I know that officially one doctor is supposed to be equally as able to provide quality care as another. But sometimes you hit a doctor that has an especially good “bedside manner.” And I think those doctors deserve special mention.

Puffy-eyed Oliver and I went to the “after hours clinic” this morning in Charlottetown, and after a [reasonable] hour-long wait, we got in to see Dr. Linda MacDonald.

We found her compassionate, helpful, and professional. She got on well with Oliver. Lollipops were made available.

So, thank you!

From Alberta reader David Richardson comes news that the CBC weekly science show Quirks and Quarks will be available starting Monday as a podcast (here’s the audio of the announcement as an MP3).

I’d like to think I had a little tiny bit to do with this. Back in September of 2004, I sent in this note to the show:

Hi there.

You very helpfully make MP3 and OGG files of your programmes available. Thanks.

I’m wondering if you would consider making an “RSS2.0 with Enclosures” feed for these audio files. This would allow me to automatically download them to my iPod for listening.

You can get more information about this at:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001014/categories/…

Thanks.

Back in February of this, I got an unexpected followup from Tod Maffin:

Hi Peter, just wanted to let you know that this email made it to me and the head of operations at the CBC who is spearheading our podcasting strategy, so it’s not gone unnoticed. :) Thanks for emailing.

I presume there were others that made the same request, and so Monday we’ll see the results. I’ll certainly be a podcatcher.

MySQL Administrator is out for OS X.

I think the shooting of four RCMP officer in Alberta is tragic.

But I don’t understand why this means we need to “crack down on grow-ops.”

The fact that growing marijuana is illegal is what builds a criminal culture around the enterprise. The more illegal marijuana growing is, presumably the more dangerous it is for police.

If we “crack down on grow-ops,” then marijuana will be more scarce, hence more valuable, hence more “criminal.”

If we decriminalized the growing of marijuana, then police resources wouldn’t be wasted trying to stamp the “problem” out, there would cease to be a criminal culture around it, and the police would be in much less danger.

What am I missing?

The Jane Siberry took over the reins of her career 9 years ago, it was a big step. With Sheeba she took those things usually outsourced to others — managers, record companies, ‘A&R’ people — and ran them herselves.

And along the way, through Sheeba.ca and her email newsletter, we listeners / fans / groupies have watched as the enterprise has gone through its ups and its downs. “We’re closing the office,” we’d hear one month. And then “We’re open again, with a brand new web store.” Sometimes you would place an order, or send an email, and you’d hear back from Jane herself.

Here’s a snippet of a note that went out on the mailing list this morning:

I AM FINALLY CLOSING SHEEBA

It will have been 9 years on May 17, 2005. It has been a very special time of learning and struggle and sometimes deep satisfaction. I wanted freedom and it has come in a different fashion than I expected. Now as I let go of more and more things, not always knowing why I have to and resisting it, I see the signs of a greater hand at work. I am sure you know what I mean.

WHAT THIS MEANS

- Website will stay open - Webstore will be closed - we may have MP3s for sale later as they do not require inventory or staff, but we’ll see. - I am disconnecting the SHEEBA phone and email by the equinox. There will only be links to my manager, Kim Blake, for work or licensing, or the web-master for problems. I may still send out the odd Museletter. I feel you nodding – okay perhaps odd but hopefully charming.

I had to take Oliver to the after-hours clinic this morning — he had puffy eyes. On the way to have his prescription filled, he insisted that we stop and buy him an egg. “What kind of egg?” I asked. “From the Itchy Bunny,” he said.

We will burn in hell for this lack of religious education.

Of course I’m the one who answered “Sodom and Gomorrah” for the question “Who went into the Lion’s Den?” on the religious knowledge portion of the entrance exam to Hillfield Strathallan College.

I think I was actually accepted — probably under some “broadening our arms to accept the heathens” special program — but I decided to stay away. Something about the uniforms and the rigour and the well-outfitted science labs turned me off.

When I was Programme Director at Trent Radio in the late 1980s, my favourite project (ironic given the setting) was the publication of The Radio Paper, a tabloid newspaper with the radio schedule, and articles about various and sundry. I was the editor, paste-up artist, and I drove it up to the printer in Tweed. I had total creative control, and I loved the newspaper format.

This is what ran “above the fold” in the first issue, September 1989. I love the typeface. And the white space. And the period.

My friends Ruth and Paul bought two working 16mm film projectors at an auction. And they let me borrow them. I rented The Union, a cooperative space that served as theatre, bar, and hangout, funding itself mostly from the illegal but overlooked sales of beer. And then I borrowed films from the National Film Board. I tried my darnedest to make films from the NFB archive like The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar seem new and sexy. And this was my handbill for a showing of Mon Oncle Antoine:

This was my first experience with a “full bleed” handbill — it was really just creative use of a paper cutter. But it is one of my favourite little pieces from those days.