The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
A Rumour is a funny thing. Here you have a piece of information, be it true, half true or totally false, often passed off as unquestionably legitimate. Rumours can be very powerful. Just ask a worker whose job is rumoured to be on the cutting block or a hockey player uncomfortably facing speculation about a possible trade. Whether or not the rumour bears fruition, some damage has already been done. An example of just how destructive gossip can be is exemplified by a recent news item out of the United States. A single man moved into an upper end neighbourhood and was soon inexplicably shunned by his neighbours and even not-so-politely asked to leave his new home. It turned out that he was rumoured to be a sex offender fresh out of prison. In actuality, he had never been arrested for anything, major or minor. Just how the grapevine got word of his alleged past still remains a mystery to the man, who later moved to a more welcoming neighbourhood. Flin Flon, too, has seen the dark side of rumours, though probably not nearly to that extreme. For instance, how many times over the years has the Flin Flon School Board "decided" to close Parkdale School? How many students and parents have been stressed out for nothing? Of course I can't be totally critical of the grapevine. Newspapers, including this one, are known to turn to hearsay when searching for the latest hot story. Rumours that were later confirmed as fact have made their way to the front page of this paper many times in the past and will continue to do so. However, there are times when there is simply nothing to the latest piece of gossip. From fires that never burned to city council votes that never took place, sifting through rumour and reality requires a lot of legwork. When I do "unconfirm" a false rumour, I often wonder just how the tidbit made its way to my ears. Sometimes I envision an overly imaginative old man sitting in his basement, scratching his head to come up with the latest tantalizing piece of hearsay. Once he comes up with it, he immediately phones the members of his covert gossip squad, who are ordered to take the word to the streets. To be fair, some false rumours have honest enough roots. Perhaps when someone details a certain event, his friend unconsciously hears things just a bit differently than how they actually occurred. When that friend tells someone else, the cycle may repeat itself, and so on. It's like reproducing videotapes. The more copies you make, the fuzzier the original version becomes. At the end of the day, though, we all know that rumours, be they true, half true or totally false, will always be with us. People have a stark desire to know what is going on around them. At least that's what I've heard.
