You may remember Mark Meikle from her stint on Vicki Gabreau’s afternoon CBC radio show as “The Answer Lady.” She played a similar role, specific to the Internet, on Arthur Black’s Saturday morning show too, and it’s in this capacity that I came to know her.

While the exact circumstances are murky in my mind, I seem to recall that one Saturday morning she read a question from a listener in the Northwest Territories who couldn’t find a way of connecting to the Internet (this was the early 1990s, and Internet access was hard to come by everywhere). For some reason, I had information that I thought might help, so I emailed it off to Marg. To my surprise she wrote back, and I wrote back offering Internet help if she ever needed it. I received perhaps a dozen enquiries from Marg, or directly from her listeners over the next six months. It was lots of fun.

When it came time for us to move to Prince Edward Island, I sent Marg off a note telling her about the move, and she wrote me back telling me to be sure to look up her friend and CBC colleague Ann Thurlow. And so, of course, we moved to PEI and promptly forgot all about this.

Fast-forward six months and I’m sitting in my office at the PEI Crafts Council and there’s a woman from the CBC interviewing my colleague Charlotte about something to do with the crafts industry. When she signs off the piece, she says “Ann Thurlow, CBC News, Charlottetown.” So I turn around and say “Hey, you’re Ann Thurlow.”

And we’ve been friends ever since.

As it turns out we shared more in common than just Marg Meikle — we both went to Trent University (Ann more successfully than I), and as a result know a lot of people and places in common.

And so this is how I come to know of a website where one can see Marg Meikle in her pyjamas. I recommend you visit; it’s a great, simple site with a good purpose.

While you’re at it, if you happen to live in Vancouver and have a dog, I can also recommend Marg’s book Dog City: Vancouver : The Definitive Guide for Dog Owners in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. We gave it to my brother John, his fiancee Jodi, and their dog Ginger and I believe it’s stood them in good stead.

Somehow until today I had missed the existence of Sally Taylor. Worth listening to.

This afternoon I drove up Queen Street north to Kirkwood Drive, then turned right on Kirkwood and drive past the new police station to the Shoppers Drug Mart corner. At that point I had a revelation: Kirkwood Drive turns into Allen Street once you pass University Avenue. Somehow this makes a lot of directional traffic things fall into place in my mind.

This from the IKEA website:

Who owns the IKEA Concept?
IKEA retailing, with its Swedish roots, is based on a franchise system. Inter IKEA Systems B.V., located in Delft, The Netherlands, is the owner and franchisor of the IKEA Concept. IKEA stores are operated by a number of different franchisees in 29 countries.

There is a new type of knapsack here in Ontario. It has only one strap, and is worn diagonally across the back. It is all the rage. I’ve seen it sold in Indigo as a “yoga pack” but also in Old Navy as a knapsack. Those wishing to stay hip should be alert. Also note that among the young rebel types, “kangaroo sweatshirts” are back in style.

The Jodi Foster film Panic Room is a decent night out. You won’t learn anything new, but you will be entertained. Best seen on a big screen, I think.

1. What Aliant’s website says about the company’s approach:

We’re one of Canada’s top high-tech companies with subsidiaries around the world. We have 10,000 forward-thinking professionals, each focused on creating new and better ways for customers to communicate, work and live. By combining complete and leading-edge solutions with in-depth knowledge, strong customer relationships, extensive reach and a focus on innovation, Aliant is at the forefront of the communications revolution.

Brother Steve and friend Catherine have spilled the beans on me: today, April 5, 2002, I turn 36.

Thirty-six is one of those strange non-ages, far enough from 30 and 40 to be not closely associated with either. It is three times twelve, which places me 24 years past teenagehood. It’s also half way to 72, which, statistically, places me half way through life.

For as long as I can remember (and I realize that I will sound like an idiot here), I have liked the number 36. I remember in grade 4, learning the “times tables,” feeling a kinship with the number because it was 6x6, 3x12, and 4x9 and all at the same time. So that bodes well for the year ahead.

When my father was 36, it was 1973, and PEI was the “place to be in ‘73.” Not a bad sign either.

New and different things about Upper Canada in 2002:

• There is no more music on AM radio: the AM dial has been almost completely converted to talk-radio format. The most striking and unusual example of this is Mojo Radio, the station formerly known as 640 CHAM. It now bills itself “The World’s First and Only Talk Radio Station for Guys” and its hosts address serious global issues like “Man-bags and the Wussification of Society.” Advertisers tend towards strip clubs, hair-loss clinics and sporting events. In an apparent move to counter this, venerable 1010 CFRB is coujnter-programming “Wednesday Mensday.” Really.
• Shopping malls that used to contain 100 little stores now contain 25 big stores. Yorkdale, for example, used to be a rather dowdy old shopping centre. It’s now host to William Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Eddie Bauer and Indigo, all of which are huge. There appears to be no difference between the stores you find in a mall in Peabody, MA and the stores you find in Toronto, ON.
• On television, all the sportscasters are women. This is probably true on PEI too, as we get the same channels by and large — I just notice it here more because I’m around my sports-loving brothers. Brian Williams and ‘casters of his ilk are now the minority.
• There is still strong competition in the wireless telephone market: Fido, Telus, Bell and Rogers all have kiosks or chichi stores in all the malls, and the emphasis is on small and sexy phones and gimicky rate plans (i.e. “free calling after school”)