Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 16/00) - Hey, did you hear that she and the boss are spending lunch hour together every day -- but they don't have any time to eat?

That kind of talk is so bad, but poking our noses in other people's business is sometimes too tempting to resist.

Gossip is a much-maligned Northern tradition. Way back in the days when people would travel for weeks out on the land, the first thing they wanted after a hot cup of tea and a smoke when they got back to the community or trading post was the news.

So, is there a lot of gossip happening in Inuvik these days?

"The rumour is, absolutely," says Rob Cook.

"I run into people who say, 'It won't last long before this gets out.'"

Gossip is news about people. In fact, newspapers were first invented to keep rich English people summering at their country estates up to date on who was doing what to whom in London.

A lady in Wrigley said she has been the subject of gossip but figures stopping gossip is about as easy as stopping a river with a net.

"I figure there's no sense in telling them to stop, because they're just going to keep doing it anyway behind your back," said the woman, who did not want her name used.

"People should mind their own business. The only reason people gossip is because they don't have a life."

Irene Mantla said people in Rae Lakes gossip "all the time," but not her.

"I don't have anything good to gossip about. If it was something good I would, but if it was something bad I don't want to spread it."

Mantla, like the lady in Wrigley, said she has been the subject of gossip before and didn't like it all.

"I felt really bad," Mantla said. She talked to the person about it, and the gossip stopped.

People in Rae Lakes gossip about who's winning at cards and who isn't, what people do when they go out of town and what happened at parties.

Despite hearing the rumour about gossip in Inuvik, Cook shies clear of it.

"I really don't," he said. "I shy away from it. Unless I get it from the source, I really don't trust it, don't seek it, don't spread it. I always assume it's going to come back and bite me on the ass."