Prince Edward Island is a very compact place, both physically and socially. As a result, the diversity of experiences one can have on any given day is unusually vast. Today was no exception.
Our friend Catherine Hennessey is to receive the Order of Canada on May 31. Orders from Rideau Hall are for ladies to wear a long dress. Catherine, while certain fashionable in spirit, doesn’t have many long dresses in her oeuvre. And so new clothes must be sourced.
Tonight on my way to work I happened to drop in at Catherine’s resuscitated mansion on Syndey Street, where I accidentally joined the ebullient Dolly Hennessey [no relation] in an evaluation of Catherine’s current long gown options.
Candidate one was a lime green three part affair. Formal, vaguely uncomfortable looking (but perhaps in a manner appropriate for the occasion?), it consisted of a long skirt, short-sleeved stop, and senatorial jacket. Certainly the most formal possibility. And the greatest distance from “every day”.
Dress number two was out of the running from first viewing. A Martha Stewartesque casual affair seemingly constructed from T-shirt fabric. My only thought was “good for Miami Beach, bad for Rideau Hall.”
Number three, nearest perhaps to Catherine’s own tastes, said Dolly, was a lightly exotic leopard-print (not really leopard, I suppose — more like “autumn leaves”) one-piece dress with some sort of neck-surrounding sash. A nice dress, but again, not appropriate for the occasion.
So there we were: forced to choose between Elizabeth Dole, Martha Stewart, and, well, everyday Catherine Hennessey.
And at that moment of supreme indecision, Catherine emerged wearing a wonderful top, just the perfect balance of formal and personal. It’s a duotone brown-shaded striped top, with alternating matte and sheen stripes. It needs a long skirt (black crepe, thought Dolly). But this can easily be found, it was decided.
And so there we go. Watch Newsworld on May 31 to see the final decision.

Kudos to Island Tel for placing a complete set of Tariffs online. One of the things you can learn there is that if you lose a Princess telephone, it will cost you a $36 “set loss charge”. Great reading.

The Aliant division of Bell Canada released its 2000 Annual Report last week. One of the more curious images in the report can be found on page 46 (and is highlighted to the right) — a lithe male dancer performing some sort of rhythmic move with a dollar sign. Given that the page summarizes the Consolidated Balance Sheets for the company, one has once to conclude that Aliant is dancing with money.

One of the more interesting facts that comes out in the report is that (to quote from page 27): “Effective April 27, 2000, Bell Canada and BCE Inc. (BCE) together increased their investment in Aliant from 42% to 53%.”

This week on Off the Beaten Track on CBC Main Street we talked about KPIG. You can listen to the feature [RealAudio required].

It used to be able that if you dialed 611 on an Island Tel-connected local telephone, you would hear a voice telling you the telephone number for that telephone. This has changed: dialing this number now gets you customer service for Island Tel Mobility. To find the number for your telephone line, you now need to dial 999-3333.

Disclaimer: if this behaviour changes in the future and your phone catches on fire, or gives you an electric shock, or otherwise causes adversity, we cannot be held responsible. Sorry

The magazine Toronto Life used to have a restaurant review feature which consisted entirely of a graphic of a restaurant receipt, with margin notes added. In this spirit, here’s a review of our dinner at Myron’s this evening:

One myth that Michael Reynolds’ comments to me earlier today make obvious: that the folks at Marshall Media spent their time lolling around drinking bourbon and eating Belgian chocolates, drunk with power and money, whilst we lowly un-funded Island firms worked hard to make a living.
Reading between the lines of Michael’s note to me earlier today, it’s obvious that, funded or not, it was a pretty tough and hard go on the ship Marshall Media during their short life here on the Island. Having rubbed up against Island Tel myself a couple of times, in various guises, I can only imagine what it’s like to actually be in the same bed! Condolences (really).

Former Director of Marketing and co-founder Marshall Media Group.

Someone named Michael Reynolds from DDA Computer Consultants sent me unsolicited email this morning. I’m not sure who he is, but he did invite me to post the following comments here, so I will, with my comments below:

Ugliest site in the world or sour grapes? Because it’s you, I’m guessing the latter.
That is what the client asked for when it was designed …..Are you slamming the good people at Vesey’s?? I hope not. That site was a beast and we were it’s trainers - we used technology that isn’t supported anymore, we had changes upon changes asked of us that would have made moving the Great Wall of China two feet to the west seem easy and if you had won that contract you would really have understood what a money pit it became for US, not the client, MMG - also, how many e-commerce sites that early in the game paid for themselves in months???? I’ll tell you, a well-designed, functional site that allowed the toughest demeographic in the world(old people) to navigate it and purchase thousands of dollars of product within the first few days of it being ‘live’. I consider that quite a feat, wouldn’t you?
Oh, and the Cyborgs you mention from Island Tel support work 7 days a week - I know most of them and I’ve pointed out your kind words to them so if you see an Island Tel van coming down Queen Street today..well, keep to the sildwalk.
Those union boys can be nasty, right Jimmy?
Also, I have had two full days of downtime with Eastlink here in the last few weeks so I wouldn’t be so quick to ‘dis’ Island Tel and the people who work there. You should try to deal with MTT, at least in PEI there are a couple of places to find everyone you need - here they have people scattered throughout at least 8 locations in Halifax/Dartmouth alone.
Why don’t you put this on your site, quit your belly-aching and get to work! Hey, I have an idea…Have you and Jack McAndrew ever thought of joining forces? You could be called the “Irrational Rag Squad”. Yes, The IRS, I think that would be painfully correct.

After my series of frustrated rants about my week with Island Tel, I’m sad to report that the prevailing reaction from readers of this site has been “you think that’s bad — try this on for size!” What to do, what to do?