As part of the run-up to Pride Week, The Lucky Bean in Stratford hosted a “make your own tie dye t-shirt workshop” tonight, and Olivia and I signed up.

Tie dye, aesthetically or big-messily, has never been my jam; this totally would have been Catherine’s department. But the script supervisor decided to expand my role, and it turned out to be maximum fun.

Our shirts are in the wash for their final rinse as I write.

After a scaled back 2020, Island Fringe is back for 2021, celebrating its 10th anniversary (!) in fine form, running July 28 to August 1.

Given the situation, they’re departing from the traditional “buy a pin, get into everything” format and switching to all-ticketed shows this year, so now is the time to think ahead and get tickets.

I’m happy to return as a sponsor this year (my 8th): I think of the Fringe as “theatre for people who love theatre but don’t enjoy the theatre,” and it brings me great joy to support it.

I can think of no better way to spend the August not-actually-a-holiday-on-PEI weekend.

On the first episode of the new Fastmail podcast, behavioural scientist BJ Fogg talks about “tiny habits” (emphasis mine):

The Fogg Behavior model is the core of behavior design. A behavior happens when three things come together at the same moment. The motivation to do the behavior, the ability to do the behavior, and the prompt. If any one of those are missing, the habit won’t happen.

That’s helpful guidance.

My friend Cheryl has a podcast called Pigeonhole, and the latest episode, AAC Voices and Talking About Audio Description, is an interview with endever*. I learned a lot about a lot of things.

From NASA Science Mission Directorate Oral History Project, David D. Morrison interviewed by Sandra Johnson

Johnson: In ’96 you became the Director of Space at Ames.

Morrison: Director of Space was a wonderful title. I still have a few business cards with that on it. I joked that it was a terrible responsibility: if I didn’t do my job every day the planets would fall out of their orbits, the galaxies would explode. But then NASA Headquarters did a reorganization and created a division called the universe, and so they had Director of the Universe at Headquarters.

(via The Guardian)

Dr. Michael Gardam, the new CEO of the Island’s health system, spoke to the CBC about the challenges of overcoming our 18,000-person waiting list for a family doctor.

Impenetrable bureaucracy has beaten down more than one Island health system revolutionary over the years; Dr. Gardam appears refreshingly frank in his assessments of the problems and the possible solutions, and I hope he sticks with it.

His take on one reason the solutions are taking so long:

“If we want to buy new computers, we go through a different branch of government. If we want to find space, we go through a different branch of government. If we want to spend more than $100,000 of money that’s in our budget, we have to go to the Treasury Board. These are rules. These are things that were identified a long time ago.”

The Achilles heel of all re-engineers is a desire to keep re-engineering until they fix everything, down to the roots.

Several years ago I attended a seminar by a senior Ontario government bureaucrat, a high level rumination on the work of the public service. Rather than rail against “silos,” the usual target of almost anyone making a case for what’s wrong with government, he suggested that compartmentalization was and always will be a part of public administration, and that we need to get over that, move on, and become better at navigating the complexity.

Although I’ve fallen victim to the silos many times, I tend to agree with that assessment. As much as Dr. Gardham might wish that the bureaucratic waters would part to accommodate his revolutionary plans, that is not going to happen, and the sooner he accepts that and embraces the confounding thicket on its own terms, the sooner his plans will bear fruit.

I love it when tender calls sound like they could be sermon or self-help book titles.

Bon Iver interviewed by Amanda Petrusich. A talented band interviewed by a talented journalist.

Riverview Country Market was overflowing with new potatoes and fresh strawberries this morning. Is this not the best of seasons!