The polling firm CRA released its latest survey of Prince Edward Island voters today, and both the CBC (P.E.I. Liberal support slumps again in CRA poll) and The Guardian (P.E.I. Liberals take 10 point dive in latest poll) ran stories highlighting the decrease in support for the governing Liberals and their Premier Wade MacLauchlan. In both cases, they use what might be charitably called “pained” photos of the Premier to illustrate the stories:

Earlier in the week I learned about an interesting Mozilla Learning project called Hack the News and the X-Ray Goggles bookmarklet that powers it, which allow one to learn about the web by remixing the web. I used this opportunity to explore how the photos that the media used to illustrate their stories have their own politics.

So I found a decidedly less-pained-looking photo of the Premier in the Huffington Post, and dropped it into the CBC and Guardian stories about the CRA poll to get a sense of whether a happier photo changed the way I interpreted the story:

I don’t know about you, but for me the change is palpable: the original stories become stressful to look at by comparison.

I’m not suggesting that the happy-Premier photo is a better choice to illustrate these stories–it’s as dishonest as the photos that were used.

In neither the CBC’s case nor The Guardian’s was the photo used an actual photo of the Premier actually reacting to the actual results of the poll: both are “file photos” and, as such, represent a variant of the same danger represented by using stock photography to illustrate stories that I’ve written about before.

Photography in news stories should be used to enhance the journalism, and, as such, it’s important that photos used bear some relationship to the subject matter of the story; in today’s stories the CBC used a photo taken two weeks ago and The Guardian used a file photo that’s been used as far back as 2015.

I’ve no doubt that the Premier isn’t cracking open Champagne about today’s poll results, but I don’t know that for a fact; that the photographs used in these stories suggest an emotion, where the reporting doesn’t, is wrong, and they should be removed.

Oliver and I have been having a running dialogue about the impending opening of Giant Tiger in Charlottetown, a dialogue in which I continue to maintain that the store will sell giant tigers and Oliver maintains that it will not.

This dialogue let to a discussion of a photo I took when Oliver was 6 years old in front of a Giant Tiger store in Napanee. I popped open my Flickr and searched for “giant tiger” and, blamo, there was the photo.

I think you’ll agree with me that a store with a sign like that surely must be in the big cat business.

It is a testament to how well I know Catherine that I knew exactly what Frozen Bed Stools on the shopping list meant.

(Oliver noticed that when you do a Google image search for the keyword, it shows you Frozen-branded bedroom accessories, which perhaps explains why Alexa allowed this in the first place).

Four years ago I wrote about how one of the buses in Charlottetown had been outfitted with a bicycle rack on the front:

The fleet of Charlottetown Transit is a patchwork quilt of ye olde trolley buses, castoffs from other transit companies (complete with signage in Spanish!) and, inexplicably, a thoroughly modern, comfortable bus kitted out with all the latest conveniences, including a “cowcatcher” bicycle holder on the front.

While this was a great development, it was hobbled by the fact that it was only one bus of many, and so couldn’t be relied upon as a component of a truly “inter-modal” personal transportation strategy (“bus out to the mall, bike back”).

Today, however, we’ve leveled-up: bike racks are now on all of the buses, a press release tells us:

T3 Transit, in coordination with the Town of Stratford, the City of Charlottetown, and the Town of Cornwall, is pleased to announce the installation of bike racks on 11 local buses within the three municipalities.

As an aid to adoption, T3 Transit has produced this helpful video guide, hosted by transit’s own Mike Cassidy.

Bravo!

I’ve become interested in annotated travel maps, inspired in part by Danny Gregory’s An Illustrated Journey, so I tried my hand at one.

Twenty-seven years ago Thursday was RadioMusic, a concert I organized for broadcast on Trent Radio, held at Artspace in Peterborough.

The concert featured, among other things, the musical stylings on Curtis Driedger; the on-air host was Ron Gaskin, and John Muir was the sound tech.

I emailed all three last night to wallow in the nostalgia of it all, and within an hour they each emailed back:

It’s such a wonderful thing that, all these years on, we’re all still alive. And that email addresses haven’t changed. And that we all remember that night.

Curtis’s set was wonderful; you should take a listen.

Nearer my God to Thee.

The best place to enjoy a hot cup of tea from Brìgh Music & Tea is on the front steps, looking out onto Water Street: all manner of interesting people walk by on a Saturday afternoon, and there’s plenty to look at. Including the building across the street, 98 Water.

That building has seen a lot of life over the last decade: Ampersand, Youngfolk & The Kettle Black, and now Local 343. We’ve spent time in all of them over the years, especially Ampersand, which we made in LEGO back in 2008.

I took the opportunity of our Scottish Caramel Lattes being especially warm today (and thus needing time to cool) to sketch 98 Water in its current incarnation.

I’m especially proud of the Canadian flag. And, of course, the recessed entrance.

I cracked open a new notebook today, an Ecologica from the Italian paper maker Fabriano; from its name I assume the paper is recycled, and it does indeed appear mottled. But it’s very pleasant to draw on, and the binding allows it to open to flat.

Catherine and I grew up, in global terms, up the road from each other—she near Kingston, and I near Hamilton—but that doesn’t mean we share a vernacular.

Witness dark off, which I’d never heard until I met her.

Today’s sky over northwestern Charlottetown was as good a demonstration of what she means by this as I’ve ever seen.

If I say “OK Google, ask Farmer’s Almanac about today,” my phone tells me that summer begins in 19 days (notice the non-subtle product promo there: try it out!).

But if I look at my appointment book, summer’s coming two weeks earlier.

Here’s this week’s family calendar (orange is Catherine, blue is me): it’s chock-a-block with appointments, meetings, lunches, music lessons, and vet visits:

Here’s the family calendar for next week:

Only two events scheduled: the last day of school for Oliver is on Thursday, and we have a party to attend on Friday night.

The anti-time-claustrophobia effects of this are extremely relaxing to the mind: just think of the things we’ll accomplish next week with no distractions and summer in the air.

The “recessed entrance” is a common architectural feature in commercial Charlottetown; it’s been my arch nemesis for the last month as I make my way through drawing many of these buildings.

There’s a lot that I’m unhappy with in this sketch of Receiver Coffee–the perspective on the railing, the irregularity of the windows on the second floor, the tree–but I’ve very proud of my handling of the recessed entrance. I think I’ve figured it out. Primarily revelation: the source code for sketching is all right there staring you in the face.