As you are madly rushing about Charlottetown this week shopping for last-minute Christmas gifts, allow me to recommend Hon. Marion Reid’s new book These Roots Run Deep.

I bought a copy two weeks ago, and one night last week, with nothing on television and a touch of a cold coming on, I sat down to start the book. I didn’t put it down until I finished, four hours later.

Marion spins a good tale, and the book, a review of her life from birth to present, is a compelling read, full of adventure (I think I counted four episodes where, by all rights, Marion should be dead now) and the joys and sorrows of growing up first a member of her parents’ large family and then leading her own.

These Roots Run Deep should be required reading for all new Islanders, as it effectively conveys one sense of what growing up in rural Prince Edward Island during the 20th century was like; for those of us who are sometimes bemused by how PEI works, understanding that history is a useful tool for understanding.

These Roots Run Deep is published by Tangle Lane, and is available at bookstores across the Island. I’m sure if you gave Marion a call she would be happy to sell you a copy too.

Tod recommends a service called trackitback that’s sort of like “War Amps Key Tags for technology stuff.” I just placed my order: I’m going to stick them on my iBook, my phone, my digital camera, the router I carry around when I travel and more. Maybe I’ll even stick one on Oliver.

Marketing cost for trackitback? $0. They just did what they said they were going to do for Tod, and the blogosphere did the rest.

Mom, Dad, Oliver and I visited a stored called XS Cargo this afternoon. It’s in the style of Winners, in that it sells the merchandise that other stores couldn’t sell, and so it has a constantly changing collection of products. Unlike Winners, however, they sell TVs, DVD players, hardware, tools, telephones. And electric shavers.

At detailed here earlier, I’ve decided to launch an experimental switch to a “rotary” shaver after using the Braun “bar” style shavers for many years. To this end I purchased a three-head Remington Microflex 3x for $29.99 at XS Cargo. It’s plugged in to charge now, and I’ll use it for the first time tomorrow morning.

The manual warns that I need to “allow three weeks to develop and effective shaving style” and for my “beard to adjust to the new shaver.” They also caution:

Wait at least 15 minutes after getting up before shaving to ensure the face is free of puffiness that may be present from sleeping.

Who knew? Perhaps I’ve been puffy for all these years and Catherine simply hasn’t said anything. As the 15 minute period after waking is about the only period during the day that I’m in front of a mirror, maybe I’ve got a distortedly puffy self-image.

Obviously this new shaver is going to change my life completely. Stay tuned.

Olle reminded me that I’d neglected to mention that I’m in the midst of a very short pre-Christmas jaunt to Ontario with Oliver. I was suddenly struck with a bout of holiday homesickness last week (“home” in the “where Mom and Dad live” sense — “home” proper has tipped to PEI now), so I booked a couple of WestJet seats and here we are.

I noted an important shift in the WestJet passenger base on the flight down: people are now flying WestJet simply because it’s a better airline and price is no longer the most important aspect in the choice over Air Canada.

Why would I fly an airline that treats Charlottetown as an impediment, is staffed by grumpy employees, and flys grotty old planes when, instead, I can fly an airline that sees Charlottetown as an opportunity, has the best staff of any airline I’ve every flown, and flies new planes with televisions at every seat?

The WestJet attitude towards kids was particularly worthy of mention: the last time we flew Air Canada with Oliver we overheard the flight attendants complaining to each other about the bothersome number of kids aboard; yesterday the WestJet flight attendants made sure all the kids had headphones for the TVs ahead of the adults, provided juiceboxes before take-off to help with the change in air pressure, handed out crayons and colouring paper, came by every once in a while to make sure everything was okay, and actually treated the kids like real people and not unwanted excess cargo.

We’re actually looking forward to the trip back. When’s the last time you could say that about Air Canada?

Our public school education included French classes starting with grade 6, and these classes continued for the six years through to grade 12.

A cornerstone of the teaching materials in Ontario French education during the 1970s and 1980s was a series of videos featuring a lovable character named “Sol.” Sol was a clown, and his whacky franco-antics hit us not only in school, but also on TV Ontario, the educational television channel.

I remember “Sol, le Disc Jockey” and innumerable other skits designed to get us to understand one aspect of the language or another. And the skit I remember most of all was the one where we learned the words for breathing in and out: “Inspirer…,” Sol would intone, followed by a big breath in. Then “expirer…,” followed by a big breath out.

Brother Steve pass along the news that Marc Favreau, Sol’s alter-ego, has died at age 76.

Here’s to you, Sol; my breaths in and out today are in your memory.

This excellent demonstration of how magazine cover photos are retouched (pointer from Loic Le Meur) should be immediately placed on the reading list of every high school student. Indeed everyone could use a dose.

The sad and sorry thing is that as I toggled back and forth between the “before” and “after” shots of eyes, lips, breasts, waist, etc. I found myself silently agreeing “yah, that looks better.”

Thanks to all of those who have been geotagging the city over at RealCharlottetown.com. There are now 262 places on the map, 131 of which have been added by other people. Meaning, I think, that the project has cut its apron strings.

My friend Rob Paterson has written a manifesto, Going Home, that’s part of a collection of manifestos called Change This.

I’m happy to report that, unlike many “this blogging thing is going to change everything” treatises, Rob has crafted a well-worded piece of speculative fiction, the meat of which follows this set-up:

Let’s find out. Let’s jump forward in time to the near future. Let’s pick 2009 and drop in on how some of the pioneers in 2005 have done. Let’s go to where I live, Prince Edward Island, my adopted home. Let’s have a look at what might happen to many aspects of our society as the freedom of blogging works its way though our institutions and our current habits.

Rob spins a good tale, doubly so for me as I made the mistake of reading the piece from back to front, so I didn’t actually realize that his “scenario planning” exercise wasn’t actually a description of real events (I wondered, of course, why I’d been out of the loop on so many interesting projects — surely if “Robert Scoble is the Visiting Guru this year and will be on PEI this summer offering workshops in voice and culture,” I would have heard of it?).

I must admit to an innate bias against some of Rob’s more florid statements — “Once again we begin to experience the ecstasy of communion with our spiritual brothers and sisters.” is a good example. But then I recall Johnnie Moore’s comment earlier in the year:

Getting into unknown territory, fumbling for the right words, stumbling out phrases that seem naive or gauche or - god forbid - spiritual or touchy-feely… that’s probably the price we need to pay for getting out of the standard model of meeting our fellow man.

And so I’m willing to storm through my discomfort with the “newageiness” of it all, and glean some truly useful insight. I encourage you to do the same.

My nomination for “Spam of the Year” comes from Walk-Andalucia.com:

I provide a link only from a sense of shared shame — who among us hasn’t sent out thousands of email with the wrong content to the wrong people?

Introducing blog.thebus.ca: a low-volume place for me to note updates to the Interactive Charlottetown Transit Map.