They did their homework. That was the first thing I noticed. When we chatted in the Green Room, before entering the broadcast studio, I could tell that producer Katie Johnson had read the book. Same with host  Beverly Thomson, who, a few minutes later, interviewed me on air: she had a welter of yellow stickies poking out of her copy of 50 Canadians Who Changed the World.  And the questions she asked? She, too, had spent time with the book -- for a TV host, not always the case.

As I drove home from the CTV studio, my four minutes of fame at an end, I was saying to myself, well, now you know why Canada AM is the top-rated breakfast show in Canada: these folks are consummate professionals.

Then, when I got home and checked this link -- it arrived before I did -- I discovered the clincher.  When you’re being interviewed, you don’t see what TV viewers see. You see your immediate surroundings, period.  So I did not know that “my” brief segment included the iconic shot of Our Hero wading into the Atlantic Ocean, umbrella in hand, to symbolize the completion of the VIA-Rail, Cross-Canada, Ocean-to-Ocean, Book-Tour Extravaganza. That shot heads the post beneath this one. Somebody, probably Katie Johnson, had to notice and then pluck that off this blog. Now that is REALLY doing your homework. Hats off, eh?