Workers were peeling off the signage on 137 Queen Street in downtown Charlottetown this morning, revealing evidence of signs past:

My guess, based on Catherine Hennessey’s Heritage Database, is that this reads “Medical Hall,” the name of the pharmacy that occupied the space from 1871. Am I right?

Three weeks ago I received an intriguing proposal from my friend Kevin Lewis. Kevin was helping to organize an event at Government House to commemorate the 90th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to which all Prince Edward Islanders turning 90 years old themselves this year would be invited. The Lieutenant Governor wanted to present something to each attendee to mark the day, and Kevin wondered whether this might be something I could set and print. It’s not every day that such an opportunity comes along, and so I readily agreed to become, for a moment, a de facto Queen’s Printer.

Kevin sent me the text that needed to be set on April 29 in a Word document; it looked like this:

For the primary typeface, I selected a font of Bodini 24 point bold that I acquired four years ago from a printer in Montreal. It was the right type size, and it’s in fine condition, in part because it’s foundry type.

For the “1926-2016” and “90th Birthday”, which needed to be called out, I set on 30 point Futura Bold, acquired last summer on a trip to New England from Letterpress Things in Massachusetts:

It was at about this time, before any type was set or cards printed, that I decided to take an impromptu trip to Europe for 10 days. I alerted Kevin that this would mean cutting setting and printing time close, and I offered to bow out, but he bravely asked me to soldier on, so I did, returning to the print shop last week upon my return.

I experimented with several layouts. My first proofs had the bottom two lines set in 14 point Bodini, but I didn’t like that, so I reverted to using the same 24 point as for the rest of the piece. I tried various klischees out for the separator between the body and the bottom two lines, eventually settling on a small one of a flower. And I learned that I’d be able to print on card stock already pre-printed with the vice-regal emblem in gold, so I mocked that into the final proof.

With the final design completed, and the copy approved by Government House, I went into the print shop on Sunday afternoon for the printing. This is what the final type, all locked up in the chase and ready for printing, looked like:

Here’s the type locked into the press, with the ink disc ready with purple ink (a donation from KKP here in Charlottetown several years ago that I kept around just for this very moment):

Here’s the first test print, marked up with guides so that I could properly position the gauge pins:

And here’s the final version of the card. Truth be told, it’s the just-previous-to-final version, as you’ll note that on the second line, the second letter “e” in “Celebration” isn’t printed completely; it turned out there was a nick in the letter, solved by replacing it:

I printed 115 copies – there were 71 people signed up for the tea party, and it never hurts to have extras. I set the cards out to dry overnight in the gallery downstairs at The Guild – luckily empty for the Victoria Day holiday – and packaged them up and delivered them to Kevin yesterday afternoon (still, as it turned out, a little tacky to the touch, necessitating they be spread out all over Kevin’s house).

Government House generously extended an invitation for [[Catherine]] and I to attend the first of two tea settings this morning (there turned out to be so many 90 year olds on PEI that they needed to split the group into two!) and so at 11:00 a.m. this morning we set off in our Sunday best, a little timid at our somewhat-younger-than-90-year-old-ness.

We need not have worried: it was a delightful event. We had the pleasure of being seated across from Mary Hooper and her son (Mary, this being Prince Edward Island, is the grandmother of my Guild office-mate Michelle Hooper – and the brother of the late Milton Acorn to boot). There were sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Tiny cupcakes. Shortbread cookies. And birthday cake.

As letterpress commissions go, it doesn’t get much better than this; thanks to Kevin for entrusting me with the work. 

This was left as a voicemail at the office this afternoon. It’s the kind of thing that they’d bring in a tech from forensics to analyze. Curious.

On Friday night after the performance of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Gielgud Theatre in London, I started recording the sounds of London. I started the recorded while walking from the theatre to the Piccadilly Circus tube station, and kept recording for 22 minutes, down into the station, through the turnstiles, down to the platform, onto the Piccadilly line west, off at Earl’s Court and up to Earl’s Court Road where I stopped recording.

It was was a bustling night: the streets were full of people and sounds. You’ll hear music, tube announcements, the sounds of the street.

Listening to it now, it’s an intriguing was of reliving the experience; much better and richer than a photograph.

I think the sounds alone the way are distinctive enough that you should be able to follow along. 

The journey runs between 10:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. London time on May 13, 2016.

I recorded the bells of St Paul’s Cathedral in London while walking up Ludgate Hill and along St Paul’s Churchyard on May 15, 2016 after the St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose.

In London on the weekend I had two occasions to see buildings in diagram form within hours, by coincidence, of seeing the same buildings in physical form.

First, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, this cutaway diagram of St Paul’s Cathedral outside the Architecture Gallery:

A few hours later I was walking over the Thames from the Tate Modern and directly in front of me I spotted something that looked strikingly familiar:

The following day, in the basement of St Bride’s Church, where there’s a thorough exhibit of the church’s connection to the printing trade, I spotted this rendering of the Daily Telegraph building on Fleet Street:

I recognize the building from a walk down Fleet Street that I’d taken just hours before, the name of the newspaper having been removed from the building after it decamped elsewhere:

If you look very carefully in the space above the pillars you can see where “DAILY TELEGRAPH” was parged over.

On my customs declaration yesterday on arrival in Halifax, submitted after landing from London, I declared $323 in purchases made overseas. I’m not a great acquirer of stuff while traveling, at least not of large stuff, as I travel fast and light and have very limited space to carry new things (on occasion I’ve resorted to shipping things home by post, mostly magazines, but this time I was more reserved). Here’s a catalogue of what I acquired.

Pens

I’m a sucker for new and interesting pens, and Modulor, MUJI and Grüne Papeterie in Berlin are excellent places to live out that passion.

MUJI Green Pen

MUJI is well stocked with inexpensive branding-free pens and notebooks. I acquired this green pen to use for writing diary entries.

Vermillion Livework Pen

Bought entirely because I like the colour scheme. Amazingly, given the selection, this was the only pen I purchased from Modulor.

Pentel Tradio Pen

An interesting pen cum marker that I purchased from Grüne Papeterie because I like the way it feels in the hand, and the lines I’m able to draw.

Books and Magazines

Books and magazines are heavy, so I only buy ones that would be difficult or impossible to purchase elsewhere, sometimes snapping a photo of books I’ll buy online later.

Modern Printing, Section IV

Purchased at the St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose, this is a book from 1900 that is a good overview of many of the facets of running a job printing shop. I was particularly attracted to the section on rates of pay and union issues. 50 pence.

BOOKSPACE

I love libraries. This is a book of essays about libraries. Purchased from Do You Read Me?! EUR 15.

Hacking

I love the design of this book of essays about hacking, one of a series. Purchased from Do You Read Me?! EUR 17,50.

The 24-Hour Wine Expert

An impulse purchase. I know nothing about wine. Perhaps this will change now? Purchased from Do You Read Me?! EUR 8.

The Happy Reader

My new favourite magazine, The Happy Reader is a joint project of Penguin Books and Fantastic Man. Each issue focuses on a theme and a person; I purchased three from Do You Read Me?! EUR 4,50 per issue.

Eddie’s Wheel Book

Purchased at the St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose, this is a book from The Alembic Press that was produced for their grandson Eddie’s first birthday in 2005 in a limited edition of 40 copies. It is delightful. 5 pounds.

A Little Drop of Water

Purchased at the St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose, this is another book from The Alembic Press, produced for their granddaughter Natalia’s second birthday. It too is delightful. 5 pounds.

Whirlers & Grainers

Purchased at the St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose, this is a book from Red Plate Press that was produced to “document the restoration and installation of a temporary letterpress print studio at The Shop in Nelson, Lancashire during 2015.” 5 pounds.

Everything Else

Type Metal Squares

Purchased at the St Bride Foundation Wayzgoose from The Carpathian Press and Type Foundry, this plastic box of type high squares is exactly what I need to start experimenting with letterpress printing of QR codes. There are 126 pieces in all, meaning a grid of 11x11. Which may, in fact, not be enough to encode a reasonable amount of data; or any at all. Further research is needed. 15 pounds, including box and packing.

A8 Index Cards

Index cards have proved in inexpensive and flexible medium for letterpress printing, and I like the small A8 size, which isn’t generally available in North America. Purchased from Modulor.

Grain de Pollen Self Sealing Envelopes

Purchased from Grüne Papeterie because I liked the colour. And the name, “watermelon.” EUR 1,80.

BUNTBOX

Tiny versions — jewellry-holding size — of the same BUNTBOX I purchased in Halifax last month. Purchased from Modulor. EUR 1 each.

MUJI Notebook

Purchased and customized at a MUJI store in London. Part of the same diarizing effort explained here. 1 pound (customization free).

DIREKTRECYCLING Envelopes

Purchased from Grüne Papeterie, where I first came to know of these envelopes, recycled from topographic maps, 5 years ago when I was printing in Berlin (those of you who subscribed to “Mail me Something” may recognize these as I used them to mail out items). EUR 3,50.

PAPPERSBRUK Tear-off Door Hangers

Purchased from the Form/Design Centre in Malmö, these may be impractical for Canadian doors, most of which have round handles that are too big to accommodate them. But I love the form. 98 SEK.

Do You Read Me?! Bag

Once you cross a certain purchase threshold at Do You Read Me?! in Berlin, you get a cloth bag included with your purchase. I always seems to cross the threshold. Bags used to be only black-on-white, but now you have the option of that or, as I chose this time, white-on-black.

Something I noticed several times in London this weekend is coffee shops and hotels offering customer wifi through a Facebook authentication layer: the idea is that you can free wifi if you login to Facebook and “check in” to the place. Facebook markets this as a way for businesses to “reach more people”:

When customers check in to use your Wi-Fi, their friends can discover your business by seeing the story in their News Feed

After checking in, people will be asked if they also want to like your Page so you can continue to connect with them on Facebook

What’s easy to miss is that you can bypass the Facebook login and check in process simply be clicking on “Skip Check-in” link and you’ll be connected. You don’t need a Facebook account to do this, and even if you have one you don’t need to login.

Back in April I pointed out on Twitter that Google’s possessive adjective forms in the navigation of Google Maps was confusing, inasmuch as it used either “My” or “Your” depending on the feature:

That tweet was by far and away the most popular tweet I’ve ever tweeted, extending entirely from the fact that it was retweeted by Brendan Eich:

In an action that was no doubt completely unrelated, but that is nonetheless heartening, earlier this month the navigation was updated and is now consistent:

I might quibble with the switch from “maps” to “places”, as the navigation item exposes places, but also maps (formerly known as “My Maps”):

but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.