complaining

Complaining is one life’s great pleasures. The best complainers (e.g. Mordecai Richler, Noel Gallagher) are artists of the form. Opinion writing is basically just professional complaining; what makes getting to write columns so enjoyable is that it is basically a license to regularly think up new  things to kvetch about. My old editor at This Magazine, the fantastic Julie Crysler (who coined the Rebel Sell meme, btw) used to get me to write by simply asking me what was bugging me. Everything, was the usual answer, but she was good at helping narrow it down.