Boneyard of broken dreams IT WAS Sandy Ross who coined the term ‘‘boneyard of broken dreams”’ to _ describe the average Cana- dian newspaper office. He was the guy who did the actual writing, along with Borden Spears, of Keith Davey’s land- mark Senate subcommittee report on mass media in Canada back in 1970, . Sandy died on Nov. 27, ata seemingly youthful 58 years of age. . Hard to imagine such a laid- - back, wholesome, cheerful guy dying of a stroke, but that was it. _. Sandy will always be near and dear to my heart because he wrote a glowing review of my first novel when it was published back in the -mid—’60s, so you can see how biased I'am. Your first review is like your first sex. It seems I was reading his col- umn — one of his last — on the back page of Canadian Business just the other day. He was one of the few business columnists, I must admit, whose stuff was enjoyable to read. He made the arcane world of eco- nomics real, often funny, and nearly always ironic. In that sense, he was ahead of his time, one of the first ‘‘real writers’? | knew who saw the . blood sport aad surrealism (ic., _ great journalistic materia!) buried inside all those annual reports and statistics. |. .Fhere was always at least one _ ~ throwaway chuckle in his pieces. “Warmth’’ is a word you would ‘hardly associate with business ‘writing; but, believe itor not, that’s what you could always find in Sandy’s work. Born in Ontario, he grew up in ; New Westrainster, went to UBC, wrote for The Sun, the Financial ‘Post, The Star, edited Maclean’s, Toronto Life, Energy Magazine, ° authored books like The Risk, Takers, about entrepreneurs and “new technology, and The Traders, kets. A partner ina company that.’ owns two business magazines, he was also editor-in-chief of Cana- . dian Business. ” i remember him: showing up on’ my doorstep. one rainy night when { happened to. be living i in Bur- naby. . _ He'd read my book; loved it, , a look at the Canadian stock mar- ; STRICTLY PERSONAL and had taken the unusual step, for a reviewer, of coming over to talk to me before writing his ver- dict. How utterly original! Because [ had a room in the basement devoted entirely to writing, he concluded I was a “serious’’ (ie., zealous) writer. ‘Our relationship was cemented. One night,-a few years later, I went down to English Bay with Sandy and our mutual friend, journalist Nick Steed. By then I had moved to Kit- silano, and liked to go down to the water after sunset, climb into ~ my wet suit, and swim out into the inky darkness. It probably wasn’t that safe or smart a thing to do, but-the view of Vancouver from far out in - English Bay made it worth the - risk, I. thought. Leaving Sandy ‘and Nick o on the beach, I paddled into the blackness: I must have taken longer than I thought, because when I swam back to shore, a - small crowd had gathered, think- ing someone had drowned, and my friends were beginning to ” worry, Climbing out of the water in my wet suit,'I asked, in make-believe fractured Japanese: ‘‘Ah so, any- body here spreak Engrish?” Sandy was still laughing about’ that decades later. It was the kind _ of scene that he loved: a little crazy, a little off the beaten path, and good fun, . : There was a bohemian streak in ‘him that might have surprised many of his-readers. He had a :place on the Teronto Islands that - SERVICE & USED PARTS ~ (MECHANICAL & BODY PARTS) MARINE DRIVE was more the abode of a poet, | thought, than a student of eco- nomics. Like any great journalist, Sandy had an insatiable curiosity about everything, When { we back in my hairy phase, }hac little trouble fol- lowing his fsvination with cash flows and shareholders’ reports, but as the years wore on, even an old beatnik like me began to ap- preciate that writing about business could be as challenging and daunting as writing about ex- istential angst itself. The last time | saw Sandy we were sitting in a restaurant on Bloor Street West near Toronto’s High Park, and I regret to say it was probably 10 years ago. We kept meaning to get together again, but everybody has busy schedules, full family lives, a million commitments, and habits of living which get you into a rut much faster than you expect. And time, as older readers will know, goes by at an ever-ac- celerating pace. 1 don’t know how many moments there were when | thought, ‘‘Damn it, I should give Sandy a buzz, get together fora beer.” Suddenly, a decade i is gone, and you pick up the paper, and the old friend you meant to get together with, just for old times’ sake, is gone. - And you kick yourself. I never did find out — or, if 1 did, it was late at night and I was too smashed to remember — how « Sandy really felt about that poign- ant line he coined branding Ca- nadian journalism as a boneyard. - He was too geneérous-hearted a man to look down on anyone. But he was also highly sensitive, and i think when he was writing the’ Senate report on media, he was expressing a widespread frustra- tion peculiar to the time. It was the era of the Beatles singing “You say you want a revolution.”’ Today? I suspect most Cana- dian journalists are just happy to have a job. : Sandy Ross was one of the best, ; OZOOSMY m<—auYMN Mr O4 ZEOC3AZCOO & SON CUSTOM DRAPERIES AND VALANCES Labour $8.50 per Panel unlined, $9.50 lined. CUSTOM BEDSPREADS & COVERS Low, low prices on blinds & tracks. For FREE Estimates Cali 987-2966 Serving the North Shore for 23 years LPERIAL HEA SEEPS IT The Mevine Building ~ 355 Burrard Street, Vancouver - 688-8191 Diner's Contest Sponsored by: tritra Travel Co,'of .- Adventure & Visitors Only Handbook - PACIFIC COAST SPORTS ADVISORY SOCIETY Help Team Tomorrow Stay in School QON=—ADYSV