The hard-nosed irascibility of a Gordon Sinclair, the hard-hitting investigative questions of a Barbara Frum are nowhere in evidence. The stuff of McLean's reports is not disaster, political corruption or urban crime. Instead, his eye is turned toward the extraordinariness of everyday life. Despite good intentions to focus on the major world events of mainstream journalism, Mclean is the first to admit that he is all too easily distracted by the unusual, "by those bits in [the] newspa­per about the parrot who has been taught to whistle a Chopin sonata by the out-of-work conductor." Herein lies the charm of Stuart McLean's journalism.