Saturday, December 20, 2003

Accurate to Within Two Provinces

Anyone who managed to puzzle their way through the first three confused paragraphs of Noah Richler's year in review of CanLit in the Saturday, December 20th Post eventually found their way to this:

The Saskatoon short story writer Lee Henderson proved the year's best literary critic, and we are far enough away from disputatious times, now that Porcupine's Quill editor and novelist John Metcalf, who published his memoir, An Aesthetic Underground, was this year safely absorbed as CanLit's Crank Emeritus, sadly obnoxious to no one anymore

Lee Henderson lives in Vancouver, unless he very, very, very recently relocated. If he did indeed move, then my apologies to Mr. Noah. What exactly Henderson did to earn this distinction is unclear, and gosh, it would have been nice of Noah to explain the criteria.

By the way, Noah has a tendency to get confused. His column last year about Trampline Hall said the next lecture would be held at the Crocodile Club or the Alligator Club (I forget which) instead of the Cadillac Lounge. I seem to remember reading that Noah has a stipulation in his contract that he can't be edited. Rare is the writer who deserves such a thing. Getting things totally wrong completely undermines his credibility, so I for one encourage him to continue to be hoisted by his own petard.