its stomach and see what it'd been eating.  As he was cutting its gullet open, his daughter called to him from their tent.  So as he was looking away, he felt rather than heard his fillet knife grate on something hard and unyielding.  He looked down and saw . . .

















that he had cut his thumb off.     :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle: :bouncegiggle:

Even the bouncegiggle emoticon does not describe my joy at reading that.

It's funny, I read this, then came back to your post, not realizing you were telling us that YOU had written the story itself.  I went back and saw "Andy Campbell" and realize, "Oh, wait, he WROTE this thing!"

Anyway, cool story, although I do kind of wish it had a bit more details... I mean, was the little girl just digging in the sand, or was she just walking around and saw something shiny, or what?  And when she found it was like, "Mommy, I found a ring!"

But, hey, that's just my opinion, it's a cool story!

It all comes down to how much time you have, how much space you can spare on the page, when your deadline is, who you can get on the phone and how many other stories you're working on at the same time. In this case, the uncle showed up at my office and we sat down right there. He had the photo on a CD. Boom. Done. I love it when that happens.

That story should be in the "Great News Stories" section, Andy. That is a real heartwarming story.  :smile:

I like Mr Higgins saying that he "was thinner back then". Weren't we all.  :smile: