Drudging up interest in news, eh?
Imagine a parallel universe where Canadians Norman Jewison and Ivan Reitman are considered the greatest Hollywood directors who ever lived. Where you can read an article about
Nealenews, the creation of a 38-year-old Ontario-based technical writer named Brian Neale, is to the Drudge Report as Canada is to the United States. That means his site strongly resembles Matt Drudge's, Neale having copied the news-aggregating format, the look and feel, and even Drudge's rightward political tilt. It also means there are a lot fewer people at nealenews: After two years in the digi-sphere, Neale gets about 7,000 visits a day, while Drudge claims between 7 million and 9 million, depending on the intensity of the news flow.
Neale says he has e-mailed Drudge several times, lobbying to have his site linked off of drudgereport.com. ''I'm trying to get him to recognize me," Neale admits, even if the recognition generates a hostile response. ''It's like, 'Please sue me, I'm over here,' " Neale says. ''I've even got the headline ready: Drudge sues nealenews; Neale says, 'See you in court.' "
Nealenews has become a go-to source for information on Canada's current political crisis, which, frankly, is too complicated to explain. One thing seems certain: Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin -- he's a ''Grit," by the way -- may or may not survive a Parliamentary vote of no confidence scheduled for later this month.
But if the arcana of Canadian politics elude you, there is plenty of other news on the Neale site. Who knew that Radio Shack will be forced to change its name in Canada to ''The Source by Circuit City"? Or that the US ambassador-designate to Canada, Paul Cellucci's successor David Wilkins, isn't sure if he's ever visited Snow Mexico. The South Carolina-based Republican fund-raiser says he has visited Niagara Falls, part of which indeed lies in Canada. ''It's been so long, I'd have to look at the map," Wilkins told the Canadian Press news service.
Wait, there's more! Rosie O'Donnell will headline a ''family-friendly" gay-themed cruise visiting Halifax, Nova Scotia, on July 12. (Speaking of headlines -- ''Gay Cruise Has Rosie Scenario" -- nice job, Halifax Chronicle-Herald!) Donald Trump has chosen water from a Manitoba aquifer for Trump Ice, his sure-to-be-fabulously-successful new bottled spring water. Neale occasionally links to Pat Sajak's online column -- yes, that Pat Sajak -- and regales us with north of the border oddities like: ''G-string Weirdo Nabbed by Cops in Winnipeg
Who says there's nothing happening in Canada?
Poetry corner On the same day The New York Times announced the demise of the subversive poetry ''watchdog" website foetry.com, the site came back to life after a brief hiatus. The self-appointed debunker of ''foets," research librarian Alan Cordle, no longer operates the site anonymously, and has been on the receiving end of some legal threats in return for his muckraking efforts.
The current issue of The Horn Book, the venerable Boston bimonthly magazine devoted to children's literature, has an interesting article on Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath's efforts to establish themselves as children's poets. Plath, who was somewhat more cold-eyed (read: practical) than Hughes when it came to earning a living, saw children's poetry mainly as a way to make extra money when the young couple was short on cash. Hughes had a grander view of writing for children. He wanted to invent a ''lingua franca . . . a style of communication for which children are the specific audience, but which adults can overhear and listen, in a way secretly as children."
Hughes stuck with the genre, and eventually produced several well-regarded children's works, including ''The Iron Giant," made into a 1999 movie directed by Brad Bird, who later made ''The Incredibles." Horn Book editor Roger Sutton tells me he has posted the article on hbook.com, or you could always just buy the magazine.
Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.
