You may recall that back in September I reported on an Eastern School District meeting (back when such affairs were calmer) part of which was a presentation by Leo Broderick and Mary Boyd on bottled water and why it should be avoided.

Although I poked fun at their long-winded presentation, the heart of the matter — advocacy for water as human right and not a commodity — struck a strong chord with me, and I’ve not purchase a bottle of water since and have been quite happy, in general, with Charlottetown’s municipal water supply as an alternative.

I tried to kick things up a notch on Monday night at the meeting of the Prince Street Home and School Association. We were discussing our annual Spring Fling event — the association’s main fund-raiser — and the topic of using bottled water came up. I invoked the memory of the September meeting (held, by coincidence, right at Prince Street School) and suggested we consider not using bottled water at all.

While there was some conceptual support for this idea, my advocacy ultimately failed.

The first sticking point surrounded the need to deliver water to the many volunteers working around the school during the event: traditionally this has been done by bringing them bottled water, and there was a feeling that trying to bring them cups of water was impractical given the crowds and the commotion of the event. Maybe there’s a solution to this, but we didn’t arrive at one during our discussions.

Second was the issue of what to sell at the hot dog stand instead of water; while juice was a possibility, it was generally agreed that without water many people would default to buying pop: bottled water’s very status as an expensive commodity lends itself well to fund-raising and selling sugary bottled water instead would hardly be a step ahead.

I’m certain that with more time and some creative problem solving both of these issues could be resolved in a way that would remove bottled water from the equation and not compromise the event, but it was time the meeting wasn’t willing to spend.

While the anti-bottled water education effort has made inroads over the last few years, it seems like what’s really needed to take things further in situations like this is very practical “how to” advocacy: “A Guide to Holding Your Event Without Bottled Water,” for example. I’d welcome pointers to such resources, and offer my support to anyone who wishes to advocate in this area.

Sixty-two issues of The Island magazine, running from 1976 to 2007, have been digitized and placed online in the IslandArchives Collection. Amazing stuff.

SHiFT is coming back for 2009. Maybe this will finally be the year I make it to Lisbon. October 15 and 16.

You may recall Austie Trainor from such well-known blog posts as April is Poetry Month and Happy Christmas to All from my friend Catherine Hennessey — Trainor was, among many other things, her childhood Santa Claus.

This afternoon while rummaging about in some papers that the lads from [[silverorange]] pulled out of the Queen Street Commons attic next door I noticed this 1923 order blank for a Hohner Sax filled out by the selfsame Austie Trainor:

Presumably if the order blank stayed in a Charlottetown attic the sax never actually got ordered. The order blank itself is fascinating: the exchange policy is among the most complicated (but flexible) terms of sale I’ve encountered.

Mapmaster Nigel is back with another Charlottetown City Council Meeting map.

The lads next door at the skyscraper job-site have started up some sort of explosive riveting job today. It’s very, very loud. Try listening to that over and over while you’re trying to get some work done in front of a computer.

You probably haven’t seen Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Especially if you live in Atlantic Canada, where it airs at 1:30 a.m on A.

We’ve been watching it in our house, but not until the next day, thanks to our digital video recorder. And, somewhat to my surprise, it’s pretty good.

The monologue is best fast-forwarded through, as its just more of the same formulaic non-funny banter.

But once Fallon sits down at his desk, there are some genuinely good off-the-wall moments, unusual for a format that is generally as strict as Kabuki Theatre. Which is not to say that there’s not the usual movie and book plugging going on. But Fallon is more genuinely interested than Letterman, and much less cynical than his predecessor Conan O’Brien (who always felt like he was mocking both the audience and the guests).

He’s kind of like the guy you and I would hope to be if we were hosting a late night talk show: sometimes bumbling, sometimes a wide-eyed fan, and sometimes cracklingly funny.

Last night’s episode, the opening of the second week of the show, featured Amanda Peet, Rose Byrne and Joshua Topolsky. And in that way that an episode with slightly-obscure guests can often prompt, the show truly came into its own: the first week jitters gone, Fallon much more relaxed, and the guests rising to the challenge. (If you live in the USA, you can watch the episode online).

Yankee Magazine Food Editor Annie B. Copps reveals the answer to this question, as part of a video guide to making Irish Soda Bread.

From Roy comes a pointer to a series of interviews with Islanders who moved here to go back to the land.

The Weakerthans are playing the UPEI Student Centre in Charlottetown on March 21, 2009. I’ll be away, but you should really go.