My Essex Country friends Laurie Brett and Art Rhyno came for a visit today, the first outlanders I’d laid eyes on months: they were en route from Ontario to Nova Scotia to see family, and, being lovers of Prince Edward Island, arranged their route to take them over here for a night.

As longtime readers will know, I’ve known Art since forever: we met in 1994 in St. John’s at the Access conference, and our paths have overlapped many times since.

Laurie is a former newspaper publisher, having run her family’s Essex Free Press for many years. And it was bearing a galley of type from the Free Press that Laurie arrived in Charlottetown, on a mission to see it given life in print via my Golding Jobber № 8.

The galley had been passed down through the family publishers of the paper, and was originally set on a Linotype machine; despite having seen such machines in operation many times, this was my first time getting to handle their real work product: so much less fiddling than dealing with hand-set type!

Here’s the result:

One of the fringe benefits of reanimating the story on paper is that it can now be OCRed, thus:

History of the Free Press

The first paper published in Essex Centre, was the Chronicle, first issue of four pages in May 1879, publisher, Robert Fair. In the fall of 1879 Mr. Fair sold out to John Milne, who continued to run it for several years, R. A. Hughes, S. E. Copus and John Curran, being at various times editors. On June 1th, 1880, the paper was changed to an eight page five column paper. Mr. Curran bought out Mr. Milne in July 1882 and continued as owner and editor until 1884 when he sold out to A. E. Lovelace. Meanwhile another paper “The Advance” was started in 1882, by John Stafford, and was carried on by him until 1885. At the beginning of 1885, George Laing and John Stafford bought the Chronicle from Mr. Lovelace and amalgamated the two papers, changing the name to “The Argus.” The paper was run under this name until December 1885 when it was purchased by a joint stock company, of which Dr. James Brien was chief stockholder. The name was then changed to the Liberal, the first manager being I. H. Brock, who was succeeded by J. G. Hands and finally the management passed, in August 1886, to J. M. Kennedy, from whom it was purchased in 1888, by J. E. Johnson, of Leamington, who sold it a year or so later to Henry and Frank Walters. The Walters ‘brothers, both of whom in later years, became well known lawyers in Detroit, carried on until 1892 and changed the name of the paper to the “Free Press”. They sold to Ed J. Lovelace, who, on June 1st, 1896, sold out to W. H. Auld and R. R. Brett. Mr. Auld passed away in January 1932 and Mr. Brett in October 1937, when the present proprietor took over. 

I’m so happy to have been able to do this. 

Eavesdrop on musicians deconstructing music on the new Professional Musicians React show.

From Lisa M. Shulman’s Before and After Loss:

The process of emotional healing and brain healing is enhanced by a balance of activities and experiences, some distracting and some challenging, some physical and some emotional, some social and some private.

Maybe this explains my move into sportiness.

As I was leaving Sporting Intentions after purchasing a new lifejacket in preparation for some cycle-canoeing, and heading toward Freetown for my horseback riding lesson, I was hit with a sudden realization: I’ve become sporty.

Not sporty in the “think the Jays will win the pennant?” way, and not sporty in the Pat Martel recreational soccer league way. But sporty nonetheless.

How did this happen?

When I switched to a Mac decades ago, BBEdit was my OG text editor.

In the years since I’ve been lured away by the siren call of TextMate and then of Sublime Text.

But now BBEdit 14 is out and its release notes start:

We encourage you to read the complete change notes for BBEdit 14.0. (We spent a lot of time writing those notes, so it would be great for someone to read them. Be that someone.)

I was that someone. And I walk away impressed enough to give BBEdit another look.

BBEdit’s maker, Barebones Software, is, by the way, just off Route 3 in North Chelsmford, MA. I drive right by every time I fly into Boston and drive up to [Yankee]. Someday maybe I’ll drop in.

Thanks to the good offices of the talented Jason Richard, my canoe is repaired: the seat in the bow is re-affixed and the bow deck is re-attached.

Next step: find the paddles and life jackets.

I’ve been doing my banking with Provincial Credit Union for 28 years. Which is funny to think about as I still consider myself a “new customer,” when clearly I am that no longer.

I was an enthusiastic early-adopter of the Credit Union’s “MemberDirect” online system, to the point where I only need to go into the physical branch two or three times a year. The system, which was built in-house by collaborating credit unions, is kind of weird, but I’ve grown used to its weirdness, to the point where it seems natural and like all online banking platforms should work.

The one exception to this has been use of reCAPTCHA as a gate on login. Which means that every single time I login, I have to go through the “Select all the images with X” where X is bicycles, or fire hydrants, or motorcycles, or crosswalks. Like this:

From a security point of view I understand this, especially given the lite password requirement that’s always been in place — just a 4 digit numeric PIN.

But from a human point of view it’s been a pain in the ass, especially as sometimes, for reasons unknown, I get prompted with multiple reCAPTCHA challenges, one after the other, even if I answer each one correctly.

But, rejoice, the end of this is near; I received this email this afternoon:

2-Step Verification is the new industry standard and will replace reCAPTCHA when you first login.  reCAPTCHA is the system enabling web hosts to distinguish between human and automated access to websites.  So instead of having to verify numerous images (select all squares with traffic lights) members will be prompted to input a one-time verification code, that you will receive via text message or email.  It’s an added layer of security for our members. 

I’ve yet to learn if this will support TFA apps in addition to SMS and email validation, which would be nice. But never having to identify traffic lights or motorcycles or Australian wolfhounds will be very, very nice.

From Wade MacLauchlan’s biography of Alex Campbell:

When it came time to choose a name for the new fixed link, Alex Campbell, by then a justice of the PEI Supreme Court, was asked to chair the panel. After considering hundreds of submissions, Campbell’s committee recommended the name Abegweit Crossing, referring to the original and affectionate Mi’kmaq name for the Island, meaning “cradled on the waves.” The federal government did not accept the recommendation, preferring the name Confederation Bridge. This was not the first time that Alex Campbell had his advice and sense of place overridden by perceived national interests.

My Apple AirTag arrived today by FedEx. Apparently the relaxed “you don’t actually need to sign for anything” COVID regime is over, so I got my first “your package will be at the depot after 4:30 p.m. for you to pick up” sticker on the door in 18 months.

With the FedEx depot located right on the Confederation Trail, it seemed like a reasonable thing to cycle out for the pickup. So that’s what I did:

I cycled out the Confederation Trail to MacAleer Drive, and then decided that, rather than cycling back the same way, I’d explore the terrain beyond, cycling up MacAleer to the Brackley Point Road, and down a harrowing stretch thereof to Oak, which I used to cut across to the St. Peters Road megasection, where I joined the new Riverside Drive AT path toward home. It being 26 degrees out, my challenge with this trip wasn’t so much the physical effort to pedal–it was mostly flat or a slight grade–but the heat. So I stopped at Riverview Country Market for a water bottle fill-up and a rest before the last dash home.

Total trip, home to FedEx and home, was 15.11 km. The ride from home to FedEx took 20 minutes; the ride from FedEx to Riverview Country Market took 25 minutes, and the ride from there to home was a quick 10 minutes. Despite the heat, it was a completely reasonable ride for an out-of-shape neo-cyclist like me, and I’d encourage anyone to give it a try next time you’re in the same situation.

Here’s the GeoJSON of my route, annotated with guidance at significant points.

Trailer.