My friend Oliver points out that Jerry Brown has a blog.

Advice for Hon. Jamie Ballem, PEI’s Minister of Environment, Energy and Forestry: next time you drive into town on a day when a major international climate change accord is announced, leave the big honkin’ SUV at home. Here’s the evidence from CBC Canada Now:

Take a taxi. Rent a Prius. Carpool.

The Hockey Night in Canada theme song has its own website. Interesting fact: the same composer, Dolores Claman, wrote the “Ontario-ari-ari-o” song (“A place to stand, a place to grow…”).

I’ve noticed recently, after a spate of buying books from Amazon.ca, that their customized “Recommendations” page for me is getting better and better. Which got me thinking: to help recommend, they can use their knowledge of what books I’ve bought from them, and what books I search for, but what about books I already own that I didn’t buy from them? It turns out that you can “Rate Items You Own” on your “Recommendations” page and do exactly this.

By the way, if you have a secret burning desire to shower me with gifts, you can now use my Amazon.ca Wish List as a guide. Yes, this is a shameless ploy. I’ve got the flu; humour me.

We have consumed much facial tissue here on Prince St. this week, and have had a chance to experience it in its many brands and varieties. Although the ‘Scotties with Lotion’ are a nice tissue once you get them up to the nose, I recommend avoiding this brand as their “box exit” performance is sub-par: when you pull one out, you’re just as likely to get three or four or five. This has happened across multiple boxes. As an alternative, I recommend the ‘Puffs with Lotion.’

Of course both are evil in the eyes of Greenpeace.

The general consensus is that Catherine, Oliver and I are 3/4 of the way through “the flu.” And a strain thereof that wasn’t covered by the “flu shot” we all got back in the fall. We’ve had pretty well every symptom one can experience in the head/chest region — stuffy nose, cough, headache, sneezing, sore throat — along with a general feeling of malaise. We’re gradually hacking our way back to health — Oliver went to school this week after a full week off.

Other than watching enough television that I’ve started to lose my taste for the medium, I’ve learned a lot about the human body this week. Although sickness is hell, and not to be wished upon anyone, it does afford an opportunity to slow down and realize ones fragility.

Here are the “big three” takes on the flu:

• U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• World Health Organization

See you on the other side.

Contrary to the fears of my friend Ann, I have not died. I caught the aforementioned sickness from Catherine and Oliver and we have spent the balance of the week in tissue-drenched low-level misery. We’ve still got runny noses and foggy heads, but the worst seems to be over. Kudos to the staff at Friendly Pharmacy in Charlottetown for their help in making it through.

CBC Television’s Marketplace aired a segment on Freecycle.org last week; you can watch it online. Amazingly, the Charlottetown Freecycle.org group has 161 members. Finally, a place, other than Steven Garrity’s vestibule, to re-home excess baggage.

Prince Edward Islanders with a library card now have access to Patron Books in Print courtesy of the Provincial Library.