“And Then I Said …”
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And then I said “And then I said …” The Best of Your Working Girl Memoir and Essays on Politics, Charity, Media and Sports Gail Picco And then I said … THE BEST OF YOUR WORKING GIRL Gail Picco And Then I Said: The Best Of Your Working Girl Copyright © 2016 by Your Working Girl All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author. ISBN: 978-0-9953310-0-6 Printed in Canada by Your Working Girl. ii Dedication To Your Working Girl’s Gentle Readers, of course! iii Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Memoir ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1: To have (been) loved and lost .......................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Farley Mowat and his Love Affair with the “Noble Savage” ................................................................ 7 Chapter 3: 20,000 songs in her pocket .............................................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 4: Happy Canada Day. Condolences on Memorial Day. ............................................................................ 13 Chapter 5: They Are Trying To Kill My Boy ..................................................................................................................... 16 Politics ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 1: Ten Things Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Have In Common ................................................. 21 Chapter 2: He Shall Not Be Moved ....................................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 3: Mean Girls – How Opposition Politicians Love to Attack Sophie Gregoire Trudeau .............. 27 Chapter 4: The Man Beneath the Veil ................................................................................................................................ 29 Chapter 5: These days, it’s tough to keep it light .......................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 6: It’s only rock and roll .......................................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 7: “If 1,000 monkeys typed for 100 years, one would pen Othello.” .................................................. 36 Charity ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 39 Chapter 1: The Goodwill Scandal—What the Hell Happened and What it all Means ................................... 40 Chapter 2: Ten Reasons Why the 15% Charity Overhead Myth Prevents Any Social Change .................. 43 Chapter 3: Listen up, fundraisers! ....................................................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 4: The Most Bone-headed Campaign Stunt Award of 2014 goes to … ............................................... 47 Chapter 5: Unconventional philanthropist dies at 87 ................................................................................................. 50 Chapter 6: Pathways to …… where are we headed exactly? .................................................................................... 52 Chapter 7: Do you believe it? ................................................................................................................................................. 56 Chapter 8: You don’t have to dig too deep ....................................................................................................................... 59 Media ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 1: Who in the world is Jesse Brown? ................................................................................................................ 65 Chapter 2: Why the attacks on Jian Ghomeshi are of no help to abused women ............................................ 68 Chapter 3: Look who’s talking ............................................................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 4: I choose Gawker ................................................................................................................................................... 74 Sports .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 1: Good morning Blue Jays’ Fans! Advice to Young Wives From an Old Mistress ........................ 78 Chapter 2: Chief Wahoo Takes Over the Toronto Blue Jays ..................................................................................... 80 Chapter 3: The Game of October 14th ............................................................................................................................... 82 Chapter 4: What it feels like when your home team is winning ............................................................................. 83 Chapter 5: What happens to your mind when baseball season is over? ............................................................ 85 Chapter 6: 108 Stitches ............................................................................................................................................................ 87 Chapter 7: No experience necessary: Your Working Girl’s Guide to What Happened during the 2014 F1 Racing Season ..................................................................................................................................................... 89 Chapter 8: Welcome to your 2015 F1 Season: Your armchair guide to the good stuff ................................ 95 About Your Working Girl ...................................................................................................................................................... 101 iv Introduction Your Working Girl is an identity inspired by Darryl, the alter ego of Ignatius J. Reilly, the corpulent and gassy protagonist of John Kennedy Toole’s masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces, and the diary, Journal of A Working Boy, he kept during in the novel when he actually had a real job. Mr. Reilly is the ground zero slacktivist. What better role model could I find for being a blogger? “When I am whole once again,” Ignatius J. Reilly writes in Journal of A Working Boy, “I shall visit those factory people; I have deep and abiding convictions concerning social action. I am certain that I can perhaps do something to aid these factory folk. I cannot abide those who would act cowardly in the face of a social justice. I believe in bold and shattering commitment to the problems of our times … Until later, Darryl, Your Working Boy Your Working Girl issued her first post in 2010 and expanded the site in 2013. Fun fact—if you googled “your working girl” when the blog started in 2010, you’d get that Melanie Griffith film, Working Girl. Now, well, modesty prevents me from saying it too loudly, but now, if you google “your working girl,” you don’t get the Melanie Griffith film. That must mean something. Exactly what, I can’t say. Some posts went viral, especially when I wrote about Jian Ghomeshi. But mostly, the blog settled in with a nice regular appreciative audience—people who work in the nonprofit sector, media or like baseball. I also began to write about Newfoundland, my home. The conversations with readers were excellent. “You – like the rest of us – have no basis for a position on this story.” “Careful what you say about Jesse Brown. He might block you.” “Best thing I’ve read on this subject. Huge admiration.” “Your entire piece is so filled with logical fallacies I could barely make it to the end.” The blogs chosen for this e-book were written between 2013 and 2016. Most of them are written in third person, the voice of Your Working Girl. It was a technique I adhered to exclusively when I first started blogging but eventually, when the subject matter required it or if I was writing something I anticipated would have a reach beyond my usual audience, I’d use first person. I love the archness of using third person, of being able to take the highest of dudgeon and of separating the writing from my own ego, of not have to use the pronoun “I” so much, something drilled into me from a spare, but effective Newfoundland primary education at Brinton Memorial in St. John’s. I’ve included what I think are Your Working Girl’s best pieces, and divided them into Memoir, Politics, Charity, Media and Sports. Joan Didion sums up the reason for the blog nicely. “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see