Light the fuse

Not the great New Zealand novel

An early work in progress dedicated to democratic Climate Polycrisis-megamobilisation and the Mahurangi

Dare to be wise!
Kant

Chapter 6

Elevator-pitching staff car

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Contents
author Cimino
work-in-progress published 20240731

1988 poster
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Legendary Rodney Times chief reporter Jack Keys, was sound asleep in the directors chair he’d availed himself. In the lunchtime lull, it had been cool and peaceful in the old-school square tent pitched on the sand to shade the stalwarts who manically typed certificates for the eager fingers of endless line of winners and placegetters excelling in the morning’s beach events. Minutes earlier, Jack had asked:

Tell me, how did this new Mahurangi Regatta sponsorship come about?

It was 1990, and, unbidden, an insurance company had stumped up the undreamed-of amount $1000 for that regatta and for those for the foreseeable. Jack was a thorough, longtime chronicler for the newspaper that had published since 1901, originally under the name Rodney and Ōtamatea Times. Impervious to the proprietor’s attempts to encourage a more economic style, and to the entreaties of the newspaper’s editor, for reasons too esoteric to delve into here, was disinclined to die in a ditch—ever—but certainly not on a weekly basis, Jack filled page after page with unrelieved type.

Warming to his subject, Cimino had just begun explaining the relationship of the sponsorship to the resident park ranger’s wife, when soft snoring delivered its own message to the long-winded. Cimino, thus, is as acutely aware of the proclivity he shared with the testudinousgiven the author had search for this word—first-used 1692—defined as: tortoise-like… reporter, and of the irony, as he sets about addressing the need for an elevator pitch, early in his novel modello. The thing about elevator pitches, Cimino has long advocated, is that any meaningful journey of exploration should include traversing a landscape, not simply going up and down on the same spot. The pitch, then, can be super quick, such as:

Jump in!—I just want to show you something quickly.

Acutely aware of his proclivity…

‹ Chapter 5 | Chapter 7 ›

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Disclosure The author of this novel modello is the secretary of both Mahurangi Action Incorporated and the Mahurangi Coastal Path Trust. The content published here, however, is that of the editorially independent, independently funded Mahurangi Magazine.