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Thursday, April 09, 2015

The Voice of Gravel

I wound up on TV again today, captured in one of those man-on-the-street interviews that sometimes capture unwary pedestrians innocently wandering about in search of lunch. When the CTV crew approached me I was sure they were going to ask about the election, a topic on which I could have expounded with a reasonable degree of eloquence.

But to my surprise, I was asked if I noticed the gravel in the streets.

"There's gravel in the streets?" I thought. Sylvia would have loved this, because she knows I'm the last person in the world to notice disorder of this sort. The reporter asked me what I thought about the condition of the roads, and somewhat nonplussed I answered "Well, there are a few potholes, I guess..."

Clearly I wasn't delivering the desired soundbite, so the reporter helpfully prodded me in the right direction with a couple of leading questions about street sweeping and dings in my windshield. I dutifully allowed that yes, the streets would look better once swept, and I did indeed have a crack in my windshield.

A couple of friends saw the story on the news, but I haven't seen it myself. I'd be interested to know what narrative they spun out of my responses. That's the magic of editing...

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