Smells Like Yukon Flog

Now, now, don’t get all huffy and righteous–no one around here is resorting to schoolyard name calling. It’s just our way of saying that the radio series Smells Like Yukon is being heard, and heeded, in the most hallowed corridors of local politics.

This afternoon, Whitehorse mayor Bev Buckway was on CBC Radio talking about the City of Whitehorse’s new “GamesWhere” initiative. The goal of this program is to get volunteers from the 2007 Canada Winter Games to send in photos of themselves wearing their orange CWG jackets. One of the reasons, she told Nancy Thompson, was a clip she once heard on CBC about how all those jackets were now gathering dust in the basement–and how she thought “That’s not right!”

Well, if Mayor Buckway had done the courageous thing and acknowledged the low journalistic standards of Smells Like Yukon by name, on the air, we may have left well enough alone. But she didn’t.

It’s true that Mayor Buckway was referring to Smells Like Yukon’s “Games Gypsies” segment which first aired last April and has been re-run at least once since then. How do we know this? Mark received a phone call, at home, from Mayor Buckway on October 16. In this phone call, she reminded him of a certain comment that was made in the intro to the “Games Gypsies” piece, described the GamesWhere program, and made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she intended to prove him wrong.

After politely explaining that it was actually his co-producer Jesse Devost who wrote the offending line, Mark wished her well. But Mayor Buckway had one more trick up her sleeve; she promised to send some information about the program once it was released, presumably in the hopes that Smells Like Yukon would use its massive public presence to promote it. And, good to her word, the news release arrived in the Smells Like Yukon e-mail box yesterday. The complete text has been reprinted below for your information:

GAMES WEAR WHERE?

There were thousands of Canada Winter Games volunteers in orange jackets wandering around town in March. Who’s wearing those jackets now and where have they all gone?

If you have pictures of people in Canada Winter Games orange volunteer jackets or vests that you’d like to share, please email them to gameswhere@whitehorse.ca. Pictures must be in jpg format, and will be pre-screened for suitability before posting.

Please tell us who is in the picture and where it was taken. First names and locations only please – no further details.

Be advised that sending us your pictures means that you are giving us permission to post them on our website.

If you wish to have a photo credit added, please ensure that the photographer’s name is included.

So there you have it.

We can’t tell you the kind of excitement this announcement has generated around our office. As this post goes to print, Mark is desperately trying to source an orange jacket, booting up Photoshop and scouring the Internet for interesting locations.

Stay tuned.

Well, according to the “expert” sources featured in today’s Smells Like Yukon segment “Hip Check”, the City of Whitehorse is actually hip. Go figure.

Now that it’s official, we Whitehorsians run the obvious risk of complacency. But we must not sit back and rest on our laurels. We must not stop innovating in the whole hipness realm. We must not hole up in Titan Gaming & Collectibles and let the golden ring slip from our grasp. If we do, the next thing you know, Yellowknife will be breathing down our necks. Heaven forbid.

So, as a public service, Smells Like Yukon has struggled to come up with, like, 24 brilliant suggestions about how the City of Whitehorse could make itself even hipper—and one more suggestion that involves Larry Bagnell, because Larry hates to be left out.

Your mission—if you’re willing to accept it—is to help narrow the options down. The sad reality is, we can’t implement them all; the City has limited resources these days, in case you haven’t heard. Voting once, or often, is the least you can do as a proud Whitehorse citizen. And if you can think of a better suggestion, send it in and we’ll see what we can doing about putting it on the list.

Take the poll

The next segment of Smells Like Yukon–the second of the second season and the 10th to date, assuming you don’t count “The Pilot”–will air tomorrow morning, October 3, sometime in the half-hour before the 7:30 a.m. local news on CBC Yukon. If necessary, you can listen online by clicking the link on the Smells Like Yukon homepage.In this segment, Smells Like Yukon correspondents Mark Koepke and Jesse Devost enlist some expert advice to help investigate whether the City of Whitehorse is as “hip” as some people are starting to believe. Mark and Jesse didn’t think so, but they’re wrong about stuff more often than they’re right, so you’ll have to tune in to find out if their streak is in tact. Of course, if the decor of your favourite bar features, say, gravel and a butchered moose, there’s a pretty good chance you won’t give a damn whether Whitehorse is hip or not.

As usual, the Smells Like Yukon website offers plenty of ways to waste some quality time while you’re waiting breathlessly for the next segment to air. Once again, that’s tomorrow morning. Check out the latest news, coming events or sign up for the exclusive SLY Members Club so you can listen to previous segments you might have missed.