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The Guardian, Feb. 11, 1914
As part of the launch of the IslandNewspapers.ca project today, we arranged to have Transcontinental Printing in Borden – the branch of TC that prints The Guardian and the Journal-Pioneer– produce a...
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Dzintars Cers: A voice of strength, a voice of reason, a voice of the future
Dzintars Cers has two albums of delightful Latvian-infused progressive rock. This is amazing. That is all. (Go and buy them now: only $7 each).Dzena's Initiation by d-EXPLORATIONSDivas Pasaules (Two...
View Article"If I die tomorrow, I would be high-fiving someone and thanking them for...
I first got to know Karin as a customer of her food stall at the Charlottetown Farmer’s Market. From the time Oliver was a year old, every Saturday morning, after having our smoked salmon bagel, we...
View ArticleMy $879 gallbladder attack. Or how it took me 3 years to find out how much I...
Three years ago I set out to answer what I thought was a simple question: how much do I cost the health care system? I sent a Freedom of Information request to Health PEI, the public service body that...
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Jackhammered
I was out for most of the morning today – a quick coffee with a friend I hadn’t seen for a while turned into a 2-hour long coffee-and-lunch – and when I returned to the office I noticed that my email...
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My Eyes, v2014
As I’ve done before – 2008, 2012– I’m posting my new eyeglasses prescription here, because it’s the single most useful and lasting way of ensuring that when I need it I can find it again (something...
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How far apart are my eyes?
Speaking of eyeglasses: when I was in Boston last month, my friend Tom took me to see the Warby Parkershop on Newbury Street. They are a boutique maker of high-fashion, low-cost eyeglasses and have...
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How the line on the CBC became "Home and School Federation also says it's...
Here’s an interesting and somewhat cautionary tale of how things become “news” in Prince Edward Island.On Tuesday I attended the launch of Prince Edward Island’s updated school calendar at Spring Park...
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Father and Son Haircuts
There’s nothing like seeing your horrible hair on Compass to inspire an immediate trip to the barber. Oliver, too, had been too long since a trip to Ray’s. So, it being a day off school today, we went...
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21 Years Later: Personal Data Mining via Credit Card Statements
I am a compulsive archiver of personal records: I still have the paper copy of every phone bill, oil bill and credit card bill I’ve ever received. I should stick them all in a digital repository...
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Lennie Gallant: Musical Nexus
One of the great promises of the digital world is held out to be the power of discovery afforded by “if you like this, you’ll like this.” This is the bedrock upon which Netflix, Spotify and Amazon are...
View ArticleWe're Off to Get a Dog!
Catherine and I are off to Oakville, Ontario to be embedded in the Lions Foundation of Canada’s Dog Guides training school for 10 days (well, 10 for Catherine, 4 for me) of acclimatization and training...
View ArticlePEI2014: The Island Web at 20
In addition to the other hullabaloo, 2014 almost marks the 20th anniversary of the first Prince Edward Island website, one I was happy to midwife during my tenure at the PEI Crafts Council from 1993 to...
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Life Inside Dog Camp, Day One
As I type I am sitting in the spacious cafeteria of the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guidestraining centre in the heart of Oakville, Ontario. A blizzard rages outside and, although we’re not to be...
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Eurostar? Elbo? Endrefalva?
Today was our second day at dog camp (huh?).I slept a fitful night last night, partly from pre-dog-anxiety, partly because our misunderstanding of the in-room heating unit caused our room temperature...
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Ethan
Meet, Ethan, Oliver’s dog guide:He came into our life pretty much as we were told: we waited in our room in nervous anticipation, there was a knock, we opened the door, and there he was, a lanky,...
View ArticleJune Cleave and the Toothbrush Painting
My mother mentioned yesterday that June Cleave had died.June — Mrs. Cleave to me — was a grade one teacher at Balaclava Elementary School which I attended for grades 2 and 3. She was never my teacher,...
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Oliver and Ethan
As it happened, Oliver and I were still in Ontario when it was time for Ethan’s graduation from his 10 days of training, and so we hopped on th GO Train to Oakville last night to participate.While some...
View ArticleHow to Get to Toronto Pearson Airport by Public Transit
Toronto’s Pearson Airport is surprisingly easy to get to via public transit: Get on the Bloor-Danforth subway and ride west to the very end of the line, the Kipling station. This run takes about 25...
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