No New Yorker

I sent the following email this evening to David Carey, Publisher of The New Yorker magazine:

Dear Mr. Carey,

I have been purchasing The New Yorker every week for 10 years at Tweels Gift Shop in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

I go there every Monday. In recent years I take my young son Oliver with me. I am a loyal and devoted reader. I enjoy the magazine immensely. It is part of what makes living in this tiny Island province viable — you are my connection to the world at large.

However I would like to point out a small problem in you newsstand distribution mechanism.

For some reason, for weeks where Monday is a holiday in Canada, but not in the U.S. — days like Victoria Day in May, Dominion Day in July, and so on — your magazine never arrives at Tweels Gift Shop. I ask at the counter and they tell me some variation of “we were shorted this week.” I don’t really understand what this means. But it is a reliable and consistent problem, and has been for some time.

I have no idea how the The New Yorker gets from New York City to Charlottetown, PEI. But on those weeks — like this one, where November 11 was a holiday here but not there — when The New Yorker is not available, my entire week is affected.

It’s like a small part of the air I breath is not available to me.

I realize that in the grander scheme of things this problem pales in comparison to others I imagine you have on your desk. But I would very much appreciate it if you could be of some assistance in helping to track down and solve it.

Regards,
Peter Rukavina
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

I’ll let you know what I hear back.

Comments

Charlie's picture
Charlie on November 15, 2001 - 16:20 Permalink

Wasn’t Monday a holiday in the States? Veteran’s Day? I seem to remember CNN saying that there are two schools very close to where the plane crashed this week in New York, but they were empty because of the holiday?

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on November 15, 2001 - 18:12 Permalink

Ironically, Monday is a holiday for schools in the US, but not for anybody else while here in Canada it’s a holiday for Governments, banks, etc. but not for school children.

Johnny Rukavina's picture
Johnny Rukavina on November 15, 2001 - 19:05 Permalink

Actually, I believe the kids are out of school on Remembrance Day out here in BC.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on November 15, 2001 - 19:06 Permalink

Yes, but BC really isn’t Canada, per se.

Dan James's picture
Dan James on November 15, 2001 - 20:17 Permalink

Schools were closed here on the Friday previous to Remembrance Day because the bus drivers had the day off (i would assume for Remembrance Day).

Alan McLeod's picture
Alan McLeod on November 15, 2001 - 20:32 Permalink

And PEI is Canada?!?

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on November 15, 2001 - 20:33 Permalink

Yes, PEI is Canada.

Alan McLeod's picture
Alan McLeod on November 15, 2001 - 21:32 Permalink

Thank you for clearing that up…now that must mean there is canned pop, guinness, free market economics, viable opposition political structures, critical news media. Where might I find them?

Sandy Nicholson's picture
Sandy Nicholson on November 16, 2001 - 02:31 Permalink

Schools were closed on PEI on Nov. 9 because of a Professional Development day for the teachers.

Alan McLeod's picture
Alan McLeod on November 16, 2001 - 05:04 Permalink

This thread is now a bit saddening — not because of what has been written but maybe something is being forgotten. When I was a kid in the early 70’s, old guys in Dad’s church and my great uncles were all WWI vets. Rememberance Day was a holiday in Nova Scotia. We had school projects the week before learning what happened in the wars — we knew as kids what a veteran was and why it was worth knowing. It seems a shame that it isn’t a statutory holiday in PEI and Ontario. Maybe it isn’t one anywhere any more. Now a Jane Kansas, Halifax Daily News and CBC columnist, writes she would not wear a poppy because of the War in Afganistan. Now a twit like Leo Broderick can be on CBC PEI this morning and go on and on [with just wrong stats] about death of civilians and how using war is really all off track — despite TV reports of the joy of those Afgans who have been liberated from the Taliban. [I am satisfied that independent journalists like John Simpson of the BBC and Patrick Brown of the CBC have shown that there was real foreign control of the Taliban which proves there is little real distinction between the deaths in New York and the oppression in Kabul.] Maybe the failure to honour the times we as a society took a stand leaves us now less sure why taking a stand is sometimes required. It also makes us forget when stands were not taken  — failings for which we should be ashamed: the camps of Bosnia, the diamond trade in Sierra Leone or the soccer stadiums of Rwanda. The Taliban and the extremist rule underwhich people have been living there seem no different than other zealots like the Kymer Rouge, like the apartheidists, like the Soviets and like the Nazis. So… I think we should remember that if we can’t get a magazine or even a canned guinness on the 11th, we are really forgetting that we have freedoms that illiterate ideological teenage bastards with guns have not taken away. We should remember that we have the capacity to do the right thing now as a society and also that in the past folk — now old or long dead — did that same right thing, too. I think it is a shame we don’t have a real national holiday to focus this remembering for us. In Paris in the subways there is a notice above most seats — “stand up for a vet.” Dutch kids learn more about Canada doing the right thing than we do. We ought to at least have a real Rememberance Day.

Kevin O's picture
Kevin O on November 16, 2001 - 22:49 Permalink

This is the weirdest thread I’ve ever read. First, Peter says that the New Yorker doesn’t get delivered when US & Canadian holidays don’t match. Then, Alan says that shouldn’t matter cuz there are veterans (et. al.) who should be remembered and idiots with guns that would take what they fought for away from us in a heartbeat which to me only barely tests positive for congruity.


Then Sandy (he? she?) says that schools were closed on the 9th for a professional development day; completely incongruous with either the original post or it’s first response.


Then Alan responds with a reasonable shot directed at the center of Sandy’s comments.


Then Peter says, “Yes, PEI is Canada”. I just can’t grind a reference out of that (though Pete’s rarely off beat too far

Kevin O's picture
Kevin O on November 16, 2001 - 22:51 Permalink

Holy shit! I read the thread upside down cuz that’s the way Pete set up my blog and that’s why the confusion. Try it, read it the wrong way and it’ll make no sense…. reading it upside right makes better parsing!


I do need some rest…

Alan McLeod's picture
Alan McLeod on November 17, 2001 - 03:21 Permalink

You are a beautiful man! I knew I went on a tangent but…its only bytes.

Sandy Nicholson's picture
Sandy Nicholson on November 18, 2001 - 03:59 Permalink

Well, I hesitate to make this go on any longer, but I feel that this has to be said. While I agree that Remembrance Day should be celebrated — Sunday, Nov. 11 was Remembrance Day — not Monday. When Rembrance Day falls on a school day, the kids have no school — when it falls on a weekend, Monday is business as usual.

Priti's picture
Priti on January 2, 2004 - 01:36 Permalink

Remembrace day should not be celebrated- People died and we have remembrace day to remember them..not celebrate(I disagree with Sandy Nicholson)..we can remember people in school or at work.( without holiday)

Wayne's picture
Wayne on January 2, 2004 - 02:25 Permalink

You cannot properly remember the supreme sacrifice our country made while at school or at work, unless you live in France.

Joy's picture
Joy on November 6, 2004 - 05:18 Permalink

I am a mother of four children and next week we will be studying all about remebrance day and what it means to us as Canadians. I will observe a moment of silence with my children on Nov. 11 and will help them see how fortunate they are to be free because of the brave men and women that fought for our freedom.